People who know me consider me to be a liberal’s liberal. Yes I am a progressive; but, I am foremost a liberal. To me being a liberal means that I am always searching for the truth. Being a liberal means I know that I do not know everything. Being a liberal means and I know that no entity is going to give me the answer. I am forever searching for new knowledge, for a better way, for a better understanding of the truth, for a better life for myself and my family, and for a better life in the world for all the citizens of the world.
One truth I keep learning over and over is that politicians say what they think will win elections or they say what they think will gain them adoration from the public. Hence, the expression that politicians speak with a forked tongue. Unfortunately, Pres. Obama is little different than other politicians. For example, consider gun control. Chris McGreal in the excellent article Obama's gun control record illustrates a consistent failure to act points out that despite Pres. Obama’s lofty rhetoric on gun control that
But critics say that the president, for all his sorrowful words after each mass killing, has not only visibly failed to address gun control, he has quietly acquiesced in a slew of national, state and local laws in recent years that have generally made it easier to buy and carry weapons.
Mostly his inaction is attributed to a lack of political gumption – some might say folly – for taking on the powerful gun lobby, particularly the National Rifle Association.
…
The president promised in his 2008 election campaign to press for a reinstatement of the 1994 ban on assault weapons and large magazine clips which expired under the Bush administration. But Obama did not act on the issue. Apparently fearful of voters with strong pro-gun views in swing states, he shied away from pressing for fresh controls.
This is a classic case of the forked tongue.
In Pres. Obama’s first term we have seen a forked tongue repeatedly. Pres. Obama failed to close Gitmo. Pres. Obama appointed many former Clinton administration members to high office despite promising to appoint a cast of new people. Pres. Obama failed to ask for a large enough stimulus package to significantly lower the unemployment rate. Pres. Obama’s health care law while being as vice president Biden said "a big parking deal," failed to deal with the biggest problem in healthcare- the rapidly rising costs of health care. Pres. Obama’s policies are so conservative some call him an Eisenhower conservative.
Since Pres. Obama can no longer be reelected, Pres. Obama is only looking for adoration. He is seeking adoration by implementing policies that he thinks will cause people to view him as a transcendent or transformational figure in history. This means implementing a grand bargain. To make the grand bargain appear larger than life Pres. Obama and House speaker John Boehmer must appear to battle past the point of no return. Only then can they shake hands on the grand bargain. Once again vice president Biden can say "big parking deal."
So what will be in the grand bargain? The grand bargain will contain: 1) a modest tax increase for the richest among us; 2) some form of a cut in Medicare; 3) a cut in Medicaid; 4) more spending for obsolete weapons in the Defense Department; and 5) more debt ceiling confrontations. Pres. Obama will have transcended partisanship. Many will adore him for hypothetically dealing with our long-term deficit problems. In the short term the economy will probably continue to improve. But in the long term this is a recipe for disaster.
Pres. Obama is better than Mit Romney only because the disaster will not be immediate. We must take every opportunity that we have to help Pres. Obama live up to his lofty rhetoric.