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A fundamentally
different America
That’s My Opinion
By Bob Robinson
“One of our closest allies…”
That’s our president speaking, not about our neighbors to the north or
south, or maybe England or one of the other European countries.
Nope. He’s referring to Israel as “one of” our closest allies in the
Middle East. Sure would like to know who else is over there sticking
his neck out amidst the riots and flag burnings saying, “I am a close
ally of the United States.”
Israel is our closest – and in my opinion only - ally in the Middle
East! And a neighboring country has made it their focus to obliterate
it from the face of the earth. Is it any wonder that the country that
used to be our “closest” ally is a little nervous?
Which brings me to the next point. I understand our president referred
to the Middle East crises as a “bump in the road.” Aside from the
multitude of powder kegs in just about every country, tens of thousands
slaughtered, Iran only months away from building a nuclear weapon… we
have had another 9-11 attack on ‘American soil’ by an organized
terrorist group.
A U.S. Ambassador and three other American diplomats were assassinated in a well-planned, well-executed attack.
In case you didn’t know it, by international agreement Embassies sit on the “sovereign territory” of the nation it represents.
I would hardly call this a “bump in the road.”
First, the administration said the attack was Muslim rage over an
obscure video that had been on U-tube since June. And it doesn’t
surface until three months later on Sept. 11? Give me a break!!
When our media lapdogs finally acknowledged it was a terrorist event,
the administration said, “well yes, it became apparent several days ago
that…” so on and so on.
Then he turned around and told the U.N. it was a result of the “anti-Islam video.”
Seems to me he needs to get his stories straight. Regardless, we were
either lied to from the start or the current administration is
unbelievably inept at more than just leading our country out of a
recession.
Speaking of recessions, one of our readers sent me an email recently
that her financial advisor is preparing his clients for a possible
sell-off/market crash, depending on who wins seats and the presidential
bid. The concern is a combination of tax increases and spending cuts.
She added that he’s trying to be proactive since he lived through the
last meltdown.
Notice that she didn’t say which candidates and/or party he was referring to?
The United States of America that I grew up with was far from perfect. There were many “wrongs” that had to be made “right.”
In the 19th Century it was slavery. In the 20th Century it was a
variety of issues from Women’s Suffrage to Civil Rights. Today, at the
start of the 21st Century, there are still more issues with which to
deal… equal rights for all citizens, handling the concerns of a growing
aging population, inequities in health care, providing “real” help –
not dependency – for the less fortunate, and more.
A major issue today is how we deal with corporate conglomerates that
can have more destructive power on our economy than most countries
around the world. As a CNO reader pointed out to me, the Lehman
Brothers bankruptcy led to the loss of 2.6 million jobs.
How did that happen? How can one corporate entity have that much power
over an entire country? Think that might be something that should have
been on our federal “radar”? I do.
We are an imperfect nation led by imperfect human beings. God can give us perfection… people simply cannot.
Regardless, the system of government our forefathers set up – the
Constitution by which we have modeled our country – has over the past
225 years made us the greatest, most prosperous and generous nation in
the history of the world.
It is not perfect – no man-made institution ever will be – but it is the best mankind has been able to come up with.
We are also a nation of “Monday Morning Quarterbacks.” We love to look
back and hammer our leadership on what should have been done when
something goes wrong. The fact that we weren’t the ones forced to make
that decision is irrelevant.
In a presidential election, partisan divide brings those decisions to
the forefront and typically drives a nasty campaign season. Sometimes
it brings out misinformation and outright lies. Shaun Hannity has
referred to this one as the “nastiest ever.”
Obama has been hammered hard over his missteps during his term of
office. In my opinion, rightly so. The list is long and only partially
noted in the Republican campaign messages. While sometimes nasty, I
don’t recall seeing a single lie.
Obama’s campaign, on the other hand…
“You know, do we see sometimes us going overboard in our campaign, the
mistakes that are made, or the areas where there's no doubt that
somebody could dispute how we are presenting things?” Obama said on a
60 Minutes interview.
Then he sloughed it off by saying “That happens in politics.”
Not surprisingly, that quote only appeared online. To use old-fashioned
vernacular, the clip ended up on the “cutting room floor” when the
editing was done for the actual broadcast.
Obama has failed miserably in his “opportunity” to take our country to
a new level of greatness. We gave him a chance. It didn’t happen. Over
and done with. Time to move on.
I don’t fault him for that. It has happened before. In my lifetime I
could tap the shoulders of Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford as having done
no better.
What I do fault him for is how he seems to view my country. It bothered
me when Michelle Obama said four and a half years ago “for the first
time in my adult life I am proud of my country…”
What bothered me even more was something her husband said nine months later…
“We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
The memory of that statement was so strong that I’ve never been able to
shake it. I actually thought I’d heard it again during the DNC earlier
this month. I hadn’t, but memory sometimes plays weird tricks on a
person.
The president has held true to his course, and I believe he intends to
finish the job if given another four years. The job? Not to fix the
economy. Not to reestablish our dominance on the World Stage. Not even
to stand by “one of our closest allies” in the Middle East. Rather, to
fundamentally transform our nation.
Do you really want that? A new, fundamentally different America? I don’t.
That’s My Opinion. What’s Yours?
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