Look! Over There! It’s President Michelle Bachmann! – OpEd
Listening to most Democratic liberals or progressives (you choose the term) leads one to believe that the biggest menace to civilization today is Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann. If not Bachmann, the latest and greatest bogeyman is Texas governor Rick Perry. Bachmann won the recent Iowa straw poll and in so doing made herself more of a serious candidate, in media eyes at any rate, for the Republican presidential nomination. Perry’s announcement of his presidential ambitions shortly thereafter moved him up on the liberal fear meter.
Predictably, Barack Obama lovers are in a panic because the Perrys and Bachmanns of the world give them so much material to work with. Bachmann called the agriculture department’s settlement of proven discrimination against black farmers a form of reparations. She claims to follow biblical teachings urging women to be submissive to their husbands while at the same time being an attorney, a member of congress and now a presidential candidate. Her husband claims to be able to “cure” gay people and turn them into heterosexuals.
Perry may be the only one of the declared Republican candidates who can raise more ire than Bachmann in the liberal imagination. He signed a resolution declaring days of prayer for his drought stricken state and then held a large rally for more prayer (and fasting too) at a stadium in Houston. He has implied that Texas ought to secede from the union and he called Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke “treasonous.” As if that were not enough, he packs heat while jogging, carrying a loaded gun during his daily constitutional.
While Bachmann and Perry stir up the Democrats’ antipathy to all things they claim to care about, Obama gets a pass no matter how awful his actions. The same people who get the vapors over prayers to end droughts, say nothing as their president wages wars of aggression in Libya and Somalia. Recent reports estimate that up to 168 Pakistani children have been killed by American drone attacks but that news brings not even mumbled words from the mouths of Obamaites.
Michele Bachmann does play fast and loose with the truth, having famously claimed that Obama’s trip to India in 2010 would cost the government $200 million per day. Her misstatements make her a favorite foil for Democrats who are snooty about style, and never about substance. It is true that Perry called Social Security a ponzi scheme, but it is Barack Obama who has made common cause with Republicans to cut the program. While Perry raises liberal hackles every time he opens his mouth, the Obama administration has confirmed that the current military pension system may be a thing of the past. Retired service members will have to take a risk with the insecure 401(k) system just like the rest of us. That is the kind of news that would get liberal pants in a twist if the president were a Republican.
A cynic might conclude that Barack Obama pays Bachmann, Perry and their cohorts under the table to utter racist, foolish and just plain crazy statements. Every time they open their mouths Democrats who have some degree of frustration with Obama forget all about their misgivings because the big, bad barbarians are at the gate. Hand wringing about prayer rallies and cures for gay people are distractions, very dangerous distractions for many important issues in the world.
Nearly three years ago the world economy nearly fell off the precipice when market manipulation burst the most recent capitalist bubble. All of the indices of crisis are still present. There is still fictitious capital plaguing the world markets. The United States never returned to manufacturing anything useful, but instead churns out bombs and guns and the inevitable wars that come with them. Western European nations are going broke, and austerity, not the stimulation which would save western economies, has become the cure all for a dangerous situation.
None of this seems to matter to Democrats, who will only speak up when gaffe prone conservatives are in danger of becoming president. Their beloved president rarely makes any gaffes. He is a smart man from the right schools and from the right party. While he brokered a budget deal which Reagan would have killed for, and presides over the biggest military budget in American history, his liberal fans don’t care. They only care that Bachmann confuses Massachusetts with New Hampshire or Elvis Presley’s birthday with his death day.
So, why not Michele Bachmann or Rick Perry? Since all of the conservative dreams are coming true under Obama anyway, it may make sense to have an honest conservative back in the White House. The comedic possibilities are endless. We should at least have opportunities to laugh as we head over the cliff.
