Obama Knows About 'Suppressing Ideas'

It took Barack Obama some time to offer encouragement to the people of Iran as they rose up against their illegitimate and repressive rules.

And when he finally did, he said something interesting: "Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away." Maybe Obama should take his own advice and learn from his own rare words of wisdom.

The Obama administration is marked by suppressing ideas.

That's what it does when it attacks lively and open debate on talk radio. That's what it does when it sees one cable news network even daring to offer the mildest criticism of his administration mixed in with plenty of Obamamania.

That's what it does when it summarily fires independent government watchdogs hired specifically to ferret out fraud, waste, abuse and corruption inside the administration. That's what it does when it seeks to fix future elections by funneling taxpayer money to radical extremist groups like ACORN, which is known for committing election fraud.

That's what it does when it seeks to put more and more of the private sector under the reins of the government. And that's what it does when it refuses — steadfastly refuses — to release records proving that Obama is even constitutionally eligible to serve as president of the United States.

Yes, indeed, Obama knows something about suppressing ideas. I suspect we'll see a lot more ideas held back in the next few years, if my friends in the "ideas business" don't wise up soon and end their six-month honeymoon with this pretender-in-chief.

I think I liked it better when Obama was AWOL on Iran. I think he was being more honest. It took an act of Congress, supported by nearly all members of his own party, to persuade him it was time to speak up.

When he did, he offered that disingenuous piece of advice to the Iranian leadership. They must have laughed as hard as I did.

Obama gets away with suppressing ideas largely because he is worshipped by most everyone in my industry. He gets away with suppressing ideas because he is worshipped by many in elite cultural institutions.

He gets away with suppressing ideas because he is feared and cheered by many — including those in charge of media companies like CBS and Clear Channel.

There's an awful lot of self-censoring going on in this country, and it's not healthy for the republic. If we're not exercising our right to be watchdogs of government, it's easy for that right to be taken away. And that's something the "government-run media," as Rush Limbaugh accurately calls it, needs to learn — and fast.

I don't blame Obama nearly as much as I blame those who have allowed him, even encouraged him, to stonewall the truth, stretch the truth, discourage discussion of the truth and deny there is any truth, even when it is staring us in the face.

I've seen this kind of government before in America. I saw it in Bill Clinton's administration; it used the Internal Revenue Service as its own personal attack dog to turn loose on those who were critical — whether they were former lovers, women from whom he sought sexual favors, think tanks that disagreed with his policies, political action groups that fought his policies and journalists who didn't run with the rest of the pack.

That's where we're headed next if the very people who make their living exercising their First Amendment rights don't wake up. They need to start realizing that the best government governs the least.

Obama doesn't believe that old adage. He believes the best type of government governs everything. And that's why it took him so long to criticize the government of Iran.

To find out more about Joseph Farah and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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