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The Osawatomie Speech: A Defining Moment In History
This article originally appeared in the Daily Capitalist.
COMMENTARY
I am not a fan of Barack Obama, but I have not criticized him as harshly as many other writers do. I have a different view of him. I see him as a rather run of the mill Progressive/Liberal who firmly believes his ideology and acts somewhat consistently on those ideas. Rather than pillory him personally, my approach has been to criticize the philosophy of which he is a product. In my mind, it's all about ideas. I detest his ideas because I believe they are anti-intellectual and they don't work.
There are many like Mr. Obama out there. His admirers perceive themselves as being the "downtrodden", envious of the accomplishments and wealth of those whose abilities they cannot match. I get that: if you can't achieve it, take it from those who can. Even those limousine liberals who have wealth and accomplishment perceive themselves as either being guilty of their wealth or come from backgrounds where these ideas are passed along. Mr. Obama is no different than any other politician: he seeks power and admiration and the ability to impose his ideas on America.
We here at the Daily Capitalist try everyday to combat those ideas by demonstrating their lack of efficacy and by presenting analyses of events in a free market framework which analyses have actually been quite accurate in forecasting economic outcomes. We try to be the antidote to the Progressive juggernaut.
And then I heard President Obama's speech at Osawatomie, Kansas this week.
It perhaps wasn't surprising, but I was appalled. It was deceitful, inaccurate, revisionist, and demagogic.
Mr. Obama uses every cliché in the Progressive handbook to make his point. His direct point was that the "rich" should pay more taxes. The underlying point and theme of his speech was that individual effort, individualism, free market capitalism, and success is a gift bestowed by "society" on the successful and that what "society" grants, it can take away because "society" needs it. It is the collective versus the individual.
His speech is a recreation, a fabrication if you will, of history, economics, and philosophy into a Pandoran construct of collectivist statism whereby society can demand the individual's obedience and obeisance. In short, folks, it's a crock.
If you think I am exaggerating, I urge you to read or hear his entire speech. You may find the full text and video of the speech here.
Here is just one typical statement from his speech:
Now, just as there was in Teddy Roosevelt’s time, there is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, let’s respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. “The market will take care of everything,” they tell us. If we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes — especially for the wealthy — our economy will grow stronger. Sure, they say, there will be winners and losers. But if the winners do really well, then jobs and prosperity will eventually trickle down to everybody else. And, they argue, even if prosperity doesn’t trickle down, well, that’s the price of liberty.
Now, it’s a simple theory. And we have to admit, it’s one that speaks to our rugged individualism and our healthy skepticism of too much government. That’s in America’s DNA. And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. (Laughter.) But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked. (Applause.) It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible postwar booms of the ‘50s and ‘60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade. (Applause.) I mean, understand, it’s not as if we haven’t tried this theory.
This is the stuff that demagogues spew to the guileless. And the problem is that he believes it with all his heart. The man is not stupid nor slow on his feet, despite what his harshest critics day. He's not a mere puppet of the union bosses. He's bright, articulate, and well educated. Yet he has learned nothing despite his years of education and now he's at the vanguard of the Progessive/socialist/welfare statist/national corporatist movement in America. If he has the force of personality he could be another Franklin Roosevelt, the president who did more harm to America than any other leader in our history. Fortunately, he may not have that strength of character.
While we may criticize the Republicans for being much of the same, there is still a difference. We are, as I have noted before, at a tipping point in America where:
Nearly half, 48.5%, of the population lived in a household that received some type of government benefit in the first quarter of 2010, according to Census data. Those numbers have risen since the middle of the recession when 44.4% lived households receiving benefits in the third quarter of 2008.
No wonder the audience at Osawatomie loved him.
This is what has happened to much of Europe where welfare recipients voted themselves increasing benefits and economic stagnation and eventual bankruptcy. This is exactly where we are headed politically.
And this is why this election is critical. We must turn this ship around.
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Here is a flaming progressive for ya.
http://www.artifacting.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/burn.jpg
Vietnamese say, Americans are all talk, no action!
But half of Obama did overcome this shit just 50 years ago.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-92xjYAs7ht4/TZh7ASpaZOI/AAAAAAAACe4/2VYEe__4rZ...
Lotsoffun-- I think ya pretty much nailed it. Good post--enjoyed it! Milestones
He doesn't believe what he says, no way. Obama has done NOTHING that has hurt the big corporations, nothing. His words are progressive, his actions are fascist.
Splitting hairs, aren't we?
Sure, and Republicans are the new communists, moronic clown.
Obama clearly does not believe or care about his own BS. He's a nihilist, content to hang out and play golf while Rome burns.
Soros et al are the power and evil behind the throne.
