- The End Of The 'Obama' Story

John Derbyshire and I are mid-disagreement about cynicism. Oh, not that cynicism is appropriate, we agree about that of course. John is a brilliant, clear eyed man of many talents who better knows the value of cynicism than most. And momma RFNJ didn’t raise no fools either. Just as ‘the man’ did so eloquently say in his earth shattering book… “We Are Doomed”.

But the nature of my cynicism and the nature of his have diverged somewhat. Or that is to say, he cynically believes we’re going down one path to destruction while I cynically believe we’re more likely to take another. He’s busier than me today so it’s probably not fair for me to make our disagreement public like this (especially when he makes his living writing about this stuff) but it’s on my mind. So here we are.

He’s of the opinion that the house Republicans will cave in to Obama’s demand for new taxes, kicking the same old can further down the road to serfdom, while our technocrat masters in Washington flail about trying to find new ways to control our lives. This will, he believes, lead to our destruction since it’s the only destination on that road. This is deeply cynical view, worthy of his reputation.

Meanwhile, I’m convinced that the Republicans won't give in on Obama's ultimatums. They may not have any firm principle about raising taxes (or anything else for that matter) but they know that raising taxes now will cost them the next election. So I believe they’ll stand firm because they think it's in their political interest to. The 'no new taxes' pledge has worked it's way into Republican mythology the same way the 'failure to pass health care' has in Democrat mythology. And just like the Democrats did last year, I think the Republican's are more likely to 'double down'.

That would mean that in order to get a deal on the debt ceiling, Obama would have to accept a political defeat. But this is very much not his way. He's prepared to ignore 'actual reality' forever, but 'political reality' not at all. And if forced into that position, I believe Obama will sooner allow the country to default on its debt than deny his constituents their access to government freebies; which was the whole reason they elected him in the first place.

I have to laugh when I hear Obama’s teleprompter talking about how he was sent to Washington to make ‘hard choices’, when it’s so obviously not true. Obama wasn’t sent to Washington to make hard choices. He was sent to Washington to ensure (and hopefully increase) the flow of free government stuff. They said as much every chance they could during the election. They wanted a ‘free mortgage’, ‘free gasoline’, ‘free money’, free, free, free, free….free stuff. That was the 'change they were hoping for'. And as much as is possible, Obama delivered.

Obama sent 1 Trillion dollars (all of it earned by other people) off into the black hole of American liberalism with nothing at all coming out. Much of it went to no-work union contracts, six figure public employee pensions, lying cheating edu-crats, and guns for Mexican drug gangs. And while that money did a lot of things, two things it did not do were increase employment, or improve the economy. Instead it went to people who contribute nothing at all to America's wealth, specifically for the purpose of not contributing to it.

The money was utterly wasted, to a degree, and on a scale, that only government can manage. And now, having wasted an unprecedented amount, equivalent to every net dollar borrowed by the American Republic from George Washington to Ronald Reagan, Obama is laying down an ultimatum about the debt ceiling deal. There will be no agreement, unless it also gives him the chance to waste some more.

Obama has never created even a single productive job. He’s never improved a product or service of any kind. As I understand it, he’s never even earned a tip. That means he knows less about how the real economy works than your average parking lot attendant. And after already squandering a Trillion bucks, he wants the chance to do it again. John thinks the Republicans will let him, and I think they won’t. We both think the end will be disaster. Or to put it another way, John thinks the Republican will let America down because of a lack of principles, and I think the Democrats will do it because they have principles which ALWAYS bring about negative results. It’s the Scylla and Charibdis – the devil and the deep blue sea – the rock and the hard place.

It’s all political handicapping, so I have no more information on the topic than he does. We’re neither of us Washington insiders. But since I think it’s usually a good idea to bet against the big catastrophic event, his view is probably the way to go. That means that my view, as dark and dangerous as it is, is probably the more optimistic. A default would be the dose of reality that many on the left need to finally wake up and smell the latte. And while it would be terrible, we could recover from it, and retain at least a portion of our individual liberty.

But John's view has none of that. He has us taking slightly longer to go off the cliff, but when we do it's a more complete destruction of the American ideal. He has us all shrugging off the last of our liberty and joining Greece, Spain Ireland and Portugal as one of the failed 'social democracies' of the modern west. All of us living henceforth under the the kind of abject tyranny that has been the norm to most people in history.

It's hard to believe, and it feels funny to type this... but offered those choices, I'm actually 'hoping' for a default. This is how the story of Obama ends.