SubscribeObama’s Audacity - On Bringing Us Together
Some comforting excerpts from his Jeremiah Wright inspired book, The Audacity Of Hope:
[Page 14:] MY WIFE WILL tell you that by nature I’m not somebody who gets real worked up about things. When I see Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity baying across the television screen, I find it hard to take them seriously; I assume that they must be saying what they do primarily to boost book sales or ratings, although I do wonder who would spend their precious evenings with such sourpusses…
[Pages 23-4:] In the back-and-forth between Clinton and Gingrich, and in the elections of 2000 and 2004, I sometimes felt as if I were watching the psychodrama of the Baby Boom generation—a tale rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses long ago—played out on the national stage. The victories that the sixties generation brought about—the admission of minorities and women into full citizenship, the strengthening of individual liberties and the healthy willingness to question authority—have made America a far better place for all its citizens. But what has been lost in the process, and has yet to be replaced, are those shared assumptions—that quality of trust and fellow feeling—that bring us together as Americans.
So where does that leave us? Theoretically the Republican Party might have produced its own Clinton, a center-right leader who built on Clinton’s fiscal conservatism while moving more aggressively to revamp a creaky federal bureaucracy and experiment with market–or faith-based solutions to social policy. And in fact such a leader may still emerge. Not all Republican elected officials subscribe to the tenets of today’s movement conservatives. In both the House and the Senate, and in state capitals across the country, there are those who cling to more traditional conservative virtues of temperance and restraint—men and women who recognize that piling up debt to finance tax cuts for the wealthy is irresponsible, that deficit reduction can’t take place on the backs of the poor, that the separation of church and state protects the church as well as the state, that conservation and conservatism don’t have to conflict, and that foreign policy should be based on facts and not wishful thinking.
But these Republicans are not the ones who have driven the debate over the past six years. Instead of the “compassionate conservatism” that George Bush promised in his 2000 campaign, what has characterized the ideological core of today’s GOP is absolutism, not conservatism. There is the absolutism of the free market, an ideology of no taxes, no regulation, no safety net—indeed, no government beyond what’s required to protect private property and provide for the national defense.
There’s the religious absolutism of the Christian right, a movement that gained traction on the undeniably difficult issue of abortion, but which soon flowered into something much broader; a movement that insists not only that Christianity is America’s dominant faith, but that a particular, fundamentalist brand of that faith should drive public policy, overriding any alternative source of understanding, whether the writings of liberal theologians, the findings of the National Academy of Sciences, or the words of Thomas Jefferson.
And there is the absolute belief in the authority of majority will, or at least those who claim power in the name of the majority—a disdain for those institutional checks (the courts, the Constitution, the press, the Geneva Conventions, the rules of the Senate, or the traditions governing redistricting) that might slow our inexorable march toward the New Jerusalem.
Of course, there are those within the Democratic Party who tend toward similar zealotry. But those who do have never come close to possessing the power of a Rove or a DeLay, the power to take over the party, fill it with loyalists, and enshrine some of their more radical ideas into law. The prevalence of regional, ethnic, and economic differences within the party, the electoral map and the structure of the Senate, the need to raise money from economic elites to finance elections—all these things tend to prevent those Democrats in office from straying too far from the center.
That’s right. The Democrat party has not strayed at all from the center, like the crazy Republicans have. And that’s because it doesn’t allow any of its (very few) “zealots” into positions of power.
Of course neither John Conyers, Harry Reid of Nancy Pelosi are zealots. Who would claim that except for “sourpusses” like Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity?
Meanwhile, the crazy GOP has let maniacs like Karl Rove and Tom DeLay run roughshod over the other branches of government, the National Academy of Sciences and even the Geneva Conventions.
Still, can’t you just feel Mr. Obama’s “quality of trust and fellow feeling—that [will] bring us together as Americans”?
Of course that only applies to those people who happen to agree with him.
For the rest it will be the gulag.
