Reason Writers Around Town: Matt Welch in the New York Post on Liberals Attacking Obama

Obama Derangement Syndrome really has gotten out of hand, Reason Editor in Chief Matt Welch writes in today's New York Post.

Why, just this past week the decreasingly popular president has been called a "bald-faced liar," "an executive who can't bring himself to lead," and even an "Uncle Tom."

And that's just by liberals. […]

But let's also give some credit where it's due. Conservatives didn't get around to hating on George W. Bush until after he'd safely been elected to a second term. There were no tea parties in the streets 14 months ago, when the 43rd president rushed through the Troubled Assets Relief Program, on the heels of an eight-year spending and regulatory binge (including vast new medical entitlements) the likes of which hadn't been seen since Lyndon Johnson. […]

Yet there are lessons we can all learn from Obama's lost year. Chief among them is the insight that when you project all your hopes, desires, and even fears onto a Rorschach test of a politician — whether Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, or otherwise — not only are you bound to be disappointed, you might just deserve it, too. Government officials use force and the threat thereof to impact our lives, not always (or even most of the time) for the better, so it behooves all citizens to get over their schoolyard crushes and figure out just what their objects of political desire plan to do with all that power.

Read the whole thing here.

Comments

[yonemoto]

actually, that's not true. There were tea parties during TARP.

[Brandybuck]

Yeah, I remember them too. I hate this revisionism by Beck and others. Heck, I can still remember when they were about protesting taxes and spending.

[Isaac Bartram]

No one eats their own like the Democratic Party.

Yeah, but no one rehabilitates them and raises them to the status elder statesmen like the Democrats, either.

Look at Jimmy Carter.

[Suki]

LOL, I've finally learned that is always the correct answer for that topic.

[MP]

The link goes to Page 2 of the article.

[swillfredo pareto]

Government officials use force and the threat thereof to impact our lives, not always (or even most of the time) for the better.

I am interested in an example of when the use of force or the threat thereof is ever for the better? A rational man does not need force to choose a superior alternative. Either this country is full of irrational people or perhaps governments force does not make us better off. If only there was some venue, a free market if you will, to sort all of this out.

[CaptainSmartass]

this country is full of irrational people

Nail on the head.

[oaktownadam]

I, for one, am in favor of the government using force to protect my private property rights.

[Nick]

That's not the initiation of force, though. That is defense.

[P Brooks]

"schoolyard crush"?

This is how you describe a New Era in American Politics?

[Colin]

The first modern tea party, I believe, was in December 2007 on the anniversary of the original event. It was a Ron Paul rally.

[Fist of Etiquette]

These guys are like Elin Nordegren with a golf club, swinging away at yet another betrayal.

I realize you're writing for the NYPost crowd, Matt, but really?

[The Art-P.O.G.]

After that simile, Welch scrubbed and scrubbed himself, but never felt clean.

[One Bad Simile DeservesAnother]

He scrubbed himself like he was cleaning a coal power plant's emissions after Copenhagen.

[Brian Sorgatz]

Since politics makes strange, um, bedfellows, I found the simile clever and apt. Nobody here is complaining about Welch's eroticization of politics?"schoolyard crushes"?a few paragraphs down. Get off your high horses, folks.

[hmm]

The Japanese still love him. Damn racist Japanese.

[Inkblots]

Wow. Just wow.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You shame me with your wordplay fail. (Wouldn't "Obamonkey" work better?)

[G Mc]

Wow. Unbelievably offensive, but hilarious nonetheless. Gotta love the Japanese... spent a year there a while back. It's a strange land.

[Brian Sorgatz]

Devil's advocate: Since Japan hasn't had to cope with the legacy of black slavery, could it be that using a monkey to symbolize a black man is an innocent gesture in their culture? Just asking.

[P Brooks]

Will Obama invite that hooligan mob of snowball throwing global warming deniers to the White House for hot chocolate and cookies with Detective "Don't Scratch My Hummer!!!!"?

