Topic: Political Literature
Barack Obama Can Speechify, But Can He Really Change The Status Quo? I am Barack Obama/Oprah cool. But I won't vote for the man.by Scott from Oregon
(Libertarian)
Sunday, January 27, 2008
As I watched Barack Obama speechify his way across the television set, leading an ecstatic throng of supporters into a chant of "Yes We Can!", I thought, "Damn! That guy can speechify!"
I looked over toward my knitting Mum and started to say, "But he's not really saying anything!" and she shushed me. It had been seven years since she last saw a man who could stand up in a crowd and actually talk. She was in grandma ecstasy. Barack Obama had the gift of the Confidence Man, down.
There was a time not too long ago when I would have been a Barack supporter. I am a left coast liberal by social conditioning and disposition. Growing up in proximity to Berkeley and San Francisco gives me a progressive outlook and sympathetic emotions toward people of differences. I am not color blind but I enjoy being part of the rainbow. I'm cool like that. I am Barack Obama/Oprah cool.
But the trouble is, I've been infected with a notion that Barack Obama isn't addressing. I have been stricken by an idea that Barack Obama has been skirting. When Barack talks and the melody of his speeches is sifted through to the core of what he is saying, I get a little ill. Barack Obama is telling me that he is smarter than me. He is telling me that he has answers to my problems and he will fix them for me. He is telling me I can't take care of myself, but that he is perfectly willing to take care of ME for ME.
All I have to do is allow him to take from me what is mine, allow him to check up on me to make sure he knows all I have, and submit to his will or be forced into some kind of unholy nightmare entanglement with one of his "departments" or arms of enforcement. All I have to do to have him be my savior is to submit to the organizations that he wants to reside over, organizations that do very little except sponge off of the sweat and toil of average Americans. It is this submission that troubles me. This agreement that he knows better, and I know worser, and therefore I must allow him a fractal part of all of me.
This is where Barack Obama's wonderful speeches start sounding like propaganda. If only he followed the Constitution.
I know I am starting to sound like one of those kooky John Birch types, but let me tell you, I haven't changed. I still wear hand-knitted berets and can hug a tree with the best of them. I still believe in collectivism and pooling resources to help the needy and the poor. I just don't think the federal government is the place for that. Not anymore. Not after watching them screw things up for so long. Not after watching countless Confidence Men speechify their way into a seat at the big table, and then continue to assume that they should do more and more to resolve all of my problems.
The government has grown so much in the last twenty years, it scares me. It is like watching popcorn pop in a pan where they keep adding kernals. At some point, you gotta empty the pan. At some point, you gotta go back and reassess what it is government NEEDS to be doing for Americans. "Preserving Liberty, not destroying it," says Ron Paul.
The problem has become "the problem solvers". They are the problem. They aren't very good at it, and yet they persist in taking on more and more power. One of them recently proclaimed himself "The Decider". Now THAT is a problem. Some of them want to know everything about my health, and want to force me to give them money, so they can take care of me. Some want to take my money, so they can play Army all over the planet. They want me to pay for dictators they like, and pay for regimes they prefer. Some want me to pay to protect the borders of countries I've never been to, while ignoring our borders at home. Some want me to pay for those who are lucky enough to live by the ocean.
And the catch here, is that if I don't agree, I could go to jail.
Thank you, Ron Paul, for pointing all this out to me.
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2008 Scott from Oregon, all rights reserved.
Published: Sunday, January 27, 2008
Last modified: Sunday, January 27, 2008
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Statist, I wish he could change and be someone else but I don't think he can.
I have read many of you comments and at times fell like strangling you and believing that you are just part of the problem even though I know you are not.
That out of the way, please turn the vitrol towards Ron Paul into something good. For as you accuse him of not being able to speak and sound exciting, lord know you will not get too many arguements here, I ask that you turn you writings into something exciting for Ron Paul something that others can pick up and read and say yes the statist is correct and Ron Paul is the guy to vote for.
