In retrospect, one of the most amazing revelations of the election season was the admiration of the press and the politicos for the candidate who was able to fool the most people. Consider the advice they offered to the candidates, “move to the right”, “move to the left”, “move to the center”, all based on the assumption that a candidate’s revelation of his or her true positions could cost them the election.
Further evidence of the value of deception in politics is shown by the analysis of speeches and interviews. Invariably words and phrases are evaluated on how effective they are in misleading various segments of the voting public. In order for the public to form an accurate picture of the candidate’s true position we are forced to parse words and phrases, read between the lines, interpret refusals to answer questions, and piece together bits and pieces of information from alternative sources.
Few Americans have the time or knowledge to sift through all the misinformation coming at them from their television, newspaper, and radio. Consequently, we are forced to make decisions on snippets and sound bites that provided little in-depth information about candidates’ real positions on issues. Voters get no help from the popular media who should have the responsibility of informing the public in an evenhanded way. Instead, the media has made it their mission to cover up, hide or spin any revelations that could prove detrimental to their candidate, Barack Obama.
It is sobering to realize that we choose leaders who will have a profound affect on our lives, based on their political skills rather than their governing skills. No sooner were the elections over than the press began to weave two new themes that are sure to leave the people disappointed. One is that Obama will govern from the center. The other is that we will see bipartisan action on the important issues facing the country.
Obama cannot govern from the center because he is a true believer, as are Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid. They believe in the fundamental principles of socialism and they will follow the blueprint of historical socialism to bring about the destruction of capitalism if they are able. These are the conditions the socialist movement in America has been working toward for the past hundred years and they will not let it pass without doing every thing they can to bring their plans to fruition.
We make a mistake when we assume that the socialist/democrats actually want to right the economy. Socialist literature is replete with the belief that progress can only come out of chaos. In their worldview, social and economic equality can only be realized through the struggle between the classes until both the upper and lower classes have been homogenized into a society where everyone is existing only slightly above the subsistence level. This idea is central to the writings of Karl Marx, Freidrich Engels, and Saul Alinsky whose techniques provide the model for Obama’s style of government. As Hillary Clinton explained in her college thesis on the Alinsky model, “It’s All About the Struggle”.
As to the idea of bipartisan cooperation in remaking American society, this too is an impossibility for a number of reasons. If we learned nothing else from the cold war, we should have learned there is no compromise with socialism. If we did not learn from the cold war, we should have learned from the last two years of socialist/democratic control of Congress. When socialist talk of compromise they are really talking about acquiescence to their point of view. America still has tens of millions of patriots who are willing to defend the Constitution and who will never allow the American dream to be reduced to whatever style of living the state determines to be “our fair share”. The next few years are going to be anything but peaceful in the political arena.
I hope I am wrong, but history, human nature and the relentless expansion of trends tells me I am not.
