Fasten Your Seatbelts!

by Gordon Cooper

From Broader View Weekly, February 4, 2010

If the first month of 2010 is any indication of what we can expect from the next 11, I’d suggest that we all grab hold of something solid, because I think we are in for a very bumpy ride. We saw the power of nature unleashed in the devastating earthquake in Haiti on that first Tuesday, and then, one week later, we saw the power of an informed citizenry unleashed in Massachusetts. Both of these events have initiated dramatic and long lasting changes. The physical topography of Haiti will never be the same as it was before that quake and the political topography of Washington will never be the same as it was before that special election.

We need only examine the recent State of the Union address by President Obama to realize just how drastically the political landscape has changed. Sources say that the first speech had been written as early as last November when Obama’s reputation was feeling the first tremors following the defeats experienced by his party in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races. But then the people of Massachusetts spoke and the earth beneath his feet shook.

The speech delivered last Wednesday exemplified the reason why there is such a “deficit of trust” in Washington, and why Obama is seen less as the Second Coming of the Messiah and more as the Second Coming of the other J.C. (Jimmy Carter). It was marked by several misstatements, broad generalizations, false accusations, faux confessions, comical ironies and, worst of all, pointless, clichéd rhetoric.

When Obama wasn’t using his famous oratorical skills to: one, offend the Supreme Court Justices on national television while blatantly misstating the details of their decision; two, castigate members of his own party for seeing the earthquake coming and heading for the hills; three, indict the previous president for the “inherited” deficit that he tripled in one-fourth the time; four, offer up a false confession of blame for not explaining the health bill clearly enough for an uneducated, bumbling populace like us to understand that what he was shoving down our throats was for own good, etc. etc. – he was making some very interesting and ironic statements.

He referred to Washington in the third person plural voice, as if he wasn’t a part of it, and then spoke of the “perpetual campaign”, as if he wasn’t involved in it. Oddly enough, this speech was given the day after he re-hired his campaign manager to act as an advisor, and then the day after the speech, he flew to Florida for a campaign-like town hall meeting touting a new, high-speed rail project that will most likely be as non-profitable as the current Amtrak system, which costs the American taxpayers $72/passenger and expects to be more each year.

He spoke of the need to tighten the Federal spending belt by freezing the rates of increase – but not until 2011, when, as we all know, the current election cycle will not be threatened. And even then, his proposed savings would only amount to less than 1 percent of the deficit.

There are other glaring disparities between Obama’s speech and the true state of the union. The space available to me here does not allow me to go into detail on each of them, but if you are interested, you can read some of them in the AP article written by Calvin Woodward dated January 28.

So, as we can see, Obama offers us no hope for a change in either the budgetary deficit or the deficit of trust.

In conclusion, I feel I must answer a charge made by Keith in his column. He stated that the Brown election was an example of what was wrong with the “way Washington works”. Keith goes on to say that voting is no longer an effective mechanism for change. Keith seems to say that we must just speak louder than those “who do not speak for us” – as if the loudest or, should he prefer, the most violent voice was the one that needed to be listened to.

The fact that Keith, and Obama, seem to be missing from the seismic jolt that hit the political world is that Brown’s campaign was not “politics as usual”. Politics as usual would have been the most liberal state in the union sending another liberal senator to replace the deceased liberal senator. Politics as usual would have had Scott Brown toeing the line of the Republican fat cats just to get their financial support. Politics as usual would not have seen a 30-point lead by the Democrat in December shrink within four short weeks to a six-point loss. It was not politics as usual; it was people – with an average donation of $77 – and a heart-felt disgust for political back-room dealing and closed-door obfuscation that surrounded the Health Care debacle. It was a realization that this current administration cares more about our global image than it does our national security.

Just as the rebuilding efforts taking place in Haiti should be done with a realization that earthquakes are possible and should be prepared for, the political rebuilding should carry that realization also. If Obama thinks he can use the same empty promises and soaring rhetoric to build his political legacy, I am afraid his world will shake again in November.

So, strap yourselves in and hold on, we are heading for some turbulence.