“You lie!” Republican Rep. Joe Wilson famously shouted at President Obama during a 2009 televised presidential address to a joint session of Congress."
Yep, He was right then. Nothing has changed.
The rhetoric is picking up as the election gets closer.
In-between elections, the rhetoric goes down and the "collude to oppress the working middle class and appease lobbyists and donors" bill fudging and passing by both sides goes into full gear.
Politics is the distraction.
You're talking about Obama? Seriously? That guy is dumber than a bag of hammers.
that was shrub. obambam is pretty smart. that makes him even more dangerous.
Agree: dude be slick.
to some way quote patton if caught between socialist and fashist attack in 2 directions
Don't tax the rich more. OK; Why not? Is the suggest of the one worth more than the loss of life (enslavement), of the many? As the wealth keeps getting consecrated more and more at the top why should we slow down. Is the end game when one family has 99.99% of the nations money or gold? Does not money equal power over those that do not have any, or very little? At some point sooner than later, the few supper rich will see the need to confiscate the fire arms. Their militia will demand it (they don't want to be harmed doing the masters work). What do you see in the further for your grand kids? I don't see democracy when the masses have no choice, but to submit to the will of the few. This super wealth is of no value except to enslave the nation.
Change "enslave the nation." to "enslave the world." and run the whole thing through a spell checker and I think you've got the gist of it.
Sadly, a spell checker would not have caught even one of his greivous grammatical errors. THAT ... is PROGRESS?
It would find your grievous spelling mistakes, however.
Give him credit, he is inventing a whole new form of english. I could understand the ideas but the words were foreign, it made english seem like a whole new language.
props for creative use of language, but seriously get an editor. His spell checker probably had a heart attack and took out the paperclip dude when he put an entire block of free memory into unstable fibrillation.
I know better than to post on line (70). I just get worked up, and say the hell with it. Now when I look at it, it's an embarrassment.
Don't let em get you down, it's the thought that counts and you laid it all out clear as a bell.
The small minds that harp about grammer this and that just need to get off once or twice a day, at least, hell bud you did them a solid.
rock on.
Grammer, or grammar? Sorry, but if ideas matter, and ideas are expressed in words, then spelling matters.
This entire thread reminds me of the Certs mints ad: "Stop, you're both right!" The state has been captured by parasites and the have-nots are piling into the wagon, expecting to be pulled. This will not end well.
I've been in markets for 35 years. Never could I have imagined that I would set aside gold, guns, and grub. At some point the tail risk could get a little too real.
Not looking good when the menu options are reduced to violent anarchy or violent totalitarianism.
I saw that. To have or to have-not...that is the question.
ROTFLMAO!!!
the definition of hyperbole. Both Roosevelt and Obama are correct. A financial plutocracy run this country through crony capitalism. Their representatives control the laws being passed in Congress. Middle class needs are ignored. As jobs disappear for the middle class, workers (and consumers) are forced into these programs to put food on the table for their families. The bankers made out like the bandits they are while the rest of the country has austerity demanded of them.
mr. econophile - actually i take response to your statement 'the man is not stupid or slow at his feet'. i wish i didn't feel this way. well - stupid is relative. generally a bell curve is accepted. i wish i could say the boy was bright. he is shrewd. he is cunning. he is outstanding at self-promotion. but 'smart'? how would i define that? having some silly world knowledge. how many states are there? what is the current accounts balance. boring trivia game facts. how about releasing your student records??
for me - most importantly - he's never done anything, besides getting himself elected. he never ran a project. he never completed anything. he was affirmative action student, and affirmative action joke jobs. hah - really it was hilarious the white man's burden out of scandinavia - he was affirmative action noble prize. and had the utter contempt to accept it!! think about that, really. he'd done nothing. except he said 'yup - i'm the boogie what's gonna give you all the woogie. don't ya love me already - feel better about yourselves - i'll take it.' really a chump move. real FUTURE noble prize winner would have said - 'that's very kind, but i haven't done anything yet'.
whatever. in the end - it doesn't matter. i've been considering doing a guest post, but as i see people are still reading this - my guest post synopsis is this.
anybody sitting around (and the majority of people on this blog strike me as being pretty sharp and responsible) - anybody sitting around talking/worrying/discussing rep/dem,liberal/right,red/blue, left/right,up/down etc. anybody waiting for any government to do anything for them is simply fcked. you might as well wait with all your faith for that manna to fall from heaven. and - given the time and mental energy you save - you can do a whole heck of a lot more for you and yourselves.
Obama is not as much outstanding at promotion. His followers are just dairy cow stupid. Do any of you clowns who sound like Father Coughlin know who he was.
but 'smart'? how would i define that?
If you ask that, you aren't equipped to define it, so don't.
