In a startling, unprovoked admission of a failure to embrace the American Vision, Obama recently summed up his first three years, stating “We’ve begun to see what change looks like.” That’s called taking ownership.
Now the question is, what does Barack’s “change” resemble? Candidly, Obama’s America has entered a retrograde orbit. For example, the most recent jobs figures looked superficially promising, with official “unemployment” down to 8.1%. This bettered the 10%joblessness of the past few years. Yet, when scratched just below the surface, the figure casts an ominous shadow of decline. For the reason unemployment is down results almost entirely from by the 500,000 + Americans who stopped looking for work. And consider a further illustration of America’s pathetic economy—the USA workforce is the smallest since 1981.
“We’ve Begun to See What Change Looks Like…” Across the gamut, Barack’s rhetoric rings hollow; his talking points as genuine as a pressed-wood chopping block. Should he end after 4 years, in no area of public policy will Obama leave America better off because of his “wise stewardship.” Instead, his decisions reveal a combination of socialist fantasies, craven politicizing, graphic ignorance, callow indifference, or blatant anti-Americanism. Overall, Barack has proved himself a piss-poor leader, a veritable Piss Messiah—to put it into the lingua franca of Post-Modern Art.
I. Obama: “We’ve Begun to See What Change Looks Like”
A. Massive Food Stamp Increase
Reports one source:Since Obama became President in January 2009, 14 million additional Americans received food stamps as of May 2011, up 43% increase over the period. This includes nearly 15% of the total U.S. Population.Now 46 million residents collect food stamps, up from 31 million 3 years ago. Heritage Foundation reports food stamp spending has doubled since 2008, the year of Obama’s election.
B. Work Force Smallest Since 1981
The percentage of Americans working is smallest since the early 1980s, according to the Financial Times:Unemployment fell from 8.2% to 8.1%, more a sign of economic weakness than strength as driven by people leaving the labour force. The proportion of Americans either working or looking for work fell to its lowest level since 1981.The WaPost reports if today’s figures were used in 2007, unemployment would be 11%.
C. Gross Domestic Product Growth Slumps: 2012 GDP 2.2% Not Even Treading Water
ABC news reports:The U.S. economy expanded 2.2% in the first quarter, failing to increase employment. “In reviewing the numbers, we may be running out of runway before the onset of another recession,” said Brian Hamilton, CEO of Sageworks. “Unemployment is not decreasing fast enough. In the 34th month of recovery, yet, unemployment remains too high. If we don‚Äôt increase employment, we may bump into the next recession, when we cannot expect job growth.” Growth was an anemic 1.7% in 2011.Okun’s Law says only higher GDP will help improve joblessness. In fact, unemployment can only rise with 2% GDP growth.
A key reason for concern over continuing below-average GDP growth is Okun’s Law, which says for unemployment rates to decline by 1%, we need a year of GDP growth 3% above average.Obama cites Ronald Reagan as a role-model as change agent. Yet, in Reagan’s 4th year, GDP grew at 7.2%. But Obama boasts only 2.2% GDP in his 4th year. So much for Barack’s “Reaganesque” legacy. Of Reagan’s economic successes, one author writes,
During the Reagan Era, Gross Domestic Product, or the total output of the nation, grew substantially. Overall the economy expanded by a third, or the equivalent of the entire West German economy. This was the longest period of growth in peace-time history.
When Reagan’s economic program took effect in 1982, the economy expanded at an average annual rate of 4.3%. As a comparison, average annual growth from 1990-2001 (since Reagan) was 2.95%, for 1991-2001 (previous trough to peak) it was 3.05% and for 1992-2001 (the last expansion) it was 3.4%.
So the Reagan expansion growth was better than the last expansion by almost 1% per year and growth for all the Reagan years was greater than the growth since by half a percent. That’s a lot of evidence for the claim Reagan’s policies produced the best growth in a generation. (The average growth for the eight Clinton years was 3.55%, and it was part of the last expansion period.)
D. Nat Debt Skyrockets: At BHO Inauguration $10.6 Trillion; Now $15.6 Trillion
CNS News reports:On Jan. 20, 2009, the day Obama was inaugurated, the federal government‚Äôs debt was $10.6 Trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury. By April 16, 2012, the debt was $15.6 Trillion. The extra $5 Trillion of U.S. government debt during Obama’s 39 months is more debt than the federal government accumulated in the first 219 years of the Republic.
E. Record High US Poverty: NY Times—1 in 7 Families Living Poor
The NY Times reports:The percent of Americans living in poverty last year, 15.1%, was highest since 1993. Minorities were hit hardest. Blacks experienced the highest increase, at 27%, up from 25% in 2009, and Hispanics rose to 26% from 25%. “This is one more piece of bad news on the economy,” said Ron Haskins, of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution. “This will be another cross to bear by the administration.”
