Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Anchoress

Home
Catholic
Obama: the Opposite of America

Obama: the Opposite of America

Last updated on: March 15, 2017 at 6:22 pm by Elizabeth Scalia

Obama: the Opposite of America 2017-03-15T18:22:11+00:00 Elizabeth Scalia

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I had this awful feeling, a few months into Obama’s presidency, that he had no wish to lead the nation, but to rule it. One of his minions (I can’t remember who, sorry) had actually used the phrase “when Obama rules” prior to his inauguration, but I’d excused it as a misspeak. Now, I am not so sure.

In five years of blogging, I have never called a president by anything but his name or his title. I have booted people who have tried to call past or current presidents by foul nicknames. President Obama is President Obama. But I am starting to wonder if he should not also, quite accurately, be called President Opposite. Increasingly one gets the sense that everything he does is accompanied by the hypnotic words…“what you see me doing, is not what I am doing…who do you trust, me or your lying eyes?”

The press calls it striking a delicate balance:

The Obama administration struck a delicate balance on executive pay Thursday, blaming flawed compensation packages for encouraging disastrous risk-taking but insisting it doesn’t want to dictate how corporations reward their top people.

Translation: Do you see me dictating how corporations will compensate their top people? Now, I’m not doing that…but here is what I decree these corporations will do…

Gene Sperling, a top counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, conceded to a congressional committee that imposing compensation caps on companies could lead to a flight of talent. “I can say with certainty that nobody in the Obama administration is proposing such a thing,” he said.

Translation: Yes, this is exactly what the Obama administration is proposing.

…he and officials with the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission laid out a case for how payment structures rewarded short-term gains at the expense of long-term performance and contributed to the nation’s financial crisis.

The administration plans to seek legislation that would try to rein in compensation at publicly traded companies through nonbinding shareholder votes and by decreasing management influence on pay decisions.

Remember when President Obama said he didn’t want to run corporations? He didn’t think it was the role of the government to run corporations? He just wanted to see the economy set right?

Can this brilliant, Harvard Law grad explain how-with unprecedented spending, an unprecedented and unsustainable deficit and inevitable tax increases looming before every person in the country-he is going to “fix” the economy by overseeing reductions in pay, thus decreasing the very tax base he needs to exploit, in order to sustain his spending?

My father dropped out of High School during the depression, to help his widowed mother; even though he did not have an Ivy-League education, he understood that you collect more tax revenue when people are employed and earning good money than when they are unemployed, or limited in their earnings. Good heavens, in 2006, even the NY Times had to admit that stoopit Bush and his stoopit tax cuts had resulted in high employment and such a record-level collection of tax-revenues that the deficit was being paid down a head of schedule!

Obama wants to punish the high-risk takers? Geez, that’s every parent in the nation. That’s every creative thinker who goes out on a limb, or dares to think outside the box. That’s every starry-eyed kid who dares to dream a “foolish” dream. That’s everyone who has ever looked at a problem and devised a solution. Risk has come with every great bridge, every skyscraper, every airplane, every cesspool!

Obama wants to discourage risk? That means he wants to discourage America, itself! The nation was founded on a great risk! It has flourished on great risk! It has lifted up and sustained other countries thanks to its willingness to take great risks!

Does Obama know anything about history? Does he understand that a Berlin Airlift cannot happen unless a nation has a mindset that welcomes risk and challenge? The Marshall Plan could not have evolved without risk. We would not have reached the moon without a mindset that saw risk and shrugged. We would not have toilets if a capitalist had not taken a chance, held his breath and flushed.

What sort of American president is this, who tells Americans to “stop acting like Americans? Go to sleep; stop dreaming glorious dreams!”

America has been the country millions of inventive, creative-mad people have wanted to come to because it was the country that would allow them to run with their madness, give them the freedom to take their risks, and see what they could make of their lives and their visions. Liberty demands that human people – imbued with the Divine Spark of creativity – be allowed to use their gifts, to take them as far as they can.

