"How much time did the Founding Fathers spend discussing civility? Probably none. In fact, they called each other all kinds of names. They did it directly; they did it through their favorite pamphleteers and newspapers. They even paid some “reporters” to dig up dirt about their family lines, of whether their opponents had illegitimate children or bizarre diseases, all these things went on. Did you know this? I wonder how much they discussed publicly and at length where they were going to sit at the Continental Congress, and later, the United States Congress? Whether they’d sit together, sit by Party? Now traditionally, they sat by Party. But how much time did they spend going over this? Probably almost none. I wonder how much time our Founding Fathers spent trying to dupe their fellow citizens with intentionally misleading words? Like talking about ‘investments’ rather than ‘spending’; ‘investments’ rather than ‘tax increases’. My guess is little or none.
Dishonesty, dissembling and diverting are not virtues, and they’re not civil, and we’re getting a lot of this from those who demand civility. Nor are they the elements of leadership or statesmanship. One of the biggest problems we have today is the manner in which our elected representatives treat us, how they look at us, especially Obama.
In one or two speeches, at a memorial and a coming State of the Union Address, he expects you to believe he has miraculously changed from decades of political radicalism and two years of governing incompetently to a centrist administrator. Now, the fact is, this is incredibly self-serving of him. The American People have rejected Obama and his agenda; so Obama is recreating his image, not his radical agenda, his image. The fact is he’s recreating his image so he can protect his radical policies that have already been instituted and advance new ones. He hasn’t moved substantively anywhere. The radicals on the Left, they have to lie, they have to deceive, they have to recreate. This is how they survive. Their ideology is an impossibility. It’s disastrous. And yet, this is how they win elections. Obama’s cause remains the same. He didn’t suddenly decide to reverse course. If so, where? This is all about manipulating you, creating impressions and so forth. There’s nothing real about any of this. There’s nothing real about what he will say tomorrow. It’s a show.
Tell me, how can the man who signed the most radical law in modern times, Obamacare, knowing full well that at least one of its provisions was unconstitutional, and that the entire undertaking would further bankrupt the nation and destroy our healthcare system, how would he suddenly decide that he needs to work with Republicans or that he needs to moderate his politics? This is preposterous. Has Obama called off his lawyers in the Obamacare litigation? No. Has he called off his lawyers against Arizona on the immigration law? No. Has he called off his lawyers going after Texas over the environment? No. Has he called off anything or anyone? No! Has he called off the rabid dogs on MSNBC? No! He hasn’t lifted a finger.
Here’s a man who sets up a deficit commission and rejects virtually every proposal it develops. What’s that? He issued an executive order last week to review wasteful regulations; at the exact time, he directed his EPA to continue to pursue a far-reaching and economically radical agenda through destructive regulations, including shutting down coal mines. He’s directed his Interior Department to effectively shut down offshore drilling; the price of gasoline is going up. He signed regulations choking our financial industries, while exempting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, because he needs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He’s nationalized the student loan program and two auto industries. And these two auto companies: he nationalized them, he rewarded the UAW, punished the investors. He took care of his cronies, and he took care of his opponents, with different outcomes. This is a man who’s suddenly moderating?
Obama is pushing as I speak to prevent secret ballots for employees who may not want to join a union. Moderating. He intentionally nominates the most radical lawyers and law professors he can find to positions on the federal court and the Justice Department. Moderating. His FCC is the most reckless, leftist, radical FCC in my memory; it’s attempting to regulate the internet in defiance of a federal court ruling. Oh yes, he’s seen the light, he’s ‘pivoting’ as they say. And his Agriculture Department is regulating school bake sales and pizza parties. In other words, nothing escapes the attention of the Obama administration. Nothing is left to the decisions of individuals, or as little as possible. And I can go on and on. Moderating he is, huh? Civil he is, huh?
