How to fight Obama (and Hillary Clinton)
By Ed Lasky in American Thinker
The strategy is a simple one: ignore
Obama. He will respond in ways that will further damage the Democratic Party
and the prospects of a Clinton presidency.
Conservative pundits have responded
to Republican control of Congress by suggesting myriad ways to attack Obama and
derail his agenda. These tactics range from the simple (power of the purse --
already exercised in the case of the IRS, for example) to the more procedural
(subpoenas and more oversight to gum up his plans) to the more arcane -- use of
the Congressional Review Act to prevent Obama from using regulations to fulfill
his boast that he would “fundamentally transform America” (see GOP finds its secret weapon). But they are just
that: tactics.
Strategies win wars; tactics are
tools. So what should be the strategy going forward in dealing with Barack
Obama?
Ignore him.
My friend and frequent American
Thinker contributor, Herb Meyer, suggested at dinner one night that
conservatives had to “smash the paradigm” when operating against Democrats.
Since Herb worked closely with Ronald Reagan to bring about the downfall of the
Soviet Union and its colonies in Eastern Europe, his wisdom is to be respected.
Conservatives should stop
making-nice to Barack Obama. True, most presidents respond well to people
showing respect for the office and cordiality to them personally. Manners can
build relationships across the aisle and across ideologies. But, as Barack
Obama is wont to remind us, he is not like most presidents. He relishes his
role as an outsider. He “really does not like people” a close aide
admitted and does not respect most Americans -- as if that were not obvious to
any sentient observer of Obama over the years. He considers Republicans (“bomb-throwers and hostage takers”) beneath
contempt and has trumpeted his ability to ignore them (“I have a pen and a
phone”) and, for that matter, the priorities of the American people. Those
priorities do not include his favorite ones: climate change, Obamacare, and
surrender to our enemies.
Why work with him anyway? There is
no triumph of hope over experience to be had. And his arsenal of executive
powers is nearing its limits.
When Republicans have tried to deal
with him he ambushes and humiliates them for the cameras (see Abuser-in-Chief); when Republicans reached a deal
with him on taxes, entitlements and deficit-cutting, Obama pulled a fast one at the last minute and demanded
huge increases in taxes. He simply is not trustworthy; when ideas he proposed
turn out politically poisonous, he blames Republicans (there is a long list of
examples that certainly includes his proposal for sequestration).
He and his henchman in the Senate ,
Harry Reid, abolished the filibuster (something they had sacralized when the
Democrats were the minority party) in order to fill federal benches with
liberals for life, making those so-called “moderate” Republicans who had
compromised with Reid in the past (to avoid his pulling the trigger on the
nuclear option) look naïve as best. Accommodation is a fool’s errand because
expecting fairness from these Democrats (the ones who would weaponize the IRS)
is obtuse.
Barack Obama, after all, is a man
who says he brings a gun to a knife fight. Does that sound
like a man who can be trusted to play fairly or one that would cheat, lie and
steal to win? (That was a rhetorical question.)
So Republicans would be wise not to
waste their time in dealing with President Obama. It is a sucker’s game with a
man who repeatedly sucker punches. He will, as John Podhoretz has written, act as a troll by
ramping up his leftism to provoke Republicans into fits of embarrassing frenzy
or bait them into doing something stupid that will damage them politically.
Instead, Republicans should not play
his game. Smash the paradigm.
Check him when necessary, as the
American people by the millions elected you to do.
Then just ignore him.
Presidents like to feel important;
they revel in being players. Bill Clinton plaintively said back in 2005 when
Republicans swept Congress that “The president is relevant here”; even Barack
Obama expressed the same sense of helplessness – briefly -- in April 2013 when
his agenda seemed to be going nowhere after the Republicans won control of the
House.
Republicans should make the lame duck
even more helpless by just saying no to suggestions that they should work with
Barack Obama. He has shown no inclination to work with them.
Barack Obama is unmoored by reality,
as shown by his State of the Union speech last week and his refusal to respectfully
nod to the Republican sweep, as other president have gracefully done when their
party went down to defeat (memo to Obama: here is a video
that shows how presidents, in this case George W. Bush, displays such grace).
He churlishly said after the massive midterm loss of the Democratic Party that
he intended to represent the people who did not vote. He has not shown
willingness to admit that this was his defeat nor respect the will of the
voters. He will not pull a Bill Clinton and triangulate.
Perversely (and this is a word that
can be used often when judging Barack Obama’s presidency) he seems determined
to take the opposite tack and go full Bulworth as he said he would in his second
term when voters no longer mattered.
To which Republicans should respond
“Booyah!” Game On!
