'Voting's the Best Revenge'
By Ed Lasky
AmericanThinker.com
The only advice Barack Obama offered that is worth following is a bit of one he gave to supporters in 2012.
Days before Barack Obama was reelected, he fired up a crowd of supporters at a campaign rally -- inside a public high school, no less -- with the call for them to vote out of revenge.
It was a disgrace for a president of the United States to think and to verbalize such a sentiment. But Americans should not have been unduly shocked for the president is a man whose perception of democracy was that is useful to “punish your enemies and reward your friends.”
Now is the time for Americans to wreak their revenge. That may sound harsh but I am not a president and I do not hold myself out as a role model.
Regardless, how can liberals complain about or disparage that call since the man they hailed and elected was the one who articulated the very same exhortation? Liberal columnist Jonathan Chait wrote a column for the then-prestigious The New Republic after George W. Bush had barely served two years in office that began , “I hate George W. Bush. There, I said it” and so I will merely repeat what President Obama said “voting’s the best revenge.”
And I do this after giving him six years to show his mettle, to show he has learned how to be president; to show he can enforce the laws and can protect and defend the Constitution. He has failed.
Americans should marry that call with the statement he recently made during a speech delivered at Northwestern University:
“I am not on the ballot this fall. Michelle’s pretty happy about that. But make no mistake: these policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them. This isn’t a political speech, and I’m not going to tell you who to vote for – even though I suppose it is kind of implied.”
What else is implied? The converse, of course.
If Americans do not like Obama’s agenda they should vote out the politicians who enabled and empowered him. Americans are entitled to have revenge -- or, if one is more delicate, bring justice to the land.
A list of particulars can be compiled, just as it was when Americans rebelled from the tyranny of King George III, to justify voting against Democrats.
Most of them have been beholden and in thrall to Obama ever since he became President. It is often said but can never be said enough: every single Democratic Senator in the previous Congress is responsible for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the title shape-shifts depending on the way the political wind blows). Not one Republican voted for that disaster. That is just one notable example of how Democrats have become enablers of Obama’s agenda.
Congressional Quarterly published an annual president position votes report that charts every elected official’s votes in support of Barack Obama. That report is behind a paywall but has been tapped in races across the nation: New Hampshire’s Jean Shaheen’s votes match Obama’s 99 percent of the time; North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan hits the 96% level; Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor supported Obama’s stances 91% of the time; Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu comes in at 90 % ; Alaska’s Senator Mark Begich comes in at 97 percent. In other words, to quote John F. Kennedy, there are no profiles in courage in this lot. They are profiles in submission.
They are not alone among Democrats. Republicans have capitalized on Obama’s faux pas in commercials that highlight the long list of Democrats who are obedient to Obama and not to voters. That might be creditable had Obama followed Americans’ wishes and made our priorities his. But he has not.
Obama consistently has ignored Americans’ priorities. There was no pressing desire among Americans for a radical reshaping of our medical care and ObamaCare is more unpopular than ever before, but it is full steam ahead for the president who bragged that ObamaCare was working exactly as it should and the debate over it was “over.” Nor is climate change a big concern yet Democrats keep focusing on that issue-with John Kerry declaring it a “weapon of mass destruction.”
But these are the desires of the gentry liberals who are the ruling class.. As Joel Kotkin and Fred Siegel wrote in “The Gentry Liberals”:
Gentry liberalism reflects the interests and values of the affluent winners in the era of globalization and the beneficiaries of the "financialization" of the economy. Its strongholds are the tony neighborhoods and luxurious suburbs in and around New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco and West Los Angeles.
Their priorities are gay rights, climate change, abortion and the like; not lunch-pail Joes and their jobs. Hypocrisy is pervasive among them, of course-as widespread as private jets, huge homes (Al Gore’s; New York Time columnist Tom Friedman’s) and other indulgences. Tom Steyer is the epitome of a gentry liberal who has openly declared his desire to buy elections with his carbon-generated millions to, get this, combat climate change. He made his fortune so expensive energy won’t hurt him.
Americans do not want a nanny state imposed on them. They are taking Michelle Obama’s inedible stuff they call “food” and throwing in trashcans. Common Core is another way to federalize education and ruin learning (sample math problem) for the sake of propaganda.
Instead, Americans are concerned about the economy, federal spending and the budget deficit. Democrats not only ignore these issues but exacerbate them with their orgies of spending. The trillion-dollar stimulus bill stimulated crony capitalism and lobbyists’ bank accounts (Washington’s economy has boomed as money is sucked up from flyover portions of America) and not much else, but left taxpayers with even more debt to pay off for decades to come.
Americans overwhelmingly are in favor of cheap energy yet Obama, with the connivance of Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, has derailed the Keystone XL pipeline for years, blocked development of our nation’s vast energy resources, and killed the coal industry (a rare promise Obama has kept). Democrats have enabled this agenda.
Democratic Senators pushed for the IRS to become weaponized against Americans or at least Republican ones; they, as much as Lois Lerner, should be held accountable (a word that does not exist in Washington). If they had abused their power this way in the real world they would have been fired.
Obama and his fellow Democrats have shamelessly stoked racial tensions for partisan purposes.
Americans oppose open borders and lax enforcement of our immigration laws. That does not matter to Democrats. They see the potential to create a permanent Democratic majority and want to make that their own Manifest Destiny, regardless of its impact on jobs, our health, and our security. The little people do not matter. Americans: take your revenge.
When a leader lies what can be done? Obama has lied repeatedly to Americans. His serial lying that Americans can keep their health plans and doctors while having vastly lower premiums are just the most well-known ones. But the lies keep piling up as fast as the national debt (see “Red Line Just one of roughly 500 Obama promises that have come and gone” -- written over a year ago, so the list can be amended). National Review columnist Jim Geraghty presciently wrote in November 2008, that all Barack statements come with an expiration date. All of them” and that is even more true now that we have endured six years of a fundamentally dishonest presidency.
Barack Obama will not be impeached; that is not a realistic possibility. But his enablers can be fired in November.
Obama does not respect Americans. The media has refused to cover the insulting way he has referred to Americans over the years. Ever since the “bitter clingers” remark in 2008 that reflected poorly on him, the media has been all but silent. But Obama has repeatedly disparaged Americans (see What Obama Thinks of Americans; Insulter –in-Chief; President Put-Down). America, turnabout is fair play.
In 2009, President Obama boasted to Democratic Congressman Marion Berry, who was worried that a vote for ObamaCare would hurt his reelection chances, that “You’ve got me” and that was enough to guarantee his victory. Show Obama how little that means by voting his proxies and puppets (isn’t that a fair metaphor for a politician who has his strings pulled by the president?) out of Congress.
Obama is on the ballot. So, I repeat, vote for revenge.
Obama told us to do so.