Obama Steps In Where No President Should, The Republican Future, And More
Been out of town on a long weekend break, so the pile is deep. Hence we will move fast, but please follow the links and read it all.
Obama Reads God’s Mind
Last Wednesday, the president quoted the Ten Commandments concerning opponents to the propose health care legislation. He more or less implied that passing it was God’s will. This caused quite a bit of comment both philosophically and politically. It was to my mind simply tacky, poorly done, and an act of incredible desperation. Had it been little less ham-fisted it might deserve a thorough fisking, but as it is it pretty well speaks for itself. I hope we will be spared such silliness in the future. Things like this show just how silly this was.
Whither Republicans?
Peter Wehner and Michael Gerson team up on a piece concerning reviving the Republican party. No mention of social conservatives, or faith – a sign that they are to be cast aside? Or are they “the Key?“ Is Huckabee to lead us? (God forbid!) More likely he is digging himself an increasingly deep hole.
And then, well…. “The Guardian” may be the most left-leaning paper in the English language, but even they have a point every now and then.
Or, is it Pawlenty? Politico went on a Pawlenty binge recently.
Of course, our friend Mitt Romney is doing quite well by some measures (How long before someone tries to tie voodoo and Mormonism in a knot? – Likely it has already occurred, fortunately somewhere so deep in the blogosphere that it will never reach the radar.), a little less well by others.
Speaking of Romney
He is putting himself front and center of the health care debate. And the left is not wasting any time going on the attack. A sign of who is really leading the 2012 sweepstakes?
Working Together
Interesting examples of working those cross religious lines here and here.
Posted in Reading List | 4 Comments » | 
Print this post
| 
Email This Post
coltakashi on 25 Aug 2009 at 6:33 pm #
Mr. Obama has now officially promulgated the Obama Doctrine: It is the duty of the Federal government to enact laws that coerce all Americans into performing their moral and religious duties. Clearly, he sympathizes with the viewpoint of the religious rulers of Iran, who are not content to give their citizens the option of disobedience to any of God’s commandments. It is not enough to have laws punishing active evil; government must actively coerce people into being positively virtuous, even if it is against their will.
The Left has always accused any sincerely religious conservative of wanting to establish a Taliban-style theocracy (including Mitt Romney). It is apparent from Mr. Obama’s exhortations to religious leaders that it is not theocracy per se that liberals find objectionable, but the identity of the high priests who interpret God’s will. They don’t even mind having pastors and rabbis participating in the process, so long as they understand that God’s voice comes from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, not Jerusalem, the Vatican or Salt Lake City.
Mr. Obama’s biblical interpretation is very liberal, in the sense of having little relationship to the text. A “brother’s keeper” is what Cain said he was NOT when God asked him to account for the absence of his murdered brother Abel. God did not tell Cain that he WAS Abel’s “keeper”. Cain was making a hyperbolic statement, a red herring. None of the Ten Commandments or other injunctions of the Pentateuch tell us that we must care for our fellow citizens’ every need. Rather, the message is that we must take care of ourselves first, then our families, and then are enjoined to love our neighbors.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Christ emphasized that our prejudices are not justification to exclude others from the circle of God’s commandment to love our neighbors. On the other hand, if the Samaritan had acted like Obama, he would have left the robbery victim by the roadside and headed up the trail to accost the Levite and the priest and force them, at swordpoint if necessary, to go back and help the victim.
Mr. Obama’s accusation that those who oppose his amorphous and constantly changing health care legislation are “bearing false witness” is a perfect example of hypocrisy, since his accusation is precisely the commission of the sin of making a false accusation against one’s neighbor. As he and his partisans have demonstrated since coming to power, their first response to criticism is to call for the punishment and censorship of their adversaries. The openness of debate in the public square is not their model of discourse. For them, public policy debates are blasphemy in the sacred temple of progressive politics. While Abraham Lincoln may have entertained occasional doubts about the righteousness of his cause (as he discussed in his Second Ingaural Address, graven into the wall of the Lincoln Memorial), Mr. Obama will tolerate none of that sin of faithlessness.
Finally, the fact that Mr. Obama could on one day decry the singular seriousness of the nation’s economic crisis as justification for extreme intervention in the economy, and on the next day claim that Americans are so overflowing with wealth that we must contribute more of it than we presently do to the care of the poor, displays a kind of political schizophrenia that is truly troubling. He is displaying symptoms of multiple personality disorder, in a profound disconnection from reality.
VB on 26 Aug 2009 at 6:09 am #
Col,
Well said.
K.G. on 26 Aug 2009 at 9:23 pm #
Whether Obama is schizophrenic or has ADD or is simply an overt deceiver, Col hit the nail on the head. BO’s MO is to contradict himself in almost every speech–sometimes w/in the same sentence.
I honestly believe the president does have a personality disorder. Some have said malignant narcissism, the Col says multiple personality disorder, I say megalomania.
Perhaps we will come to realize that he is like Hitler. The German people swooned in the streets at the prospect of a savior who could miraculously save them with his grandiose, delusional promises. In the end they discovered he was simply mad.
But there’s way more going on with the Obama administration than just Obama. Hillary chirped she was a “proud Progressive in the early 20th century tradition.” Perhaps that is all this is:
Proud progressive policies put into action through any means necessary–even cynically playing the God-card.
And that, of course, is the ploy of liberation “theology:” A mix of Marxism mingled with Scripture.
coltakashi on 27 Aug 2009 at 7:43 pm #
I suggest one minor amendment to my comment: I would call President Obama’s desire to add significant financial burdens to Americans in the middle of the worst national economic crisis since the Depression a kind of “fiscal schizophrenia”. This is my evaluation of both his health care and global warming proposals. This version is easier to say and I like the alliterative quality of the “sc” in both words. Please feel free to use this phrase liberally in any communication, blog or comment on the news.