text:
America Won't Survive Another Four Years of Obama
Be afraid. Be very afraid. The America of 2012 is not the America of 2008. If Barack Obama wins this election, the America of 2016 will resemble the beaten and bankrupt countries of Western Europe more than it will the America we grew up in. This isn't Chicken Little speaking. Take a hard look at the trends, and then drop everything else you had in mind for the next four weeks, and make sure everyone you know votes for Romney-Ryan. We have one last chance to save the republic.
1) Dependency on government handouts: As Dick Morris points out in his latest book Here Come the Black Helicopters!, 20% of Americans received some kind of means-tested government check in 2008, when George W. Bush left office. Now 32% of Americans get some kind of means-tested support — food stamps, disability, welfare, and so forth. That's a third of the country. Transfer payments are now fully one-fifth of personal income, as I observed in an essay last year. Obama's arbitrary and perhaps illegal changes in welfare work requirements create a cycle of dependency, as the Romney campaign has warned. They also create a built-in majority for the welfare state. Morris observes that the shift to dependency gives the Democrats a majority on paper. The only question now is turnout. Give this another four years, and the number of Americans who have a stake in economic growth will be a minority of the population.
2) Religious commitment: The Pew Institute's bombshell survey released this week showed that the number of Americans not affiliated with any religion rose from 15% in 2007 to almost 20% in 2011, and that the unaffiliated are much likelier to vote Democratic (63% of unaffiliated lean Democratic vs. 48% of all registered voters).
This prompted rejoicing in the liberal camp. Writing in the London Guardian, Sarah Posner argued that
…the data shows [conservative Christians] are clearly losing the public. Another survey last week from the Public Religion Research Institute showed that while Mitt Romney has the support of 80% of younger white evangelical millennials (aged 18 to 25), this is a small and diminishing constituency: white evangelicals comprise only 12.3% of that age group. That's less than half their proportion of the 50 to 64 population. The Pew survey showed that while 32% of Americans aged 50 to 64 are white evangelicals, only 13% of those aged 18 to 29 are.
3) European-style birth rates: "The overall fertility rate for women in the U.S. — defined as the number of newborns per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 — was 63.2 last year, down from 64.1 in 2010 and the lowest rate since the government started collecting these statistics in 1920," the Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 3. Most ominous was the crash in Hispanic fertility: "Hispanic women between 20 and 24 saw their fertility rate drop to 115 last year from 165 in 2007." Religious commitment and child-bearing are closely linked, as a number of analysts have pointed out (I review the relationship in my book How Civilizations Die). So the fertility decline is part of the same story as the decline in religious affiliation. It suggests that while Protestant numbers show the steepest decline in affiliation, Hispanic Catholics are behaving less and less like Catholics used to.
131 Comments, 52 Threads
1. james wilson
I don't blame Obama at all. He is a giant reagent wash, turning us into our true colors so we might see ourselves. Things have been more urgent than we thought for some time. As a man said, optimism is cowardice.
October 11, 2012 - 10:01 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
"Optimismus ist Feigheit"
It was Oswald Spengler in the last years of the Weimar Republic.October 11, 2012 - 12:09 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
America is slowly dissolving itself into what Carroll Quigley termed The Pakistani-Peruvian axis.
October 12, 2012 - 8:55 am Link to this Comment | Reply
2. Peter Boston
Perhaps the Reformation and the Enlightenment didn't work out so well after all.
October 11, 2012 - 10:21 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Actually the "enlightenment" has worked out quite well in the eyes of many who conceived of it – a rational deification of man and a disregard for God, resulting in no clear idea of how one can benefit from contact with the divine, and true spiritual experiences that will guide one's life. I think of many people I know, especially family members who say they "believe in a higher power" and that's it. But this fuzzy notion of God does little or nothing to foster accountability and the sense of dignity when one believes he/she is the offspring of God. Certainly secularists are certainly rejoicing at their demographic momentum, and will continue to oppose much that is pure and virtuous. Clearly America is in need of a revival, and a return to her Biblical roots, informing the public of how a Godly nation that worships in truth and sincerity will be strengthened and blessed. I enjoy the instructional videos of David Barton at http://www.wallbuilders.com/, as I was never exposed to the key historical truths of America's spirituality as she matured into greatness.
October 12, 2012 - 6:37 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
All America would have to do is follow II Chronicles 7:14, but it will not. This is not my opinion, it is Biblical. Everyone should read John Daniels book at amazon.com titled, THE COMING: A TRUE STORY OF HORROR to see what we are facing.
October 12, 2012 - 9:10 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
The Protestant Reformation played JOhn the Baptist to the Enlightenment. First, you tell Joe Blow that he's just as able to understand the Scriptures as William of Occam, Thomas Aquinas, or St. Augustine. Not much of a jump from there to telling Joe that he can understand human nature better than everyone who has lived in the last 6,000 years — no problems, mate! Once you decide that no one is any smarter, holier, better-read, or has more authority than anyone else, civilizationand society (all animal societies are dominance hierarchies) begins to disappear. A major hoax was to categorize "the argument from authority" as a logical fallacy. Of course in some jerk-*ff faculty lounge bull-session, this is okay, but in real life, if no one can be considered to know more than any other person, we can probably still get a good argument going about whether the earth is flat or round. American society can come back any time. Whenever enough Americans get packin' and start killing or exiling every non-American within our borders, we're half-way there. After the non-members are gone, we can begin weeding out the defectives — atheists, criminals, bums, perverts, whoever. Once pa comes home from a good day's genocidin', ma will be pregnant real soon and real often. That's how healthy societies work today, have always worked, and will always work. Confidence is the missing ingredient in low-birth-rate populations. You mus tbeleive in your religion (one per society), your compatriots (all society members related genetically), your language, culture, traditions, etc. Nothing builds real confidence like crushing your enemies.
October 12, 2012 - 7:14 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
You are correct, RC. Revival is what saved our nation in the past and it will be the only answer going forward. This is not the first time that the tide of evil in men's hearts has threatened our republic– http://www.peacekey.com/1-1-a/OSAS/Revival_Prayer_1.HTM
October 12, 2012 - 9:48 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
You're right, but most likely revival will come out of great pain
October 12, 2012 - 11:22 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
hamilcar barca
Religious faith worked out SO well for Europe in the Thirty Years' War.
October 13, 2012 - 8:24 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
3. ben h
You're an optimist. I'm expecting we'll be something like Eastern Europe before too long!
October 11, 2012 - 10:27 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
It seems patently clear – another 4 years under the reign of Obama, and the U.S. will hardly resemble the basket cases of Europe, but will mirror the basket cases of banana republics. The last 4 yrs were just the stepping stone to the real goal.
In otherr words, in order to march America into third world status, economic devastation had to be waged. Afterwards, Venezuela, Cuba, and their like-minded clones, will be America's future. And THAT is the Radical-in-Chief's ultimate plan.
Clear as bell.
October 12, 2012 - 1:23 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
Varian Wrynn
I took the President's 2013 Proposed Budget (since the Senate won't actually do their job and pass one, this is the best we got), and factored in other government statistics and projections (from the USDA, SSA, BLS, and UN), with a sprinkling if liberal media to project the average American's lifestyle just 8 years from now – in 2020. It is horrible. Taxes will increase 122%. Hang on boys and girls – this *is* the recovery and it's all down hill from here.
See http://www.scribd.com/doc/107058480/Life-in-2020
October 13, 2012 - 9:36 am Link to this Comment | Reply
4. MarcH
"optimism is cowardice" – true, but gutsy realism can sometimes mid-wife a miracle.
October 11, 2012 - 10:55 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
5. An Préachán
You-all know that before Charlie Darwin and the Enlightenment, most everyone, everywhere (planet-wide) believed in some version of the "Fallen from Grace/Golden Age" paradigm on human history. Darwin and Co. tried to give us a new myth, as it were, one of Progress, meaning we were developing/evolving higher, better, faster, stronger….
If Darwin and friends could see England today, they'd all commit suicide as fast as they could. England today is the utter antithesis of all their ideas.
So maybe the older idea that we start out high and fall low is true, after all? I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised.
As for this election, I've just lost a good friend–died in his sleep. As firm an American and a conservative (Classical Liberal) as America ever produced. He was very active this election. Now he won't get to vote. Somehow, aside from everything else (shock at his unexpected death, etc) I have an uneasy feeling; somehow my feverish mind wants to read it as a portent.
I didn't know I was superstitious, but then, I didn't believe America would elect that misery we have in the White House, either.