If we’re not supposed to take risks, if underachievers are to be penalized when their attempts fall short, then America will cease to be America, vibrant America, alive America. She will go to sleep, like most of Europe. She will offer to the world all the inventiveness, joy and wonder we see offered by Cuba, the old USSR, sad old England, and worn-out France. But it will be a terrible sleep, without the dreams.

A while back I wrote:

America’s honor is no illusion. Imperfect as it may be this is still the land to which – in large or small ways – every free nation owes its current liberty. This is the nation that has routinely sent its idealistic young men off to foreign lands, to die there, not for empire, not for real-estate, but for the protection and advancement of that unseen thing that is freedom, the strengthener of the human spirit, the burnisher of human potential. First Children and their motley co-horts aside, this is still the nation to which millions of creative or industrious people wish to come, it is the nation to which the oppressed call out for rescue and relief.

Obama said he wanted to bring “hope” to America. He kept using that word; I don’t think he understood what it means. What President Opposite is offering is the opposite of hope:

When folks feel good about what they are doing, when they feel like they have some control over the direction their lives take – they have hope. And hope is not simply a feeling. Hope says, “awake, O Sleeper, arise from death!” Hope is the builder of bridges, the tamer of winds, the harnesser of ideas and possibilities. A poor man with hope is immeasurably richer than a wealthy man without it, because he carries within him the spark that can alight a thousand tomorrows.

By the curb, toward the edge of the flagging,
A knife-grinder works at his wheel, sharpening a great knife;
Bending over, he carefully holds it to the stone—by foot and knee,
With measur’d tread, he turns rapidly—As he presses with light but firm hand,
Forth issue, then, in copious golden jets,
Sparkles from the wheel.
– Walt Whitman “Sparkles from the Wheel”

Hope sparkles from the wheel, and all possibility is contained therein. And the man who can sharpen his own knife, and teach his children that craft, will never be helpless or hungry or cast aside as worthless. He will, therefore, be at peace, and so will his house, and columnists will write about it in wonder.

I never, ever thought I’d live to see the day an American president told America to stop, just stop, being itself. The opposite of hopeful. No risks. Tight controls. The opposite of America. Weep, folks. Put your dreams away, and weep.

Mr. President – if you want to pursue a policy of “opposites” then may I respectfully suggest that you adapt the George Costanza theory. Think of whatever it is you want to do, and then…DO THE OPPOSITE. Please. It might save the nation. And your foundering and panicking and slowly awakening party, if you care.

Repost:
The Art of the Painless Coup
Why The Recession is Over

Don't try me too high

Socialism doesn't work

The Perpetual Adolescents

Touch of evil

Previous Post

June 11, 2009

Palin's Pipeline Gets Last Laugh?

