That would be Thomas Sowell, for you liberals out there:
Telling a friend that the love of his life is a phony and dangerous is not likely to get him to change his mind. But it may cost you a friend.
It is much the same story with true believers in Barack Obama. They have made up their minds and not only don’t want to be confused by the facts, they resent being told the facts.
An e-mail from a reader mentioned trying to tell his sister why he was voting against Obama but, when he tried to argue some facts, she cut him short: “You don’t like him and I do!” she said. End of discussion…
…many today seem to assume that if things are bad, “change” will make them better. Specifics don’t interest them nearly as much as inspiring rhetoric and a confident style. But many 20th-century leaders with inspiring rhetoric and great self-confidence led their followers or their countries into utter disasters.
These ranged from Jim Jones who led hundreds to their deaths in Jonestown to Hitler and Mao who led millions to their deaths.
What specifics do we know about Barack Obama’s track record that might give us some clue as to what kinds of “changes” to expect if he is elected?
We know that he opposed the practice of putting violent young felons on trial as adults. We know that he was against a law forbidding physicians to kill a baby that was born alive despite an attempt to abort it.
We know that Obama opposed attempts to put stricter regulations on Fannie Mae — and that he was the second-largest recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae. We know that, this very year, his campaign sought the advice of disgraced former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines…
…The public has been told very little about what this man with the wonderful rhetoric has actually done. What we know is enough to make us wonder about what we don’t know. Or it ought to. For the true believers — which includes many in the media — it is just a question of whether you like him or not.
All very true – I’ll only add this point: at bottom, to support Obama is to take the coward’s way in politics. Other than once or twice asking parents to turn off the kids’ video games, Obama asks nothing of us other than that little detail of turning all power over to him. He’s not going to do anything to us (95% of the people won’t get a tax increase, right?), but he will punish “they” who have caused our problems. You see, it isn’t us who screwed the pooch, it is “they” who did it, and Obama’s gonna get ’em and fix their little, red wagon! Oil companies, insurance companies, drug companies…we’ll get them for what “they” did to us! And all will be well – the malefactors punished, we can expect pure, unadulterated bliss without us having to do anything, ’cause we never were at fault, it was “they”, not us.
Of course, there is no “they” – there is only us, and it is we who have made a hash out of it, and only if we roll up our sleeves and get to work behind a President who has the courage to take the hard road will be get out of our current crisis. You can believe all you want that “hope ‘n change” will do the trick, but what is really going to do it is investigating carefully what has happened and letting the chips fall where they may, and then resolving – as a people – to not do that sort of thing again. Greedy bankers and corrupt politicians got over on us because we let them do it – because when voices were raised for reform we turned a deaf ear. John McCain and Sarah Palin are raising the voices for reform – Obama is saying “trust me, I’ll make it all better”. Which will you choose, fellow Americans?
Blogs For Victory 