Mixed feelings about Obama’s inauguration
I have mixed feelings about Barack Obama’s inauguration.
I don’t like the “progressive” (the liberal’s new name for liberal) takeover of political power in the U.S. It bodes ill for the Constitutional rights I think are important, especially gun rights and the individual’s right to be free of Big Government intrusion into our personal lives.
But I like the polls that indicate that most African-Americans now feel that their struggle for their rights is finally over. I’ve always felt they had all the opportunities of other Americans, but I know many of them did not. If this convinces them that they do, then I think the inauguration is, indeed, a great day for America.
I just hope Obama’s message of change doesn’t mean the end of gun rights, the end of talk radio, and the beginning of a socialist state in America. His deification by the left wing media bothers me greatly. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and Roosevelt were all deified by their nations’ media just before I came into this world, and a study of history tells me we don’t need another deity at the helm of the last superpower left on earth.
But I’ll give Obama a grace period. I hope he does not trample my rights. I hope he understands that America is the land of the free, not the land of Big Government determining which freedoms should be supported and which should be outlawed.
January 20th, 2009 at 10:51 am
I’ll give him a grace period UNTIL he starts trampling my rights. I’m not confident that he or his advisors understand what “land of the free” means, or, if they do understand, don’t care.
January 20th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Well said, Dave.
January 20th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Your thoughts and feelings echo exactly what has been weighing heavy on my heart these last few weeks.
January 20th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
We can Hope all we want. It’s not going to do us a darned bit of good though. We know what his track record is. We know what Congress is going to do with our gun rights. And when those have been eliminated the rest will go as well.
Now is the time to contribute to the groups that will help fight them. Give $$ to the NRA, SAF, GOA, CCRKBA and hope that they can somehow be effective against the tsunami that we are facing.
January 20th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
The deification is kind of disturbing. You should have seen Facebook. Very creepy.
But on the other hand we now have Obama to fix everything with his awesome presence. The economy is fixing itself in record time. Osama has called to surrender. My car runs better than it did this morning, my sandwich tasted better at lunch than it did yesterday and the crack in my foundation vanished sometime today.
What me worry?
January 20th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
I have written and eraced a note twice because they were not kind. True maybe but not political correct. So I will bite my tonge and pray that I am wrong on every thing. I would like nothing better then to see him succed.
January 20th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
“Progressive” is a buzz word meaning Communist/Socialist which is what most Democrats and liberals are.
January 21st, 2009 at 3:03 am
Sorry if I’m a bit more cynical than the Obama worshiping masses we all have been seeing on TV. As I said in this blog before, I have had enough of my civil liberties taken away from me by the past administration not to be fearful. So bear with me for not trusting this guy.
I’ll be generous and give Obama the whole four years of his initial term to make significant progress on the following issues. Here are some questions about “change” that I will be keeping track of until 2012.
- Will Obama repeal Patriot Acts I and II as well as reversing Bush’s signing statement and acknowledging the repeal of the John Warner Defense Authorization Act?
- Will Obama support Dennis Kucinich’s efforts to bring war crimes charges against Bush, Cheney and others for deceiving the country into a war or will he protect them against such charges like Nancy Pelosi has done?
- Will Obama bring war crimes charges against Bush, Cheney and others for authorizing torture and will the torture of suspects under U.S. detention, a complete violation of both the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions, cease under an Obama administration?
- Will Obama withdraw American troops from Iraq and Afghanistan without sending them away again to bomb another broken-backed third world country in the name of a UN-supported “humanitarian” war?
- Will Obama end the warrantless secret surveillance and phone-taps of American citizens?
- Will Obama follow through on his rhetorical support for the second amendment or will he seek to ban guns as he did in Illinois?
- Will Obama cease his support for the Bush-administration backed banker bailouts, hated by the majority of Americans, and target the real cause of the problem – the Federal Reserve – or will he continue to give taxpayers’ money to banks who are merely hoarding it all for themselves?