And I suppose to believe what comes out of Obama’s mouth, that I’m supposed to ignore everything around me? So Obama agrees to a tax deal that leaves current tax rates in place for two years only, while vowing to make it a campaign issue when he runs for president again. And we’re told that shows he can govern? And that deal also increased the death tax and further increased federal spending when there’s no money left to spend. This is evidence that Obama is moving to the center? That he can be worked with? That was the great deal? The idea that we’re going to allow the temporary politicians in Washington and their media cheerleaders, who’ve turned this society on its head, tell us what to think, how to think, and why to think what we think and how we think, is not going to happen. Not after a State of the Union address, not after any address, not after anything. They’re the people who we seek to replace, to stop, to defeat. They don’t get to lecture us and tell us who we are and how we are or anything else.
Let me be as clear as I can: Obama says he wants to transform our nation (we have the audio). He sets out to do it. That’s his intention. He’s wasted no time. Yet we’re to believe that what he’s done is not ‘transformative’ (even though he told us it was), that he loves this society? Well, who’d transform a society that you love? And besides, he's pivoting to become more moderate. Why? Because he says he is? Or his supporters do, or the media do? That’s insane.
Why shouldn’t we acknowledge what he has done? Why shouldn’t we label what he has done? ‘Transformative’, that’s his word. Why doesn’t he deserve the credit, or I would say discredit, for everything he’s done? Why shouldn’t we acknowledge it?
The ideological fanatics who helped elect Obama supported him because they saw him and see him as one of them. The difference is they support his agenda, and we don’t. The issue for me is not where Obama was born, but where his ideology was born. His ideology is alien; it’s alien to this nation’s traditions, institutions and yes, values. I don’t know why saying the obvious is so controversial? I’ve listened to the man; he characterizes what he’s doing as ‘transformative’, thinking outside the box, making us do things that we wouldn’t otherwise think we should do, and so forth. This isn’t a man who seeks to govern strictly under the limited role a president has under the Constitution. He’s demonstrated it. It’s not an academic debate; it’s a fact! He’s acknowledged who he is, so we acknowledge that he’s right. The fact that he attempts to genuflect for political purposes to remake his image, not his ideology, is something we’re not prepared to [accept]. He has no intention of reversing course. What he does intend to do is institutionalize his agenda in this vast bureaucracy through executive power. His friends at the Center for American Progress have said so. We see that’s exactly what he’s doing. And he wants those decisions to be upheld against challenges in the federal courts by packing those courts with like-minded radicals. That’s exactly what he’s doing. Moderation and practicality are not in this man’s DNA.
The fact that he’s going to huddle with his advisors, ’the Svengali’, and come up with clever phrases and words to make you think (they think) that he embraces this society when he seeks to transform it, is not going to be persuasive to you or me in the least. I don’t care if it comes from FOX, MSNBC, CNN or any other networks. If Obama gave no State of the Union Address, that wouldn’t change my view of what he’s done and where he wants to take us. Why is the mere fact of the State of the Union Address supposed to convince me otherwise?
Now when the Republicans two years ago were whipped in the election, its leaders urged a course different than what the tea party activists and other conservatives insisted on. They were prepared to sell out to make deals to pander. They were panicked. They settled into the mindset of a permanent minority, or at least decades to come. The last thing they wanted to do was move back into the conservative camp. Conservatism (they told us) was not appealing. It was too regional. Well, they were dead wrong. You, WE, changed that, not THEM! I want you to remember that. They would have been perfectly happy to go along with Colin Powell and so forth. You and we changed that. You delivered them the House of Representatives in November. You’ll deliver them the Senate, and God Willing, the Presidency in the next election. You will give them the power they need to begin to turn the ship of State back on course. But that is what they must do and we expect no less. And in order to advance the cause of Liberty and Constitutionalism and the Civil Society that Big Government smothers, they must not become so easily befuddled or awestruck by carefully crafted propaganda and those who promote it.”
~ Mark Levin 01/24/11
Source: The Mark Levin Show