An Préachán
October 11, 2012 - 11:24 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
England and Europe in general don't undermine the idea of evolution at all. On the contrary it is evolution in action. Their low birthrates, coupled with their postmodern cultural relativism, cause them to import large numbers of people from the Islamic world who unlike them have very high birth rates and a strong belief in the inherent supremacy of their culture and religion. Give it a few generations and the stronger culture will have overtaken the weaker one. That their weakness and decline is self-inflicted is no matter. Evolution doesn't care about why, only reproductive success. Ideaologies follow the same route. If nobody stands up to Islam, it will dominate and expand so long as it has that desire (which it always has). If those supporting freedom and individuality decline to stand up to the socialists and other authoritarians they too will be driven to extinction. I may point out that the cockroaches and mosquitoes are very successful species in evolutionary terms.
October 12, 2012 - 4:13 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
Oh. May you be comforted for the loss of your friend (and even more so, his family). Forgive me if this is presumptuous, but I had the same sneaking feeling about the so-untimely loss of Andrew Breitbart: Had G-d given him a gift of a quick, painless death and an escape from catastrophe to come? IOW, something like the Rapture that non-Christians like me don't believe in? Your more personal version of the story doesn't ease the superstitious feeling, but thank you for sharing it.
October 12, 2012 - 5:13 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
For the record, Darwin never intended his theory of evolution by natural selection to be applied to social "progress" or any other sort of change other than biological diversification. Also, while Darwin is widely believed to have "invented" evolution, the recognition that living things change over time pre-dates him. Darwin merely suggested a mechanism, natural selection, for how it happens.
October 12, 2012 - 7:04 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
Not to worry even if the crash comes. We are america! The weasels like Ayers and Wright, and the rest of the socialist revolutionaries think when their dream of "crash the system" comes (they have no plan for "after") they will somehow be in charge.
We have all the guns not them, and our kids are the soldiers of the armed forces. Our kids will not fire on fellow citizens. They will tell the general officer corps that it is much simpler to go after the government and replace it. We are not europe; they have always been subjects with rulers-that won't sell here-not to worry. Millions of individuals with guns are impossible to defeat.October 12, 2012 - 7:54 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
George B
The radical left hasn't thought through the whole crashing the system thing. Their most effective power is the ability to take money from paychecks before the worker gets paid. However, if they kill the dollar, they also kill easy income tax collection. In a world of bartering, silver, gold, and guns the left would have to actually rob Peter to pay Paul. Good luck with that.
October 12, 2012 - 3:41 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
If he lived in Chicago he could still vote! (not trying to be crass, I trust the fine man would have appreciated that joke!)
October 12, 2012 - 11:23 am Link to this Comment | Reply
6. Abelard Lindsey
1), 5), and 6) are critical, especially 1) and 5). I would add 7), which is the dramatic explosion of government regulation of all aspects of economics and business. This is at least as critical as 1) and 5). 4) is of moderate concern. I not concerned at all about 2) and 3). These are no big deal at all. Religion is of value as long as it promotes the values of productive accomplishment, pioneering, free-inquiry, entrepreneurship, and promotion of a open, positive future. I consider religion, as its own thing, to be a null value.
I also consider the dramatic decline in Hispanic fertility to be a positive rather than a negative trend. Hispanics tend to lag in both educational and economic attainment, compared to European Caucasians and East Asians. This is true even for 3rd and 4th generation immigrants.
Fertility as an issue, restore us to a growth-oriented economy where real wealth is produced (not the fake bubble economies we've had since 1995) and more people will be motivated to have kids. No one right in the head wants to have kids on a limited budget. This kind of life sucks real hard. Its boring, its lousy, and you're always worried about money. Being a child-less slacker is a reasonable, rational choice in a no-growth economy.
October 11, 2012 - 12:45 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Religion is a major component of culture. It can infact nearly negate the need for major government intervention. Basically a Religion that promotes charity towards other and respect for the rights of others will mean that the Gov't doens't need laws for the same. "A man will either govern himself (self-control) or be governed by others (external laws)". Whilel not perfect as the people who practice it aren't, Christianity places high value on that charity, respect for the rights of others and self control.
As for birth rates, they are amoung other things a reflection of the culture (is it about me or others) and a reflection of the hope for the future. There is no mystery why in Russia from 1920 to 1990 (and today) the birthrates fell. There was little hope for the future. So the falling hispanic birthrates along with the others are a sign of this.
October 12, 2012 - 7:17 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Well said, AC! Many thanks for your wise words.
October 12, 2012 - 8:53 am Link to this Comment | Reply
I altogether disagree with you on #2: for the fact alone that 63% of the non-religious vote Democrat, this factor is crucially important—and will continue to be as the number of the non-religious grows. Yes, many non-religious people are good citizens. However, as the constraints/rewards of religion—recognizing that one is not the centre of the universe, serving others altruistically, living a life more in line with the other Ten Commandments—are jettisoned, the lack of civility increases—and continues to do so at a dizzying and frightening speed.
I grew up in the fifties: schools had no written Behaviour Codes. But we all knew what was expected and, in general, our schools—and other public spaces—were civilized. In those days, most people attended church or synagogue and were familiar with and respected the tenets of the Judeo-Christian virtues. I've now spent over four decades in public schools: I've never seen so many Behaviour Codes in my life. In flowery language, they're on every wall in every classroom and every hall and are discussed ad nauseum. And the more this happens, the more the kids and their non-grown-up, secular parents bully: each other and the teachers. Administration—overwhelmingly religiously ignorant and in the secular camp—allow this. So, in an environment where authority has been decimated (Canada's 1982 Trudeaupian Charter of Rights [sic] has everything to do with this), school boards are trying to reclaim the civility of a bygone, religious era. Good luck to them: it's like expecting the tree to grow and thrive after cutting off its root, which is, literally, what our schools—and all our Western societies—have done. NO Judeo-Christianity allowed in the public square, including our schools—but Muslim prayers with imams, girls at the back, and WAY at the back if they're menstruating—are proliferating.
Abelard, it seems you've fallen hook, line, and sinker for the secular Kool Aid. You appear to be one of the ill-informed, non-religious dupes our civilization—going, going, gone—is turning out in large numbers. We're also turning out non-citizens who are woefully lacking in critical thinking skills—like you seem to be with this non sequitur: "Religion is of value as long as it promotes the values of productive accomplishment, pioneering, free-inquiry, entrepreneurship, and promotion of a[n] open, positive future. I consider religion, as its own thing, to be a null value." Really? How, if "as its own thing", religion is a "null value", can it possibly, as you assert, "promote . . . the values of productive accomplishment, pioneering, free-inquiry, entrepreneurship, and promotion of a[n] open, positive future"? (Our secular schools sure aren't promoting these positive virtues: built on a moral vacuum, they can't.) Please explain your convoluted thinking here. You might use the rubric for grade three provincial tests: "Explain, using specific language and details." As Frasier would say, "I'm listening." Good luck!
And Kyrie eleison.
October 12, 2012 - 8:52 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Abelard Lindsey
I stand by everything I said previously. I emphatically do not believe that religion is necessary for a successful society based on individual liberty and productive accomplishment. Infact, the historical record shows that religion has often been hostile to both of these values. I believe such a society is far better off without religion. I will not morn the passing of religion in the future.
I am a classical liberal (in the Lockean/Randian sense) and will never, ever believe in anything else. The problem I have with any organized religion is that none of them respect my privacy and autonomy.
BTW, there will come a time in the far future when people will remember Neil Armstrong, but will not remember Jesus or Mohammed.
October 13, 2012 - 11:56 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Highly, highly unlikely. Wish away.
Here's an interesting point. The idea that the natural world was understandable was brought about by Christian mystics like Newton and Kepler(*). Scientists raised in the materialist tradition then discovered that the world was, in fact, not understandable by human logic (quantum machanics et. al.) to the point where modern physicists sound like mystics and magicians.
(*) Newton actually quoted Kabbalistic works in the original Judeo-Aramaic. And Kepler was perhaps more interested in the mystical properties of three-dimensional objects than in astronomy.
October 15, 2012 - 6:51 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Of course, I personally don't accept Jesus nor Mohammed, and neither does Spengler. You probably needed a bigger list.
October 15, 2012 - 6:53 am Link to this Comment -
Abelard Lindsey
Look, I don't give a rat's arse!! I despise religion as much as I do socialism/liberal-left! I am 100% the Randian/Rothbardian libertarian (classical liberalism) kind of guy. I will never be anything else. I view religion as simply another form of collectivism and I have no more regard for it as I do communism/socialism.