- Will Obama seek to continue the militarization of America and preparations for martial law through Northcom and the secret government or will he dismantle the police state that has been constructed over the last eight years by the Bush administration?
There can be no excuses – either Obama will be proven to be a liar or he will, backed by Democratic control of Congress and the Senate, follow through on his mandate for “change”.
In the meantime I’ll buy more guns and ammo, buy more land, become as self sufficient as possible and speak my mind even if my voice shakes (outside a “free speech” zone).
~Brogan
Obama Must Prosecute Bush War Crimes – Special Comment by Keith Olbermann
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q0DgpIGPQk
Olbermann Special Comment -To Barack Obama on F.I.S.A.!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueTqmfmnNCw
January 21st, 2009 at 5:38 am
One should compare Ronald Reagan’s inauguration address to B O’s to remind ourselves of what a president who honor’s the Constitution sounds like and one who doesn’t. Great blog, Dave
January 21st, 2009 at 6:24 am
I am in total agreement with you; you’ve stated my take on the situation better than I ever could. We should all pray for him and our country.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:44 am
All I know for sure is that fixing all the cumulative problems that America has is not as easy as flipping a switch. My hat’s off to Obama for making the attempt. To deliberately step into this woeful set of circumstances takes a brave person. I definitely don’t want the job and I’ll bet none of you do, either.
January 21st, 2009 at 4:15 pm
all the demarats gotta do is leave my 2nd amendment rights and guns alone and im fine with obama and co.
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:35 am
I’ll take a crack at it… Like Ron Paul wanted the opportunity to. But the two party system didn’t want change, they wanted the same thing with a new wrapper. They got a charismatic preacher to enthrall and placate the masses. Remember your history. Hitler was just as charismatic and gave just as inspiring speeches as Obama.
Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley told MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann “We now have President Bush speaking quite candidly that he was in the loop, we have Dick Cheney who almost bragged about it. The question for Barack Obama is whether he wants to own part of this by looking the other way.”
Obama told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, “We have not made final decisions, but my instinct is for us to focus on how do we make sure that moving forward we are doing the right thing. That doesn’t mean that if somebody has blatantly broken the law, that they are above the law. But my orientation’s going to be to move forward.”
“If waterboarding is torture — and Barack Obama has said that it is torture,” Turley emphasized, “and torture is a war crime, then the president has committed a war crime if he did order waterboarding. You have to do some heavy lifting to avoid the simplicity of that logic.”
“There’s no real question that crimes were committed here by {Obama’s] predecessor,” concluded Turley, “and he can either begin his administration as a man of principle, and allow the law to take us wherever it may lead, or he will inherit the same type of moral relativism that really corrupted the previous administration. I’m going to say a silent prayer for principle.”
I’m tired of the political spin, until he proves he is the person he is trying to sell us, I’m not buying it. I out grew cool aid a long time ago!
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:45 pm
You are a wise man for keeping an open mind.
You may feel different about opportunities for blacks if you were black. Blacks get charged more for loans, for insurance and get worse health care than whites.
Abraham
January 22nd, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Bush Corporatism or Obama Socialism, either one costs a LOT and neither will solve the problem, namely that this society has been living way beyond its means at all levels, personal, corporate, and governmental for several decades now, and that going forward, the end of cheap energy is making the continuation of that credit fiesta (with apologies to James Howard Kunstler) impossible.
As Brogan once again pointed out, Bush took many of our liberties already, so Obama just has to work on taking the remaining ones that Bush managed to miss (gun rights for example.)
On the other hand, it was nice to see many millions of people rejoin the political discussion now that a president of their own skin color is in the White House. I’m kind of sorry to see that’s what it took, but I do understand why that’s what it took too. Now as a country, we can all go down in bankruptcy together.
No president could solve this insolvent mess without inflicting massive pain. The true solution starts with citizens ourselves, but I don’t think most are ready to face that fact yet, as they’d rather have somebody else, such as government, fix things for them.