F. Children Living in Poverty: Up by Millions Since Obama Inauguration
According to CNN, almost a quarter of US kids live in poverty, a shocking increase since Obama became president:The poverty rate for children under age 18 increased to 22% in 2010, meaning more than 1 in 5 children in America are living in poverty.Also, the NY Times reports:
Poverty has also swallowed more children, with about 16.4 million in its ranks last year, the highest numbers since 1962, according to William Frey, senior demographer at Brookings. That means 22% of children are in poverty, the highest percentage since 1993.
G. Chronic Long-Term Unemployment Doubles, Up by 3 Million
According to the US Bureau of Labor, long term unemployed were 2.6 million when Obama entered office, but now measure 5.6 million, an additional 3 million persons.H. Almost 90 Million Work-Aged Americans Unemployed, An All-Time High
The SF Chronicle reports, “Number of the day: 88 million—That’s how many working-age Americans don’t have a job and aren’t trying to find one.”I. Spiraling Gasoline Costs
Recent downward trends in gasoline prices should not mask the overall trend of prices over the Obama presidency. Gasoline prices doubled since George W left office. Writes one author,If Obama passed cap-and-trade proposals he campaigned on, energy prices would be even worse. (He once boasted under his proposals, electricity prices would “skyrocket” and coal companies would bankrupt. His Energy secretary, Steven Chu, admitted he wanted America to emulate European gas prices—about $8 per gallon.) Booming oil production has transpired almost entirely on private and state lands, while on federal lands it’s dropped (11% drop just in 2010 & 2011 alone). The administration slowed permitting of offshore oil and gas development to a trickle.
J. Wild Stimulus Spending While Military Slashed & NASA Mothballed
A sinister development occurred when the last two administrations conspired on the Stimulus package. Almost $1 trillion was frittered away. Meanwhile, with deficits skyrocketing, Obama slashed military spending and mothballed NASA for cost-cutting. This is the equivalent of going to WalMart to spend millions on cheap, Chinese-made junk while letting the ancestral family farm default.These actions, and others like blocking the Keystone Pipeline project, reveal Obama as a true-blue socialist. After all, it makes no sense to claim we cannot afford military and NASA spending in the billions, while at the same time quickly flushing a trillion down the national commode.
II. Poll: Would You Prefer Piss Christ, or Obama Piss Messiah?
Post-Modern art celebrates such strange accoutrements as the infamous “Piss Christ” when “artist” Andres Serrano displayed a crucifix immersed in urine. In the aftermath of public outrage, Serrano admitted he could never achieve fame based upon sheer talent alone. So did a sacrilegious public act in the name of “Art.” (Fortunately he did not attempt the same hijinks with Muhammad.)Serrano’s act symbolizes much about how socialist ideology applies to both art and politics. For example, according to Christopher Butler’s Postmodernism: A Very Short Introduction, “Modern Art” is a creation based on Marxist ideology applied to artistic endeavors. Butler explains that Postmodern art is more ideological than actual. This explains ordinary objects displayed in museums or galleries, simply labeled “Art.”
In this sense, Postmodernism brilliantly exposes Marxism’s hatred of tradition. It is both anti-instinctual, and a savage attack against traditional Western Art theory. Here, museums do not so much display great Art, as arrogantly presume to define Art itself. By doing this they destroy the very concept of Art itself, and so disrespect humanity’s special role as creator of Art and lover of beauty. So, it is a bureaucratic and ideological movement which separates the Elites who create such doctrinaire “Art,” versus the common masses instinctively mortified by such ugly and anti-aesthetic displays. Marxism, having rejected human nature, tries to destroy and recreate Art in its own repulsive image. Their goal is to forever obliterate Man as made-in-God’s image.
In Obama’s economy, and very leadership style, we detect a socialist-styled elitism which deigns to break down reality to its very core definitions. For instance, a “successful” economy is not one which employs the highest number of people, or creates the greatest GDP. Instead, “successful” economics produces the largest amount of socialist “change.” This means a radical reconfiguring of capitalism, productivity and wealth across socialist approved values. Here, rich members must disgorge “stolen” material goods and power, while the entire economy shrinks, as government grows into a behemoth. The State then officially is unveiled as God.
III: Eric Hoffer’s True Believer as “Grope & Change”
Eric Hoffer’s seminal book, The True Believer, explains how persuasive demagogues gain power by offering voters a strikingly vague agenda of “Change” (see Obama & the Eighty-One Percent True Believers). Unfortunately, each na√Øve soul buying this premise embellishes in their own minds how such “change” will occur, undoubtedly favoring their own pet interests. But until each citizen accepts change is only possible as an active, not passive agent, the system cannot evolve. Instead, we will be continually impoverished, enslaved by mindless charlatans like Barack, existing only to aggrandize personal power.Conclusion
The massive failure of Obamanomics proves Barack no savior, but instead merely a Piss Messiah, a leader so bereft of good that all his deeds are excremental. And unless Obama is replaced, and his epic designed-to-fail Obamacare, and attendant massive tax increases, jettisoned—America is set for a long, strange ride down the American commode into the sewer of history.Canada Free Press