For me, republicans and "conservatism" is about 1) lower taxes, 2) less regulation, and 3) limited government. That's it! That's all I will ever care about in a million friggin years!!
The ultimate battle is between individualism and collectivism, between liberty and tyranny. The problem I have with religion is that it closely resembles the latter rather than the former. Now, it may be possible that Christianity contributed to the formation of classical liberalism. I am willing to grant that. However, the appropriate analogy is like a rocket. In this case, Christianity is the first stage. We're already in lunar injection (which was the third stage) and have no need for first stage at this point. Consider libertarianism/transhumanism the logical successor to Christianity, if you like.
As long as I am free of the corrupt force of government, I know I (along with people like me) can create the future that we want. We have no need for religion in order to create what we want.
October 16, 2012 - 4:19 pm Link to this Comment
I believe lookout is on-themark here. I spent years teaching; kids who grew up in the Judoe-Christian culture of our churches and synagogues, like those in the Southern Bible-belt, have a better grasp of citizenship and even of the posibility of a worldview beyond narrow self-interest. We need a return to this more spiritual cultural outlook before it is too late!
October 15, 2012 - 2:55 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Abelard Lindsey
I have yet to encounter a convincing argument why a society based on individual liberty, limited government, productive accomplishment, and the efficacy of the creative intellect requires any religion at all, let alone Christianity.
October 20, 2012 - 4:53 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
Abelard Lindsey
Is society really declining?
The liberal-left has certainly damaged us economically. However, the key metrics of social dysfunction (1) criminality, 2) drug abuse, 3) teen pregnancy) have all significantly improved in the last 20 years. Religious belief has declined over the same time period. This suggests that religion is not necessary for a functional society. Also, despite their socialism (which I can't stand), Europe is functional in many respects, despite being essentially atheistic. The Japanese have no religion (defined in terms of Abrahamic religion) and, yet, remain a civil functional society. It is true these societies have economic problems. However, these problems are due to socialism and excessive regulation/taxation by government, not a lack of religion.
The argument that religion is necessary for a functional society is tenuous, to say the least.
October 20, 2012 - 5:07 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
If the causation follows classical patterns, it's because they actually *are* joining the mainstream American (e.g. "Melting Pot") – the better the lifestyle, the lower the birth rate, as it seems to historically go.
October 12, 2012 - 1:38 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
7. Mr. X
Black Helicopters? What the elites are starting to think a little tinfoil is ok? What next? Dick Morris says they're chemtrailing us too?
But back to Obama. Glenn Beck's website is reporting that little Barry told his classmates he was the son of an Indonesian prince. While children will make up stories, particularly abandoned children, this is the hallmark of a budding narcissist, it fits all the psychological profiles to a T.
October 11, 2012 - 1:18 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
8. Thenachash
This has been going on for some time now. Every day we become more and more like everyone else. We are getting stupid like Arabs. Fascist like Russians. Corrupt like the Turks, and WORST of all, a bunch of entitled socialist pussies like Western Europeans. Obama is the symptom. The disease is much worse. Not that he helps. Maybe its just par for the course as nations go extinct?
October 11, 2012 - 2:33 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
I disagree, Obama is the point of the spear. The rest is the public school system (now complete indoctrination from k-12), colleges, libraries (since the 20′s), all government, and of course the MSM.
The work in unison like jack-booted thugs, they get beaten back, but they keep coming till they're victorious. My opinion, this will end in civil war. The country will start migrating to where it won't be persecuted. I fully expect California to make it impossible for a Christian to function as a Christian and I will move to Texas or another friendly state. Then . . . Constitutional crisis . . then ?
October 12, 2012 - 11:31 am Link to this Comment | Reply
9. Eric R.
You forgot one other factor – we will increasingly become like the Europeans with the media, arts and universities brainwashing people into hating Israel.
Watch for Israel to sign some major defense agreements or make some major arms purchases with China, India and Russia if Obama wins.
October 11, 2012 - 2:37 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Mr. X
This is what Senor Equis has been saying for a while. Obama has pushed Israel toward Russia, whether deliberately or simply out of contempt. Israel is not Mexico, they don't have to just sit there and get Fast and Furious'd while Salafists get heavily armed by NATO allies with Uncle Sam disavowing any responsibility.
October 11, 2012 - 3:23 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Mr. X
The anti-Russia lobby fanatics on Twitter are starting to talk about the poor little Turks:
I suppose they're a tad worried about cancelled tours to Antalya, loads of vegetables and fruits rotting at the Anatolian pier instead of getting shipped to Ashans and Perekrostiks, and a lot more economic and diplomatic pain looming after that. Maybe a major Russian arms sale/loan to Greece (the Mediterranean squadron flying the flag of St. Andrews needs a new home after Tartus) and a big UAV order from Israel from the Russian army, at least before Romney's people can get in and scuttle it. So you still want to go along with NATO's plan to fight Assad to the last Turkish soldier, Erdogan? Make my (and Bibi's) day. A Russian slapdown for a Muslim Brotherhood influenced government would be great, and remind certain D.C. folks who the real enemies of this country are.
I have little doubt that the anti-Russia lobby is so fanatical they will portray Iran as a victim of Putin's plotting when oil prices go through the roof following any U.S./Israeli air strikes. These people are nothing if not depressingly predictable.
October 11, 2012 - 3:36 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Mr. X
My apologies to Spengler in the last post on this thread:
Syrian website is gloating that Erdogan fell for a Russian ploy to send a chartered A320 full of junk radios and 16 Russian civilian contractors across Turkish air space. Erdogan took the bait and forced the plane into an emergency landing accompanied by F-16s. It will be interesting to see how the pro-war in Syria lobby spins this one.
October 11, 2012 - 7:22 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
10. Stephen
I would add that Mr. Goldman's request should not be viewed as limited to "swing states" or "battle ground states" that most likely will determine the outcome the presidential contest. As important as the presidential contest is of equal, if not greater, importance are the down-ticket races in ever single state. The 2010 midterms were very important in the absence of a presidential contest. One of the most important aspects, yet least understood, of that election was the bloodbath that Democrats experienced at the state level. Anyone who thought or continues to think that the rot of the last 40 years will be cleaned in just one or two election cycles is badly mistaken. The cleaning began in 2010 and the 2010 midterm should be taken as the model and the goal of every single election for many elections to come.
Only when an active and engaged electorate demands changes that only can affected by legislation and holds their elected representative accountable every single time will needed change come – and not one minute before. We are where we are because too many for too long have sat back and let it all happen. An electorate gets the representation it deserves.
October 11, 2012 - 2:40 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
11. Steve
Our country is poorly educated and this is the inevitable result. Obama's comment that business gets a deduction for moving jobs offshore (met with incredulity from Romney) was the most revealing comment of the debate. For Obama the word "deduction", like the words "oil company" or "carbon" or "outsourcing", is akin to the word "zionist" in an Arab country or "fascist" in the old Soviet Union. It is a negative and that is all. I am convinced Obama (and most of the media) does not even know the meaning of those words. But when you are preaching to a crowd of persons even less educated than you are, they sound impressively evil. Obama is nothing but a demagogue and if we elect him, we are getting exactly what we deserve. If he wins, get ready for a New Dark Age, but this one made even more protracted by the lies of a sinister media.
October 11, 2012 - 3:17 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Ubcle Kevvie, in total agreement
In my comings and goings, flitting around fair Motown's envirions, I note what you discuss, virtually 95% +, of the time. There is always someone to 'make your day'.
The number of UnEducated far, far outnumbers those who can think rationally, objectively and with some semblance of {freaking}reason.
Is this just a local aberration, or National in scope?
I'm thinkin' it is Door # Two.
Some days being 'slack-jawed' is a normal state, to this writer. "The rate of increasing stupidity" is really something to behold, and at the same time, kinda' frightful.October 15, 2012 - 7:32 am Link to this Comment | Reply
12. Leo Wagner
Nobody, so far, has mentioned the real problem with D.C. The real problem is the permanent civil servants who are not elected and never go away. They are the ones who create all the paperwork, i.e. congressional bills, etc. I have read that somne of these people can last as long as fifty years. They tend to be at the second or third tier down and are like herpes.I am sure there are plenty there from the Nixon or Carter years. It wouldn't surprise me at all to hear that these people constitute a stong liberal class.
