Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: Barack Obama vs. Independents and Moderate Democrats

One of my two closest friends studied political science in college. She’s always thought of herself as a liberal. A few days ago she called me and moaned, “Oh, Kirsten… I didn’t ever want to be a conservative…”  We chuckled briefly about it. But you know what?  Slowly but surely, that’s what’s happening to her, and she knows it.  “I still can’t bear the far right,” she opined, “but I feel so disillusioned with the Democrats. They are taking us in the wrong direction. In the last week or two, I’m looking around at what’s happening, and I actually feel scared.”

She’d said a mouthful. And polls indicate that she is far from alone.

Pollsters from Rasmussen to Quinnipiac have increasingly reported the same thing these past weeks. The relationship between the Obama administration and Independents—who, research tells us, generally tend to vote left—is beginning to look increasingly like an enactment of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s doo-wop breakup song One More Minute.

…So Honey, let me help you with that suitcase.
You ain’t gonna break my heart in two.
‘Cause I’d rather get a hundred thousand paper cuts on my face
Than spend one more minute with you.

…I’d rather slam my fingers in a door
Again and again and again and again and again.

Oh can’t you see what I’m tryin’ to say, Darlin’?>

I’d rather have my blood sucked out by leeches,
Shove an ice pick under a toenail or two.
I’d rather clean every bathroom in Grand Central Station with my tongue
Than spend one more minute with you.

But there’s evidence that it’s not just Independents.

Democrats, too, have been jumping ship in growing numbers. What once seemed to moderate Dems, in particular, like sour-grapes graffiti spray-painted by a pouting right is turning out to be genuine handwriting on the wall—handwriting inscribed by the president and his faithful themselves. Barack Obama has, after all, been keen to tell certain audiences friendly to him the truth about his agenda all along. His words—and those of his associates—have been out there and accessible for anyone who really wanted to know. The fawning media just didn’t report on any of it—except to dismiss as a kook or an alarmist anyone who brought up anything inconvenient. And those drawn to Obama mostly didn’t do any fact-checking.

Interestingly, though, even without much media coverage, people are experiencing the truth for themselves. Word is getting around. The word is not good. And it’s getting harder for those currently in power to conceal their anti-constitutional, anti-American agenda…not to mention the obscene money trails leading both to and from it.

What strikes me most about this trend is that Democrats have long specialized in “feel good” voting. You know what I mean—all that Robin Hood stuff that at first blush looks like moral rectitude and compassion. But as these folks realize that—to tweak Newsweek’s announcement slightly—“we’re all rich now,” feel-good voting is starting to feel less and less good to more and more self-identified liberals. They are moving away from instant warm fuzzies to an actual analysis of where such policy choices take THEM. “It’s fine as long as someone ELSE is paying, but I don’t have that kind of money.” (Nor will anyone soon.) Many are even going the extra mile and finding that these “generous” policies haven’t really done anyone else any good either. I give those people a lot of credit. I truly do. It takes a lot of courage to admit that you’re up to your waste in sewage when you’d previously believed yourself to hold the moral high ground. It takes even more courage to dive under the water and start trying to clear the drain in the floor to flush the muck away.

So who is it exactly that has hijacked the Democratic Party?  Who has so many left-leaning Independents and moderate Democrats worried enough to stand alongside their conservative neighbors?

Well, funny thing… It seems that anarchists and communists aren’t just for universities anymore. Nor are they just an historical footnote in books about the Cold War and Vietnam. Largely under the banner of Progressive politics, they’ve survived and thrived. And moreover, they’re busily executing a takeover. Not just a takeover of something, but a takeover of everything: banks, manufacturing, private business, media, personal income, energy, food, education, healthcare, and plenty more besides. Talk about control freaks.

In order to gain all of this control, they’ve been taking a Sharpe to some parts of the Constitution and shredding the rest.

This frighteningly thorough and organized power grab, the spending and taxing that accompanies it, and the undermining of the freedoms they have up until now enjoyed is indeed what has rightly shaken to the core average taxpayers—and that part is important, TAX PAYERS—who have generally stood on the left side of the aisle.

Ah, that pretty word, “Progressive”… Label that so many Democrats and Independents have proudly adopted (and from which so many Republicans have disingenuously shied). It sounds so nice, so benign, so friendly, motivating and goal-oriented. Hmmm… Goal-oriented seems an understatement. As for the rest, it’s an intralanguage faux ami. Sure it’s friendly and benign—if by friendly and benign you mean controlling and invasive. And yup, it’s motivating, if by motivating you mean “DEAR GOD!  I’VE GOT TO DO SOMETHING TO HELP STOP THIS INSANITY NOW!”

The plague of progressivism now pervasively infects our culture and politics, even to the highest levels and inner-most circles of our federal government. And thanks to a recent explosion in the number of special presidential appointments, communists, anarchists, and other fine radical revolutionary types no longer have to confront either an election or a confirmation process to gain power. They can evade the sensibilities of the American electorate. They don't even have to pass the smell test of the FBI since the White House has now most graciously relieved that agency of the vetting burden. President Obama is just such an enormously thoughtful human being…

By the hundreds and thousands, Independents and Democrats have watched with pained expressions and increasing anger as their victorious candidate has stepped away from his centrist campaign message, breaking promise after promise, from transparency to spending to foreign policy. They clearly don’t like being had. And they are asking themselves how it could have happened.

Seduction is such a powerful thing, is it not…?

Remember the Mystery Date Game? (I have now clearly put myself in an age bracket…) It had that alluring white plastic door in the center of the board with a big question mark on it. Underneath lay a stack of cards with pictures of different boys. As you took your turn and reached to open the door, you always heard the marketing tagline in your head: “Will he be a dream…or a dud?”

Barack Obama looked and sounded like a dream to a good portion of the voting public. He advanced an image of himself as the popular, clean-cut, all-around go-getter from down the street—the one with vision who was definitely going places. Heck! He was good enough at first impressions to fool your strict parents into letting him take you on a normally forbidden car date. “What a fine, upstanding young man he is, that Barack Obama. So responsible and trustworthy. Wouldn’t it be nice to have him as a member of our family!”

Appearances can be deceiving…

Democrats, Independents, and even a fair quantity of moderate Republicans swooned as their attractive dream date whispered all the sweet nothings (and I mean nothings) they'd been longing to hear…

“You’ll always know exactly what I’m doing, Sweetie, and I’ll always give you your say.”

“I’ll make sure we’re out of Iraq tomorrow, Darling.”

“I’ll put a stop to all of that evil pork and out-of-control spending, Honey.”

“I’ll take care of you, no matter what, Baby. Whatever you need, I’ll provide. I’m your man.”

And a host of voters, who wanted to believe, collectively sighed, “You’re who we’ve waited for our whole lives…”

Buttons were undone. Ballots were cast. A marriage was made.

And then came the rude awakening. The centrist veneer immediately started to peel away. The seemingly charming bridegroom started throwing his weight around. The bickering began. And both sides started making lists for the lawyers.

Barack Obama’s list includes everyone and everything. He’s a high-stakes roller, and he plays for keeps. Moreover, he seems to have a lot of menacing friends in Congress, ACORN, the SEIU, and elsewhere willing to load the dice for him.

But—and my apologies to Shakespeare—hell hath no fury like a voter scorned. The Dems and Independents who’ve seen the light are not too keen on giving either Obama or his various cronies one more thing—not their livelihood, not their children’s futures, not their Constitution, and definitely not their freedom. They’re busy gathering others. Their numbers are growing, and they’re on fire.

Guess who I’m putting my money on…

Posted: Saturday - August 29, 2009 at 11:41 PM