THE SPELL IS BROKEN

BY CINCINNATUS
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There was an excellent piece by Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post today (see here) that expressed my feelings regarding the vanishing Obama mystique. For me, the tenuous honeymoon with President Obama is over. I have been determined to be even-handed and judge him by his actions rather than his words. Now, with only three weeks into his term, I have resigned myself to the gnawing fears I had suppressed for the sake of objectivity: there will be no “new politics,” no end to special interests in Washington, and no era of responsibility, fiscal or otherwise. There will be spending, spending and more spending, and a consolidation of power on the part of the federal government. Why the president gave Congressional Democrats so much leeway with the stimulus bill, which they used as an excuse to cram the legislation full of the most shameful pork imaginable, is beyond me if his intentions were and are genuine. I am forced to conclude that his intentions are purely political. And his return to the fear-mongering rhetoric he promised to leave behind, as Krauthammer deftly points out, only underscores the point. The president has grown petulant at the exposure by conservatives of the rampant waste in the stimulus package, and even more furious that it has stalled. Polls increasingly show the American public more and more opposed to passing the stimulus in its current form (see here).

As conservatives, we must brace ourselves for what is surely to come. The next stop for the Democrats in government will be universal healthcare which, once accomplished, will never be undone. They will hold hearings on the Fairness Doctrine in which talk radio hosts will be hauled before committees and forced to explain and justify their free political speech. They will eventually raise taxes on corporations in an attempt to stave off some of the financial ruin that will eventually result from their spending-spree. Our children will foot the bill for a whole new array of entitlement programs that will pick their pockets. We have to stand against this. No more illusions, folks. The president isn’t interested in middle ground unless there is political gain. We must doubt his intentions. Get ready to voice some loud opposition…