Next Post

June 12, 2009 George H.W. Bush; Birthday Appreciation

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category "Remaking" Ourselves 'Remaking' America 9/10 Mindset 9/11 trials Abortion ACORN Adoration Advent Advent 2008 Advent 2009 Advent 2010 Alternative Energy Alternative Media America American Catholic Church American Church American Genius Ameridolatry ANCHORESS BOOKSHELF Anglican-Roman Reconciliation Answers & Questions Anti_Semitism Archbishop Hilarion Ayn Rand Bad Mass Barack Obama Baseball Benedict Benedict & Islam Benedict in UK Benedict XVI Benedictine Bill Whittle Birth Control Blogs and Blogging Blogs and Blogging Bloodless Coup Bobby Jindal Bookchat Breitbart Bride at every wedding... Bride at every wedding... Buckley Bullies Bush Bad? Bush Good Buster Capitalism Catholic Fiction Catholic Vocations Catholicism Celibacy Chaput Charitable Stuff Chesterton Chile Chris Christie Christians in Exile Christine O' Donnell Christmas Christmas Gift Ideas Church Hates Science? Church hates women Communion of Saints Compline Conclave 2013 Confession Constitutional Stuff Conversion Crisis & Opportunity Critical Thinking Crooks and Liars Crucible of Faith Cuba Culture of Life Culture of Life/Death Culture of Treason? Dancing Death Dialogue re Islam Dick Meyer Divorce and Remarriage DOJ Domestic Terrorism Dominican Order Don't try me too high Dowd Dumb Democrat moves Dumb GOP moves Economic woe Education Egregious Harry Reid Elder Son Elder Son's Sweet Girlfriend Elderly Election '10 Election '12 Election '16 Election 2004 Election 2006 Election 2008 Election 2010 Election 2016 Elena Kagan Elitism Embryonic Stem Cell Research End Times? English language Enhanced Interrogation Erosion of Rights Eucharist Euthanasia Exorcism Extraordinary Synod Facebook Faith Faith and Reason Faith Friday Faith Perspective Faithful Friday Fascism Again Fascism in America Fatima FCC Feminism Film First Things Forgiveness Fr. James Martin Francis and Islam Francis in America Frassati Fred Thompson Free Speech? Freedom of Worship FutureChurch Global Pandemic GOP Congress Haiti Head Covering Health Care Here and Queer Hermits Heroes Hitchens Holy Spirit Holy Week '09 Holy Week '10 Hoo-Hah & BS Hoo-Hah & BS Icons Illegal Immigration In The Arena Interviews Interwebz Iran Uprising Iraqi Christians ISIL ISIS Islamic State Islamification/Islamofascism Islamification/Islamofascism Isra-El It's all about me! Me! ME! James Burke Jerry Lewis Jesus Christ Joblessness John Boehner John McCain John Paul II John XXIII Juan Williams Just Words Katrina/Rita King is a Fink Latin Mass Leadership Lectio Divina Lent Lent '08 Lent '09 Lent 2010 Lent 2011 Limbaugh Listen to Lizzie Litigious Society Liturgy Liturgy of the Hours Mainstream Media Manliness Marriage Mary Media Excess Medical Merton Michelle Obama Mighty John O' Connor Misc. Miss Ella Missionaries Mitt Romney Monasticism My brother S My Irish Aunties Mystic Monks Nanny Statism Nature NEA Neri New Media Newman Noonan Notre Dame NPR Stuff Nun News Obama Bad? Obama Good? Obama White House Oil Spill Online Retreat '08 Online Retreat Days Oratory Orthodoxy Our Hillary! Parenting Passionists Patheos Patheos Book Club Patrons Paul Ryan Penance Penn Jillette Philosophy PJTV Podcasts Poetry Politics-free zone Pop Culture Pope Emeritus Pope Francis Prayer Predictions Priesthood Pro-Life Public Sector Unions Purgatory Questions about Catholicism Quotes of the Day Quoting the News Race in America rants Recipes Remarried Catholics Reposts by request Retreat thoughts Rome Rudy Giuliani Russia Saints Sarah Palin Scandal Scott Brown SCOTUS Scriptural stuff Secularism Send in the clowns Serving up hot links Sexuality Sherrod Shroud of Turin Sisters and Nuns Social Entrepreneurship Social Media Social Security Socialism doesn't work Sports and Faith Stem Cells Strange Gods Suffering Synod Tea Parties Tea Party Terri Schiavo The 9/11 Commission The Catholic Answer The Constitution The Desert The Fourth Estate The Pelosi The Perpetual Adolescents The Rosary Third Party? Timothy Dolan Touch of evil TSA Tsunami TV/Pop Culture/Music TV/Pop Culture/Music Twitter Uncategorized Unemployment Unintended Consequences US Military Vaginal Musings Vatican Vespers video faves Vile Joe Biden Voter Fraud War by Litigation War on Terror War, What it good for? Why can't weeee be ... World Youth Days Year of Faith Year of the Priest

Select a Month August 2016 July 2016 April 2016 March 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 August 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

"I am the ____ and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Select your answer to see how you score.

Omega Way Alpha Word