When President Obama's former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said that "you never want a serious crisis to go to waste," many didn't realize he was inaugurating a new credo for governance.
Rahm's statement was originally understood as the administration's intention to capitalize on actual crises while they were hot, to promote legislation liberals had craved for decades but didn't have public support to pass. But some suspected he was talking about manufactured crises, as well.
I usually avoid conspiracy-type theories, especially where Obama is concerned because his policies and tactics are so egregious on their own that I see no reason to risk undermining the credibility of our criticisms by indulging those too much. But I do think it's interesting that an infamous radical professor duo, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, and Obama mentor Saul Alinsky advocated the strategic use of manufactured crises to advance the leftist political agenda.
I don't know whether Obama is deliberately, religiously following a Cloward-Piven/Alinsky strategy as many have argued, but I think it speaks volumes to show that he is employing the despicable tactics those radicals recommended.
So please set aside the conspiracy theory distraction for a moment and focus on what Obama is doing, irrespective of where he got the idea. Whether or not Obama retires to his residential suite every night and prays to these radicals and reads their hymnals, he is singing their tunes.
Keep in mind that I'm not even talking about the big Cloward-Piven goal of "overloading the U.S. public welfare system in order to precipitate a crisis that would lead to a replacement of the welfare system with a national system of 'a guaranteed annual income and thus an end to poverty,'" as Wikipedia describes it, although it would be fascinating to examine Obama's record in light of that goal, as well, as some have. I'm only addressing their manufactured-crisis strategy to achieve a policy agenda.
So here is a non-exhaustive sampling.
Obama used the actual financial crisis we were experiencing (largely as a result of liberal policies that he himself endorsed — and continues to endorse) to press for his stimulus package. Over and over, he told us that we had to act "now" to overcome this crisis. As it turned out, he wasn't nearly so quick in spending the money and implementing the stimulus program as he was in using the crisis to get it through Congress.
The delays in implementing it and the non-stimulative effect of most of the expenditures are now legendary. How are those jump-started jobs working out?
He created a crisis atmosphere to justify his takeover of GM and Chrysler. He has repeatedly attempted to suggest we have an infrastructure crisis (claiming stable bridges are about to crumble) in order to push further stimulus packages. Obama described the state of our health care as a national crisis in order to force through Obamacare. He even treated existing nuclear arsenals as a crisis and said that ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia was a matter of utmost urgency.
He said we had to act immediately by passing the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill in order to avert another potential banking collapse. "We cannot delay action any longer," he said. "Every day we don't act, the same system that led to bailouts remains in place. ... And if we don't change what led to the crisis, we'll doom ourselves to repeat it."
When it served his purposes, Obama even suggested we have a debt crisis, which he now adamantly denies. His Twitter feed said, "Tweet at your Republican legislators and urge them to support a bipartisan compromise on the debt crisis."
Obama depicted the Gulf oil spill as a national crisis in order to justify re-imposing his coveted ban on offshore drilling. He consistently used alarmist rhetoric and fear-mongering over highly disputed nightmare environmental predictions to promote cap and trade, his war on all kinds of domestic energy production, his newly imposed fuel efficiency standards and his disgraceful green energy projects.
Unable to learn his lesson from the housing crisis, Obama was determined to repeat the mistake with a $75 billion program to prevent nationwide mortgage foreclosures, which he described as a "crisis unlike we've ever known." He said, "If we act boldly and swiftly to arrest this downward spiral, then every American will benefit." Just this week, by the way, he's resurrecting the same insane idea — urging banks to make more uncreditworthy loans.
And can anyone deny Obama predicted a crisis for the sequestration?
Circling back to what prompted this column, on Wednesday, Obama characterized gun deaths as a national crisis. He said, "Every day that we wait to do something about (gun deaths), even more of our fellow citizens are stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun."
How many times can this man cry wolf?
David Limbaugh is a writer, author and attorney. His latest book, "The Great Destroyer," reached No. 2 on the New York Times best-seller list for nonfiction. Follow him on Twitter @davidlimbaugh and his website at www.davidlimbaugh.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2013 CREATORS.COM
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4 Comments | Post Comment
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Sir;... Do you really usually avoid conspiracy type theories??? You know; if I believed you, you would have to be the first of the reactionaires to not base your every presumption upon your paranoia... Why not look at the sentence... Usually avoid type...Not always... Not, never; nothing strong and certain to those words... Type??? Is there a type of conspiracy theory you embrace, and one you reject, and one you only avoid, usually... If you had one more qualifier in that sentence it might have to be Greek to sow any more confusion as to what you actually think, and do in regard to conspiracy theories... That phrase itself is such an oxymoron...
Conspiracy theory??? Where is the first person believing in conspiracies who did no know it as fact??? There has never been a theory about it, but plenty of conjecture... Do you even know what a theory is??? I may not be sure myself, but I guess it may be way of offering a hypothesis that can be proved in some fashion, or disproved... The whole idea of conspiracies if they ever actually happen outside a courtroom, is to not be proved, and remain unprovable...
What do you think the odds are that anyone would ever guess the truth out of the blue on scant evidence as a conspiracy, without detail one, unless they don't need to prove anything in public except the sanity to be there...Paranoia is all too common among the common people... Why trouble them for proof when they are so non-commital that they haven't said nothing but: it must be a conspiracy...
