The Miscalculation of the American Left

As the 2012 election season winds down to a merciful end, the Obama re-election cabal is in a state of shock and panic at the very real prospect that they and their anointed "messiah" look headed for a monumental defeat. Such a defeat may well change the political landscape in the United States for many years to come, thanks to Barack Obama. The American left, the Obama campaign team, the Democratic establishment, and much of the mainstream media are stunned and surprised by the depth of reaction to the exposure of a vapid Barack Obama during the three presidential debates. Revealed to the world was a man who could not live up to the well-crafted image of one of the most adept, well-liked, and intelligent politicians in American history. Once deflated, this image could never be rebuilt. Obama's performance was indicative of an unprepared and unqualified president unable to defend his four years in office or present a cogent plan for the next four.

Further, the Euro-socialist policies eagerly pursued by the Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress, which in the hallowed halls of academia and liberal think-tanks always succeed, not only have failed miserably to rescue the economy, but are being soundly rejected by the majority of the populace. They, unlike the insulated elites, are experiencing the real-life consequences of these actions, in a global and domestic landscape of turmoil, indecision, and uncertainty. As the members of the American left look to the horizon, they are beginning to focus on the very real prospect that what they have strived to achieve over the past fifty-plus years has begun to unravel. In great part, this is because they chose as the face of the movement someone whose only qualifications were skin color, an ability to read a speech and live up to a celebrity persona, and a studiously ignored youth and young adulthood steeped in 1960s radicalism. The left relied solely on image rather than substance, and because of racial guilt as well as presenting Barack Obama as a "moderate" bent on hope and change, they succeeded in winning the presidency and control of Congress. The left had assumed since the president had garnered over 69 million votes in the 2008 election (53% of the votes cast) that the American people had given him and his party a free hand to transform the country. Never mind that the votes Mr. Obama received accounted for only 30% of the voting-age population in the country, and forget that many voted for him thinking he was the moderate he proclaimed to be during his campaign for president. It is apparent that the Progressives; their figurehead, Barack Obama; the leaders of the Democratic Party; and the so-called intellectuals on the left have little or no understanding of why the Euro-socialist utopia they envision will never be accepted by the American people. Had these elites gotten beyond their own sense of superiority and God-given right to lead, they would have understood that the basic nature of the American society is unlike that of any nation in the world. Throughout the history of mankind, strong centralized governments have dominated those societies whose makeup was primarily of a single ethnic group and who had little or no history of independence or popular uprisings (e.g., Russia, China, various Arab countries). So too for modern-day Marxism or socialism -- those nations in today's world living under various manifestations of socialism mostly are similarly formulated. A docile and willing public is essential for the acceptance of an authoritarian government. In 1782, a French immigrant to the United States, Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur, in his notable essays, "Letters from an American Farmer," wrote of his newly adopted country: What then is the American, this new man? He is either a European or the descendant of a European, hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country...Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. The population of the country has increased nearly a hundredfold since those words were first written 230 years ago. The "new race of men" now includes those from all corners of the world, and their labor and posterity have in fact caused great changes, for the better, in the world. It has become a source of pride in American families to trace their ancestry and celebrate the courage and determination of their forefathers -- be it that they came on the Mayflower, by steerage to Ellis Island, or through the suffering and perseverance inherent in forced servitude. These pioneers injected into a uniquely American character a fierce desire to be independent and free, to be the final arbiter of one's success or failure. There resides deep within the soul of this country a profound mistrust of a powerful central government; this trust stems from the firsthand experience of these immigrants, voluntary and involuntary, from whom virtually all Americans today descend. Over the past sixty-seven years, as the United States became the wealthiest and most powerful country on the face of the earth, another trait unique to the American people came to the fore: a genuine sense of generosity and fair play. All were willing to accept the notion that the individual (and the government to a much smaller degree) should help those in need and give the downtrodden a leg up. Unfortunately, this characteristic has been exploited by those on the left who desire to transform the country into a socialist utopia (governed by them, of course). The stratagem used was to foster guilt for one's success, substitute government for individual charity, and declare as rights those things that only government can insure. As long as the future of the nation did not appear to be in real jeopardy, and as long as the nation could, on the surface, afford this spending, many simply chose to drop out of active participation in governance, while others, in smaller numbers, chose to accept the largess. While far too many have succumbed to a dependence on government largess, this does not mean that the basic character of the American people, as instilled by those Americans' forbears, has changed to become amenable to a massive central government controlling all aspects of their lives while jeopardizing the futures of their children and grandchildren. The Obama administration and the Democratic Party have, by unbridled spending and headlong drive to control the day-to-day activities of all Americans, at last awakened those who chose to sit on the sidelines and merely observe while assuming that the country was too big and rich to fail. Now, even many of the least involved citizens have begun to realize that the nation has embarked on a path that will bankrupt the country. It is now apparent to a majority that the survival of a great nation depends in its ability to remain master of its destiny and that that capability is now in question. In this election, the people are rising to the challenge of overcoming what the left has attempted to achieve over the past fifty years. This is something never anticipated by them, Barack Obama, and the Democrats. The legacy left to Americans by their forbears will not be betrayed; it is, after all, who we are.