October 11, 2012 - 3:53 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
We are not unmindful of the faceless apparatchiki– but dealing with them is both a structural AND political problem. One of those alone would be hard enough, but both at once is dauntingly immense.
But there may be some ways to approach it. Leviathan feels no wounds. Leviathan consumes everything that attacks it. First, pull some of its teeth, so it can be less dangerous to manipulate. Second, make it consume itself, since it will not realize what it is doing.
October 12, 2012 - 7:52 am Link to this Comment | Reply
13. kazander
The stridency of this post demands some kind of accountability. If you truly believe in the direness of your predictions, you should be willing to back them up. Otherwise, this level of rhetorical escalation amounts to incredibly irresponsible fear mongering. GMU economist Bryan Caplan has come up with the Bettor's Oath, which runs as follows:
"Blathering talk surrounds us, but I will take no part in it. My word is my bet; I will always put my money where my mouth is. When challenged, I will bet on my words, refine them, or recant. When no one is present to challenge me, I will weigh my words and thoughts as if my fellow oath-takers were listening.
I will make both conditional and unconditional bets, and assign probabilities whenever asked. I will claim no false certainty; unless I will stake my life on my belief, I am not truly certain – and will admit it.
When I lose a bet, I will admit defeat, pay promptly, and hold my tongue – never protesting that I was "really right." If I have caveats or reservations, I will declare them when I make the bet – not after I lose it.
When I win a bet, I will not shame my opponent, for a betting loser has far more honor than the mass of men who live by loose and idle talk. I pledge my mind and words to the bettor's oath, for this day and all the days to come…
Unless something in this oath turns out to be wrong, an eventuality to which I assign a 3% probability."
Back your words up with some measure of accountability. Propose a bet. Be specific. Put money behind it. Find someone to take you up on it.
October 11, 2012 - 7:04 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
I'm a betting man. I'll bet that real GDP growth is zero in the first year of a second Obama adminstration, and that in the second year, gold hits $2,400 and the 10-year Treasury yield is above 4%.
October 11, 2012 - 7:40 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Abelard Lindsey
Your bets sound about right. Hopefully we don't get to find out.
October 11, 2012 - 9:16 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Jake in Pittsburgh
Kazander, I'm with Spengler on this one.
And, if you're not, why don't you take the Bookie's Oath?
Would you take the other side of the bet without laying it off?
October 11, 2012 - 10:10 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
I'm not particularly a betting man, but I'd be inclined to accept your offer for the fun of it. My limited circumstances–and the fact that I feel much less strongly than you do–would make the stakes I'd be willing to wager quite modest. Still, if you'd like, we can figure it out over email (are you allowed to see the email addresses associated with comments?)
Still, I'm a bit surprised by the offer you've made for two reasons. First, while circumstances would be quite bad should the indicators you've listed reach the levels you've mentioned, they hardly seem more consonant with "Obama is destroying the republic" than "Obama is an incompetent steward of the economy" or "Congress has pushed us toward insolvency through a game of fiscal chicken." Second, they further don't seem to necessarily distinguish between these scenarios and a potential dissolution of the Eurozone or a steep downturn in the Chinese economy. (I'm not an expert in macroeconomics, though, so perhaps I'm not understanding the full implications of indicators you've mentioned.) To me, this indicates there's something incongruous abut the rhetoric you're using versus the bet you're willing to make. Still, if this is the wager you'd like to make, I'm again willing to take you up on it for modest stakes.
October 12, 2012 - 6:12 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
Mr. Goldman remains an investor. He's tipping his hand as to how he will bet. You are welcome to place your money on the opposite side of that bet should Obama win reelection. Be bullish in the event, I'm sure you'll have no problem finding those willing to accept your money in the market.
October 12, 2012 - 8:33 am Link to this Comment | Reply
And I also will take that bet… hoping I never have to collect.
David, this piece is one of your best. Because at this point in our nation's struggle, the only thing that really matters is how many of us will pass the word and get involved.
Most likely voters understand quite well that the choice before us has never been so clear.
But more than that, they increasingly sense that time for an American renewal is running short.
And most of all, they know that this is all about their futures and that of their loved ones.Send a message, America.
October 12, 2012 - 7:50 am Link to this Comment | Reply
M. Report
The Agnostic's Prayer
Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say,
I ask, if it matters, that you be forgiven for anything you may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness. Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to ensure any possible benefit for which you may be eligible after the destruction of your body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a manner as to insure your receiving said benefit. I ask this in my capacity as your elected intermediary between yourself and that which may not be yourself, but which may have an interest in the matter of your receiving as much as it is possible for you to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony. Amen.October 12, 2012 - 2:52 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
And for religions that don't believe in intermediaries?
October 15, 2012 - 7:08 am Link to this Comment | Reply
14. Leonard
A hopeful counterpoint. The dollar should already have fallen, but the Europeans, beginning with the Greek crisis, have saved the dollar from its deserved fate. Now this Greek disease is spreading to other countries and the Central European Bank has been given the right to play Bernanke, i.e., no limits to bad investments that it can buy up. German economists of note have warned and warned of potential inflation. And just such a potential inflation might prop up the dollar–at least for awhile. What an inflated euro will do to me here in Germany is another matter. But one cannot have everything!
I was brought up by parents who literally adored the American "Constitution". Thomas Woods's book "Who Killed the Constitution?" is persuasive. If Obama wins, he will drive the stake into what is left of the constitutional corpse. I do not wish to be a citizen of a de-constituionalized federal gov., now a NATIONAL gov.–>one that represents demo-cratic-gogic tyranny (= rule by a centralized power that cannot be limited). Even if Obama were an Octavius>>Augustus, I would prefer elsewhere. (In reality O is closer to NerO!) So I will change my citizenship. What the heck, if the USA is becoming like Europe, why not live in Germany where the welfare state is run with some intelligence. Whoops, some recent developments are leading me to predict that in 10 years Deutschland might become Deutschprovinz in Europe, Inc. There is one suggestion floating about, namely Europeans should elect an EU president who selects his government officials and has an army at his disposal. If that takes place, Europe will approach the coming second-term Obama America.
October 12, 2012 - 1:05 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Vaclav Claus refered to the EU as the EUssr. If the EU goes with a President who selects his administrators and forms a military, that would certainly prove Mr Vaclav Claus correct.
October 12, 2012 - 4:21 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Such thoughts pop up here and there. Too early to be too serious. What is undenialably happening–and Germans generally remain blind to it all or do not care–is the establishment of an oligarchic Bankcracy along with a meddlesome Brüssel that seeks to regulate everythng. I read that 80% of the German budged is determined by Brüssel, the German parliment charged with filling it out as much as possible. What the heck, Greek domocracy was replaced by a bank appointment (a man who now tells the confused Merkel what to do) and Italia had its ELECTED prime minister set aside. My hope lies with the French, not because they are not socialist, but because they are, well, French. There is a resistance to being absorbed into an oligarchy control. It is coming! Europeans have no real historical experience of "federal" governing for all of Europe. They are children! Which does not mean I do not wish to exploit them.
October 12, 2012 - 5:30 am Link to this Comment | Reply
15. Bob From Virginia
Obama is a symptom, not a cause of an American crisis. One good thing if he does win and the inevitable disaster strikes; a wiser people, who finally realizes what is important, may arise. Unlikely, but it could happen.
October 12, 2012 - 3:21 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Eric R.
It won't happen. Look at Europe. Just as their economies are collapsing due to Socialism, the idiots in Europe protest in favor of and vote for — more Socialism.
Never mind Europe – look at California. Same disease. People brainwashed into the Marxist faith.
October 12, 2012 - 3:46 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
I once read that America can survive an Obama, but not a people that entrusted Obama with the presidency. The future of this country is in the hands of people on the dole, those with obscene government-guaranteed pensions and free Obama phones.
October 12, 2012 - 3:55 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
Don't bet on a better breed of human. People who are not interested in survival past the tips of their noses will not change. I once got a check for $600 dollars from the GOTUS and I cashed it. It was "free." I am somewhat "educated" and have even read Darwin. What can you expect of others when offered peace and free money. That is Obama's "Hope" for re-election. He has produced his own voting block. No one wants freedom when it entails the use of calories above and beyond their basal metabolic rate.
October 12, 2012 - 5:17 am Link to this Comment | Reply
16. roger in florida
Mr Goldman,
Are we not more likely to follow the path of Argentina and 60s, 70s and 80s Brazil more than Europe?
