Posted by
Andrews on Wednesday, April 29, 2009 9:18:13 AM
Obama, being a lawyer, should be well aware that an employer is responsible for the misdeeds of his employees. Unless an employee clearly violated a published rule, the employer is on the hook for the actions of his employees, at least in terms of liability. And we should hold to such principles in government as well. Unless they violated clearly written guidelines, any act of the executive can be laid at the feet of the president.
Now, I don't mean to say that Obama authorized this absurd stunt over NYC. He likely did, but even if he did not, it was his chosen employee who did so, so he is still the one at fault. Had he admitted as much, come clean and said "Yes, my appointee did this, so I am to blame." I would have had some respect for him. That he did not, and instead disowns the whole thing while calling for "investigations" shows me a man terrified of taking responsibility for anything.
And before anyone points to some Republican who did the same, I am hardly freeing either side of blame in this. Our politicians have all become cowards, afraid of taking responsibility for anything or stating anything vaguely unpopular. And why not? Look what happened to Phil Gramm when he said we run to the government whenever something goes wrong. Why would a politician treat us as adults when we behave as children and toss them out whenever they fail to appease our every wish?
No, sadly, Obama is exactly
what we deserve, a sniveling appeaser, who adeptly avoids all blame while promising us the moon. We asked for it, tossing out anyone who told us the truth, who tried to rein in government or informed us we needed to solve our own problems. We asked for Obama, and we got him.
Want to hear something even more depressing? It seems we haven't learned a thing from our mistake. We still hear constant cries for the state to do even more. I hear Republicans saying we have to stop being "against" and be "for" something. In other words, the drum beat of the caretaker state goes on and on, despite all the evidence of what it produces.
Maybe the next sycophantic, appeasing president will teach us. I only hope we can recover from that one as well.
POSTSCRIPT
What is disturbing is that these sycophantic, appeasing presidents are also the most oppressive. Just as the best con men convince everyone they are their best friends, the best dictators appear the best "servants of the people". While they promise the moon and tell us what we want to hear, they also accumulate power and use it for their own ends. As a result, while we think we are getting what we want, we are swiftly losing what little freedom we have. Int he end, rather than the sun and moon we were promised, we get slavery.