Uniting Americans?

Since the election of Barack Obama as the next President of the United States, there have been a number of columns and editorials from liberal journalists (sorry, that's redundant) about how the new administration and the leadership of congress will now be able to bring the country together and unite us all in a common purpose after the demonic, polarizing years of the Bush presidency. I guess that is possible if we all drink the socialist, pacifist Kool-Aid and have our brains turn to mush.

It is always quite clear these socialists mean we can all sing kumbaya together if we neanderthals who do not agree with them "see the light" and accept their superior understanding of how the world works and what is good for us. Perhaps that means we who have been around a few years and built the country into the greatest economic powerhouse in history and the savior of western civilization against evil, brutal tyrants should no longer be involved in running the country. Obviously the coalition of black and brown minorities and those under the age of 30, or those who put Barack Obama in the oval office, can do a better job of it than us conservative and libertarian old fogeys.

But the reality is that Barack Obama did have the most liberal voting record in Congress, at least when he took the time to do the job he was elected to do. I find it incredulous that those journalists say he will lead from the center and be a unifying figure. Of course, since their idea of the center is the nose bleed seats in the upper deck on the third base side of the left field foul line, I suppose I can sort of understand the thought process. And perhaps, since Obama is basically a blank slate with no track record of making major decisions effecting anyone but himself, no one really knows what to expect. Maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt until we actually see what direction his actions take us.

Unfortunately, for those who seek to unify us and entertain fantasy's of Barack being the man to do it, they might want to consider the role of the congressional leadership. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the other riders of the apocalypse have their priorities too, and they aren't about to let an inexperienced rookie lead them by the nose, even if he is a former colleague from their own party. These creatures, who have achieved impressive new standards in taking their traditional tradecraft of creating massive problems for the country, blaming them on their opponents and then claiming credit for attempting to deal with those problems, and who have reneged on every promise they made to voters to take over congress in 2006, will not be easy to deal with.

To mention just a few of their priorities, Henry Waxman from California favors steep energy taxes on oil and gas producers to be used to combat global warming. What a great idea! Limiting the supply and causing price increases on the sources of energy that Americans really need and wasting taxpayer dollars on a politically correct agenda that is not universally accepted as anything more than a natural development that has happened before and reverses over time, and could possibly pour billions of dollars down a black hole of alternative sources that may not become commercially viable. By the way, has Mr. Waxman ever heard of nuclear power?

Charles Rangel of New York wants to bring back the draft. What a great idea! If Barack wants to invade China, Russia, India or Western Europe, Charlie will find him the troops.

Barney Frank from Massachussetts, the poster child for the previously mentioned masters of causing problems then pretending to solve them (in the case of the current credit crisis), wants to slash defense spending by 25%. What a great idea! In a world with easier access to weapons of mass destruction and fanatical people who have sworn to eliminate us from the face of the earth, maybe we should just stick our heads in the sand with our butts high in the air and hope the bad men will go away.

John Conyers of Michigan has called for reparations for slavery. What a great idea! In a country where nearly 620,000 citizens died in a war to end slavery, where no one has legally owned a slave in 150 years, and where a man of African descent was just elected president, what a great way to compensate those who suffered under slavery (wait a minute, they are all long gone) and create harmony among the races. By the way, do you know anyone who has ever owned a slave and needs to be punished?

The perpetually p.o.'d Mr. Conyers also is a sympathizer with our culturally and intellectually superior European "friends" (tell me again, how many times have we bailed their asses out from annihilation or total domination from tyrranical dictators) who want to indict the Bush Administration and officials for war crimes (for trying to save them again, this time from diehard terrorists who want to convert them to Islam or, if they don't submit, kill them). Another great idea by our man from Detroit (talk of war zones)! Particularly in a country where a good many people still support the War on Terror, mainly because we enjoy living and not having to bow five times a day toward Mecca. I can't think of a better way to start another civil war among Americans than to indict a president for doing the job he was elected to do. However, maybe then Mr. Conyers could create someone to make reparations to.

It should be an interesting four years. The lunatics are now in total charge of the asylum. I guess Americans could only stand so much prosperity and freedom. We grew a little too comfortable with the success of capitalism and free markets, unprecedented individual rights, and a strong military to ensure we maintained them. Somebody managed to convince a lot of people that those things were not worth keeping, maybe because somebody somewhere was not fully participating in the good life our way of life has created. Somewhere along the way we forgot that the good things in life were supposed to be earned, and cannot just be given away to everybody. As the old saying goes, sooner or later no good deeds go unpunished. So now we are moving in a different direction. I don't think the members of the "I want it all and I want it now" generation are going to be very happy with what they have done.