We have a fractured society with widening divisions along race/ethnic lines. We have a peacock military with large numbers of political generals and admirals. We have a large industrial sector producing things that nobody wants because govt. is subsidising them. We have Unionised Govt. employees/bureacrats who will (have?) put their own narrow interests before the interests of the nation, and as you point out we have a situation where the federal reserve is pumping vast amounts of currency into an economy that has stopped producing wealth. This cannot end wellOctober 12, 2012 - 4:45 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Feel free to try to keep up on an eight hour patrol @ 9,500 feet in the mountains of Afghanistan carrying 70lbs. of armor and weapons and then repeat your comments about the U.S. having a "peacock military".
Some of the most senior officers may go along with the ridiculous strategic conceptions of the political class but the U.S. military is still the most operationally lethal force in the world.
October 12, 2012 - 6:14 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
MarcH, I think the point being made is that our generals and their political officers seem unintrested in using that mighty fine force that we have. The man unwilling to use his gun has no more chance against a person with a knife than a man who has no gun. Personally, I think that a little more force should be used the US then we do. The RoE are silly, and marines on embasy duty without bullets is equally stupid. The nations first war in the Med was fought because the president at the time got tired of paying tribute and decided force was approriate. I'm inclined to agree with that. (Barbary pirates incase anyone didn't know.
October 12, 2012 - 7:23 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
WADR to the current grunts in the trenches, who form the finest group of fighters the world has ever seen, the "perfumed princes" infesting the top ranks or our military have always been a problem. This was what allowed the likes of George McClellan to essentially pursue a "sitzkrieg" strategy against the Confederacy for nearly two years with little progress. Great soldiers are of little effect if they are poorly led.
October 12, 2012 - 7:51 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
roger in florida
I should have been more specific in my comment, I admire and treasure our combat troops who are without peer as warriors. My comment about "peacock military" referred to political generals and admirals who go alng with insane ROE that cost our soldiers their lives without bringing victory. I refer particlarly to COIN that has clearly failed in Afghanistan and is a construct from social workers rather than soldiers.
I apologise to any service member I offended.October 12, 2012 - 9:51 am Link to this Comment | Reply
17. gordo12
Things are not that bad. Yesterday, speaking with a small biz man that came from Poland. He said, "well it could be worse, we could be waiting in line for 5 hours for a loaf of bread". He continued to comment about his childhood in the early 80′s in Poland.
October 12, 2012 - 4:54 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
October 12, 2012 - 8:43 am Link to this Comment | Reply
18. tanstaafl
Obama's arbitrary and perhaps illegal changes in welfare work requirements create a cycle of dependency, as the Romney campaign has warned. They also create a built-in majority for the welfare state.
No one has ever explained to me how a US President even has the power to do this kind of stuff (weakening welfare laws), or to make ALL the unilateral moves this president has made in the application and enforcement of US law.
Not to mention the power to unilaterally shut down drilling in the gulf or turn down the Keystone pipeline.
Or do workarounds of the legislature through executive order, when a piece of legislation has been rejected by Congress, such as the Dream Act.
How does his energy department even have the power to make loan guarantees to (now bankrupt) green companies like Solyndra and Abound Solar ? Doesn't the House control the "pursestrings" ?
I am astonished, daily, at the powers this President has assumed. Without interference. Or even much apparent complaining.
October 12, 2012 - 5:45 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
One does not need power when there is no real opposition.
Nixon closed the gold window because the other option was to defend the dollar which would have precipitated a severe recession and the Republicans would have been voted out. In the early days of the Reagan administration Volker eased up on the money supply after "inflation" had been reduced, but the excesses and speculation remained, otherwise there would have been a depression and the Republicans would have been voted out. Remember Stockman and the hogs that were feeding? (see David Stockman, "The Four Deformations of the Apocalypse")
The debts will not be paid and the economy will not heal. The struggle in Washington is about who will get the best seats in the lifeboat boat, but nobody is going to rock the boat enough to be blamed for sinking it. The ship is taking on water and all know it will sink soon enough. The economic crash and political paralysis will effectively end the "res publica", but not the nation or the government and they want to keep their perks.
"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved." Von Mises
October 12, 2012 - 6:59 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
So the reason a US president is able to usurp all these powers that fall outside his Constitutional purview is that politics and good stewardship are mutually exclusive.
And Obama gets away with it in the name of not rocking the comfortable boat the bureaucrats have built for themselves.
A few Congressional guys (and one gal) were evident in that 4 hour grilling of 2 Benghazi security guys and 2 state department people in front of the House Oversight committee day before yesterday that seriously want to buck that direction in our government.
October 12, 2012 - 7:25 am Link to this Comment | Reply
It IS astonishing. And the source of our amazement is the eunuchs in the Congressional opposition — Beaner, McDoody, all the trough piggies and their cute little pages.
Fire them all!October 12, 2012 - 7:43 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
No point in firing them, you just get more of the same. Once that much power and MONEY is concentrated in one place the game is over.
Lord Acton said "power corrupts", and that is true, but the more important truth is that power draws corrupt and easily corruptible men to it. Concentrating power in Washington was the doom of the republic.
October 12, 2012 - 8:10 am Link to this Comment | Reply
19. Prologue
Every boomer I know is voting for the O. These are the so-called educated people, the ones working in professions, some of them still pulling down decent salaries, some of them already victims of the economy, some of them with children and grandchildren who can't find jobs. Not one of them is stupid, but they still want to be just like Europe. They live in denial. It's possible O will be voted out of office, but the mind-set that put him there is still firmly in place. I'm not sure how they will handle the pain when it finally hits home.
October 12, 2012 - 5:56 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
This is a good description of part of the problem.
When one grows up in a homogenized Disneyworld-ish environment the main narcotic is to believe it must continue forever and there is really nothing bad outside the bubble.
October 12, 2012 - 6:05 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
What is amazing are the number of young people I have met who say they are voting for Obama "because of gay marriage". These are first time voters who are throwing their future prosperity away for an issue over which the President has virtually no power. Any discussion of the debt, the rate of spending, the true employment figures, the tax code etc. is met with blank stares. I am speaking about white middle class kids from the suburbs – friends of my daughter. When I ask them what they want to do in life? The number one choice: work for a non-profit. Everyone wants to work for a non-profit. Well, every business in the entire country is going to be a very large non-profit soon enough.
October 12, 2012 - 6:16 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
@ Prologue: "I'm not sure how they will handle the pain when it finally hits home."
They will handle it as all men in the same kind of situation have handled it all through human history. They will invest one man (although it is almost always a group of men) with enough power to address their immediate pain.
In this urban nation of millions of people completely isolated from the base of human economic endeavor (farming, mining, fishing, etc.) the pain will be felt most intensely in the lack of food, fuel, and security. Power will go to whoever can keep the trucks delivering food to the back of stores and grant some "rights" to people to enter the front, then exit with food that they can take home and consume unmolested.
October 12, 2012 - 8:35 am Link to this Comment | Reply
20. Yooper
I have a different scenario. Obama gets re-elected but the Repubs take the Senate and hold the House. At this point we may be able to mitigate the disaster of Obama's re-election. But only if we rise up and insist that John Boehner and like numbskulls are driven out of the leadership (which must be done at any rate) to be replaced by leaders who have the spine and guts to turn the Constitution on Obama and beat him over the head with it on a daily basis. Such leadership must go to the people constantly and over the head of the media. Obama will commit multiple acts that demand impeachment and the Republican leadership must perform their duty and sworn obligation. It will be the last stand and it must be taken. Will there be riots in the street? Bet on it. It won't be pretty but our survival will be on the line.
October 12, 2012 - 6:19 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
21. Robin
Amen. Just got back from a Regionalism breakfast where I listened carefully to the state directed economic vision around the Low Carbon Economy and Trade. When asked why I was there, I said I had become aware that Obama's and UNESCO's education reforms were premised on a Corporatist Regionalist economy and that much of the legislation and regs passed actually operated in unappreciated ways to push that govt led economy. My tablemate smiled and said I was right and it was "too late" to stop it now.
Maybe that is true but there is no mass prosperity or freedom in that 21st century vision. So we must try understanding what we are dealing with in education and with the Regional Equity Movement and with the Green Economy push. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/why-make-the-long-sought-goal-of-anarchists-and-socialists-the-21st-century-education-ideal/ is a start.
Green energy is just the excuse for power and control over individual behavior and the society and our economy. They (Brookings) were already insisting Washington is broken so states and cities need to take the lead. Where hardly anyone with power also is not conflicted when exercising it.