Statist, we get it, we get your point, for gods sake man everyone is not stupid but you can't make a hourse out of a camel; however, you could be able to realize that in a dry arid and long race that the camel, no matter how unappealing, is what is needed to run that race.
Statist it is time to leave the dark side of think and to be more positive. Like I have a belief that Ron Paul is the right thing for the country now I belive that you can make the needed change and to realize that we cannot change the camel. No matter how much we want to change the camel we can't but we can pick the camel to run the right race.
I think this is about as right as you will get in this race and it is the right race.
There is too much Ron Paul worship on this site. I point out his faults, and his supporters (most of them) will say that he is right about everything. Ron Paul is a good guy, but in every story there needs to be a villian, opposition,or conflict of some sort. I am the sound, sane, total freedom interventionist libertarian who wants a free world not just a free US. Unlike a lot of people on here I actually have talked to illegal immigrants and Arab Iraqi Christians and Muslims that are for the war in Iraq. Do the Iraqis benefit from a free society? yes. The problem is that Ron Paul is a lame horse in the race and constantly ruins his chances of getting elected. Politics is far from cheerful. The way that the war was sold was multiple parts, the biggest of which was WMD's. Had George W. Bush said that we are going in solely to correct human rights abuses, it wouldn't have worked. And yes for years the US has had concerns that Iraq was attempting to reproduce the Biological weapons that we gave him to win the war that he started with Iran. We knew he had them, we just didn't know why he was bluffing the UN. The more important issue was that keeping him alive and in power was like leaving Hitler in power.
The anti war crowd is full of good people, I just think that peace with the absence of freedom is not worth it. There will always be a conflict. Before the US came to Iraq, the people hated Saddam and feared him. They had "peace", but it was through tyranny. Is that what the world needs? I say no.That is why I support the war in Iraq, it tells the statist world to watch out and not to develop WMD, violate UN protocol, or commit human rights abuses.
The good news is that human rights abuses are going down world wide, but we have a whole continent that needs our help, Africa.
So if you really are against war, protest Darfur, Northern Uganda, or the Tamil Tigers (they are not a sports team). As well as the Coalition and Iraqi forces vs terrorism conflict.
It's always good to see a leftie awakening to the error of his implanted opinions, or "social conditioning" as you put it. But it's quite obvious that while you are on the right track, the journey is far from over. Sane people don't "hug a tree", the only rainbows are divided light spectrum, and Barak Obama is definitely not cool.
Obama supports the Patriot Act, war in Iran etc. That right there is why I won't vote for him. How can you claim to represent change, if you are in favor of 1 of the biggest grabs in civil rights history?
So statist, who do you support then? Where is this magicaly candidate who is better? You put the spot light on Ron Paul, and show he is not perfect or whatever. But I don't see you ever offering any other solutions. Why? Because in my guess, you would take ANY of the other candidates, who are all statist in beliefs like you over Ron Paul. Of course, you can't exactly say that because when you put those people up against the things you say, they turn out to be even worse.
The truth of the matter is that the things Ron Paul stands for should be a minimum requirement of any candidate. But all we have are candidates who give lip service and do other things. All the while wrapping people up in this illusion that only the government can provide the answers. That if you are against the government doing something, then you automatically want people to die, go hungry or go uneducated. Which is nothing but lies and spin, and people are waking up and understanding it.
In light of the candidates this year, and in recent memory. None of them even coming close to representing America. Ron Paul is the only one who does. The fact of the matter is that if you aren't in favor of Ron Paul, you are in favor of the status quo. Made obvious by the fact of who the media chooses to show.
Ron Paul is a big help in waking up America. You can deny it, poke at him from the bushes to hide your own stances or whatever. It doesn't matter. Once people see they can't trust the people in charge, or the media, it's just natural instinct for them to start thinking for themselves. And once that happens you aren't going to keep spinning duality in their face.
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2008 Scott from Oregon, all rights reserved.