January 25, 2010

Countering Obama's Populist Rhetoric on Banks


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The one area that President Obama can still safely bash and shift blame to without criticism is the banks. People don't like banks, they don't trust the banks, they despise the audacity of big bonuses in light of bailout money. It's an easy target, and believe me for Democrats it looks like a possible lifeline for the 2010 mid-term elections. This Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, are likely to try and fail at missing the lifeline, but that doesn't mean that conservatives should have a ready counter-measure because it's going to be a lot more effective a Democrat argument than the 'Blame Bush' meme. And what better way to do it then tweaking their standard class warfare playbook to focus on occupational warfare? Get people angry at Wall Street and the banks. It takes the focus off of the supremely lousy job coming out of Democrat Washington.


Don't forget this is the same President who has blamed Bush, insurance companies, nefarious yet undefined "special interests", conservatives, trucks, big oil, and countless others for the bevy of problems facing the country ON HIS WATCH. Remember, Bush has been gone for a year, a lame duck for two years and it's been four years since the Republicans controlled Congress. Why not go all the way back and blame Ronald Reagan for everything? You know you want to.

"Anybody but me." The theme for 2010.

No doubt the Democrats, in an attempt to thwart a November electoral drubbing, will throw everything at the 2010 electorate;


- blame Bush
- re-doubling their efforts on health care reform (in some way yet to be determined)
- blaming the banks
- blaming special intrests
- blaming insurance companies
- blaming wall street.

Point the finger at someone else - James Carville is all for it. What a strategy! Whether they realize it or not, they are effectively pointing their middle finger at the people of the United States in the process. Learn the blame game Mr. Carville? Democrats invented it, and live and breath it!

On a related point, the flip side of the blame game the Democrats are going to play this year, is the hypocrisy associated with it. I'd love to catch President Obama with a quick - "Please name one special interest Mr. President." Whatever he answers the likely retort would be, "How about one you haven't co-opted yet?" AARP? Pharmaceutical companies? Soros' oil drilling operations off the shores of Brazil? But I digress.

Populism
populism noun
/ˈpɒp.jʊ.lɪ.zəm//ˈpɑː.pjə-/ n [U] mainly disapproving

political ideas and activities that are intended to represent ordinary people's needs and wishes


The blame game is the basest form of populism.  Democrat populism is rooted in class warfare, and the idea that it's the other guy's fault.  It's based on selfishness, sloth, and a supposed empathy for the plight of an individual or group. Current Republican populism varies from this in one critical respect - the blame is focused on those responsible for the plight of the country - politicians.

How dare a President, who once declared that the abortion issue was above his pay grade, abdicate responsibility?  President Obama is the leader of the most powerful nation in the world.  The buck stops at your desk.  Whether you believe current conditions are your fault or not, it is your responsibility to fix it.  It serves no puprose other than self-interest, to point out scapegoats for the problems.  Your predecessor, for all his flaws, had the deceny to not engage in these self-serving tactics.

The good news is that those tactics are not serving you all that well these days.  The American public is seeing through you, with slowly changing degrees of job approval.  Time is not on your side Mr. President.  You might set a record for lame-duckiness little more than a year into your Presidency. 

How Do Conservatives Counter The Next Obama Steps?

The Supreme Court recently gave the First Amendment a shot in the arm with it's ruling on corporatations being allowed the same rights as unions to spend money to get political messages out.  That's one for the good guys.  The same liberals who think unions deserve that right do not feel corporations should have that right.  Hypocrisy.

President Obama who is apparently still trying to force through his health care debacle, is not on the side of the people he claims to be on.  Hypocrisy.

The President wants cheap, domestic energy sources, but was willing to see coal prices and oil prices skyrocket and bankrupt current domestic producers.  Hypocrisy.

The President promised open debate on health care (or anything) and yet did not force Democrats to have their reconciliation discussions on CSPAN. Hypocrisy.

The President who promised to be post-partisan, immediately went with "I won", and denied that Republicans had any counter ideas while they certainly offered up plenty of ideas.  Hypocrisy.

The President blames Bush for everything up to and including the Scott Brown Republican win in Massachusetts. Hypocrisy. (And perhaps a touch delusional).

The Democrats, who derisively dismissed the Tea Partiers as Tea baggers, and who ignored and deliberately diminshed their numbers as insignificant, are now going to try to portray themselves as being 'of the people, by the people and for the people'? Hypocrisy.

The President and Democrats who used the financial crisis as nothing more than an "opportunity" to springboard pet projects and pork barrel spending and then ignored it for 10 months are now going to suddenly turn their attention to jobs because they care about a 10% unemployment rate?  Hypocrisy.

How do conservatives and Republicans counter such (ironically) transparent dishonesty?  It seems pretty self evident.  But in case I need to point out the obvious - point out the hypocrisy of everything the Democrats and the Obama administration ave done since 2006.  It's not the entire answer because you need to have a formula for solving problems and it needs to be 3/4 of the GOP message - here are our fixes, and if you really are falling for the Democrats' talking points, remember, they are all born of hypocrisy and with that, comes deceit.

*I'd love to give proper credit for the picture, but I can't seem to identify the source.  Whoever created it though, wonderful image.

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