It’s time to face the sad fact that Obama’s succeeded at reversing the Reagan revolution
Americans continue to look to the federal government for solutions to every endemic problem, from inequality to the business cycle to rampage killings to the weather. Americans continue to lobby the federal government for additional economic and social rights and guard those rights zealously from interference once they have been granted. But only the smallest of minorities, the men and women who wear uniforms, seems eager to perform the duties necessary to ensure self-government.
A president known for his passivity and cool seized this moment of conservative doubt and uncertainty. In the weeks after his reelection, Obama displayed enormous and impressive energy as he moved to break the Republican Party. He pressed the GOP on every front, including tax increases, the debt ceiling, gun control (sorry: “gun violence prevention”), an immigration plan that includes amnesty for illegal migrants, and nominating for secretary of defense a Republican dove who, unlike every other prospective cabinet member, is eager to whittle down his department. The Republicans meanwhile have collapsed into infighting and retreat and, in some cases, outright delusion.
It is of course possible that the inauguration of a reelected president is his moment of maximum triumph. It is of course possible that Obama’s second term may turn out like George W. Bush’s, when the lyricism and passion of the second inaugural collided with the realities of strategic miscalculations and unexpected events. I have my doubts. What I do not doubt is that the generation of conservatives and Republicans who return one day to power will be forced to reckon with the consequences of the Obama revolution, just as a generation of defeated liberals were forced to confront and in some cases accept the revolution of Ronald Reagan.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: 1 2 Next »
It wasn’t Obama, it was Bill Clinton…brought to you by yet another moderate GOPer, George Bush the elder.
ddrintn on January 18, 2013 at 3:46 PM
Since RR ‘s revolution was contra hard socialism in the world and soft socialism at home, then yes Obama is the anti -RR. Obama is as anti-American as RR was pro -American.
Weight of Glory on January 18, 2013 at 3:47 PM
It was George Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney that ended the Reagan Revolution. What is the Republican party thinking?
halfastro on January 18, 2013 at 3:50 PM
Obama is a result of social change, not the cause. We have reached a critical mass of gimmees, and the demographics are such that we will never be a country of individualism again.
Ted Torgerson on January 18, 2013 at 3:50 PM
heart-ache.
sesquipedalian on January 18, 2013 at 3:58 PM
Obama – like the stay puffed marshmallow man – is just the form of the destroyer.
gwelf on January 18, 2013 at 3:58 PM
Obama says he is Reagan.
He’s the anti-Reagan.
Schadenfreude on January 18, 2013 at 3:59 PM
You can say that again!
Oh, you weren’t referring to the collapse of the entitlement state, trillions of dollars borrowed on the backs of future generations and a a perpetual stagnant economy?
gwelf on January 18, 2013 at 4:01 PM
no, i was referring to obama tying the putrid corpse of the reagan revolution behind a toyota hilux and driving it around dc.
sesquipedalian on January 18, 2013 at 4:03 PM
What it has always thought, EXCEPT for Ronald Reagan. Never forget that Reagan was an insurgent candidate within the Republican Party. You have to go all the way back to Goldwater and then back to Calvin Coolidge to find a Republican president or presidential nominee who was actually conservative prior to Reagan, and there hasn’t been one since.
And yet, it still took the progressives 20 years, a botched war, and a major financial crisis to get a President elected after Reagan. Let’s see if Obama’s legacy can last that long.
rockmom on January 18, 2013 at 4:03 PM
So what is it about Reagan you don’t like?
gwelf on January 18, 2013 at 4:06 PM
Leftists are never for freedom and true liberalism, never. They are also not progressive.
Imagine Algiers under Reagan.
Schadenfreude on January 18, 2013 at 4:06 PM
Obama is the result of a prostrate media that refused to vet him the first time or hold him accountable for his incompetence and failure the second time. He deserves no comparison with Reagan in any way. If Reagan had had such a compliant media that supported conservative governance and values, he would have had a veto-proof Republican Congress by his second term and repealed the entire New deal and Great Society.
rockmom on January 18, 2013 at 4:06 PM
b-b-b-b-b-but…
On the other hand….
apostic on January 18, 2013 at 4:06 PM
USSR people, leftists want you back in chains.
Schadenfreude on January 18, 2013 at 4:06 PM
+1
People often forget that Reagan’s first fights were within the Republican party and that for much if it’s run in the last century the GOP was a fairly liberal party (Nixon created OSHA and the EPA for crying out loud).
gwelf on January 18, 2013 at 4:07 PM
European Eastern bloc, leftists want you back under the USSR foot.
Schadenfreude on January 18, 2013 at 4:07 PM
Obama is NOT allowed to even spit on Reagans shoes. He is a Punk, always.
Schadenfreude on January 18, 2013 at 4:08 PM
Reagan’s shoes
Schadenfreude on January 18, 2013 at 4:09 PM
Here’s one thing I don’t get about you lefties – Obama is actually destroying your legacy. You’re the ones who think that a super state and cradle-to-grave entitlements and “positive” rights are the way to go but Obama – and the Democrats under his leadership – are driving the whole blue social model off of the cliff. Obama has never proposed anything that will actually make any of the stuff you guys like sustainable while doing everything possible (unintentionally) to hasten the fiscal demise of the system you guys love.
You may enjoy our heart-ache at the direction our country has headed but we are headed towards a world of hurt in this country and you couldn’t care less because you’re guy is scoring political points.
gwelf on January 18, 2013 at 4:12 PM
your pessimism is unwarranted. you predicted doom and gloom 5 years ago and you’ll be doing so until the end of michelle’s second term. yawn.
sesquipedalian on January 18, 2013 at 4:20 PM
That’s because liberalism is a mental disease. He is truly insane. He can’t answer your question and he won’t try to.
trigon on January 18, 2013 at 4:22 PM
Reagan was transformational because he succeeded.
