Betrayal

Well, we are one week into the regime of President Barack Hussein Obama. Already there are causes for great concern, not just for conservatives, but for all who value timeless principles and the future of our Republic. Principled, thoughtful people have been triply betrayed. First, Obama's radicalism is destructive to our future and we must oppose several policies that are about to be implemented. The new administration is betraying all the devout voters who trusted that the President would still sanctify life and moderate some of his rhetoric and support traditional families. It turns out that his "guns and religion" disgust toward regular folk really does reflect his attitudes and values and that the pandering to evangelicals was mere window-dressing. Already we see

* The export of death by Executive Order. Liberals cannot see that economic freedom and opportunity stabilize populations, not draconian abortion efforts.

* Ending torture is good, but closing Gitmo without a plan and opening civil courts to military matters are reckless and self-destructive plans.

* Economic policies with no specifics or substance and with the record of 20th century history that refutes them all! Some intervention is needed, but not indefinite deficits and national control of the world's greatest economy. Why are we now more liberal than France and constructing socialism even as many nations are dismantling some facets of their centralized economies?

* The planned destruction of the traditional family, with policies (straight from the White House website itself) designed to trump the individual state's regulation of marriage and pander to the LGBT elites.

* Environmental policies that will hasten our serfdom. This regime is committing the "Either/Or" fallacy on a grandiose scale. We can become more green - AND drill for more oil. We are burning cleaner coal and diesel than ever, AND investigating new energy sources. We do not need to remove millions more acres of our land from potential productive use.

* Moves to end secret ballots for union elections. Why don't we just invite Jimmy Hoffa to come back and rule?

This list, alas, can go on almost ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

There is another betrayal, just as serious, that thoughtful folks must consider in order to place all these disturbing decisions in context. This is the betrayal of principles by both Bush Administrations, especially with the economy and immigration. Democrat or Republican, until the 1930s and especially the 1960s, living within our means was the aim, if not always the practice. Local and State governments actually had some resources of their own. Democrats and Republicans have always disagreed on some budget priorities, but all affirmed a real budget. Beginning with the failure to reign in spending and regulate our borders, and ending with the "Business Buddy Bailout" of 2008, thoughtful people have been betrayed. Why is legal immigration so difficult, along with insistence that our friends south of the border obey our laws?

The third betrayal is found in a Congress (and Californian Legislature) unable to regulate itself or control its lust for power. Wall Street helped hasten the current crises, but they were aided by a Congress that pushed loan policies so unrealistic that the warning signs since the late 1990s were simply ignored. The fact the Clinton appointees made tens of millions off these bad loans barely registers in a media so enamored with Obama and still nursing visceral hatred of Bush.

Triple betrayal: Bush's failures, Congressional lunacy and Obama radicalism - all dome while we amuse ourselves to death and wonder what happened.

There are positive ways forward that transcend party lines and narrow ideologies and will not please all conservatives or progressives. In the next entry I will propose plans that can take us "back to the future" as we reaffirm our timeless values and take quantum leaps forward.