Brilliant piece. I destest this MF and want him out of my life and more importantly out of this country. He is a leech, he offers nothing in the way of hard work or ideas, just negative after negative and I hope the American people see this trash for what he is.
This piece is not brilliant at all. Obama is not a progressive, he is a liar and a demagogue who serves the banking / NWO interests and uses progressive BS to try to distract us from the frauds and crooks his administration protects.
Just like you can use right-wing arguments to pursue a NWO agenda, you can also cloak yourself with left-wing arguments to achieve roughly the same thing: screwing over the 99%, constantly and in all the little details.
The 'piece' is as dumb as Obamma himself and it tries to make us fall for the left-right divide. What a joke, just like our corrupt president, congress and senate. Where have the trillions of $ been spent by Obama? ON THE BANKS and on things like the Solyndra crooks, not on anything remotely progressive. How naive do you have to be to think Obama is in any way, shape or form a "genuine" progressive? He's a CROOK.
Obama a progressive? This is the guy who appoints GS and JPM people to every important position in government.
I didn't make my point: which is that it's the system that is the problem. This present, evil world system, called the "cosmos", that favors some but not others. This system is dying, passing away. But be of good cheer, my friends, because "Thy kingdom come", which you pray every night beside your bed, is coming, but not without some bumps along the way.
It's funny how from CBS Nightly news to ZH, no one wants to criticize a Liberal and everyone will hammer the conservative. He's right, Obama's got it backwards. Liberal ideas never work. When they get into office, they are continually running for office. And they are without doubt better poiticians. That's why there are so many RINOs (ahem, like here in Maine), because to get along they must go along, inside the beltway. If red & blue is so dead, then why do you Libertarians all have your "leanings"? Hmm? It is true, however that none of it matters, not even to vote for RP. The Beast will keep on rampaging toward a OWG.
Econophile
You are full of shit. You cant see what is happening right before your eyes. The Fed loans banks money at $2 for $2,000,000 through its discount windows, and you do not realize that a few money trusts are in control swiping the greatest amount of wealth, yet you are worried about some fictitious class warfare - the war is over, the money inbterests won long ago, now they are just mopping up. Read up on Jefferson and Lincoln, wake up, and focus on the real enemy - the special interests.
Lincoln laid the cornerstones for the out of control federal authority and power structure we have today, unless you are reading him as a warning whats the point? He urinated on the Constitution to "save" it when he declared martial law in Maryland and imprisoned a large chunk of their state legislature in order to prop up his regime, then invaded those who wanted no part of him. He was a power thirsty tyrant unworthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Jefferson, his only "principle" was the preservation of his own power.
The Northern bankers and industrialists were the real political power in Washington. Lincoln though shrewd and capable was a naive bumpkin from the backwater West and easily steered by the more veteran New York City and Boston political machine politicians. Not much has changed since.
I miss carter. It's that bad.
he is/was a decent human being. he was aware that other people had a right to exist besides himself.
that's not a bad concept. although it is viewed as weakness when the muscle bullies in the playground start to punch you around.
What ever happened to survival of the fittest? Hopefully we can get rid of all these useless assholes.
Actualy looks like they're in the process of getting rid of themselves.
With the exception of Ron Paul, I don't see any candidate from either party that offers much in the way of effective new policies. Both parties endorse premptive use of American power, both are comfortable in judging what behaviours are good for us and which are not, and both parties are ingrained with the idea that they know what is best for us.
but - why would you bother to vote? you waiting to see how you gonna get? you depending on them? you can't get for yourself?
so with one - you get less taxes, less services and more personal freedom. the other gives this or that. upside/downside. etc. it's all nonsense.
the amount of time you waste thinking and worrying about this nonsense for the dancing with the starts/monday night football - you could be constructive and take care of YOURSELF.
i've had 'serious' arguements with 'adults' over whether coke/pepsi is better. rep/dem is no different. do the things in your life you want to do. and let coke/pepsi vote each other up/down.
I disagree with the idea that voting repub (except for the good doctor) matters. I refuse to sanction the murderers, thieves, and thugs to lord over me.
Don't vote - it only legitimizes them.
The biggest indictment on Obama is - nobody ever talks about Obama or what he believes, because he is the insignificant man - the vacuous man. Instead, when he gives a speech, people talk about Teddy Roosevelt - why Teddy Roosevelt was wrong or what Teddy Roosevelt believed. Or what Tim Geithner believes. Or Jeremiah Wright believes. Or what Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid believes.
In short, Obama is an empty suit. He believes nothing and stands for nothing because he is nothing, except an empty self-image looking for an approval fix, and trying to channel whomever he needs to to get it.
