Something Obama Has Done Right by Craig Covello

This week, a friend of mine who knows me well, and therefore understands my conservative views, challenged me with a question.

"I know you think Obama has done almost everything wrong. What do you think he is done right?"

I stumbled for answer, but eventually offered that Obama has done a relatively good job killing terrorists in the Middle East using the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). That's about all I could come up with until I reflect upon something that Michelle Obama said while stumping for her husband during the 2008 presidential campaign:

"Barack Obama is going to require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation. That you move out of your comfort zone. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual. Uninvolved, and uninformed."

Yes, I admit to criticizing this statement in some past OWD articles because it was reflective of the arrogance of this administration in attempting to dictate what Obama is going to require of me. It is a blatant proclamation of what Barack will demand that I do and what he is going to allow and not allow regarding my personal life. But there is an ironic twist. My friend's question made me come to the realization that Obama may actually be saving this country instead of destroying it. No, that's not sarcasm. Allow me to explain.

You see, many of us never really had much interest in politics up until now.

• We allowed Congress and past presidents, including Bush, to run up the national debt on a steady, predictable course.

• We permitted the federal government unrestricted growth and unreasonable domination over so many areas of our lives.

• We stood by and watched administrative agencies such as the EPA exercise almost totalitarian control over so many decisions, which should be left to the discretion of state and local government. The confusion and incompetence associated with attempts to clean up the Gulf oil spill is a sad but accurate example.

• We let George Bush pass the Patriot Act, which allowed the executive branch of government to issue search warrants, virtually eliminating our system of judicial checks and balances regarding rights to privacy.

• We saw Reagan give amnesty to illegal aliens in the hope that it would be a final cure-all, only to find ourselves in a more threatened position today regarding the security of our borders.

• No one paid much attention to Barney Frank's sanctimonious speeches in Congress touting the soundness of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while promising affordable housing for everyone regardless of their ability to pay a mortgage.

• We let the President of the United States drag us into the Iraq war without a clear strategic vision or exit strategy.

• We permitted Congress to languish on implementing reasonable healthcare legislation designed to contain costs, increase portability and limit the staggering amount of our money going into the pockets of lawyers.

• We let politicians divide us by emphasizing differences in race, religion and economic status instead of uniting us as a nation of proud Americans. Americans who prefer to celebrate our accomplishments instead of denigrating our culture and heritage.

• We allowed the federal government to gradually take away our freedoms in exchange for bribing us with our own tax dollars.

All of this happened because many of us had forgotten the brilliance of our founding fathers and the importance of their gift to this country called the United States Constitution.

But Obama has changed all that. He has exponentially accelerated the progressive's agenda for this country to the point where the shift in ideology is no longer gradual or progressive. It is radical, impatient and demanding. And now it is drawing attention from all of us who are dramatically opposed to Obama's stated purpose of "fundamentally transforming the United States of America".

I remember when I was a teenager sneaking into the house late at night. We had a burglar alarm with a motion sensor covering the family room. I learned that moving very, very slowly would not set off the alarm. That's the trick, which progressives learned almost 100 years ago. And it worked. They have been making incremental steps at a pace so slow that no one has really noticed the damage being done to our economic and social freedom. But now Obama has galvanized a very small percentage of the American population who consider themselves revolutionaries. Their ignorance, impatience and narcissism are on display. In the process, they have sprinted past the motion sensor and are now drawing more attention to themselves than Lady Gaga at a Yankees game. That's a good thing, because the first step in the road to recovery is recognizing the problem.

Thank you, Mr. President. Mission accomplished.

Copyright 2010 by Craig Covello.  All rights reserved.  Used with Permission