Democrats Good, Republicans Baaaaaad

If that subject line reminds you of the Animal Farm the intent is intentional. Now in general I do not consider myself committed to any one party and I am a big proponent of needed a viable third party in our current political system in order to prevent any one party from gaining a stranglehold on the house and senate and possibly even the presidency so that they can force their agenda through with a total disregard for other opinions. A third party, in my opinion would force all parties to seek common ground and work together towards the ultimate goal in such a way that they can satisfy the most people. This is not what I set out to write about so I will shift gears here and get onto topic.

As I was driving into work this morning the news station I was listening to began discussing the war of words going on between Rush Limbaugh and President Barrack Obama. Just in case you have not been keeping up with this sort of stuff last week Rush Limbaugh made waves by saying “I want him to fail”, the him that Rush was referring to was of course Obama. The media types immediately latched onto this and the headlines read “Rush Limbaugh wants Obama to fail” or several similar variations. Of course what most of the headlines left out and many of the reports themselves did to is the context of Limbaugh’s statement. What Limbaugh actually said was:

If he is going to implement a far-left agenda... Look, I think it's already decided: a $2 trillion in stimulus? The growth of government? I think the intent here is to create as many dependant Americans as possible looking to government for their hope and salvation. If he gets nationalized health care, I mean, it's over, Sean. We're never going to roll that back. That's the end of America as we have known it, because that's then going to set the stage for everything being government owned, operated, or provided. Why would I want that to succeed? I don't believe in that. I know that's not how this country is going to be great in the future; it's not what made this country great. So I shamelessly say, "No! I want him to fail." If his agenda is a far-left collectivism -- some people say socialism -- as a conservative heartfelt, deeply, why would I want socialism to succeed?


When taken in context I think a rational person would understand that what Limbaugh is saying is that he does not want Obama to be successful in implementing policy and programs that he feels are not the right things to pursue. Many have accused Limbaugh of being un-American and wanting America to fail because of these statements. The hard truth is that Limbaugh made these statements not because he wants America to fail but because he wants America to succeed and he feels that Obama’s plans, which many are calling socialism, are not the way to make America succeed. I am not really sure how this makes him un-American, I mean after all wasn’t part of the founding of America and on of the major debating points of our founding fathers how much control the federal government had. There were those that believed in a large federal government and those that thought a large federal government would be the equivalent of trading a tryant several thousand miles away for one in your own back yard. I would say that Rush’s willingness to step outside the box and state his opinion that the wildly popular Obama might not have the best plan for our country is inherently American and is part of what makes this country so great.

This brings me back to my point that on the radio today they mentioned that Obama had responded to Limbaugh’s statement by saying that the republics in DC should not listen to Rush because, “You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.” Now I will say that President Obama is correct, you can not just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done, getting things done require action. I am not talking about action like shutting down a detainment facility without giving any thought of what you are going to do with the detainees, or spending hundreds of billions of tax payers money in order to spark the economy. Those types of actions are easy because they are based off of emotion and lack little substance. Now at this point I want to say that I am not against Obama, I hope that he does a lot of good for this country and I agree with some of what he has done and I expect he will do some great things. I said from day one that he strikes me as the type of president that will honestly listen to people with pinions different than his own (though this little spat with Limbaugh would suggest otherwise). Now back to the topic, as I was saying in order to get things done you must take action and not just sit idly by listening to a conservative radio show and let the democrats push their agenda and then wonder what happened. Of course I do not think that is what President Obama meant. I think he meant that you should lot listen to what Rush is saying to you, you should not ask the tough questions, you should not listen to any opinion that is different than mine. Instead you should ignore the fact that pouring money in to the banks did not stop the bleeding in November when every Politian was pushing the bailout to win votes, ignore the fact that the bailout of the big three is doing nothing to stimulate their businesses. What Obama wants the republicans to do is stop listening to Rush and sign his economic stimulus package so he can take tax payer’s money and pour it back into failing businesses to stimulate the economy. Honestly is anyone thinking this thing through?

Of course Limbaugh had to respond to President Obama’s statement and say that Obama must want him to fail if he is telling the republicans to stop listening to him. Now honestly Limbaugh probably would have been better off without this statement, but what do you expect from a radio show hosts that makes a living by getting people worked up. Now on to the real point of this tirade, on the radio this morning the reporter offering up this information followed it up by saying, “I thought this is the time to put away childish things” stealing directly from Obama’s inauguration speech; they then said that while Rush is “entitled to his conservative opinions” he really should “be getting along and working together to get the economy back on track”. Now excuse me for being less informed than our non-biased media, but isn’t the point of our country and political system that you do not have to just accept thepopular opinion especially when you feel strongly that it is the wrong way to go. What I am noticing is a disturbing trend right now that everything that the democrats touch is golden in the eyes of the media (and therefore by default the general public) and anyone that disagrees is bad and evil and is simply being childish. I guess it is only childish when it stands in the way of the democrats getting their way, but when the roles are reversed it is the right thing to do.

On a sidebar I also heard on the radio the other day where they were interviewing people and getting their opinion about Obama’s first week in office. They asked one man how much time he thought we needed to give Obama before we begin really analyzing or criticizing how he was doing. He responded and said and I quote, “I think by the end of his first term we should have a pretty good idea of how he is doing”. Let’s hope it does not take 4 years for us to learn if Obama can do this job.