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36 Responses to “Obama’s Audacity - On Bringing Us Together”
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March 13th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I am destined for the gulag too…..if things go the way they are seemingly going now….well, destined for, and ending up at are two separate things, arent they? Long range comes to mind. again.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
For the rest it will be the gulag.
I will be there, too. With SJ, and the other conservatives I know are destined for the gulag, it’ll be one hell of a party, that’s for sure.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Uh, I’m confused how can Ann Coulter’s - ‘how do we know that these men weren’t going to divorce these harpies’ be any where considered sour pusses or even equal to -’“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people,” he said in a 2003 sermon. “God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”‘- [http://hotair.com/archives/2008/03/13/video-obams-pastor-takes-highly-nuanced-approach-to-racial-divisiveness/]
????
Typical (and didn’t Jesus mention the fact that one should take the beam out of their own eye before going after their brother for the speck in his eye?!?) of fiberals, dummycrats and the like - muddle truth based humor with outright racist hate speech - no wonder our kids are failing - they don’t know what the definition of ‘is’ is. . .
He should have just entiled the book The Audacity - it would have been closer to the truth.
Also - no wonder these people side with the religion of perpetual outrage - they are the race of perputual victimization. . .
March 13th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
“Kids say the darndest things”
March 13th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Sorry in advance. But Obama’s blather made my brain switch off. I can’t get “The Name Game” song out of my head now.
“BARACK!”
Barack,back, bo back banana, bamma forrack, fee, fie, foafmack. BArack.
“HUSSEIN!”
Hussein, sein, bo sein, banana, bamma, fosein, fee, fie, foafsein, HUsein.
(Come on Everybody!!!)
“OBAMA!”
Obama, bama, bo bama, banana, bamma, fofama, fee fie, foama, Obama!
March 13th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Reality - He Who Cannot Be Named will not be amused. At. All.
However, I do like BO - very appropriate name for this man who is an empty suit spouting the worst vile verbal garbage not seen in a long time (well 8 years) in America.
March 13th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Bo Knows….nothing
Sure looks good though, huh!
March 13th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
If this book makes it to another printing, I’ve got a new title for it……
“THE ABSURDITY OF the DOPE”
His prattling on reminds me of an eighteen-year-old high school drop-out. He knows what’s wrong and how to fix eeeeeeverything! My dad used to call these kinds of people ’sh*t-for-brains!
March 13th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
“possessing the power of a Rove or a DeLay”
Rove and DeLay are gone. Correct?
“MY WIFE WILL tell you that by nature I’m not somebody who gets real worked up about things.”
Like Iraq? 9/11? Federal government bankruptcy? Patriotism?
March 13th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
I have less problem with him, personally, than I do with brainless dipsh*ts who want to put a Marxist icehole like him in the White House.
March 13th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
This idiot, has the nerve to ask how anyone would want to spend their precious evenings with sourpusses like Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity.
OK Buckwheat, What kind of person would spend their precious Sundays at your church?
March 13th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Hey (I know Drudge is skirting the edge now and then) did you see where he posted Afleck and Damon will be doing contest for a Moveon.org ad for Obama?!? I had wondered if this all was Soros attempting to destroy America from within - if this goes through - it will however cause He Who Cannot Be Named a teensy, tiny bit of trouble since so many of America really does not like Moveon at all. . .
Oh yes, I too will be in the gulag - after I take a few out on the way.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
“Oh yes, I too will be in the gulag - after I take a few out on the way.”
Your gonna have plenty of company, I just called Obama, Buckwheat.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Aw, DEZ, he was just tryin’ to sound all “growed-up” ‘n all. Sooooo mature.
Buckwheat? O tay!
March 13th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
“Aw, DEZ, he was just tryin’ to sound all “growed-up” ‘n all. Sooooo mature.”
And dont forget experienced and articulate.:-)
March 13th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
I did like the “Buckwheat” touch, too! Since we’uns is all racists anyhow ‘ccordin’ to them, might not ought we t’ sound like it?
March 13th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
That was my thinking as well MG,
I mean;
Damn dawg, you dun been unda my hood!