Obama is successful at being transformational.
The two are not equivalent.
God help us if people can’t figure out the difference.
Erich66 on January 18, 2013 at 4:24 PM
So what’s the super secret liberal plan to deal with yearly trillon+ deficits?
The sorry state of our economic outlook and an unsustainable entitlement state isn’t some right-wing nut theory – the government’s own estimations agree that we are headed towards an economic and entitlement collapse.
gwelf on January 18, 2013 at 4:26 PM
Do you ever stop and wonder about the threshold of debt where the Chinese will stop bankrolling your entitlement state? That’s a rhetorical questions.
The Count on January 18, 2013 at 4:26 PM
70% of our bonds are actually “purchased” by the fed. In other words 70% of our new debt is created out of thin air.
That’s the liberal plan for your retirement – inflation so high that whatever you’ve saved will not be anywhere near sufficient.
gwelf on January 18, 2013 at 4:32 PM
stop the fear mongering about the chinese already.
sesquipedalian on January 18, 2013 at 4:32 PM
VAT and Carbon Taxes. Of course, they’re too stupid to understand laffer curves and capital flight. They’ll curse the Depardieu’s of the US as traitors and as they tighten the noose even further.
The Count on January 18, 2013 at 4:32 PM
Uh, you’re assuming they CARE about these things. Remember that these guys expect to assume dictatorial power once they collapse the economy and the government. Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro are the model, here.
Doomberg on January 18, 2013 at 4:34 PM
Inflation acts like a regressive tax, but try to explain that to the woman who wants to “keep Obama in president”.
The Count on January 18, 2013 at 4:35 PM
+1
gwelf on January 18, 2013 at 4:36 PM
You’re trying to talk sense and reality to someone who isn’t interested in either. sesquipedalian is nothing more than a useful idiot. Someone not bright enough to overcome the endless leftist propaganda and insecure enough that it needs to be stroked constantly by supporting “feel good” stuff regardless of the fact it’s destroying the nation and the last bastion of freedom.
I mean seriously, who in their right mind continuously supports a party and ideology that will eventually enslave them?
darwin on January 18, 2013 at 4:37 PM
We’re no better off now that we were 5 years ago, and are worse in many ways (debt, deficits, troop deaths, personal liberty, economic liberty, number of unemployed, taxes, etc).
But who cares. Obama is awesome.
Good Lt on January 18, 2013 at 4:37 PM
aww, we’ll be alright.
sesquipedalian on January 18, 2013 at 4:38 PM
You idiot. Learn to read.
darwin on January 18, 2013 at 4:39 PM
I agree but sometimes I find it hard to resist the attempt to try.
In this particular case we aren’t even arguing about conservatism vs liberalism we’re arguing liberalism vs math
gwelf on January 18, 2013 at 4:41 PM
Yeah, what’s the plan?
Spell it out:___________________________________________
The Count on January 18, 2013 at 4:42 PM
You keep saying that but you have no policy or any argument really that supports it. The federal government’s own predictions show an economic and entitlement collapse in the next 20 years.
gwelf on January 18, 2013 at 4:43 PM
Why does she need an argument that supports it? The Great Leader says it. That is enough for her.
Doomberg on January 18, 2013 at 4:45 PM
Bush 41 began “reversing the Reagan revolution” and other Left-leaning Republicans did as well (including Bush 43).
The modern Democrat party being taken over by their fringe elements and a corrupt Legacy Media obviously didn’t help matters.
visions on January 18, 2013 at 4:45 PM
He’s counting on record breaking economic growth for the next 20 years to provide the government with a sufficient revenue stream?
Or maybe sesquidiot is counting on massive tax increases on the middle class including a VAT?
Who are we kidding, these idiots think that Obama care will actually reduce the deficit.
gwelf on January 18, 2013 at 4:46 PM
Lately all I have for liberals is contempt. Most are stunningly ignorant not only of basic facts, but have absolutely no understanding of what was created in the United States. They’re simply incapable of breaking through the propaganda and political correctness that has them paralyzed. They are however, very adept at rationalizing.
darwin on January 18, 2013 at 4:48 PM
Most don’t even know what the deficit is.
darwin on January 18, 2013 at 4:52 PM
I think many of them know and understand, and just totally reject it. Remember that the majority of them have been taught that the US is the most wicked country on Earth, and deserves to be destroyed for its sins.
Doomberg on January 18, 2013 at 4:52 PM
Adorable.
Good Lt on January 18, 2013 at 4:52 PM
It’s why I want a divorce from them. I want them to be free to build their little utopia. I just don’t want them taking me down with them. They do not have the right to do that. If we all end up going down together, some of them may actually survive getting out of the cities and walking the long miles across what will be a very unwelcoming countryside. If they do and they show up on my front porch expecting a greeting and a canned ham, it’s not going to go so well.
trigon on January 18, 2013 at 4:54 PM
GFY
JeffWeimer on January 18, 2013 at 4:55 PM
You’re right – that is the liberal way.
Never mind sesquidiot – your SS is in a lock box and Medicare is solvent. When you retire at 65 you won’t have a thing to worry about.
gwelf on January 18, 2013 at 4:56 PM
Only for those of us who actually love this great country of ours.
Washington Nearsider on January 18, 2013 at 5:15 PM
The black youth unempl. will be 50% soon.
Schadenfreude on January 18, 2013 at 5:25 PM
Comment pages: 1 2 Next »