|
|
|
Jewish World Review July 8, 2010 / 27 Tamuz 5770 Extortionist Government By Arnold Ahlert
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
I used to think extortion was a crime. Now I realize it's government policy. Nowhere is this more evident than the Obama administration's take on two issues that are dominating the news: the ongoing oil leak, and the lawsuit against Arizona's immigration law. There is absolutely no question both issues could be handled quite differently--were it not for the fact that both issues are related to far larger agendas than those which immediately present themselves. And in both cases, the Obama administration has made it crystal clear that they will hold the country hostage to those agendas, unless Americans "come around" to the administration's point of view.
Spare me the idea that government has done, is doing, or will do all it can regarding the oil leak. The reports of inefficiency, ineptitude, bureaucratic foot-dragging, and radical environmental stupidity are now so numerous that it is no longer possible to consider them unrelated. The big red flags here are the president's adamant refusal to suspend the Jones Act, and his refusal to eliminate the massive amounts of bureaucratic red tape hindering the clean-up effort. Both would literally take minutes to implement, since they require nothing more than executive orders to do so. So why won't Mr. Obama do so?
Because this president is more than willing to have America endure a far greater ecological disaster than is necessary as a springboard for invigorating cap-and-trade legislation in Congress.
Cynical? Again, there's another tip-off that speaks volumes: as the result of one accident, the administration has sought to suspend deep-water oil drilling in its entirety. That would cost America another twenty to thirty thousand jobs, and makes as much sense as completely suspending air travel as the result of a single plane crash.
Add this tactic to the above mish-mash and it become impossible to believe anything other than my original premise: we have a president willing to take an extortionist approach to governance as a means of implementing his agenda.
As bad as this approach is with regard to the oil leak, it is despicable with regard to the federal lawsuit against Arizona's immigration policy. That saga can be reduced to a simple idea: the federal government refuses to enforce its own immigration laws--but won't let anyone else enforce them without being subjected to litigation. This is something like a homeowner being sued for putting out a fire at his house, despite the fact that the local fire department refuses to do it.
Yes, it is that absurd.
Once again, a big red flag reveals this administration's true intentions: why hasn't a lawsuit been filed against any number of "sanctuary cities" whose violation of federal immigration statues is beyond dispute? In what universe is aiding and abetting illegal immigrants more acceptable than trying to prevent them from running roughshod in numerous communities across the country?
And does anyone seriously believe that the federal government is incapable of sealing the border? America could stop illegal immigration dead in its tracks at any time. It isn't even debatable. Put two hundred thousand troops on our two thousand mile-long southern border and that's a hundred soldiers defending every mile. Think that would solve the problem?
You betcha. But if the administration did that, it couldn't hold Americans hostage to "comprehensive immigration reform." It wouldn't be able to repeat the scam embodied in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which was one hundred percent "reform" and virtually zero "control." Who, besides the open-borders crowd, honestly believes that the enforcement component of any reform bill would be taken more seriously now than it has been all along?
So what do you call an administration that sues a state for trying to protect itself from an illegal onslaught, even as it refuses to enforce the laws already on the book--even as it demands comprehensive reform in exchange for policing the border?
Extortionists.
In all my years, I don't think I've ever seen Americans more frustrated, afraid and disgusted than they are right now. We are witnessing the full flower of a political ideology whose adherents consider so important, that any means necessary to implement it becomes perfectly acceptable.
What is the phrase, "never let a crisis go to waste" other than extortion by another name?
Don't tell me that an oil leak which began fifty miles offshore could threaten the entire Gulf coast and possibly the Eastern Seaboard, without a coordinated effort to expand the scope of this tragedy. It is simply no longer believable that mere incompetence is the culprit here.
Nor is it remotely believable that illegal immigration is beyond our control, and that it is "impossible" to seal our borders. Only an ideologically-contaminated administration would be actively working to undermine the interests of its own citizens in that regard. The Obama administration is telling the citizens of Arizona they don't give a damn that their state is being over-run by illegal aliens--and with this lawsuit, they're telling Arizonans they're not allowed to give a damn, either.
When did government of, by, and for the people become government against the people?
When the progressive movement felt secure enough to drop its facade and reveal its true face to the American people.
It's an ugly face. It is the face of an ideological movement whose core is a complete disdain for our traditions, customs, culture--and Constitution. It is the face of those for whom the average American is an unpolished rube "clinging to guns and religion" and incapable of running his own life. It is a movement which uses political correctness as a sledgehammer to stifle dissent, even as its adherents laughingly profess tolerance. It is a movement which will accept nothing less than total control of every aspect of American life into which it can insinuate itself--even as it divides us by race, gender, and class in order to do so.
It is embodied in an Obama administration which threatens to allow the Environmental Protection Agency to bypass the legislative process if Congress refuses to pass cap-and-trade, and uses a Justice Department to force Arizona into allowing illegal immigrants to ruin that state if that same Congress doesn't pass comprehensive immigration reform.
And note the common thread here: the use of the courts to enforce the progressive agenda. It doesn't matter that a moratorium on drilling would destroy certain segments of the Gulf coast economy, or that Arizona is the primary gateway for the illegal entry the federal government refuses to prevent. It doesn't matter that if either issue were put to a popular vote, a majority of Americans would vote to keep oil flowing and illegals out of the country. Progressives know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the overwhelming majority of their agenda is completely unacceptable to an overwhelming majority of Americans.
So they turn to the courts--but even then, only if those courts reach the "proper" conclusion. When U.S. Justice Martin Feldman overturned the administration's moratorium on deep-water drilling, and refused to stay his ruling pending an appeal by the federal government, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced he would attempt re-impose the moratorium anyway.
That is thuggery, plain and simple.
Unfortunately, thuggery is entirely in keeping with the Obama administration's "Chicago-style" approach to governance. It remains to be seen if there is an ultimate "enough is enough" moment where the entire progressive house of cards comes crashing down on itself.
I have to believe we're close. I have to believe near-ten percent unemployment with no relief in sight, the unconscionable escalation of our national debt, the government take-over of major industries, and the continuing defiance of the American majority on a host of important issues is unsustainable. Unlike my progressive brethren, I believe in the innate wisdom of the American people. It is a wisdom that tolerates many things in the effort to make this a better nation.
Thankfully, extortion isn't one of them.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on JWR Contributor Arnold Ahlert's column, by clicking here.
© 2010, Arnold Ahlert |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||||