March 13th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
EQ trust me, you will be waving at me from outside the perimeter fence if I have anything to do with it….folks like you need to be on the outside…. besides, DEZ and WM4 and I will be playing “pin the back hoe on the guard” for the amusement of the rest of us.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
EQ trust me, you will be waving at me from outside the perimeter fence if I have anything to do with it….folks like you need to be on the outside….
Awwww, but there ain’t no party like a gulag party.
I’m still saving up to get my first firearm. So I won’t go without a fight. And I’ll have the back hoe to look forward to. :)
It’s sad that we even have to think about going to a gulag for not agreeing with the Messiah’s vision of the world…
March 13th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
englishqueen01; You need to dump the chump of a governor you have and elect one who won’t keep vetoing your right-to-carry legislation. But don’t wait for that to happen before you make that purchase!
March 14th, 2008 at 7:51 am
“Like Iraq? 9/11? Federal government bankruptcy? Patriotism?”
IMO, Patriotism will not be a problem for him, there will be none.
March 14th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Exactly what is Obamessiah implying here? Taken in context with preceding paragraphs, he seems to be stating that we should scrap our Constitutional foundation of majority rule. Now that’s audacity!!
Disdain for institutional checks has been a hallmark of Dems, liberals and socialists for years now. Liberal judges that ignore current law because of their “nuanced progressive perception” of an “evolving” Constitution are the standard bearers of libtards everywhere. Now that’s audacity!!
And what’s up with our “march toward the New Jerusalem” allusion? Sorry but I’m not following the Obamessiah there. To “nuanced” for me and vaguely anti-Semitic IMHO. Again. that’s audacity!!
March 14th, 2008 at 10:02 am
englishqueen01; You need to dump the chump of a governor you have and elect one who won’t keep vetoing your right-to-carry legislation. But don’t wait for that to happen before you make that purchase!
If Obama were to win the presidency…
…wait, excuse me a moment…(shudder, shudder, gag, gag)…
If Obama’s elected president, it’s highly likely our own Diamond Jim Doyle will get a spot in his administration.
Which would almost make me wish for an Obama win…but not really.
I’m not waiting. Don’t you worry. And that gun? Yeah - the Democrats will pry it from my cold, dead hands.
I don’t know how aware some of you are with Wisconsin politics and Milwaukee in particular, but crime is bad in the central city and it’s creeping into those areas once thought “safe” - like the Marquette University campus, where five thugs (three under the age of 18) were arrested early this morning in connection with a rash of armed robberies.
We’ve had several high-profile murders, including the shooting of an executive for Miller Brewing who was gunned down outside a bar after he gave the perp his wallet. A 58-year-old bartender was murdered in the bar where she worked (and now the owners have closed the bar).
A pizza delivery driver recently took his case to court after being arrested for carrying a weapon - despite the fact he did so after being robbed and beaten on previous occassions. He won his case.
And it’s in our state Constitution - explicitly worded - that we have the right to bear arms.
So once I get it (and a healthy supply of ammo), it’s not going anywhere. I have a right to protect myself, my family, and my property.
March 14th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
I don’t normally post too much here, but this subject rankles me to the core so I am going to weigh in on this one.
englishqueen01 – When it comes to Wisconsin Politics and Milwaukee crime, there is one example of just how “over the cliff” liberal I see your state. That example is the notorious “Urban Psychosis” case from the ’90s.
For those not familiar with it . . . in a nutshell a black girl in Milwaukee shot and killed a white girl because she would not give the black girl her leather coat. Her lawyer used the defense that this poor black girl lived in an abusive, poor black home and was traumatized psychologically. Although I don’t have the article, some writer put it in the context of she was justified in shooting the other girl and taking her leather coat because she was FORCED to grow up in a world where the “haves” were always flaunting their worldly possessions in the face of the “have-nots” (worldly possessions probably taken illegally in the minds of the “have-nots”). There is a brief on it here at this link:
http://www.theshellowgroup.com.....rs-Say.pdf
I am sure englishqueen01 remembers this case . . . and for those of you who haven’t heard of it, thank your liberal loving Drive By Media for it.
