Thinking for Oneself and Bearing the Consequences

My brother had an interesting assessment of Obama and the probability of his understanding that maybe it's time for him to stand up and be counted as one who supports the ideals of America as espoused by our founding fathers. No, Americans do not like whole swaths of other Americans living off the dole. No, Americans do not like our President to be wishy washy about the ideals and freedoms that the rest of us so cherish. And yes, we want our leader to be firm and determined to destroy without hesitation the fanatics and lunatics who want to kill us. And that is precisely Obama's problem. He has shown us that he is NOT interested in defending our interests and he is ambivalent about the nobleness of the American ideals: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Here is a letter he wrote to me a couple of days ago.

There was one interesting statement at the end of an Op Ed in the Sunday NY Times (Week in Review section), by Sam Tanenhaus: “God and Politics, Together Again” (he is a liberal I believe). He said that Obama was connected through his Ivy League background to the super-privileged and by his “community organizing” to the poor, but he has no idea of the lives of the vast middle class.

I think that Obama, like most people, takes Altruism as a given (as he says “we are our brothers keeper”) and he takes it seriously, and because of his disconnect from working Americans has no idea that a modern industrial economy is fueled on production not pity, and production is fueled on the self-interest of individuals – people who work and earn their keep. Altruism gives him the permission to run everybody else’s life and distribute the fruits of their labor.

Well the economy is wrecked and he had a large hand in it, and now we’ll see if he’s got any brains at all in the next two years…if he continues his suicidal course or not. Men will not make the effort to plan and work if some third party can come along and dispose of their hard earned wealth down an endless drain to serve the so-called “underprivileged”.

The problem is he was raised in that liberal, Keynesian environment which he takes as gospel. If he has brains then maybe what he needs is courage. It would take courage, especially for a black man brought up in the liberal establishment, to renounce the liberal agenda and espouse some rational economic ideas. Someone correct me if I’m wrong but it is my understanding that Keynesianism is pretty discredited these days.

I think it’s too much to hope that he’ll surprise us - people don’t change easily – or rather it takes courage to think for oneself and bear the consequences. Richard Winkler