2016: Obama's America

I saw the Obama movie tonight. Very well done Neoconservative election year propaganda - it may succeed where 2004's Progressive election year propaganda film, Fahrenheit 911, failed: it may help defeat an incumbent president.

Much of the content was accurate - Obama has radical, socialist roots, and the anti-colonial mindset of many Progressives (though that term isn't used) is about punishing the rich more than helping the poor.

Nevertheless, the message conveyed by "2016: Obama's America" is very misleading, chiefly on account of what it omits. Example: the peril of our nation's escalating debt is rightly heralded. However, it is presented as exclusively the result of Obama's policies, echoing a theme of this year's GOP convention.  The fact is our journey into bankruptcy has been a bipartisan project with many villains, from Democrats Woodrow Wilson, FDR, LBJ, and Ted Kennedy to Republicans Teddy Roosevelt, Nixon, Bush, Billy Long (my congressman) and many, many others.

Likening our country to a ship, I observe that both Democrats and Republicans are diligently drilling holes in the boat. Democrats drill on the port side, Republicans on the starboard. Both are sinking us! The former oft remind us that Bush presided over the first $trillion dollar deficit, but ignore the fact that he couldn't have done so without a compliant Democrat run Congress during his last two years. The latter point out that Obama has added more debt than any president in history, omitting the fact that they currently control the House, where all spending bills originate, and that they voted to expand the debt ceiling another $2.4 trillion. Democrats cite half a truth in pointing out Bush's fiscal carelessness, but ignore the fact that they did absolutely nothing to reduce spending during the two years they controlled both Congress and the White House. Republicans rightly condemn "Obamacare" as unconstitutional, and far more expensive than advertised, yet they passed "Bushcare" - the ill conceived prescription drug plan - which, besides being unauthorized by the Constitution, burdens our posterity with $16 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

Both parties support bailouts of the uber-rich, a massive and inefficient Welfare State and an interventionist foreign policy that is both immoral and  unsustainable. Their rhetoric differs, but the fact is Paul Ryan's plan only reduces spending by $300 billion the first year, leaving intact a $trillion dollar plus deficit.  Ryan counts on future Congresses, not to be elected for decades, to finally bring spending under control. For his part, Obama promised to reduce the deficit during his first two years. He lied - his party controlled the government during that time and didn't even address spending except to increase it.

Both parties voted for the odious detention clause in the 2012 NDAA, which grants power to the president to detain any American whom he deems a  threat - indefinitely, without a trial or legal representation.  A few principled Democrats dissented, like Dennis Kucinich and Bernie Sanders, but their party leaders supported it, and President Obama signed it. Republicans claim to not trust Obama, but they too went along with this attack on liberty, with only a few exceptions, like Rand Paul and Tom Coburn.

The Democrat and Republican parties are as different as the American League and the National League. You can argue about whether the designated hitter is good or bad, but both leagues play the same game and have more in common with each other than they do with your local softball team.

The Democrat and Republican parties are as different as McDonald's and Wendy's. Each touts its own food as the ultimate value, but continual reliance on either makes us fat and lethargic.

My recommendation in the 2012 Presidential election:

Vote NO.