I remember
crying the night Bill Clinton was elected in 1992. I just broke down
and wept. I knew this country was in trouble. But nothing prepared me
for the spectacle I witnessed in 2008. It was utter insanity. Barack
Obama promised everyone everything, and all I could think was, “Where
does he think he will get all of this money?” “Free” health
care, “free” cell phones, “free” college funds; he promised
one woman in a town hall meeting a new kitchen! He clucked his tongue
at people's sad stories, promising “Change”. While I do not have
a degree in economics from MIT like my unofficial mentor, the numbers
just were not making sense to me. We were going to get rid of the
deficit and the national debt, cut taxes, and have all of these
“freebies”? I thought I would be sick. Worse, addle-brained
voters lapped it up. Every last drop. And of course part of what
drove Obama into the White House was the old refrain, “We shall
overcome”. Who cares about qualifications, truthfulness of campaign
promises, and the consequences to the United States when you can have
the first black president?
Wow, the KGB
was smart! Yuri Bezmenov predicted Obama's ascention to the throne
more than twenty years before it happened:
While I was not
wild about John McCain, I did like Sarah Palin a lot, and I would
have voted for virtually anyone other than Barack Obama. The polls
were neck-in-neck at the end of the summer and I was very nervous,
but I thought the GOP would pull it out in the end.
Then came the
"crisis".
Oh, Yuri, you
were so right.
I have never
followed the market, although I held a little stock through my
employer at one time, so I did not hear the rumblings on Wall Street
until the news broke the week of September 8th. Everyone
went into a panic. The media fanned the flames, the speeches were
passionate, and by the time Congress took its first vote on Friday,
September 12th, I was convinced they needed to pass a
bailout bill. After all, if Wall Street collapses, the entire economy
goes with it, and the terrorists win. Right?
Congress
declined to pass the bill that Friday, and the weekend gave me a
chance to calm down and think. By Sunday, I realized I had been swept
up in the drama and had not been thinking clearly. First, Freddie Mac
and Fannie Mae were going to go bankrupt? How? I received part of my college tuition through Fannie Mae, so I knew they are federally
insured. The Treasury would have to go broke, and all they would do
is print more money. Now, I am not advocating such measures because
they create a different set of problems, but I realized something was
wrong with the narrative. In addition, I have been a lifelong
Republican. Since when did I believe the government should bail out
private businesses? If Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, et. al., made
bad financial decisions (and boy, did they!), then let the chips fall
where they may. So, by Monday I was ready to have Congress defeat the
bill again, but this time they were the ones in a panic and they
passed TARP. I discovered later what a fiasco that was; banks who
took that money became beholden to the government until such time as
the money was paid back with interest, as is the case any time an
entity (or an individual) receives such funds.
George Bush had
fallen prey to a set-up. This false “crisis” drove him to do
things that I do not believe he would have advocated under ordinary
circumstances. But, he was looking at the upcoming general election
and decided it would be suicide for the Republican Party if Wall
Street were left to hang. The exact opposite was the case, and Barack
Obama effectively stole his way into the White House.
Believe it or not, the worst was yet to come. On January 20, 2009, Barack Hussein Obama used the occasion of his inaugural address to humiliate George W. Bush and America as a whole. It was the most appalling display I have seen in my life. The former president was sitting not ten feet away from the newly-appointed One, and had to sit there with dignity and class while sitting through a completely humorless and de classe roast. It was despicable, but it was only a foreshadow of things to come.
Part Three will cover Obama's first year in office.
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