Promises broken; promises renewed

By Jim Killebrew

[January 30, 2014]  OK, we are now five years into the administration, with three years remaining.

Forget about the promises of transparency that were never kept when the first two years of the president's term were complemented with a majority of his party in both houses of Congress and his legislative preferences were passed most of the time without a single vote from the opposition party, the Republicans. Often the legislation was passed by his party, the Democrats, behind closed doors without sharing information with anyone.

Forget about the health care bill that passed without a single Republican vote; he got what he wanted. Forget about his promise to do something about the immigration issue, but didn't even mention it when he controlled the House and Senate. Don't even think about the redistribution of wealth, or the Recovery Act (stimulus bailout). Don't consider the cap-and-trade or the energy issue with his moratorium on drilling. Forget about the president's formative years with Kenyan heritage and socialization until his teen years in Indonesia.

Let's not even consider the largest deficit ever and his drive for deficit spending, bringing us to an unprecedented $17 trillion in debt. Notwithstanding the fact he did not have a budget for the entirety of his first term in office. Never mind that in the first 3 1/2 years of the president's first term, his deficit spending amounted to more than all the American presidents before him combined. And while we are not counting, don't even consider his sidestepping the Congress with executive orders that negated laws already on the books. Forget the unprecedented czars he has appointed to bypass the confirmation process of Congress for high-ranking officials, and try to put it out of your mind that each one of them have vast powers over Cabinet-ranking positions, and they all report directly to the president, no one else.

We can even set aside the facts of the economic morass in which we find ourselves. We shouldn't even think about the tax increases proposed for the American people. Income tax from 35 percent to 39.6 percent; income/payroll from 37.4 percent to 52.2 percent; capital gains from 15 percent to 28 percent; dividend tax from 15 percent to 39.6 percent; and estate tax from zero in 2010 to 55 percent. This represents the largest tax increase in American history.

Perhaps all of those things could be winked at as we consider the president's governing for the next three years. But there is one thing we must consider: We have to look at the character and truthfulness of the president's words as he speaks to throngs of his followers, bringing them to a mind-numbing state of belief in him that surpasses common sense or logic. We should begin to fear the uncommon hold he seems to have over the solid, hard-core base of almost half the American population who seem to follow him blindly and believe everything he says or does, even in the face of hard evidence to the contrary.

A friend sent me a picture of Barbra Streisand with a caption of her quote. It read: "Obama has been more fiscally conservative than any other president in recent history, with the exception of President Bill Clinton."

Now, for a person who lives in opulent luxury afforded only by multimillionaires, Ms. Streisand may be deluded into thinking that the out-of-control spending that has left a $17 trillion debt is "fiscally conservative," but for most people in America who live on much, much less than she does, it means loss of jobs, lower pay, dependence on food stamps, welfare, unemployment and other types of charity from others.

The prices of groceries have gone sky-high, gasoline has doubled during the president's administration, health care has increased significantly, inflation is rising, more people are "upside-down" on their mortgages and even losing family businesses and farms due to inflated estate taxes.

The question we really need to answer is, why do so many people worship a man who has fallen so far below the standards of performance of all other presidents before him? How are we going to lead a country back to relevance, credibility and solvency when so many people who follow the president believe everything he says even when it is not true? More than that, like Ms. Streisand, many of his cronies, spokesmen and captains repeat those untrue statements, further driving them into the minds of the significant group of people who follow him. This creates a lot of robot-like followers who consistently seem unable to distinguish the truth from a lie.

For a group of people of that magnitude, there has to be something at play to significantly influence people from every walk of life. What is it that draws people to him like a moth to a flame? Of course he is articulate in speech: rhetoric that sways through the stratosphere and soothes the mind like the melodious sounds of the ocean waves gently beating against the sands on the beach. His promises sound authentic as listeners in crowds of thousands begin to sway so gently from one side to another, often with tears streaming down their face, quivering lips and hands reached high to the heavens in a stance of pure worship. Those were the scenes of "Yes We Can" of yesteryear. But as his administration has played it out, "No We Can't."

His has been a phenomenon of almost cult-like worship that has even captured and captivated the national media. People who went to college to study to become professional journalists have yielded themselves to the president's persuasive moans of pure pitch and melodious lies. They have carried his words across the airwaves and sung his praises, all the while casting aside their own hard work after having earned degrees that normally should have stamped their work as being objective. Instead they have fallen in line with the addiction of the sweetness of his words with changed meanings, captivated to a degree that they rarely even recognize what they are saying regarding the "thrill" they receive just being close to him. Objectivity and journalism have given way to acceptance of anything he desires to say, and then to rush to the microphone or camera and spew out the false messages with such joy and enthusiasm as to think they have personally received the gift of life itself.

The real tragedy is that the president has succeeded in what he told us he was going to do: He has brought a fundamental change to America. From the Greek-column stage where he stood alone, adulated by the throngs of thousands, he told us that America would not look the same when he was finished. That part is truth; he has done that and then some. He has lost America's financial credit rating, reduced her standing in the world, led America closer to a socialistic government with significant numbers of people without jobs and becoming generationally dependent on government handouts, and changed the mindset of many Americans to believe they are "entitled" to dependency and it has become the "new norm." Unfortunately, the new norm has been constructed on a foundation of lies and misrepresentations.

There is a new day coming when Americans can shake off those lies and misrepresentations and open their eyes to see the huge cracks in the foundation of the American Constitution due to the fundamental changes that have been made. They can refute those people like Barbra Streisand and her Hollywood friends who have fed us a regurgitation of their leader's definition of "leadership" during the past five years. Americans across the land, yes, 50 states, can rise up and shake the crust from their eyes and see the debt we are in; see the lack of leadership we have; see the lack of respect and confidence the rest of the world has in us; and see the world in turmoil due largely to the doctrine of submissiveness from the American leadership that has bowed and apologized throughout the world.

There is a new day coming when Americans can open their ears and hear the new sounds of freedom singing its song once again; hear the sounds of strength in leadership; hear the sounds of economic growth; hear the sounds of world leaders calling for respect for America once again; and hear the sounds of truth being spoken from leadership who in turn respect "We the People."

On that day we will feel the winds of truth and freedom flowing through our land again. We will feel the weight of heavy regulation being lifted from the backs of small businesses across the land; we will feel the weight of the federal government walking beside the state governments, working in tandem to protect the citizens in regard to immigration, jobs and support to enforce the laws on the books.

Finally, on that day we can take a deep breath of exhilaration, knowing that we are no longer under attack by forces of restriction to our prayers, worship, forced taxation for services in which we do not believe, freedom of speech, enhanced family values and the return of the American dream.

This is a midterm election year, and we have yet a third chance to get it right.

[By JIM KILLEBREW]