We will have are hands full undoing this if RR prevails. And local Reps will be fighting the non-govt vision almost as hard as the Dems. They seem to know no other way. We will have to teach them by removing jurisdiction.
October 12, 2012 - 6:54 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
'to late to stop it now.' A thought on that for you – 1. Systems go until they don't, then they break. Unfortunatly it could be years before they do break.
October 12, 2012 - 7:25 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
When asked why I was there, I said I had become aware that Obama's and UNESCO's education reforms were premised on a Corporatist Regionalist economy and that much of the legislation and regs passed actually operated in unappreciated ways to push that govt led economy.
The impulse of many, if not most, "serving" in the Obama administration, hand picked in the name of that agenda.
An aspect of the "fundamental transformation" Obama promised, diminishing nationalism and promoting transnationalism.
Green energy is just the excuse for power and control over individual behavior and the society and our economy.
As is unfettered and unquestioning allegiance to the notion of "man made global warming".
One campaign promise he actually meant to keep.
October 12, 2012 - 7:41 am Link to this Comment | Reply
22. Shrewsbury
"Most ominous was the crash in Hispanic fertility…."
Dude … seriously? Fewer invaders? Ominous?
October 12, 2012 - 7:17 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
23. Higher Game
Modern American women prefer a cheap and soft military, a beta male welfare provider government so they can chase alphas, few if any annoying children to rear, no religion or any other patriarchal restraint on their behavior, and they have no interest in national defense or nuclear bombs or secure borders or revolutions or other yucky masculine interests. Plus, isn't Obama hot? And he loves gays too!
This is what we are dealing with. Republicans aborted their future when they permitted no contest divorce and other insults to marriage. They aren't changing now, instead futilely attempting another dubious economic platform. Even if it works in general, it won't work for the right kind of people who now decide elections. They will fail horribly and the party will soon be informally called the "local party", because it will no longer be nationally viable. The nation will no longer be viable soon afterwards.
October 12, 2012 - 7:40 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
myth buster
Perhaps you're right, but if that's the case, we've got bigger problems. That way lies death for the nation, and richly deserved, I might add, for what we have done to come this far. Fornication, adultery, abortion, contraception, sodomy and self-mutilation are the way of death, and as men and women sow, so also shall they reap. Verily, every woman who divorces her husband and marries another is an adulteress, and the man who takes a divorced woman for a wife is an adulterer. A man who abandons his wife in favor of another is an adulterer, and the other woman is an adulteress.
October 12, 2012 - 10:38 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
24. weo
Thank you, Mr. Goldman, for clarifying the impending horror. November is the fail-safe day.
October 12, 2012 - 8:05 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
25. Ben Blakenship
As Biden boogied and blustered last night, the thought that he never will become President comforted me. But then, if the Dems win, he might. If so, choose your poison: Obama or Biden.
I can't conceive of a worse team to get our miserable country out of its rut.October 12, 2012 - 8:39 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
26. blackelkspeaks
I've been thinking and saying this for years. The only thing that keeps this country together are the very people that the liberal-left have undermined and undercut for the last hundred years. That is, the people who revere the Constitution and respect this country's traditions of freedom and liberty. As you said, these are the people who work for a living rather than sit on their asses, the people who pay taxes rather than suck them up, the people who raise their families rather than see them degenerate into LGBT lunacy, and the people who sacrifice their children to maintain a religiously-based social order that the liberal-left has sought to destroy. If Hussein is re-elected and his policies of killing the Bush tax cuts happens and forcing abortion on religious people is implemented and the lawless criminality of the federal government continues, then I expect that we will be absolutely shocked at how quickly this country will unravel and descend into another Civil War.
October 12, 2012 - 8:41 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
I think Civil War is only a very remote possibility, but if one comes it will be the coasts against the heartland. In such a case you could expect blue helmets fighting on the side of the coasties, and it would be very ugly.
This country is so interdependent that to separate it would require something like the cyber attack Pannetta spoke of today or an EMP attack. Something would have to break the web of connections and make people turn to their neighbors.
October 12, 2012 - 9:00 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
All it would take for this country to unravel is for one or two states to finally refuse to comply with the Federal Government's anti-Constitutional laws, rules, regulations, and edicts and the house of cards would collapse post haste. The Federal Government would not be able to force compliance from a disgruntled citizenry determined to rid themselves of an out-of-control Leviathan. Any expectations that the military would fire on our own people doesn't take into account that we haven't been able to prevail against the ragtag irregulars in Iraq or Afghanistan after 10 years of conflict because of our ridiculous ROE and lack of will. When the law abiding people of this country begin to view the Federal Government as a malevolent entity, and we are almost there right now, then we will see what Yamamoto meant by "a rifle behind every blade of grass."
October 12, 2012 - 10:28 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Edmund Ruffin
Any states that really wanted to secede could probably do so. Which states do you reckon would be first?
October 13, 2012 - 8:42 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
27. davelnaf
O is looking forward to the fiscal cliff—it's all part of the Cloward-Piven strategy of gradually stressing US institutions to the breaking point. But it's likely that enough voters are now aware of this and it makes his reelection unlikely.
Privately, some dems fume against O's lawlessness. But once they're out in public he's their man, their instrument to get what they have always wanted: a VAT and the resources it would bring that would give them effective control over the economy.
October 12, 2012 - 9:03 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Daniel Shays
If you have proof of Obama's lawlessness, your problems are solved. Just take your evidence to court & then bask in the thanks of a grateful nation.
October 13, 2012 - 8:40 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
28. Paul Hsieh
The author flags some legitimate problems (increasing dependency on government handouts and dangers of bad regimes going nuclear.)
But he also flags as supposed problems a decrease in "religious commitment" and a decrease in fertility rates.
I don't see how any individual's personal choices about their religion or how many children to have are (1) any of the government's damned business, or (2) the fault of Obama.
October 12, 2012 - 9:12 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Goldman didn't suggest either of these propositions, Mr. Hsieh. Or, if you really think he did, please explain. And, for your response, grade 3 rubrics will do nicely: just provide specific language and details. Go for it!
October 12, 2012 - 10:28 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
"I don't see how any individual's personal choices about their religion or how many children to have are (1) any of the government's damned business, or (2) the fault of Obama."
depends on how you mean government's business and fault of Obama. If you mean the gov't telling you to have or not have kids, then I agree. However if the meaning is 'keeping track of how many people there are' (ie popoulation stats) and what those fertility rates tell us – a growing desire of people to keep to themselves and a shrinking view of the future. That is the troubling part, that Obama is creating a business enviroment that would cause people to decide 'not having kids is better.' BTW, that is part of why there was a baby boom post WW2, because there was a shortage from 1930 to 1940 (ie depression – granted not the only reason, but it is easier to see the peak in comparison to the preceding valley).
As for religion – well if ones religious belief is that a person may not give material aid to those committing sin, then being forced to fund insurance for that person's employee to cover abortions is a violation of said religion. It makes being faithful more difficult. So Obama's HHS dept is picking a fight with the religion of people.
October 12, 2012 - 10:47 am Link to this Comment | Reply
29. Libertyship46
"Declining patriotism: In 2002, 60% of Americans agreed with the statement, "Our people are not perfect, but our culture is superior," according to a Pew survey. In 2012 the proportion dropped to 49%. For the first time, a minority of Americans believe in American exceptionalism."
Who can blame them? For the last four years we have had a president that has apologized for everything the United States has ever done (and didn't do) and believes, I mean really believes, that the United States is no better than France or Greece. In fact, with four more years of Obama, we really WILL be exactly like Greece, a bankrupt welfare state. We are about as low now as we were at the end of the Carter administration. Maybe this is our wakeup call. Maybe we will answer the call and elect Romney. Maybe. But if we do not, we really are finished as the greatest nation on this planet. We will be exactly like Greece, only bigger.
October 12, 2012 - 10:17 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
30. David P. Goldman
I never said Obama takes all of the blame for cultural decline. I said he takes some of it. The president sets the tone, and he treats religious institutions with contempt, it does great damage.
October 12, 2012 - 11:05 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Anne Onymous
Obama does not treat Islamic institution with contempt. His contempt is reserved for Christian institutions.
October 12, 2012 - 2:31 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
31. krakow
Lee Kuan Yew said that Afghanistan and Iraq are mere distractions. Then so is Iran.
Trickle down government versus trickle down capitalism versus abolish the Fed. Let's assume that hell broke loose in September of 2007 and it hit bottom in March of 2009. Bank stress tests bought valuable time for American land and corporate assets to be protected from foreign grubby hands. Since bottom, equities markets have been steadily rising without gyrations, debt has soared to $16 trillion and entitlements continue to be unfunded. So how should one vote in this election?
