President Obama has joined Mexico's side by suing Arizona for trying to protect its borders. He has joined unions in opposing the governor of Wisconsin, who is trying to protect the taxpayers. He has defied a majority of the people in this country who agree with God's determination of marriage between one man and one woman as his administration announced it no longer will defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court. Where is the defiance leading and when will it end?
What's Jay Say? Government, Humbug
Some timeless wisdom for Obama: "This country has achieved its commercial and financial supremacy under a regime of private ownership. It conquered the wilderness, built our railroads, factories and public utilities, gave us the telegraph, telephone, electric light, automobile, airplane, radio and a higher standard of living for all the people than obtains anywhere else in the world. No great invention ever came from a government-owned industry." - George B. Cortelyou
Josh reminds me of Barack
So our beloved Broncos have found their home next to the Titanic. At the bottom. In a sea of darkness. Hopes and dreams quite literally drowned. This development was as predictable as daylight to many of us when young Josh McDaniels was named coach less than two years ago. McDaniels carried with him the seeds of his and the Broncos destruction. In a phrase, the catastrophe is summed up in the proverb; “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18) But it is instructive to break it down. First, McDaniels thought his ideology, his “system” was so superior that all he needed to do was find athletes and “plug and play.” It was the system, not players, that mattered. So he first concluded that a Matt Cassell was a better quarterback than Jay Cutler. Yes, Cutler is an annoying prima donna but his upside is so much greater than a Cassell’s or a Kyle Orton’s, any fantasy league owner could see. This was followed by numerous personnel decisions that ranged from bizarre to disastrous concluding with one of the worst trades in Bronco history—Peyton Hillis for the not-so-mighty Quinn.
Second, when you know everything you do not need or want assistants around you who might disagree. So from drafting to play calling to selecting coaches McD revolved out the people who were not “yes” men. The most inexplicable was Mike Nolan. The only redeeming characteristic of the 2009 Broncos was their defense, so, let’s fire the defensive coordinator. Who knows what Nolan said to be shown the door. But you can bet it was some kind of disagreement with Josh the Omniscient.
Third, when you are a cut above the rest rules which apply to other people do not apply to you. So, in a still mystifying maneuver, McDaniel’s videographer taped a San Francisco practice, in clear violation of NFL rules. Good grief—the 49ers! Then he Watergated it by trying to hush it up. Don’t tell anyone. But one of his coaches leaked the truth and that was the final nail in the old coffin.
Let’s shift from Denver, Colorado, to Washington, D.C. where this same type of drama is playing itself out in eerie similarity; a place where hubris can do some real damage.
Our young president came into office full to the brim with himself. His inauguration would be noted as the time when the “planet began to heal” and the “oceans would recede.” He would incarnate the slogan, “We are the change we’ve been waiting for,” and other inscrutable and mind-numbing slogans.
His administration would be composed of the anointed. No one with business savvy was needed. No one to the right of Karl Marx need apply. It didn’t even matter if you paid taxes—you could help precipitate the greatest spending orgy in world history. And when nervous Democrats warned of impending electoral disaster, the young president reassured them, “This time you’ve got me!”
Then there would be no need to listen to the unwashed masses, the flotsam and jetsam of humanity. After all, these are people who “cling to their guns and religion” because an enlightened government had not done enough for them. But not to worry. The Enlightener himself had arrived. And what about all those foolish people who, because of their fear, were unable to “think scientifically.” No problem. The president would do their thinking for them. After all, McDaniels-like, he was the smartest man in any room he entered.
Finally, who need rules? Constitutions are for suckers. What people really need are a string of syrupy slogans and endless, endless, endless speeches from the Anointed One. Heretofore, congress had been governed by regulations and procedures. No need for those now. Dispense with them and ram Obamacare down the throats of the critics. They will come to appreciate what their betters have done for them.
And so our national government has come to look like the Broncos. Only the stakes are a bit higher. The future of constitutional government is at stake. And so is our ability function as a free market society. Josh McDaniels was fired twenty-two months into his reign. Obama would have suffered the same fate if the constitution so allowed. Let’s hope and pray that in four years it won’t be too late. Imagine what McD would have done to the Broncos in two more seasons.
What's Jay Say: BHO's Moral Confusion
There were two revealing stories about President Obama in the same day's paper. In the first, the White House defended its effort to sway Democrat Andrew Romanoff from the U.S. Senate race. His defense was that everybody does it. Doesn't that sound like a response you would get from your teenager? In the second story, Obama objected to the tough immigration law that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed by calling it discriminatory. It does in fact discriminate -- against those who entered our country illegally. Both articles point to the Obama proclivity to call evil good and good evil, as the Bible might put it. (Source: 6/4/10 Denver Post)
US weak on purpose: Why?
In the 1930s Franklin Roosevelt realized that U.S. leadership and power were the indispensable elements in any acceptable world order and with extraordinary skill and courage overcame the forces of isolationism in his own country and moved America to the forefront of the titanic struggle against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Ever since then the United States has accepted its role as the world’s principal champion of freedom and chief guarantor of international stability. In pursuing this mission the United States has made many mistakes both large and small, but any credible historical analysis recognizes that on balance America has been the world’s greatest force for good throughout the period in question.
There is however an alternative narrative originating in the left wing of the American and European political spectrum first coming to prominence in the Vietnam Era that sees the mistakes as far outweighing the good, and regarding the exercise of American power as a negative rather than a positive force in world affairs.