AND while I am still full of caffeine and we are on the subject of the MSM hiding black on white crime . . . ask yourselves if you have heard of the Christian-Newsome murders?
http://lashawnbarber.com/archi.....m-murders/
Who wants to bet that these racist murdering thugs won’t be charged with a hate crime?
I too agree that if “He Who Cannot Be Named” becomes president, he will appoint numerous “Maxine Waters/Cynthia McKinneys/Louis Farrakahns/Al Sharpton”, hate whitey, “the government owes me equal riches” racists to help him rule our country. Then we will just have even more of this reverse discrimination BS in all aspects of our lives.
I know it is selfish of me to say this and I do feel sorry for those who have to live in this kind of environment. But where I live we don’t lock our doors on our homes or our vehicles. Out here on the high plains we just don’t have these problems . . . yet. But when our time comes, you can rest assured we won’t be standing there with our hands outstretched asking “Where is FEMA” or “Where is our government pledged protection”? We will be locked and loaded, ready to do for ourselves what the government fails to do and we will be ready for whatever comes down the pike.
Until then I will be doing what SG has been doing now for years . . . trying to wake a lot of sleeping lemmings up as to what is going on around them.
March 14th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
clifcrds - you make a lot of great points - just take exception to one - me and mine have not been standing by - we were all over the country and world serving and defending the country. I came home and was amazed at how it has changed - and now find out that someone thought it would be a great idea to raze the ‘projects’ and force Section 8 housing on all the surrounding neighborhoods. Meanwhile everyone who had more than a few hundred in the bank - fled the city and close neighborhoods, the county is seeing rapid growth (and wealth and employment) while those who cannot afford to move are watching their areas become crime ridden, trashy slums with rising taxes. . .As soon as we can - we too will be moving. We have voted down any and all attempts to keep this trend up - but we can’t seem to beat the Vote Early, Vote Often crowd. Which is how I believe this all starts.
I am hoping that this mess with He Who Cannot Be Named will actually wake up a lot of those lemmings - that America and her hard working people are being blamed for all the problems that these people do to themselves by buying into the hate whitey, rich people/corps, and vote for me liberal garbage.
March 14th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
EQ May I recommend a wheel gun..(revolver) .357 and up whatever you can fire steadily…and four speed loaders. If your gunsmith is handy, ask him for “hot” rounds. He will understand. Autos notwithstanding, cocking a revolver doesnt make any noise. Just a point or two to ponder. Me? Oh, a .44 S&W M29 and a standard Govt. Colt .45 auto. Them’s my favs.
March 14th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
englishqueen01; My wife is originally from the Badger state–west of Eau Claire–and we moved to Missouri when I got back from Nam. After moving and only returning to visit family during holidays, etc., even she was amazed at how radical/liberal things were–even back then. (I went to UW-Stout, that’s where we met–within one hour of my first day in town. We’ve been together ever since). Taxes are another matter, too.
As far as CCW is concerned, my whole family, (wife, sons, daughters,daughters-in-law) can and do exercise their option. NO ONE has any moral standing to deny a person the right to self-protection!
clifcrds; I’m familiar with both cases you mention. My wife and I both travel west each summer to do volunteer work on the Blackfeet Reservation. I have a list of the states with reciprocity agreements with Missouri. Yes, I go armed almost daily, and no, I won’t be a victim. Nor will I go quietly!
March 14th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Just a follow up - 20 years ago I left the East Coast to return to the sanity and sanctity of the Upper Midwest (west of Minnesota that is). I can tell you that even though it sits right next door to the Peoples’ Republic of Vermontistan, there are those in New Hampshire who believe to their very last breath in that state’s motto of “Live Free Or Die”.
Just trying to point out that I know for a fact that not everyone outside of the High Plains is sheople.