Well, Alan Greenspan was wrong to throw capitalism under the bus. Big mistake. Not enough time has passed to forgive him just yet. Four more years of trickle down government and then we can try trickle down capitalism again.
October 12, 2012 - 11:17 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
32. Denver Bob
An Obama loss will not deal with the fundamental issues of his support and its history.
What we are seeing is a process that started in Progressivism, embodied by the Roosevelts, Wilson, and LBJ, for a start. The drive was to use the government for social improvement. It was based on German philosophy, at least in part, and felt, in fin, that any actions that furthered its ends of what is now called Social Justice is permitted and encouraged. They do not see politics as a process, respecting all parties, but rather a quasi-military operation where force, fear and fraud prevail.
The nearest thing in US history is the slaving South before the Civil War. They demand participation in a vision, by legal and illegal coercion, at variance with the majority's ethos. Not only did they want slavery, but wanted it throughout the territories, and enforced universally through laws like the Fugitive Slave Act.
Until America sees the groups who support Obama just not as political opponents, but as true enemies, whose presence is intolerable to the country, it will keep coming back and one election will not change that.
October 12, 2012 - 11:29 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
This is a good comment, sir, and I take your point. However, I think it is a bit inconsistent to throw "the slaving south" in the same ideological category as the contemporary Progs. Weren't the abolitionists the moral ancestors of Teddy R. and Wilson, and hence also of much social progressivism? On the contrary, I think the south represented a (rather imperfect) residue of correctly ordered Old World society.
October 12, 2012 - 3:33 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
If I'm not mistaken, Wilson was quite racist.
October 13, 2012 - 6:10 am Link to this Comment | Reply
Mmm, so there should be freedom of expression and political participation for everyone EXCEPT "groups who support Obama"? I see.
While you're at it, what about about an oversight committee of wise patriots that would be empowered to shut down the lying liberal media?October 13, 2012 - 8:35 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
33. R. L. Hails Sr. P. E.
As discussed above, there are several trends in American life which are pointing to the near term end of this society, within decades. An Obama reelection, contributes, but does not control all of these terminal threats. If Obama vanished today, we would still face daunting problems, most of which center on the destruction of strong family bonds, and the total ignorance of the fundamental Constitutional constraints on the power of the central government, vs. the states and citizens. The latter is more ominous due to the awesome power of electronics to monitor individual conduct 24-7.
The Repubs and Dems, working for vested interests, have destroyed our economy. Americans have lost generations of wealth in their home equities due to epic criminal stupidities within every link of the home mortgage industry, sales, underwriters, private and government loan bundlers, purchasers and financial regulators. It is notable that almost no criminal actions have been brought in an epic national fraud involving trillions of dollars. Compared to these bipartisan crooks, Bernie Maddoff was an altar boy, and BP dropped a pint of goo in the Gulf of Mexico.
It is my sorrow, I am an energy engineer, that zero debate attention has focused on climate change vs the combustion of carbon, and the disaster in civilian nuclear power, the failed Yucca Mountain repository program, caused by our government. These issues, standing alone, have the potential to destroy our nation. Our dysfunctional energy policy can break our grid; it can stop our industries, it can raise the cost of survival beyond people's ability to pay. And if one nuclear weapon is exploded over a city, causing mega-deaths, we will learn how many "Nones" there really are.
This election is an important milestone in US history.
October 12, 2012 - 11:32 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
34. cal
To Dale Thank You for posting. I will certainly read this book!
ROMNEY/RYAN for: Restoring Faith to the American People!
Restoring Truth Instead of Lies!
Restoring Justice Instead of In-Justice!
Restoring Hope Instead of Hopelessness!
Restoring Integrity to the USA!
Restoring Pride Instead of Apologizing for Our Country!October 12, 2012 - 11:56 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
35. Herb
People who I know who are liberal will not be turned away from the Democrats and Obama. They won't even read anything that is counter to their long held beliefs. This goes even for relatives. Still, I think there is a good chance Romney can win this thing. I only worry about voter fraud.
October 12, 2012 - 12:17 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Social Security Disability is NOT means tested, although it is rather bizarre how you have to live in the same county while you go through the automatic denial/appeal process.
First time Spengler disappoints. While I agree with the coming economic disaster if Romney loses (it IS his election to lose), the GOP really does have to cut Norquist and anyone else who still thinks "starve the beast" worked out.
What makes America EXCEPTIONAL is our origin as the first nation in history dedicated to freedom of speech, belief, and freedom from a dysfunctional central government, by a whole host of dissidents and entrepeneurs who knew they had landed on a continent blessed by nature.
meh. You want turnout?????
PUT NEW YORK IN PLAY!October 12, 2012 - 2:02 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
37. Old School Conservative
I'm 59 and an avid political junkie. Most important election in my lifetime. That crooked Texan LBJ started our demise, and today the most conservative Democrat you can find is far to the left of JFK. RBC's.
October 12, 2012 - 2:24 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
38. Random Blowhard
4 more years of the Obama administration WILL result in the total economic collapse of the United States.
Why? Well –
1) We spend 40% more than we earn and are printing money out of thin air in order to do so. The democrats CANNOT cut ANYTHING out of the budget, nor will they. Endless printing money (QE3) ALWAYS ends in total economic collapse, always…
2) No budget for the last 3 years.
3) 2 debt downgrades during Obama's term.
4) The rest of the world is waking up to the fact that the United States is BROKE and WILL try and print it's way out of debt as a result the reserve currency status of the US dollar will continue to be eroded via bilateral trade agreements (China/Russia) or payment in other forms (gold, trade goods).
5) That which CANNOT continue WILL not.
6) The Obama administration and the democrats are simply NOT SERIOUS about fixing ANY of the problems facing the United States. This WILL start to matter if Obama gets a second term.
Argentina in 2001 is where Obamanomics WILL lead the United States. "Fundamental transformation" indeed.
October 12, 2012 - 8:45 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
And how exactly is electing Romney going to solve what you outline as problems? He wants massive cuts in taxes and increases in defense spending. He doesn't seem to get it that the country can't afford all that. How is Romney going to create those 12 million jobs he promises in his campaign ads? So far, all I've seen is he'll do it with smoke and mirrors.
Wonder boy Ryan's budget proposal had deficits continuing as far as the eye could see. And see what Dr. Hsieh wrote in #28…..those social issues (access to contraception, abortion, gays, etc.) are lurking just under the surface.
In my mind, the only conservative running for president is Gary Johnson and he won't be elected.
October 13, 2012 - 3:48 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
39. Thomas
I agree (concur). But America will not survive 4 years of Romney either!
October 12, 2012 - 9:42 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
40. rachel peepers
Mr. Goldman,
Excellent column. I would only add that, in fact, America's great enough, strong and resilient enough to survive another four years of the anointed one.
The anointed one, on the other hand, couldn't survive another four years as President.
He'd be impeached. And I can envision him being led out of the White House in handcuffs with Hillary tagging along behind him, frowning like there's no tomorrow.
October 12, 2012 - 11:53 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
The Anome
If you have evidence of Obama's "high crimes and misdemeanors," don't you owe it to the public to come forward?
October 13, 2012 - 8:29 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
41. bugle boy
For some reason, The Clinton presidency and 9/11 combined to move this country rapidly to the left.
The America of 1997 would be horrified with the America of 2012. Over the last 15 years there's been a big decline in religion and patriotism, an incredible increasing dependency on handouts, and the creation of a new age Liberalism that combines totally irrational immaturity with a vile hatred for anything or anyone not like them. Along with a totally inexplicable near banning of the phrase "Merry Christmas."
If the US is 30% strong right, and 30% is made up of the unchangeable hard left, that means that 40% of America needs to change to save the country. I don't think they can change overnight- meaning that we may have to hit bottom before America can rebuild itself on sound fiscal principles, and strong moral principles.October 13, 2012 - 8:27 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
42. Idus
I remember my last travel to US, from Europe, seven years ago,
wandering from Florida to Connecticut.
I love you country, however something dissapointed me.
Music in bars, radio or shops mostly was English pop not American rock.
Loving both but I hoped to hear more Americana in the place.
I thought that it was a deep symptom of your europeanization.
It was not a good signal.And small cars looking the same as in Berlin, Paris or Madrid.
