Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Define "Success"

I'm hearing a different tone than what I've heard in the past. All over, the chattering classes on the right are approaching the soon-to-come administration without the deranged hatred we've see from the left for the past eight years.

"I hope he succeeds" is the over riding sentiment.

Thing is, nobody is saying what 'success' is.
Example:While FDR is seen widely, and wildly, as a success, by all stupid people the nation over (that would be most of them), the facts show that the long term results of his policies ranged from failure to abject failure. But, he was so successful at hoodwinking the people, we now have a monument in Washinton celebrating it.

As someone who holds political views far different than Barack Obama, how can I wish him 'success' as he goes about his way of implementing policies that I believe will be harmful and further erode the nation's welfare?
Does anybody think government run health care, given it's unblemished track record of sucking every where it's tried, will somehow be an improvement because Obama does it?

Can anybody who believes in the sanctity of human life, as I do, think Obama will somehow be an improvement when it comes to protecting the innocent? Especially after he voted to deny the 14th Amendment protections of citizenship and due process to a whole class of the citizenry? (In other words, the first black president supports the re-creation of a 'nigger' class. Didn't our nation already fight a long struggle against such a notion).

Will more intrusive government, expansion of wealth transfers and increasing encroachment on economic liberties suddenly be successful after history has repeatedly shown otherwise?

I don't wish the new president success any more than I wished the last guy success.
Instead, I wish,hope and pray for the success of the nation to somehow rise above it's self-inflicted troubles and continue to be the one place that continues to offer the most promise for our descendants, just as it did for our ancestors.

8 comments:

W.B. Picklesworth said...

I'm not wishing Obama success at applying his agenda; I'm desiring for the country to do well in spite of his presence. That might not sound all that gracious, but it is. There were an awful lot of folks wishing for the economy to fail and the war to be lost so that their party would have electoral success. That is wrong.

Jade said...

In my mind, a successful president is one who listens to the will of the people, and helps to improve the lives and welfare of his country's citizens. In that regard, I do wish him success.

Mr. D said...

WBP and I are on the same page on this one.

Brian said...

"...more intrusive government, expansion of wealth transfers and increasing encroachment on economic liberties."

Relative to when? The last 8 years?

Are you fucking joking?

more intrusive government

Have you had to interact with DHS, beyond taking your shoes off at the airport? Hell, have you tried to buy sudafed lately?

expansion of wealth transfers

That whole $700 billion thing would have been a lot more efficient if you and I just started writing checks to random rich people.

and increasing encroachment on economic liberties.

I don't know how you define "economic liberty", but I assume the most straightforward definition would fall somewhere around "keeping as much of the money I earn as possible and being free to do what I damn well please with it." Bush's tax cuts have been of marginal benefit to anyone in my (and most people's) income bracket, and don't mean much anyway considering the debt that's been run up pursuing an insanely expensive and pointless foreign policy. (Neither will Mr. Obama's middle class tax cut mean much, if it happens, for the same reasons.)

Look, I'm not saying everything's going to be fine and dandy with Obama in office (and in fact, I'm quite certain it won't be) but it seems to me that the extent to which you are worried about Obama's not-yet-extant policies overlaps significantly with the extent to which it will be more of the same.

Gino said...

brian: thats what i'm saying. i never gave the last 8yrs a pass. or the last 18. or 28. or 38, for that matter.

but he has promised to make already intrusive govt (bad) even more so(worse).

you agree: we got bad shit on our hands now.
how will this O guy make it less so?

i cant wish him well unless i'm willing to accept everything i beleive to be true to now be false.

i never said i was worried about him either. the same shit would be happening no matter who was elected.

Brian said...

I guess I have a hard time seeing anything Mr. Obama has promised as being more intrusive.

I do think that to the extent he may roll back foreign policy to a less psychotic footing, that (could) address some root causes of (the most recent and most recently egregious) government overreach. (War is the health of the state, etc...)

I also think this is a best-case scenario, and therefore unlikely.

Gino said...

75% of our foriegn policy issues center around the middle east, its oil, and our being the benafactor of israel.

obama will not dump the jews. they hold too much influence in our politics, and work in the highest levels of govt.
and he wont expand domestic drilling,either. he's already said so.

foriegn policy will remain over reaching, and maybe more so becuase he wants to send our military into new theaters, like darfur.

Anonymous said...

Sing it, brother ...