I substituted GW Bush for every reference to Obama in your rant, nothing changed, so what's your point? As near as I can tell every president starting back with Ronnie Raygun has been an empty suit speaking for the corporations that bought them. I didn't expect anything different from Obama when I saw the list of his economic advisors and when he kissed AIPAC's ass before the election and he has delivered everything his rich plutocratic donors asked for. Republicans / Democrats, show me the difference.
Obama is NO Teddy Roosevelt. Obama just spews this BS to his constituents to make them believe that he's on their side and is fighting for them. Don't listen to his words, watch what he does. The reality is Obama is a Fascist and a more accurate comparison is to Hitler. The fact is Obama is a slave to Wall St and his banker servants. If he was a reincarnation of Teddy Roosevelt he'd break-up the TBTF which he hasn't nor will ever do.
what about the shores of Tripoli?
Wrong. Read Murray Rothbard.TR was a tool of the JP Morgan empire. He went after Standard Oil as it was a Rockerfeller Co. It was dirty politics. Not high minded noblism
Hey Assholes,
Just googled it, lots of info there, so it will take some time to read. I respect Mr. Rothbard and I'm not naive enough to think there wasn't some horse trading going on, but my point was that Obama is closer to Hitler than TR http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/%3F-older-posts-obama-claims-more-t...
I don't remember TR trashing the Constitution and waging world wars since he was an isolationist, but maybe I'm missing something. You seem well read, maybe you can help me out here as well.
Personally, I'd prefer we'd have a second coming of Old Hickory, the man on the double saw buck, but then I'm sure someone would bring up his animosity towards Native Americans which can't be denied. All I can say is no one is perfect...
FYI - In the future please provide links when you make a statement like you did it will help your cause, not all people especially here, are intelligent enough to do independent research.
Peace,
percolator
Perc,
www.mises.org is the place to start. I listen to Murray Rothbard podcasts where lectures on economics, politics, and history are presented. These are actual recordings of Dr. Rothbard speaking. You can subscribe on iTunes. In this particular instance though, my source is th book "Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy" by Rothbard.
TR was not an Isolationist. Recall the Spanish American war - rough rider thing?
Also,
"Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote The Influence of Sea Power upon History, which credits the rise of Britain to world power to the Royal Navy. Mahan’s ideas on projecting strength through a strong navy had a powerful worldwide influence. Theodore Roosevelt, later Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President McKinley and an aggressive supporter of a war with Spain over Cuba, was also strongly influenced by Mahan’s conclusions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish%E2%80%93American_War
We all need to study history and economics if we can possible figure out a way out of this hell hole crisis our "betters" have created for us.
Peace to you.
Hey Assholes,
Good stuff. I'm familiar with Mises and have read Rothbard's "America's Great Depression". Though after a quick google search I can't believed I fell for the propaganda about TR being a isolationist - forgot about the "big stick", Latin America and the whole Navy Armageddon bit. This is really sad, cuz I consider myself more knowledge than most about history. How in the hell did he end up on Rushmore?
You're totally right about history and economics. So, my bad on TR, what about Old Hickory other than the Native American issue he was a good guy, right?
Perc
Perc,
I can't find my reference, but I have read about the life of Andrew Jackson. I admired his position regarding the second bank of the US - he was great on that issue. I doubt any slave or indian would nominate him for good guy award.
Old Hickory was known as Sharp Knife to the indians, for good reaon I suspect.
One thing to note, in his declining years, Thomas Jefferson was opposed to Old Hickory reaching the Presidency. He thought the rule of the mob that Jackson represented would be ultimately bad for the US.
Peace.
The longer this guy goes along the more you begin to see his strong leftist ideals. Hugo Chavez when he took control as president in Venezuala believe it or not didn't talk much differently. I'm sure many on the left don't see it this way at all though and at the end of the day I hope I'm wrong about Obama. A representative democracy can slide very quickly in to dictatorships is all I'm saying and what happened in Venezuala is a very good example.
...
Economic crisis in the 1980s and 1990s led to a political crisis which saw hundreds dead in the Caracazo riots of 1989, two attempted coups in 1992, and the impeachment of President Carlos Andrés Pérez for embezzlement of funds in 1993. A collapse in confidence in the existing parties saw the 1998 election of former career officer Hugo Chávez, and the launch of a "Bolivarian Revolution", beginning with a 1999 Constituent Assembly to write a new Constitution of Venezuela.
...
Do I think Obama is a dictator in waiting. No. I think it's odd and crazy how much ideology he has in common though.
Chavez may be crazy in your eyes, but he has the cojones to tell the usa to go fuck itself and he has started taking Venuzuela's gold out of the foreign bank vaults and repatriating it into his nations vaults.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/venezuela/11112...
He is at least a man standing against the global machine. I wish we had a president with his spirit if not his political beliefs, rather than another corporate drone like Bush/Obama the creature with 2 heads and no brain.