OPINION:
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
With his signature second-term agenda priorities — gun control and amnesty — all but dead, President Obama has once again begun to search for someone — anyone — to blame.
See, none of this is his fault. Five years of sky-high unemployment, an out-of-control federal deficit, spending run amok, gas prices twice what they were in 2008: Not His Fault.
Yes, he did promise to be the great savior of America (he even pledged that the sea levels would drop under his leadership, remember?), but that was before “They” rose up to fight his every valiant effort to save the nation. And this week, the president of the United States rode out of into the hinterland to declare war on “Them.”
Who are “They”? Well, us — Americans. Some, even, who voted for Mr. Obama, but, mostly, those who didn’t. And don’t fool yourself: In the president’s world, if you’re not with him, then you’re an enemy to be struck down where you stand. America be damned — it’s Us or Them. And for Democrats, the ends always justify the means, no matter how divisive, how destructive.
More precisely, in Obamaland, it is “America” that is to blame. The Land of the Free, where hard work means success, a better life — better, at least, than those who have not worked as hard, sacrificed as much, to rise up, sometimes over generations of back-breaking labor — does not make sense to the community organizer from Chicago. He sees only two groups, the Haves and the Have-Nots, and he has one simple explanation for the world as it is: The Haves stole from the Have-Nots, robbed them of their rightful fortunes.
To the president, health care is a birthright. An education at an excellent college? A birthright. A job with an always increasing salary, a long and steady career? Birthrights. A wonderful home? Birthright. An early retirement in luxury? Birthright. All 300 million Americans have all that and more as their God-given birthright, says the president. Who will pay? “They” will.
Now, “They” are, of course, “We” — Americans. In fact, “They” are the very ones living the American dream Mr. Obama alludes to when he cites “the engine of our economy” — those middle-class Americans working hard, rising up, earning their way, striving for better, maybe even that once-vaunted but now vilified “1 percent.”
Of 300 million Americans, some rise, some fall, some do better, some do worse, hard workers succeed, loafers fail. But the Harvard-educated Mr. Obama, in his own words, finds that “inequality” “morally wrong.” For him, the successful “owe” the failures some, even much, of their hard-earned money. It’s just that simple: They don’t “deserve” what they’ve worked to achieve. No, everyone should have a piece of their success. That, to him, is America.
And America’s first half-white, half-black president has taken his politics of division to his favorite place, The New York Times, with an explicit threat, enough to scare post-Trayvon America.
“Racial tensions won’t get better; they may get worse, because people will feel as if they’ve got to compete with some other group to get scraps from a shrinking pot,” he told two star-struck reporters in an interview last week.
Of course, the president — one-third of the Founders’ co-equal trio of power — blames Congress (forget that Democrats control the Senate).
“With an endless parade of distractions, political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball,” the president said in Galesburg, Ill. Already, word has leaked he plans a budget strategy that could lead to a government shutdown, which he will no doubt blame on those “obstructionist” Republicans.
Of course, everything now — especially the president’s “pivot” to the economy, his 19th since taking office — is geared toward the 2014 midterms. Blame Congress, especially Republicans in the House, for all of America’s woes, and perhaps he can win a majority for his final two years and “fix” America — his way.
But his second term is, except for the shouting, over. He has legacy on his mind now, and with his woefully weak record, he’s thinking, “Who can I blame for this dismal mess of a presidency?”
The New York Times, as always, was there to facilitate, even as its reporters stammered and stumbled over their softball questions. But they did, in a dead giveaway of their liberal tilt — and a glimpse inside the president’s soon-to-be daily mantra — punch the one word the president most wanted to hear: “Obstruction.”
“Do you worry, Mr. President, that that description of that sort of standing pat, what happens if you stand pat and the sort of slower than expected — do you worry that that could end up being your legacy simply because of the obstruction that — and the gridlock that doesn’t seem to end?”
“I think,” the president thought, “if I’m arguing for entirely different policies and Congress ends up pursuing policies that I think don’t make sense and we get a bad result, it’s hard to argue that’d be my legacy.”
Not His Fault.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times and is now editor of the Drudge Report. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
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