There is nothing the man cannot do; Axelrod sez only the Ascended One (He, and only He) could have brokered such a wonderful and effective climate deal.

[John]

It is interesitng that liberals are hating on Obama. I think it is looking more and more like Obama is the political equivilent of a liberal political suicide bomber. I think he knows he has no chance of re-election in 2012 and doesnt' care. He just wants to get as much crap through as possible and then veto any changes in his last two years.

[James Ard]

I've seen too many pieces like this lately. The chattering class must be up to something. Not that I think Matt is part of it.

[JB]

No mention that Obama's deficit and projected deficits make Bush's look like child's play.

That's shoddy journalism not putting things in the proper context. A link to this graphic would have been more than appropriate:
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/.....-pictures/

Welch doesn't seem to realize that people are protesting for a reason: Bush's spending was awful, but Obama has taken it to a completely new level.

For a writer from this magazine, he comes across as a bit dense in this piece.

[Laughing]

I gotta hand it to the liberals. They got around to hating Obama a lot faster than conservatives did Bush. They're still wrong about everything though.

[JB]

Obama has done quite a bit of fucking up in his first year.

[MlR]

They by and large hate him, however, for all the wrong reasons.

Which isn't all that surprising. Few groups -hate- like Liberals/Progressives. They aren't happy, so they damn well will make sure no one else is.

[Sam Grove]

I must admit to being completely wrong.

I once said that Democrats would have a hard time outspending Bush.

They didn't have a hard time at all.

[ed]

I wanted a Stalin for Christmas and all I got was this stupid Obama.

[Jeffersonian]

Don't worry, we're getting Marxism by the drink right now, with each affront to liberty and sanity becoming the justification for the next. Hence the fiscal lunacy of Medicare and Medicaid being used to leverage the monstrosity of either implementing national healthcare or plunging into national bankruptcy.

So, what happens when those suppliers to the healthcare field - IT, plastics, equipment, ceramics, fibers, metals, engineering, etc. - increase prices? Think they'll be next on the demonization agenda? Why yes, they will.

[R C Dean]

Hence the fiscal lunacy of Medicare and Medicaid being used to leverage the monstrosity of either both implementing national healthcare or and plunging into national bankruptcy.

[J sub D]

No one eats their own like the Democratic Party. No one does blind loyalty like the Republicans.

True dat.

[John]

not at all. Only on foreign policy. And then only if they have the Presidency. And that is only because they defer to the President on such matters. Domestically, they totally sell out. The best way for a Republican to get love from the media is to do something liberal on domestic policy. The media loves turncoats. And lots of Rs do it

[zoltan]

No John, the Republicans couldn't do anything YOU wouldn't agree with. You're a fucking idiot partisan as usual.

[JB]

"And that's just by liberals."

They deep-throated the Obama cock too far and have finally reached the throw up point.

[ed]

Not that it isn't entertaining to watch Howard Dean et al gag on all the cum they swallowed during the past election cycle.*

*Sorry. I'm not usually this obscene, but the times call for it.

[Barney Frank]

No, no, don't apologize. And don't stop.

[hmm]

Is it really that uncommon for the more liberal side of politics to be dissatisfied more easily? If you follow the general conservative theory of smaller change or status quo (I know a myth) compared to 47 different kinds of sweeping change for the more liberal, its not hard to see why they start being dissatisfied sooner. That and it sucks more when your utopia turns out to be a shit bum in a suit.

[hmm]

Is it really that uncommon for the more liberal side of politics to be dissatisfied more easily? If you follow the general conservative theory of smaller change or status quo (I know a myth) compared to 47 different kinds of sweeping change for the more liberal, its not hard to see why they start being dissatisfied sooner. That and it sucks more when your utopia turns out to be a shit bum in a suit.

