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Jewish World Review August 23, 2010/ 13 Elul, 5770 Recovery Bummer By Arnold Ahlert
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"There is no question there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some. And I join those who have called for looking into how … this opposition to the mosque is being funded."--- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, weighing in on the proposed Ground Zero mosque
Boy do I feel silly. I've made a "political issue" out of the proposed mosque near Ground Zero in two straight columns, and no one has "funded" me a nickel for it. Ordinarily, I might not feel abused for being left out of a payday. But on this particular occasion, when 68% of the public is opposed to the project, and Nancy says that opposition is being funded, I wonder why I'm not getting a piece of the action.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is the poster child for everything that's wrong with the progressive movement in America. She is a stunning combination of over-bearing arrogance and breathtaking ignorance, a person so completely bereft of common sense, she actually believes Americans couldn't possibly come to their own conclusions if they disagree with her "indisputable" wisdom.
They must be getting paid if they think a mosque two blocks from the site of the worst domestic attack in American history is a bad idea.
Only in the bizzaro world inhabited by Mrs. Pelosi and her fellow travelers could such thinking be taken seriously. And every day some other leftist loon arrogantly suggests that the only reason anyone could be opposed to this project is because he or she is an Islamo-phobic bigot, Americans get a firmer grip on the colossal mistake they made putting these people in charge of the country.
Were such bone-headed, progressive intransigence limited to such things as a mosque at Ground Zero, it might be amusing. On the other hand, crippling the American economy with massive amounts of deficit spending, a despised healthcare bill, and the determination to continue "stimulation" that doesn't stimulate anyone other than politically-connected cronies is no laughing matter.
Yet progressives are unfazed. Or is that unhinged? Can anyone even remotely imagine someone from the previous administration referring to this season as the "Recovery Summer"--and not being laughed off the national stage? Even the author of that phrase, Vice President Joe Biden, didn't believe it. Or if he did, his enthusiasm was decidedly short-lived. A mere eight days later, Mr. Biden said this:
"There's no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession."
Got that? Not hard, not daunting, not imperative. Simply impossible.
Sadly, Mr. Biden is correct--as long as he and people who embrace his defeatist ideology remain in charge. The essence of progressivism is remarkably similar to the essence of alcoholism or drug addiction: the denial of reality that comes with clinging to a worldview beyond any measure of common sense or reason. The impetus of such profound denial is nothing more than hubris, a sentiment neatly encapsulated by Barack Obama's immortal campaign statement by which he informed Americans that "we are the ones we have been waiting for."
Thus, no matter how well-documented the economic wreckage wrought by progressive "solutions" is, or how many times Keynesian economic models have failed, we have a Democratically-controlled Congress and an Obama administration willing to "double down" against history, common sense--and the wishes of most Americans.
Ask yourself how many times in the last year alone you've heard the word "unexpected" attached to an economic report, as in last Thursday's "unexpected" rise to 500,000 unemployment insurance filings--or the "unexpected" rise of unemployment to almost ten percent, despite the Obama administration's assurance it wouldn't top eight percent when American taxpayers were fleeced for $865 billion in a "stimulus" package.
Again, such real-world smack-downs would be amusing were it not for the fact that millions of American families are getting needlessly hammered--by nothing more than the ideological bankruptcy of people completely removed from that suffering. For the political ruling class, the Great Recession is nothing more than a theoretical abstraction. It is not the gut-wrenching trauma of watching one's savings evaporate, losing a lifetime job, or having one's house taken away. The president is on his sixth vacation in less than two years--and Mrs. Pelosi flies back to San Francisco on the larger jet she procured when she whined about having to stop for re-fueling.
Should Americans upset with your self-entitled extravagance also be "investigated," Mrs. Pelosi?
Americans are the most dynamic people in the world. If we weren't, the journey from an untamed wilderness to the pinnacle of world power in less than three hundred years would have been impossible. And if it were nothing more than an accident, the continent of South America--settled by the same groups of people at the same time in history--would be every bit as dynamic as we are.
Why the disparity? Because early America cultivated everything that today's progressives hold in contempt: limited government, individual freedom and free-market prosperity.
How far have we fallen? The very same New York where the Empire State Building was planned and erected in fourteen months, has had a gaping ditch for over nine years where the Twin Towers once stood. Even worse, the Deutsche Bank Building--slated for demolition as a result of irreparable damage from the same attack--is still standing, and claimed the lives of two firemen fighting a blaze there three years ago. In other words, government is not only utterly incapable of putting something up in a timely manner, they can't even knock something down.
That is a staggering indictment of bureaucratic sloth. And it is more than possible that if the Ground Zero mosque proceeds apace, it will rise before anything replacing those fallen towers is re-built.
In a word: disgraceful.
Investigate away, Mrs. Pelosi. This is one American totally in favor of everything you and your fellow progressives do to continue alienating ordinary Americans. As with many things, repetition is a great teacher. I suspect a large majority of Americans will have "learned their lesson" by November.
And if there were any true justice in this world, come January you'd be flying coach back to San Fran. Alas, "security considerations" will prevent it. I'll settle for a videotape of you relinquishing your position as Speaker, when your party re-assumes minority status in the House come November.
Losing your power? Very appealing. The look on your face when it happens? Priceless.
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© 2010, Arnold Ahlert |
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