2009 - America at the Abyss

Once again, the American system has won. When history writes about this period of time, it will talk about a fiscal calamity that opened the door to radical reformation of the American system of governance, and the subsequent failure of that reformation. It will talk about how the world financial system nearly collapsed. It will talk about a small cadre of extreme left wing activists with a charismatic front man following a basic leftist tenet: never let a crisis go to waste. It will talk about how close to the abyss the United States came to socialism and collectivism.

Seizing on the financial calamity of September, 2008, these folks lied to the American public, posing as political centrists. The press, enamored by a black presidential candidate who reinforced the press’s fundamental political belief, abdicated its responsibility of vetting, researching, and reporting. Instead, it deified the candidate. The press embraced a man with a political history of voting present on issues of consequence, with little national experience, no business experience, and who came from a background of affirmative action coupled with quota based scholarships and community organizing.

It was a brilliant move by the left wing plotters. Here was a man who was charismatic. Here was a man who was a brilliant orator. Here was a man who promised to transcend the divides of this country. His good looks and charm made it easy to overlook radical associations. He wanted to bring us together in a time of crisis....he said.

They didn’t pay attention when he said he was going to “spread the wealth around.” He meant what he said. When elected to office, he promptly turned economic policy over to those who were most likely responsible for the problem in the first place. Do whatever you want and spend whatever you want was the rule. Meanwhile, he and his left wing cabal moved to push through the takeover of 1/6th of the American economy…a government takeover of the American health care system. They almost succeeded.

Books upon books will be written about 2009. But not since the Vietnam War, where the right wing of the American political spectrum controlled American foreign policy, have I seen an American government completely ignore, and treat with disdain, the voice of the people. Obama, Pelosi and Reid head faked the public into voting for them promising moderation. What the public got was a radicalization of the political system backed by Chicago muscle.

While the members of Congress plotted behind closed doors, the public took to the streets; ignored by the press and demeaned by the political leadership. I won't forget the disdain for the American public exhibited by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. I won't forget how the Democratic congress followed these nut cases like cows with a cattle prod. Pelosi called the American public astro-turf. The protestors in the streets were called Nazis, and racists, bigots, and the obscene reference “tea-baggers.” Congressmen stopped meeting with constituents. Those that did ridiculed those who questioned them.

Legislation enacting these Draconian measures were passed at midnight on Saturday nights out of the public scrutiny. And in the worst piece of legislative chicanery I have ever seen, the Senate passed its version of health care on Christmas Eve, then quietly slinked out of Washington leaving only the echoes of their bribes and back door dealings between our political leaders and their friends.

But a Christmas Day near terrorist tragedy woke America up. The bloom was off the rose when a man with explosives strapped to his underwear nearly blew up a plane. Couple that with a down and dirty union tax deal hatched by Obama himself, in the White House, Americans finally began to ask in large numbers what is going on.

In a stunning reversal of fortune, Massachusetts halted the march toward socialism by sending a Republican to Washington to fill the Senate seat of Ted Kennedy. Scott Brown was elected to office on a platform built on defeating the legislation for which Ted Kennedy dedicated his entire political career. The disdain of the public for Obama’s double dealing health care strategy could not have been clearer.

So now we move to the future. Republicans shouldn’t be dancing in the streets. The problems facing our health care system are still there, and poised to get substantially worse as aging baby boomers enter into the Medicare system. Hopefully, moderate solutions can now be discussed in a civil manner and crafted true to our American values and our Constitution.

But 2009 will go down in history as the year almost lost our freedom to a bunch of far left whackos who honored their own ideology rather than the people. And for that, I am grateful.