Certainly, if you think to have a democracy, but not give people the least bit of control in their own lives; then there is obviously a conspiracy to do so; and what do such powerless people need the truth for??? Would it be to keep their wild imaginations from spinning like a whirlygig??? Such people might point to the constitution, but when it was written, there was more contempt for democracy than faith in it... Even today, those who generally have the most control of their lives and in their communities are united in their desire to deny rights, and rights are powers; so their contempt of the people is complete, and the powerless people cannot deny that fact...
Forget the double talk... If I don't know what's going on, then I don't know... If I don't like the ref's call... If I plug my ears and smell a rat; I will say: It's a conspiracy... Not because I expect to be believed; but because I like to be laughed at on purpose... I also say: Busy, busy, busy when I can't figure out what people are doing, but they are obviously doing something...And when not enough is happening, I say: sure is a lot of sand on the ground... Some times there is, but what it means is: There sure is a lot of standing around...I down divatit; its jess disentary means I don't care; it just disinterest...
You could say that about the government... Hurry up and wait... If you gonna be impotant, you want to look impotant...Can you imagine spending millions to get a job inventing excuses???... You know government should try to see the future, cause and effect, considered scientific like; but the whole damned thing has devolved under the pressure of grade A idiots into a short sighted praying for a miracle to avoid disaster...
When business is held up as the model for government, cost conscious, cost effective; is it all that strange that government cannot see beyond the next quarter???... That ain't no way to run a rail road, and it is no way to run a government...What are your words: Disgraceful Green Projects... Strange linkage of words... Is green disgraceful??? Isn't green what the government should do??? But if you have no self control, no government, as business has not, then you will consider it a disgrace to have your gluttony interupted by the smallest excuse...
It did not start with Mr. Obama... It may not end with him...And it is hardly his fault... As far as making the best of crisis; what is so bad about that??? If you do not use a crisis to strut your stuff, the crisis will do a dance on your grave... You're doing a fine job, Brownie is not in the democrat vocabulary... Their motto clearly is: If you want to be re-elected; fix it, and if you don't; fcket... As bad as you paint the democrats for the quality of what they have accomplished against republican resistence; they have done something; and from the perspective of the republican party, the party of amature astronauts, taking up space as a hobby while they are supposed to be working: doing a fraction of anything is just too much...
If I had one man on my payroll like the republican party, I would run him off in front of everyone just to plumb up the crew... If you think he is the best man; all the better... Run off your least man and everyone becomes complacent... Run off your best man, and it makes every man better...Do you have a best man; or only a collection of over principaled clones???
Consider, sir, that it is no conspiracy if it is the generally held belief that government is bad, to starve government of the means to do good... If government is bad; it needs a stab in the heart... And if government is Good, at least in theory, it needs to be allowed to do the good for which it was created...
I am personally in favor of the destruction of the government by any means the republicans can muster...I have asked as they have not, what will follow that destruction and it seems mob rule is all the right have contemplated...I have no intention of being governed by dopes as dumb as soap... The object of democracy is not to be governed by one neighbors as much as for each to govern himself and have power in their own affairs to the extent that they remain ones own affairs...
Some people feel they have the privilage of freedom which they may use to interfere with the freedom of all others, and that is no conspiracy, but it is fact, and madness... Why should people go along with it??? Since the people will not go along willing; the mob must make them... Why don't you people just admit that the common quality of the republican base is their ignorance of reality, and just as primitive peoples in their ignorance followed their conjectures as if slaves, you like to give them conjectures because no part of your conjectures will lead anyone to the truth, or to freedom of choice...
Thanks...Sweeney
Comment: #1
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Fri Apr 5, 2013 4:16 AM
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I'll agree with David that king obama has taken advantage of manufactured and actual crisis alike. But lets expand this crisis-mongering to apply to forgien policy. Iraq was a manufactured crisis. So is Iran. So is North Korea. Those are crisis that your party loves to take advantage of. Also 9-11, which may have been real or manufactured, was taken advantage of by Bush who used it to plung us into a prepetual state of war and also greatly expanded the police state here at home.
Comment: #2
Posted by: Chris McCoy
Fri Apr 5, 2013 6:41 AM
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Re: Chris McCoy;... Mr. Bush with his naive view of his position as decider in chief was as bad and Mr. Obama is with his more sophisticated views...They both have their formula for success, and very often that means juggling every priority, and if we were talking about reality, say of a tightrope walker on an infinite line juggling a series of items too hot to be handled or set down anywhere with certainty, then the situation will only last until the energy and attention of the walker flags... Look at your tea party... They may wave the flag and uphold the constitution, but they are bringing down the government with their non- cooperation; and I know that they are nuts and gdamned nuts, but I cheer them on... No one is going to make our hunkajunk government work for this people... Let them tear it down and then we got something to talk about...At this moment the government is running on empty, and has been, and the tea party is made of people running on empty, and the poor are running on empty... How long anyone thinks this situation will continue is simply speculation... Well it ran five minutes ago, and it will be runnin five minutes from now... It is speculation, and that is all that is holding things together... The problem is that we are on a steep curve, and no engine means no breaks and no power steering, so the time to bail is before things go critical... There won't be no later...
Thanks...Sweeney
Comment: #3
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Sat Apr 6, 2013 8:44 AM
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Sweeny, you talk as if Bush and Obama are any different. Their policies are so similar that this might as well be Bush's fourth term.
Comment: #4
Posted by: Chris McCoy
Mon Apr 8, 2013 6:35 AM
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