JohnMG - . . . Blackfeet Reservation. I spent some time in my younger days in Idaho too. Is it Ft Hall you visit each year . . . just curious. I commend you and your wife for your volunteering in the dry West when you both could be relaxing in the Ozarks. I have been to the Ozarks too . . . but all I got to see what was inside the fence at Ft Leonard Wood.
March 14th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Hope & Change as taught at the trinity Church by Obama’s Pastor,
Amen Brother. I fail to see any difference in their Christian teachings
and the Islamic Religion. Hate and Death to America …….
March 14th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
clifcrds; Montana, actually. Seat of the Blackfeet nation is in Browning, 12 miles east of Glacier NP. Once our family was raised my wife and I began to give back as best we could for the many blessings we have received. We begin saving in August and then block out about thirty days for a working vacation. I’m a self-employed general contractor with only one employee (me) now to worry about, so I bring all my projects up to date before we leave, and schedule others to start when we get back. We freelanced this and fund the whole trip out of pocket. The best part is, we travel out and back on our motorcycles and never go a direct route. We’ve been in all but eleven states, mostly missing those in New England…but we’ll get there, too. Northern Idaho is beautiful and so is Montana, but you’re right, the Ozarks is tough to beat. What year(s) were you at Ft. Lost-in-the-Woods? And surely you got out once in a while and made it to the Big Piney, or Roubidoux Creek, or the Huzzah or Gasconade. It’s all God’s country. That’s why I hate to hear these dipsticks trashing it like they do.
March 14th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Oprah gettin hammered on her blog :)
“African Americans have generated distinctly black forms of Christianity since they arrived on these shores. The significance of these forms has been appreciated in mainline seminaries and churches for at least two generations. Trinity is well within the mainstream of the black church, and is remarkable in the mainline world only for its size and influence and for its handful of celebrity members, like Oprah Winfrey and hip-hop artist Common. ”
http://findarticles.com/p/arti.....28537/pg_1
March 14th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
SG - Congrats! After refusing to disavow Rev Wright for FOX News just this morning - it was just anounced on FOX that Obama is NOW in fact trying to distance himself from Wright. He must have been feeling the heat from your site.
Too late to convince me. Here again the same old worn out liberal tactic, deny, deny, deny, and even lie until the you are cornered by the facts. Now all we will see is the MSM try to whitewash and cover it up and if that isn’t good enough for you then you will just branded as a racist.
March 14th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
sheehanjihad;….”May I recommend a wheel gun….”
Good advice. Also, with DA there is less possibility of an accidental discharge during a tense encounter. Lately I’ve become a back-slider of sorts. I’ve got those you mention and a whole lot more, but my newest favorite is a S&W M-637 in .38 Special. Reason? It only has a 1 7/8″ barrel, weighs 15 ounces empty, has rubber boot grips and hides away in a pocket undetected. I know .38 is marginal but it’s as good as a “nine” with what I feed it. And the best piece to have is the one you’re most likely to bring along all the time…which I do. :-)
March 14th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
“absolutism of the Christian right”? “inexorable march to the New Jerusalem”? Hmmmm……. sounds kind of anti-semitic coming from a “practising Christian”. He ain’t no buckwheat either, he’s whiter than Bill Clinton. I actually feel bad for the Dems. Talk about the lesser of two evils! Holy s***balls!
March 14th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
JohnMG - I was at Ft. Lost-in-the-Woods back in ‘76 but I didn’t have any time to see the sights . . . I didn’t even make it to Waynesville. Imagine that. I never thought of the Ozarks as a backwoods wasteland as the area reminded me so much of my home -
http://tradecorridor.com/walhalla/ and http://www.tradecorridor.com/w.....ctions.htm
The time I spent in Idaho was at Sun Valley back in 74 working in construction. Someday the wife and I will take time after we retire to see the Ozarks from outside the fence of Ft. Lost-in-the-Woods.
March 14th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
clifcrds; ….”I never thought of the Ozarks as a backwoods wasteland as the area reminded me so much of my home…..”
It is as pretty a place as I’ve ever been, especially from the seat of a Harley. Getting there might not look the same, but the “there” still is.