Having failed to lower the unemployment rate to a politically tolerable level, Obama cannot run as most presidential candidates do — on the economy. So he and his advisers seem to have decided instead to mount a deeply polarizing campaign based on “values” — suggesting his vision for America is correct even if the economy is not right yet.But in waging this battle, Obama is saying nasty and dangerous things. He is promoting his own principles — not just by touting their goodness, but by suggesting that Republicans hold to an offensive, even un-American, philosophy.
By painting his opposition as not just wrong but evil, Obama risks dividing the nation in a profound and unnecessary way...
(Keith Koffler, Politico)
...The Chicago convention [the Democrats in 1968] is unquestionably the most wild-eyed political convention ever held in this country. Demonstrators came early and stayed late. While many were organized by the SDS, the Yippies, and the Mobe (National Mobilization Against the War), the larger number were freelance, showing up for the fun that was in it. They proceeded to put the Democrats on the grill. The lakefront area of Chicago was placed under siege. Several pitched battles were fought for Grant Park, and the crowd tried to storm the convention center. Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman showed up to goad people into fighting the cops from a safe distance (Abbie wearing a psychedelically painted GI helmet). Hundreds of arrests were made, beatings were rampant, and a curfew was declared to no avail. At last Mayor Richard J. Daley ordered the cops to open fire.
Cooler heads prevailed before a massacre could occur. All the same, the media portrayed the police, the mayor, the city, and by extension the Democrats as the villains. Walter Cronkite, at the peak of his influence, dismissed the cops as "thugs" on the air. The papers screamed of a "police riot," which was a little difficult to comprehend -- the police, after all, belonged in Chicago. They hadn't traveled thousands of miles to tear the place up.
As for the public, the conclusion was straightforward: the Democrats had for years declared themselves Spokesmen for the Youth, the buttoned-down allies of the hippies, Yippies, protestors, and demonstrators of whatever breed. And yet here they were trying to annihilate each other on national television. Voters wished a plague upon both, and that was the end of the Democrats for that election...
So here we are forty-odd years along, and what has changed? Nothing, if you're a Democrat. The same exact chain of events is occurring with the Occupy Wall Street gang. The 99ers are the Chicago mob with the addition of iPhones and minus the seriousness. Their appearance is similar -- high-priced boho rags, to-hell-with-it hair. Their rhetoric is indistinguishable. ("Power to the people, man!") Their behavior is identical: show up, hang out, yell, and posture for the cameras. The goal is the same -- take down the power structure. And so will be the result -- the destruction of the Democratic Party...
Clearly, the Dems have adopted the movement and are going whole hog over it, with the media doing their best to assure that the connection is not overlooked.
The paradox here is, of course, is that the Wall Street moguls that the demonstrators are so eager to get at were Obama's most crucial supporters in 2008. A large chunk of the stimulus funds went to the financial houses that the mob wants to shut down. (Much of the rest went to the unions, which have now come out in support of the 99ers -- so now we have Obama's two biggest allies at each other's throats. That, in a nutshell, is liberal logic at work.)
There's no way this can end well...
(J.R. Dunn, American Thinker)
