Friday, January 30, 2009

Obama and the tipping point

A conservative friend e-mails to share his concerns:
I am already quite sick of this prattling adolescent; this man-child who has never produced anything of value in his life but who presumes to tell us how the most productive engine the world has ever seen should be run.
So he is to be the arbiter of who may make a profit, and when? His entire existence is that of a parasite, leaching off those profits. Such arrogance, and without foundation of any sort.
The ascendancy of this slick little (grand)mama's boy is a sign of cultural suicide.
I am truly, truly worried, more than I ever have been, about the future of freedom. We have talked for years about "tipping points," as in, "once [insert leftist agenda item backed by 3/4ths of the GOP caucus here] is enacted, there will be too many people dependent on government for us ever to turn back."
But the "tipping point" talk has always been prospective. According to this form of punditry, we have been on the verge of tipping over for at least 30 years.
Well, buddy, this is what the world looks like on the other side of the tipping point. There is no going back from this (thank you, GWB, for your "compassion" in presiding over the descent into socialism). We now accelerate on our long slide into cultural and economic decrepitude. Welcome to the Eurpoean Union of American States. Look forward to standing in lines just to fill out forms to apply to get on a list to be part of the waiting pool for your gallbladder operation when you are 65 and, if you are lucky, living in your child's basement apartment.
Time to brush up on your Old Testament. Only the sort of faith exhibited by those who wandered deserts and faced anihilation at the swords of very personal, local enemies is of any use in this scenario.
That's my sunny, cheerful, message of the day!
Thanks for cheering me up, buddy!

10 comments:

  1. Phew, I mean seriously, when you put it this way, I am going to go grab my gun and my bible, and wait for Armageddon!
    My coworker and I have discussed this topic at length, and come to the conclusion, it will get bad, really bad, before the revolution ends it. I guess you've confirmed my fears.
    All I can say for now is, TGIF.

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  2. To our eternal regret, he's probably right.

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  3. Your Conservative friend needs medication.
    Science is some doing wonderful things for ignorant, paranoid,drama queens.
    But what really gets me is the fraidy-cat tone of the email, which makes me wonder...why are Conservatives such pussies?
    I mean really!
    Tell your friend to cowboy up.And tell him to stop listening to Rush or Hannity or whatever that moron listens to.

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  4. Tipping point? I disagree. I view these events like a see-saw. Right now, it's the democrat's advantage.

    Given to them I might add, not only by Bush, but by the entire GOP. Once in power, they forgot all about fiscal responsibility and small government.
    They abandoned all of the principals that they claimed to believe in and fed like hogs at the trough. Does the term RINO mean anything to your friend?
    They did manage to get the GWOT right, but that was more Bush than the GOP and then Bush's administration failed to articulate their case sufficiently to counter the MSM barrage against it and garner any substantial support.

    The only silver lining I see here is that the democrats are squandering any voter confidence that they had even faster than the GOP did. The GOP will be back, I am convinced of it, but this will be their last chance for a long time.
    They had better get lean, mean and low to the ground this next time and get to business. Quit fiddling because Rome is burning baby!

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  5. I agree with Trish. I used to think in terms of the "seesaw" (or pendulum) - but we're in a different league now. We've tipped. History has shown that at this point, the only way to come back from the abyss is by way of a grassroots uprising. It's time to *resist*. It's time to pull out the only weapon we have, and thank God it's the most powerful weapon ever created: Strength in numbers. Please join the resistance at Patriotic Resistance

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  6. Sorry, I look forward to the future. Ronald Reagan did. Sure, we are having some setbacks, but I do not look at it as a long-term end of time dirge. It is this that drives people AWAY from conservatism. As you say many times, R. S., three words-It won't work! Liberalism does not and can not work. We just need to see it in action every now and then to remind us of what is WRONG with liberalism.

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  7. I have to agree with 'Righty64'. I too look forward to the future.
    I disagree with the "tipping Point" idea that JSM's correspondent and other comments here have expressed, that we've reached some form of critical mass that we can never come back from.

    I remember '74 and '76. Believe me, if you think that these times are gloomy and the outlook bleak for republicans now, they are nothing in comparison to those dark days. Nixon hounded out of the Whitehouse (deservedly so too), democrat majorities in both houses of congress abandoning our South Vietnamese allies to the communists, precipitating the killing fields in Cambodia and the boat people while disavowing any responsibility then rubbing our noses in it too. DISCO, for Christ's sake! Then Carter and four years of malaise! Four years of stagflation, international humiliation culminating in the Iranian hostage debacle and the inception of the first radical islamist state. No my friends, these bad times times pale in comparison. Did I mention disco? Oh yeah, leisure suits, platform shoes, ABBA!! It was hell!

    Looking further back,'64 and the trouncing of Goldwater and the republicans in congress was another low point for conservatism. Though I was too young at the time to fully appreciate it at the time.

    Also consider that in all of the time since 1964, we have had three, count 'em three democrats in the Whitehouse. Johnson, Carter and Clinton. All three were unmitigated disasters who ushered in two term republican presidents. Only one of those three democrats, Clinton, served two terms. That is if you don't count El-BeeJay's assumption of the remainder of Kennedy's term after his assassination.

    Where I do agree with 'Victimnation' and others is that it is time to mobilize from the grass roots on up. Do not sit quietly or allow lies, misinformation and propaganda go unchallenged. Do everything possible to expose the big lies being foisted upon us and to try and persuade others to our side. Then vote the bastards out.

    This isn't the end and we haven't irretrievably 'tipped.' That type of hysterical talk leads to marginalization and ever increasing partisanship, which in turn leads down a dead-end road.

    However, we do need to wrest back the Whitehouse and congress before the damage is so bad that it will take decades to fix. If we don't. If the republicans retake the presidency and/or majorities in Congress and fritter away their opportunity, as they just have, the republican party will go the way of the Whigs and conservatives and libertarians had better concentrate on forming a new party. And justifiably so.

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  8. No, tipping point is appropriate here. Once the government takes, it never gives back. There are lots of liberties you and I don't have anymore except on faded paper. The cold reality of a courtroom will shock you. You create a massive, useless department like Homeland Security and no one will ever abolish it. How'd we do eliminating the Dept. of Education?

    Same goes for a unionized, welfare state. If no one is working, no one is buying, nor is anyone paying taxes. Naturally, that leaves one place: business. You can take your business to China or Mexico, but that doesn't mean you'll see anything (such as a car) here ever again.

    Obama is taking us down a road where there is no U-turns.

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  9. Tim,
    each time the seesaw comes back its with more socialism that is never turned back, it just grows and grows over time and conservatives just accept it. I really don't think anyone here understands how much power the Dems are about to take from us and the road it will lead us to.

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  10. Well, if I may offer a counterpoint. For those of us who remember the Cold War, the narrative was that once a country turned communist, it never went back. Eastern Europe, China, Cuba, Vietnam, etc, etc, all went over to the dark side and hence were believed to be "gone forever." So, the West was seen to be in a losing battle as one-by-one the world was being swallowed up by the inevitable communist world domination. Then, in a matter of a few years, the whole mess collapsed and all the countries that had been gobbled up came spilling back out in what seemed like a matter of weeks. My point? Lousy ideas eventually collapse of their own weight.

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