You couldn't be here if stars hadn't exploded.
To the question, “Why me?” the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply, “Why not?”
Atheist: Natural Morals, Real Meaning, Credible Truth

07 January, 2012

Obama is destroying America?

I was reading some comments (trolling) at CNSNews (yeah, what was I thinking?  The stupid! It burns!) and kept seeing the comment "Obama is destroying this country".  Really?  How so?  The right has been saying this for years and I finally wanted to try to understand why they think that.  It wasn't hard to find some blogs and articles but the paragraph below from biggovernment.com seems to nail a basis for the fear.

"Liberals think that the U.S. is arrogant and needs to be taken down a notch or three. Liberals think that U.S. history is filled with nothing but evil and any attacks on the U.S. are richly deserved. Liberals think that theU.S. was founded by evil, selfish, hateful white men who were only interested in their own power and didn’t want to empower others. So, liberals want the founder’s memory eviscerated. Liberals think that ourcapitalist system needs to be eliminated. In short, liberals value nothing about the U.S. except its tradition of self-actuation, liberty, and its freedom to re-make itself and they want to use that capacity to erase everything that makes the U.S.A. the U.S.A. Once that is done they want to build a U.S. to their own liking using the very freedoms they used to lay her low."

So, I want to take this apart.   My opinion here as a liberal, not doing any research.

  • The US is arrogant and needs to be taken down a notch:  I think the US has made some mistakes and backed some bad people for purely selfish reasons.  We have done and I expect we will do much good in the world and want to continue to do more good with fewer mistakes.
  • US history is full of evil:  No, we have done many good things and we do not deserve punishing attacks like 9/11 or whatever they imagine.  We do deserve criticism like any other country.  Because we are the most influential, we are the biggest target and get more than other countries.  Are we perfect?  No.  Can we improve?  Yes.  
  • US was founded by evil selfish white men:  It was founded by white men, yes.  Evil?  Not at all!  Jefferson, Pain, Madison, Adams, Franklin and others weren't evil!  No liberal thinks that!  The Constitution has got to be one of the greatest documents ever written.  Certainly greater than any holy book.  The fact that this is a capitalist country is not evil in itself, but it is evident that capitalism requires control by government.  The trick is to balance the control properly.  Don't want to empower others?  If I like the Constitution and don't think corporations are people how is that not wanting to empower others?  This makes no sense.
  • Liberals want the founders memory eviscerated:  Wow.  I think he is making stuff up out of his own fears.  Where has a liberal said that?
  • Our capitalist system needs to be eliminated:  No.  It needs controls to prevent corporations from abusing the power they have over people.  Unchecked capitalism has no morals.  Again, the power of government is a tricky thing and in this country, we haven't succeeded in getting it right and because of the fears the right has about government, it is hard to get consensus in this divided country.  Capitalism isn't perfect but I know of no better economic system.
  • Liberals value nothing about the US:  No, not at all!  What makes the USA the USA?  Is it the fact that health care is a for-profit industry?  That corporations are people?  That education is mediocre? That corporate profit is all important?  That most wealth and wages are concentrated in 1% of the population?  I don't think so.  I think these things need to change because they are not American values and goals and certainly not the America the founders were founding.  I do value highly my rights to opinion, not to have religion, freedom of speech, freedom to pursue my way of life and ability to go where I want.  Fearful right wing policies have done more harm to these freedoms and rights than anything Obama has ever done.
So Obama is destroying America?  If you really believe the above is what liberals think and want, then you would think Obama is doing this.  The things the right thinks he is doing to accomplish this is mostly exaggerated and fear based.  Like growing government.  Santorum said Obama is "expanding federal government" out of control.  Really?  Federal employment has been dropping for years.  The budget has been falling with respect to GDP.  How is government expanding?  Regulations?  Is that it?  Then say it.  But that is what capitalism needs.  Uncontrolled capitalism has no morals.   If this is what Obama  and liberals are against, then so be it.  But uncontrolled capitalism is not America.

1 comment:

  1. A very good post. I think the Right wants to keep the country divided. They want people to believe that to criticize the US is not patriotic and we must always declare that the US is number one and the best country in the world. If Conservatives would start looking at other countries and realize that education is better in several as well as healthcare then they may ask for reforms. It is better for the Conservatives to keep the American public scared and ignorant and it is easy to place all blames on Liberals. I hope that 2012 will be a good year but with all the political talks it is going to be stressful.

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