With the Republican presidential primaries underway, I suppose we’d better get used to all politics, all the time. Sigh.
I’ll say this for President Obama—he told us exactly what he was going to do. When he announced to adoring 2008 crowds his plans to begin “fundamentally transforming” the country, I remember wondering why he would want to do that. I mean, despite our many problems, the U.S.A. has been a pretty decent place to live for a couple of centuries. People from all over the world are (or were) trying to get here. We have (or had) the best standard of living in human history. Who would want to "transform" us?
Well, Barack Obama would want to. And, whether we wanted to be or not, we’re transformed. We have incomprehensible runaway debt, high unemployment, and diminishing jobs. Our friends can’t trust us and our enemies can’t keep a straight face looking at us. We’re literally sitting on a century's worth of oil and natural gas that the government forbids us to touch. Individual healthcare has been highjacked by bureaucrats. Billions of taxpayer money was forked over to political cronies with nothing to show for the investment except bankruptcy. Environmental regulations are driving 100-year-old family farms out of business. Policy decisions and political appointments aren't processed through constitutional channels anymore; instead, decrees are issued by presidential fiat.
Yes, Obama is “fundamentally transforming the United States of America." That’s one campaign promise the president definitely has kept.
Last night, in one of his three fundraising appearances yesterday (when does this man work?), President Obama promised that if we’ll just give him one more term, “Change will come.” Oh, I don’t doubt that. A second Obama term? The country would be "changed" beyond recognition--and there's really no alternative to America. There's no place we can look to for a better life; the U.S. has been the historical haven for immigrants. Apparently the president hasn’t noticed, or perhaps more likely, doesn't mind Rome burning around him. There hasn’t been enough change to suit him. I wonder what’s next on his transformative agenda? Internment camps for Republicans?
Or maybe, if his poll numbers look as grim in the fall as they do now, he might just decide to postpone the election. If you think that can’t happen, you haven't been paying attention. This is a president who seems to operate by that famous movie line, “the Great Oz has spoken.” He thinks that oceans recede and planets cool when he speaks. The only trouble is, Kansas and a few dozen other states in the Land of Hope and Change aren’t listening anymore.
Don’t look now, Mr. President, but I think most of the country is probably hoping for a change come November. We might even be hoping for a "transformation" back into the good ol' U.S.A.
