No Hope Without a Change

I have made no secret of my disgust with Obama since he took office, and see him as the worst President in my lifetime, even worse than Jimmy Carter. By way of full disclosure, that opinion preceded this misadministration's derailing of my Foreign Service career. I voted for McCain in 2008, not because I thought him a great candidate--I thought he wasted Governor Palin--but because I saw in him and the people around him a decency and genuine patriotism missing in the Obama crowd. These past four years have confirmed my initial skepticism about Obama and the people around him.

There are many reasons why Obama must be defeated. The principal one is his delusional liberal ideology from which all else flows. He is a creature of the faculty lounge/Hollywood brand of intolerant leftist cynicism about, contempt for, and ignorance of America and how the world works. These liberals insist on seeing what they believe. They see a world awash in turmoil and poverty because they believe America's success comes at the expense of the rest of the world. We are rich, because they are poor; they are poor because we made them so; we can only be rich if they are poor. From here comes Obama's "apology tour," his disdain for our military--except when it brings him electoral advantage, e.g., killing Osama--and our increasingly absurd foreign policy evermore removed from our real interests. The world is now a much more dangerous place for American interests than it was four years ago. Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, and terrorist groups all over the world are emboldened by our failure to develop domestic sources of energy, our half-hearted efforts to halt Iran's nuclear program, the easy manner in which Obama threw away our victory in Iraq, and the disastrous and cowardly handling of the Benghazi attack. Obama's generally cavalier attitude toward American security, interests, and power ensures that we will have more attacks on our people, facilities, and homeland.

That ideology carries over to the domestic scene, as well. Life for Obama consists of problems that need government solutions. The government should expand continually its power to control and regulate to ensure our health and safety. Obama, the community organizer, sees a constant struggle against the rich. The "poor" must be organized, led, taught to hate the "rich," and assured that the "rich" only got so because they rigged the system, and what they have, well, they "didn't build that." That system must get rejiggered to "help the poor" live in stress-free poverty. Wealth, after all, is just a fantasy and not something to be sought by hard work and innovation. The government in the hands of the comfortable and "educated elite" will redistribute wealth and income so that nobody is unfairly "rich." For Obama and his followers the government is the only source of legitimacy, status, and power in society. The government will get you your "revenge." As we see on MSNBC and in endless Hollywood movies and TV shows, the world's evil is caused by rich white CEOs who can be stopped only by gutsy single moms, crusading journalists, and, above all, dedicated public servants.

That view, for example, provides the driving force behind Obamacare. In one stroke, the government takes over one-sixth of the national economy. Our health care gets taken away from "foolish" consumers, and "greedy" drug companies, hospitals, and doctors, and put into the hands of the IRS. Obamacare seeks to push private insurers out of the medical care arena and leave government as the sole health care provider. The same government that cannot provide food and bottled water to flood victims in New York City will decide what medical care you can have, and do it at a budget-breaking cost that ensures our inability to have a credible military.

With another Obama term, the private sector permanently will come under the heel of the government. Production of energy will comprise a government responsibility; the government will select what energy is good and what is bad, and where we should "invest." The government will pick winners and losers--the market be damned. The government will decide what type of cars we drive, and what we feed our children. The government will provide. The government will decide.

If Obama gets re-elected we could face one of those cliched tipping points. There might well be no going back, no undoing the damage he will do to our national identity and character, not to mention to our economy and standing in the world. Once you become a pet dog who depends on his master for food and shelter, then you cannot object when the master puts a collar and a leash on you, ties you to a stake in the backyard, and tells you to stop barking--all for your own good, you understand.

Voting against Obama is made even easier by the fact that the 2012 Republican candidate, Governor Mitt Romney, is the polar opposite of Obama. Romney is a decent person with a record of success in the private sector and in the government sector. Romney is easy to vote for. He understands and appreciates America's uniqueness, and the reasons for our success in the world. Can anybody imagine President Romney going on a global apology tour? Abandoning our people to a howling mob of jihadis in Benghazi? Trying to appease the Russians? Running a "Fast and Furious" operation? Trying to destroy our private sector? Trying to reshape America into some sort of replica of the failed European social-democracies? He understands that saving our economy and our nation is not rocket science; it is common sense; it is returning to our founding principles.

Already having voted for Mitt Romney for President, I very much hope and trust he wins the election next Tuesday, despite the best efforts of the media, dead voters, illegal aliens voting illegally, the Hollywood and university crowd, and Chris Christie. I know there are endless dueling polls and pundits, all making excellent arguments as to why one or the other candidate will win. I don't pretend to know whether the polls, in fact, are as erroneously and heavily skewed in favor of Obama as some Republicans claim--I believe they are but am not an expert. I see that the Vegas odds makers have Obama winning, but do they have any knowledge beyond those polls? I don't know. I do know that for the sake of America, for the sake of freedom, and for the sake of our children Obama must go. I can only hope that there are still enough Americans out there who agree.

For me the choice is obvious: Obama must be defeated for America to win.

Romney 2012.