David

Karki

Read David's bio and previous columns here

May 20, 2009

Obama: Don't You Dare Do For Yourself

President Obama gave the commencement address at Arizona State University last week, and I'll say this much for it:  It wasn't the typical “the future's so bright, you gotta wear shades” rah-rah speech to the graduates. In fact, it was quite the opposite – he subtlely (and not so subtlely) denigrated self-sufficiency, high living standards and achievement.

One would think that the students would come away from it almost depressed, judging solely by the content. Yet they mindlessly cheered and applauded, reflecting their absorption of 16 years of liberal propaganda masquerading as “education.”

“You're taught to chase after all the usual brass rings; you try to be on this "who's who" list or that top 100 list; you chase after the big money and you figure out how big your corner office is; you worry about whether you have a fancy enough title or a fancy enough car. That's the message that's sent each and every day, or has been in our culture for far too long -- that through material possessions, through a ruthless competition pursued only on your own behalf -- that's how you will measure success.”

It's been in our culture because it's true and it works! What Obama calls “ruthless” and selfish, I call free-market capitalism! I don't see too many people defining being poor and dependent as success, or being self-sufficient as failure. And just who are you to be dictating to anyone how much is too much? Talk about assuming to oneself way too much moral authority.

This from a guy who's never worked a real job that produced anything worthwhile a day in his life, who never had to make a payroll, or satisfy customers and vendors, or calculate a profit/loss statement. Earth to president: We can't all leech off the taxpayers and shady political connections in order to “community organize” all day long, whatever the hell that is. Living outside the real world, as you have been your whole life, only produces the staggering ignorance you so clearly demonstrate.

Bill Gates has created more jobs and helped more people prosper than all the parasite-on-the-taxpayers'-wallets non-profits in history combined! Is he wrong to have personally benefitted so much in the process? Obama's tone tends to suggest so.

You want to help folks? Get a job, take care of yourself, invest, take risks, and in the process of reaping the reward, create jobs for others so they can care for themselves. Contrary to the intimation of the above, acting in enlightened self-interest is often more worthwhile than self-denial.

“It was in pursuit of gaudy short-term profits, and the bonuses that came with them, that so many folks lost their way on Wall Street, engaging in extraordinary risks with other people's money.”

And just what in blazes do you think Rep. Barney Frank, Sen. Chris Dodd, and yourself (one of the biggest takers of campaign funds from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) were doing, when you ordered lenders to give mortgages to folks who couldn't possibly pay them back? If Wall Street lost their way, then government is somewhere in Timbuktu. And Obama has the gall to pass judgment on those who largely did what he himself demanded of them?

How can anybody stomach this? It's so obviously wrong and flies in the face of all that makes America what she is. The consequences of arrogantly defying reality will be severe – not the least of which would be the complete loss of our individual liberty and freedom as Obama runs roughshod over every supposed limitation on government's power in order to re-make the world as he thinks it should be.

It's bad enough that Obama is as ignorant to the point of delusion as Jimmy Carter. It's even worse that he combines it with a determination to use government to force them on us all. Then factor in his cult-like adoring supporters and a media aiding him every step of the way, which puts the sheep's clothing on the wolf and makes him look far more benign than he really is.

Now flip that tassel to the other side of that mortarboard.

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