Obama's progressive betrayals

The United States and the international community must take action in response. … We will work with friends and allies to stand up to this behavior.

– President Obama, May 25, 2009, referencing North Korea's test of a nuclear bomb.

"Will we have to get hit by terrorists again before Americans take these threats seriously?" I have heard this question asked dozens of times by Americans, and by journalists and commentators in the alternative press. Sadly, the answer is probably "yes." The establishment press and the Democratic Party leadership spent six years convincing us that Islamic extremists weren't so "extreme" and that nations like North Korea and Iran weren't threats; why would they stop now?

Sometimes I wonder if humanity might have fared better if the average lifespan for a human being was several hundred years instead of the 70-something it is at present. Might the company and wisdom of those who not only remembered Jimmy Carter's feeble foreign policy, but appeasers of centuries past, have resulted in a demand for leaders who would have preserved our global pre-eminence and national security? What I would give to have every American view a montage of Carter's mealy-mouthed, impotent responses to such events as the 1979 capture of our embassy in Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan when President Obama spoke on the North Korean nuclear test.

Perhaps "Oh, no … We've heard that before" would be the overwhelming rejoinder, rather than the deafening silence that abounds with regard to the evolution of rogue nations toward nuclear capability, the ever-proliferating Islamofascist threat, and our president's progressive-boilerplate, pathetic invitation to foreign aggressors.

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This is to say nothing of the federal government's expansion under Jimmy Carter, which we are seeing again – only multiplied exponentially – under Obama. If you'll recall, Carter gave us the Department of Energy and the Department of Education, two bureaucratic megaliths that have served to advance us light years down the roads toward economic and cultural hell, respectively.

I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.

– Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor

If I were to declare that, in my experience, I had found accomplished Latinas to be some of the most imperious, bigoted, soulless individuals one might ever hope to encounter, would that be a racist statement? Would it be more racist than the above quote, part of Sotomayor's speech at the University of California at Berkeley?

Rather than belabor the blatant racism (as well as shallowness and stupidity) in Sotomayor's proclamation (everyone's doing that right about now), I would underscore the par-for-the-course elitism that lies therein. Sotomayor views herself as "wise." What would inspire an individual to make such a hubris-laden statement, wholly unmindful of those who might take a dim view thereof?

I take as a given that progressives do not acknowledge their own racist tendencies. The more dangerous characteristic people in such positions manifest is their barefaced elitism and cavalier perception of invulnerability. This is a phenomenon we have seen a great deal of over the last decade or so in the form of activist judges handing down egregiously unprincipled and unconstitutional decisions, with no concern for the potential risk to their positions.

Granted that in the case of our president, much of the silent assent toward his actions is due to the cult of personality surrounding him. In addition, Barack Obama possesses the rare gift of being able to speak with authority on issues about which he knows nothing (there is a popular colloquial term for this). Obama can offer measures that are terrifying to the informed among us, and do so conveying the absolute certainty that they are prudent, even brilliant proposals.

Unfortunately, most of us are not informed. In fact, most us are so disengaged that we don't see – even through the corner of our eyes – the patent insanity of, say, imposing new, restrictive manufacturing standards on an auto industry that is already in imminent danger of imploding.

Though I remain skeptical, several of my colleagues (some much more prominent than I) believe that critical mass is being achieved with respect to the patience, tolerance and confidence of the American people regarding Congress and Mr. Obama's policies. The phenomenon of the Democratic leadership being in the habit of eating their own (as evidenced by the current clawfest involving Nancy "the Cryptkeeper" Pelosi and CIA chief Leon Panetta) may lend fuel to this fire.

Despite my aforementioned skepticism, I sincerely hope that America's tolerance is now reaching critical mass.