For forty years this alternative narrative has been essentially a minority viewpoint able to carp and criticize but only rarely able to dominate the main thrust of American foreign policy. In the last fifteen months however this minority viewpoint has become the reigning orthodoxy of the regime now dominating both the Executive and Legislative branches of American government. Accordingly this ruling majority has boldly moved to reshape American foreign policy in ways consonant with its long held world view.
Evidence steadily mounts that the broad theme of the New American Foreign Policy is best described as “Abuse your Friends, while Kow-Towing to your Enemies”. A major corollary of this policy is that America makes concessions to its enemies in return for nothing, while demanding that our friends also grant concessions to their enemies in return for nothing. A further theme is making serial apologies for imagined American arrogance and misuse of power while blithely ignoring the very real transgressions of our enemies.
The background music to all of this is endless talk from an Administration that believes no world problem is so great that it cannot be solved by yet one more speech by President Obama.
For some specifics in this indictment, let us first look at how we have been treating our friends.
Poland and the Czech Republic- After both at considerable risk to themselves agreed to SDI installations on their soil despite Russian bluster and bullying, the U.S. on the flimsiest excuse abruptly cancelled the whole project.
Israel - While West Bank settlement freezes have never been a precondition of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, on Day One the Obama Administration made that demand, while asking no similar up front concession from the Palestinians. When Netanyahu refused what no Israeli Prime Minister could agree to, the U.S. began a serial campaign of very public sulking and petulant verbal abuse of our only ally in the volatile Middle East while at the same time signaling clearly that regarding the existential threat from Iran the only U.S. support for Israel would be empty rhetoric.
Iraq- The leaders of this fledgling democracy and their enemies see very clearly that the overriding imperative of the new Democratic Administration is rapid withdrawal. They know that U.S. caveats about “conditions on the ground” and residual “technical advisors” are a very small counterweight to the obsessions of Obama’s political base.
Britain- Secretary Clinton’s public pressure on Britain to open talks with Argentina regarding the Falkland Islands- heretofore a settled matter of international law- was a stunning slap in the face to the one great power that has consistently expended its blood and treasure on foreign battlefields in support of U.S. Troops.
Afghanistan- Brought to power by Americans who valued his inclusiveness President Karzai within the last year has been subjected to a steady barrage of public pressure, threats, and insults regarding corruption, electoral practices, and military performance. Karzai who faces daily risk of assassination because of his association with Americans, must increasingly see the U.S. as a distant power that entered his country without invitation in pursuit of its own interests, suffered far fewer casualties than the Afghan army, and now has loudly announced that its soldiers will begin leaving in July. Like his Iraqi counterparts Karzai regards the Obama administration as of most dubious reliability and cannot be blamed for recognizing that he must deal seriously with those who aren’t leaving i.e. Iran, Pakistan and the Taliban.
In contrast to this back of the hand treatment of our friends, the Obama administration has bent over backwards to be generous to our opponents. Principal examples to date include:
China- Beijing has just said “No” to the U.S. on appreciating their currency, sanctioning Iran, curbing North Korea, reducing carbon emissions, promoting human rights, and moderating unfair trade practices, while undiplomatically giving us blistering lectures on Taiwan arms sales, meeting with the Dalai Lama, and our fiscal policies.
The Obama Administration’s response has been an embarrassingly supine Presidential visit to China, delaying the Treasury report on currency manipulation, disrespecting the Dalai Lama, repeatedly announcing imagined “ signs of progress” ( a great conference call!), and an increasingly obvious willingness to settle for just about anything- however hollow- that could be portrayed as Chinese support for Iran sanctions.
Iran- The mullahs’ unrelenting march to nuclear weapons, brutal suppression of democratic opposition, sponsorship of murderous attacks on Israel, and continuing export of sophisticated weapons to kill American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan has done little to curb the Obama administration’s feckless talk of “outreach” and “engagement” regarding Iran. The endless series of unmet “deadlines” concerning nuclear development does much to justify Teheran’s contemptuous mockery of U.S. resolve.
Russia- Moscow has followed up its victory on SDI by toying with the U.S. regarding Iranian sanctions while continuing to sell Teheran arms and technology for their “peaceful” nuclear projects. Similarly they have disingenuously partnered with China in frustrating U.S. efforts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. The real stunner however is Russia’s success in persuading the U.S. to sign a nuclear arms treaty that will have no practical effect on Moscow’s decrepit nuclear arsenal but require significant reductions in American nuclear armaments. This treaty in tandem with the bizarre and baffling public announcement that future U.S. policy bans any use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states even if they attack us with biological or chemical weapons of mass destruction, overturns a fundamental American defense doctrine that for over sixty years has been absolutely central to world peace and stability.
All of the above has greatly emboldened our enemies and certainly encourages them to push their new advantages even harder in the future. Conversely our friends are discouraged and alarmed.
The emerging profile of the new American foreign policy is an amalgam of wrong-headed ideology, naiveté, and incompetence. When added to America’s domestic economic and political disarray, we see a United States weaker than at any time in living memory and most dangerously diminished as a force for international peace and stability. Reversing this deeply disturbing downward spiral will not be easy, and perhaps not even possible.
William Moloney is a Centennial Institute Fellow and former Colorado Education Commissioner. His columns have appeared in the Wall St. Journal, U.S.A. Today, Washington Post, Washington Times, and Philadelphia Inquirer.