Barack Obama will not react well to
being sidelined. His ego will not tolerate being treated as a bit player. Given
his fragile emotional state (anatomically he has both a glass jaw and thin
skin) he will seethe and have more temper tantrums. He does not have a fine
temperament and Republicans can use this character flaw to their benefit.
Republicans can show they will
further the agenda of the American people. What the American people want is not
unbridled liberalism but unleashed American talent. The person and party
humiliated in the midterms were Barack Obama and the Democratic Party. The
magnitude of their defeat across all levels of government across America was
stunning (see Thank you, Mr. President). The people voted
against liberal policies and therefore prospects of compromise that tilt in any
way, shape or form in Obama’s way should be rejected.
What can Congress do?
They can pass budgets, carefully
write and pass legislation that clearly delineates regulations-thereby
depriving Obama of one source of his executive power; reject Obama’s nominees
who do not pass muster; vote down treaties that do not serve America’s
interests.
There are also symbolic moves that
can be taken and they should not be underestimated.
One factor that has been helping
Obama’s popularity of late: gasoline prices. He has had absolutely
nothing to do with that and hectored us that we could not drill ourselves to $2 a gallon gasoline
(wrong again! any one keeping count?). Republicans should not let him get away
claiming this success was his success. Cheap gas is a Republican triumph
that was a victory despite of Barack Obama.
Conservatives should point out how
he has acted in ways to deprive America of cheap gas (closing off federal lands
to exploration -- as he did just days after boasting about gasoline
prices; killing Keystone; slowing permits) but they should also realize how
politically important is cheap gas. It is a daily picker-upper. Dealing with
national debt, deficits, and the like are too abstract and distant to have
widespread political appeal.
Cheap gas benefits everyone --
except Obama’s green scheme cronies and donors. Every gas sign is a billboard
that favors whatever party or politicians that can claim credit.
Republicans should seize that ground, rightfully theirs.
What else can Republicans do
that will meet with favor?
One idea would be to push for
unbundling of cable services. Every month customers get inflated bills because
they are forced to purchase packages for coverage they do not like or want
(reminiscent of ObamaCare). Cable companies are very unpopular for a reason.
Republicans should tackle this topic with gusto since Comcast (owner of MSNBC
and NBC, two the most Obama-besotted media outlets) so clearly are
allied to the Democratic Party and run one of the most sophisticated lobbying
operations in Washington. Brian Roberts, who heads Comcast, and his team of
execs are huge bundlers for Obama and other Democrats. Roberts golfs with Obama on Martha’s Vineyard and hosts parties for Obama on his island
estate. Republicans should be in the forefront of forcing cable companies
to heel to the will of the American people. That would be a symbolic action in
more ways than one.
So would push for tax reform, and
the most beneficial move the Republicans could make is to simplify taxes so tax
returns could fit on one page, as one of my favorite Republicans, Indiana
Governor Mike Pence, proposed years ago when he was in Congress.
Obama will tack further to the left
and veto bill after bill. He will become the bitter clinger. He will
gather some Democrats to support those actions. Americans will finally
realize which party couldn’t care less about their priorities. Every
Democrat who votes to support Obama will pay a price -- just as they did in
2014, when those votes show up in political ads.
Republicans should welcome this
coming conflict. Obama is and always was a man of the far left, and now that he
no longer will run for office he can vent his spleen all he wants and keep
using whatever power he still has to push his agenda. Should he and his minions
support further street protests, they will backfire. Did Occupy Wall Street and
the Ferguson riots help the Democrats or hurt them? Last November 4th
is the answer. His policies lost the Democrats the vital center of
American politics and Middle America, the hoi polloi, the people of flyover
country, the bitter clingers who finally came to their senses.
Since he is still the leader of the
Democratic Party his moves will further tarnish his fellow Democrats. The Democrats
have shifted to the left over time anyway; Barack Obama and his big donor base
(unions, gentry liberals, leftist billionaires, Hollywood celebrities) has
accelerated this trend. Ronald Reagan’s declaration that, “the Democratic Party
left him” now rings true for millions of people.
Senator Elizabeth Warren is now a viable candidate for the party’s presidential
nomination and her momentum is having ramifications. Her increasingly
populist rhetoric is forcing Hillary Clinton to become more vocal with her own
leftward inclinations (Saul Alinsky was her mentor, too) to win the
primary. Videos of her lecturing Americans to “empathize with enemies” and this “You Didn’t
Build That”-like gem
“Don’t let
anybody tell you that it's corporations and businesses that create jobs. You
know that old theory, trickle-down economics. That has been tried; that has
failed. It has failed rather spectacularly,"
exemplify her latest metamorphosis
and will haunt her presidential run.
So Republicans should invoke the
KISS principle: Keep it simple, stupid.
Check Obama when necessary, pass
policies the majority of Americans want, but otherwise ignore Obama.
It will drive him nuts.
Booyah!
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