[Clay Barham]

GO TO PERSON
Every family should have a "go to" person who can give answers to political and issue concerns, as suggested by Rush Limbaugh. Learning how means starting at the roots, the beginnings and differences between two sides of the same coin, which is all there is. One side is long established, where the few rule the many, irrespective of their labels. The other side is the newest, that of individual freedom and limited government. Why do many follow each side, and why the conflict between them? What side do current issues come from, such as health care, cap and trade as well as amnesty for illegal immigrants? What side of the coin most impacts the lives of your family, to whom you provide the answers? Call up claysamerica.com for the roots of both sides and improve your understanding of the issues so you have the answers. Claysamerica.com

[DejaVu]

Lonewacko, is that you?

[Fester]

Pissing off liberals is good politics for Obama, he can come off as a centrist and it isn't like he has to worry about liberals jumping ship and voting for any republican in 2002. They can complain all day long, but it is all just talk because where are they going to go, and the more the left extremists complain the more centered it makes him look.

[R C Dean]

Pissed off liberals and (more importantly) occasional voters are bad politics for Obama. Lower fundraising and turnout is a recipe for losing.

[miklen]

"where are they going to go?"

Uh, maybe Ralph Nader, or some other more extreme clown?

One can always hope.

[NAL]

They learned their lesson on Nader (and by extension on any third party) in Florida 2000.

[Can't trust them either]

when you project all your hopes, desires, and even fears onto a Rorschach test of a Health insurance companies ? whether Aetna, BlueCross BlueShield, Kaiser Permanente , or otherwise ? not only are you bound to be disappointed, you might just deserve it, too.

[Nick]

Bullshit. My insurance company and every other one I've had gives me a contract and benefits booklet, and since I can read, I am not surprised. I am getting what I pay for. Anything I am uncertain about, I call their customer service and ask questions.

[Can't trust them either]

Nick, Nick, Nick, that's because you have never been a loss to them yet....btw, I have hear calling them adds to your favorable score too.

[steve]

All Obama needs to do is take a lesson from Bill Clinton. Hmmm... my base is upset what can I do? I know lets announce things are going so well in Iraq its time to speed up the timetable for withdrawal.

[steve]

Its not like the neo-cons could complain to much. What are they gonna say? "But we wanted conquest not nation building."

[steve]

This might also play into improving things in Afganistan and Pakistan. If the locals recognize that all they have to do is play nice for a while, we will leave.

[Lovenguth]

Nader is a little mental midget who serves at the call of the republicans to play the roll of darj horse. I wonder what they have on him? He has nothing to do with the Tea political party except to de-value it.

Thus: A few international families decide everything. They use demography as a tool from which to assist them in who, what, when, where, and how, they might strike. Why is simply a matter of greed.

Under the guise of corporation stock symbols they finance elected weird wealthy or ignorant affirmative action graduated persons who lie on their behalf and give them whatever they demand.

A strong and once powerful America is now simply another empty shell of simple minded, in debt, overweight, falsely degreed, incarcerated cry babies.

America has become one huge ghetto in which a private prison industry, under the name of law enforcement, created by the republicans and democrats at the bequest of non Americans has lost its purpose and identity. For a few pieces of gold we were sold to China.

The new TEA political party may be the only viable group to prevent a complete takeover of what little is left of America. This non violent effort must be accomplished by a unified vote in November 2010 to begin clearing out those elected officials who were financed by these corporations.

History shows greed to be the common denominator of most cultural failures. America as a nation has fallen socially and economically and must return to its independent mindset to remain free of those who seek total ownership of American resources and the American people. A return to an independent leadership is paramount. The business of the republican and democrat party's is not American any longer. Just look around and see that we the people have been had and are being held captive by new restrictive laws voted on by both republican and democrat officials. We the people are but cattle waiting to be slaughtered.

Jorge Antonio Lovenguth USMC (H) Vietnam returnee and United States Senator Candidate 2010 Florida Tea political party. This taking over of America can still be stopped and the demographics indicate we can stop this takeover. http://www.teaparty/pro

[TrickyVic]

The NY Post is so partisan, they make the NY times look fair.

[marie]

NEW YORK POST IS RUN BY A BUNCH OF ZIONISTS. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE JEWS.

[Nike Dunk Shoes]

thanks