Brain Lemon

I’ve wanted to comment on Barack Obama for a while. Frankly, he scares the crap out of me.  At first I was impressed like so many others by his charisma and seeming ability to stay above the dirty politics of Clinton, Inc.  Over time, though, it has become clear what he represents – a massive and fundamental change for the country and a very dangerous man.

Obama is especially scary because of his rhetorical ability.  He exudes an almost Messianic air, promising to solve the world’s problems by sheer force of his personality.  People are fainting and swooning at his events, causing a fanaticism the likes of which we’ve never seen.  Because of this he will be able to say a lot and, possibly, accomplish a lot without the scrutiny and skepticism any other candidate would face.  And the things he wants are at root the most basic and doctrinaire liberal, socialist ideas – government takeover of health care and more, the most massive tax increases in history, a dovish foreign policy in which the US is the problem, not the solution, and all the rest of the typical Democrat stances against free speech (see the "fairness doctine"), amnesty, huge cuts to defense spending, and curtailment of our ability to wage the War on Terror.  He has a plan for this country modeled after FDR, who ushered in the big-government era we are currently suffering under.

More than his policies, though, Barack is troubling because of his character.  His wife has a deep, fierce anger at this country.  She has said terrible things about America and her people, while Barack himself made a huge show of not wearing the flag lapel pin, as everyone else (save lunatics) does.  But more disturbing than anything else is his church and his pastor.  The recent revelations about Jeremiah Wright, who most certainly does NOT deserve the styling Reverend, are shocking and disgusting.  Wright has spouted some of the most vicious, hateful, bigoted bile out there, saying we deserve 9/11 and encouraging hatred of white people and Jews.  He has traveled with Louis Farrakhan to Libya and given him a "lifetime achievement" for all his Anti-Semitic antics.  Suffice it to say, this is one seriously bad dude who represents the most ugly parts of our country and its past.

The real reason this is so big is that Obama CHOSE this church and this pastor, and attended services there for 20 years, having Wright marry him and his wife and baptize his children.  You don’t go to a church like that if you don’t agree with a lot of it.  For almost any of us even one of these sermons would offend us enough to never come back, yet instead they attracted Obama and led him to join.  One cannot go so far as to say he is in complete agreement with Wright, but he certainly at least has no issue with him.

For these reasons Obama represents a massive change for this country in a direction of far-left socialism, a complete abandonment of patriotism and national pride, a vicious rebuke to traditional Christianity towards the hate "gospel" of people like Wright, and a crippling of national defense that could very well get thousands killed.  Obama must be stopped even if it means voting for the pathetic, despicable John McCain.  We’ve got to expose this guy for what he is.

I’ve never been one to worry too much about what other countries think of the United States.  While it would be great if we were loved by the world that’s just not going to happen – there are countries who are opposed to us, many who are jealous of our success and power, many others who are mad about some action or position we take.  I was always taught as a kid that you shouldn’t care too much about what other people think of you – the important thing is "being yourself" and doing what is right.  If you spend all your time worrying about others’ opinions you’ll get nothing done.  Thus, I have shrugged it off when other nations complain about us invading Iraq because I believe it was the right thing to do.

That being said, I think we need to be good to our allies and to countries that will stand with us.  We must avoid doing anything stupid to alienate or anger countries we need to help us.  The worst sort of this is when politicians say stupid things for political expediency.  The current row about NAFTA on the Dem side is a perfect example.  This is an agreement that was negotiated and agreed upon by both sides of the aisle, and passed and signed by Bill Clinton at his urging.  It has had benefits for the nations involved.  Yet this has not prevented Obama and Clinton to hurl reckless assaults and promise to "renegotiate" the treaty.  This kind of irresponsible politicking has real effects on our relations with other countries and our foreign relations.

I would submit that in general, despite the left constantly whining about how Bush has damaged our reputation, they in fact have done and promise to do far more damage.  The examples of this are manifold – the above mentioned NAFTA nonsense, Obama’s promise to invade Pakistan against their will, Nancy Pelosi’s reckless visit to Syria, and of course the insistence of a quick withdrawal from Iraq that would send the region into genocidal, terror-festering mayhem.  And all of this for political reasons or to undermine the Bush administration.  At least the damage done by invading Iraq was worth it because we were doing what we believed to be right.  The same applies to our decision to not sign Kyoto due to its massive, oppressive flaws and the fact that it would cost trillions with virtually no benefit.  As far as I’m concerned, if people hate you for doing the right thing, the problem is the people not the action.

I would conclude then that Democrats have done far more damage to our foreign relations, and that their actions were primarily politically motivated.  This makes them far more dangerous to our reputation abroad, and directly threatening to our ability to make and keep allies.  It seems to be yet another accusation of the left that in reality applies to the accusers far more than the accused.