Size is the mind too!October 13, 2012 - 11:04 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
43. miguelj
"Nothing is discovered without God's intention and assistance, and I suppose every new knowledge of His works that is conceded to man to be distinctly a revelation by which men are to guide themselves."
–Charles Dickens, on there being no need for Science and Religion to be in conflict.
October 13, 2012 - 8:26 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
44. MarcH
Roger in Florida, AC and CR, all @ #16
Thank you for your responses. My apology for the delay in responding to you all and apologies to Roger if he took my remarks as depicting him as insulting the common solider.
To clarify, I think our military is the most tactically and operationally lethal in the world, including COIN operations (examples, Anbar 2007/08 and McCrystal's perfection of intelligence driven targeting insurgent leaders in Iraq). IMHO, we fail on the strategic level because of a failure to recognize that what we call "wars" in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan are really front in a larger global struggle. This struggle has been examined by a number of analysts since 9/11 (many of whom are published at PJM, including our host, Ledeen, Fernandez, Rubin, and VDH) but it does not seem to be a view accepted by our political class.
Unfortunately, this failure to see the struggle as international and led by malign state actors (Iran at the top of the list) results in grotesque scenarios such as US soldiers conducting complex operations against and taking casualties from insurgents armed with Iranian EFPs in Iraq while ignoring the Iranian government leaders next door in Iran who direct the whole affair. Elimination of insurgent safe havens is key to ultimate success in COIN but we seemed to eschew this (I don't think restrictive ROEs are such major in the big picture, although they can stink for the infantry platoon pinned down and unable to call in heavy artillery).
General officers such as GEN Petraeus (who I think was brilliant on the operational level in Iraq 2007/08) had an interesting dilemma. On the one hand, our separation of the military from a political role requires that officers from 2d lieutenant to general execute lawful orders w/o a public dispute and our military would not long function if every officer who disagreed with an order resigned. On the other hand, the acquiescence of senior officers such as Petraeus (esp. his stepping down from the CENTCOM position to become commander in the Afghan theatre after GEN McCrystal was fired gave a "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval (or "hechsher") to administration policies. There is a new book by retired USMC Lt. Gen. B. Trainor, "Endgame", which suggests that Petraeus agonized over whether to send a letter to President Bush circa 2008 advising that Iran was essentially at war with the US. I'm not too impressed with such Hamlet-ish stuff and would not be surprised if this is just Petraeus now trying to save his record as the situation in Iran and the Middle East spins out of control.
October 13, 2012 - 8:56 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
45. lzzrdgrrl
Ta-Nehisi Coates agrees with David and the experts that this election will depend on turnout, and he's speaking from the other side of the fence:
October 13, 2012 - 10:38 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
46. JC Lincoln
This will be our finest hour.Silly, silly people. How can you have a great victory without having great adversity?
Please, you pessimists – please move to the sideline.
Lead, follow or get the hell out of way!
October 14, 2012 - 1:00 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
47. MarcH
Krakow @ 31 wrote, "Lee Kuan Yew said that Afghanistan and Iraq are mere distractions. Then so is Iran".
Did LKY also suggest an effective policy for dealing with desperate, rogue, terrorist supporting states (see our host's latest in AT, "The Horizon Collapses in the Middle East, see Wretchard in PJM on possible Syrian bio-weapons. "About Those Syrian WMDs")?
Finally (in the spirit of this post), who is more likely to effectively address these matters, BHO or Romney?
October 14, 2012 - 6:14 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Given my support for Bush and the two wars I certainly don't fault those who are convinced that an attack on Iran is necessary. Neocons are proposing that they will fight the next war while reducing the number of people dependent on the government. Hmmmm.I doubt that Romney could execute a war plan better than Bush because, as our host has suggested in the past, the American public will not allow our commander in chief to be brutal enough to overwhelm the opposition. Iraq was a mistake. Iran could be a bigger mistake given American public's war exhaustion. Iran might put up a bigger resistance than Iraq did.
But if you must then bombs away.
October 15, 2012 - 6:11 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
"I doubt that Romney could execute a war plan better than Bush because, as our host has suggested in the past, the American public will not allow our commander in chief to be brutal enough to overwhelm the opposition".
OK, so you and LKY recommend what COA to address the threat of desperate terrorist regimes w/WMD?
"bombs away" – I would be happy to bomb or otherwise decisively eliminate the leaders of Iran and their IRGC if the only benefit was the satisfaction and example of pay-back for the thousands of US soldiers they killed and maimed in Iraq. Nevertheless, I'm not married to a strategy of bombing. If provision of internet support and union strike funds, etc., does the job then that would be fine. My point is that our goal should be to flush their regime.
MarcHOctober 16, 2012 - 9:55 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
I cannot recommend a course of action. Public statements by Bibi, Obama and Romney are diluting our threats to Iran. Once all three are silent then Iran might think that we are serious. Talk is prolonging negotiations. It is surprising that the National Security Advisor and Secretary of Defense have not devised some mechanism requiring all three to be silent on Iran. Iran will continue to call our bluff because that raises their status in the geopolitical community.
Terrorist and raging liberals need to openly embrace each other but I haven't yet devised a scheme for that to happen. We should continue to focus on Muslim women. Give them guns.
October 19, 2012 - 5:24 am Link to this Comment | Reply
48. JakeTobias
I thought believing America is in its twilight was a liberal belief, not a conservative one. At least according to Coulter. Frankly, I find this belief to be prevalent on both sides. It's just that liberals think this a good thing, and conservatives think it is a bad thing. And so do independents. If Romney wins, this is not over. And if Obama wins, this is not over. Especially if Obama wins. His policies do not work, and never will. When they don't, America is going to want answers, so we all need to be ready with them. The message should be: power corrupts, that is why our Founders intended small government. No matter who is in power, power corrupts. Period. Raising taxes causes war. A vote for big government is a vote for corruption. Income taxes are not the only taxes. So are fees, bonds, tariffs, quotas, fines, and inflation. Inflation is the governments favorite way to raise taxes. Everyone already pays too many taxes to begin with. Not only do the rich pay too much, so do the poor. Raising taxes is worse than death, so why do they keep raising them? Lower taxes keeps the peace. The best social program is a job. Regulation and over sight is a protection and extortion racket. See the idea? Even dependent Americans are not the sheeple Europeans are. Defiance lives deep in the hearts and souls of all Americans, in a way that is beyond the ken of Europe, and liberals. If the Obama government starts pushing a whole country around in way unknown in America, there is going to be a reaction. By that, I don't mean necessarily violence, I mean as in "It's time to get to work" defiance. One of the things that astonishes immigrants about America, is how hard we work. I've heard it again, and again. "You Americans work so hard". You can see the realization in their eyes, that we pay for our toys. Most people on the dole, still know this. Still know it comes from somewhere. They have not forgotten. And they have not forgotten the American spirit. We are not reprobates, they are.
October 14, 2012 - 6:26 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
49. Abelard Lindsey
Reason #7 why we can't handle another four years of Obama:
Regulation is as bad as taxation in this country.
October 14, 2012 - 9:14 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
50. Thomas
h'm Obama at Bilderberg with Hillery?! Then Bilderberg 2012: were Mitt Romney and Bill Gates there? Yep. Ask yourself, are elections rigged? Did they know who was groomed to be the next candidate before we did. Yep, they sure did! Keep believing the false Dem. vs Rep. paradigm.. You figure it out, what do you think will be? I do not hold a crystal ball or claim to have amazing ability to foresee what this fallen country (which is really a corporation) will be. However, please do not fall for the 2 party scam any more..
October 15, 2012 - 11:08 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
51. art
In "And Spengler is…" David talked about how as a young man he "wandered in the fever-swamps of left-wing politics" I'm afraid with this post we now find that David is waist deep and sinking in the same swamps on the right-wing.
David, I hope you can recognize this soon and regain your independence of thought that made your atimes columns must reads every week. I don't think the move to pjmedia has been good for you.
October 17, 2012 - 2:43 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
52. American
Democrats are blinded by his flattery and flowery political rhetoric. They say they don't like free trade but Obama has expanded free trade more than any president in U.S. history. They say they don't like trans-national/big banking but that's ALL Obama supports. They say they don't like a lot of things and Obama is behind them ALL. He's Bush on steriods but the Democrats are blind in their ignorance and blush from his devilish tongue.
January 22, 2013 - 9:51 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
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us a King." In Story Lines: Chapters on Thought, Word, and Deed: For Gabriel Fackre, ed. Skye Gibson. Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans, 2002. "The Christology

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