Sow and reap
Throughout our national history (excluding that pesky Civil War thing), America has avoided the political instability that has commonly plagued so many other nations.
We credit this to our faith in and acceptance of the Constitution and constitutional rule of law. From 1783 to 1865,
however, many Americans did not fully embrace federalism, limited though it was, and the nation suffered dearly for it.
Since that time, and despite occasionally serious lapses in civility or sound judgment, proponents of our political parties were committed as a united people to place country before ideology.
Phase shift
Over the last few decades, however, we have witnessed a graduated shift from a traditional American focus on individual freedom, free markets, voluntary associations, state and local autonomy, and unfettered businesses to one of oligarchic domestic statism.
In tandem with this tack has been the palpable degeneration from civil discourse to coarseness -- often outright hatred -- in journalism, on the Internet, in the arena of political debate, and in daily life. Perusal of any politically-involved Web site (including this one) or listening to any cable news commentary will adequately serve to illustrate.
Residual echoes
For the past nine years, those afflicted with derangement incessantly vilified George Bush and any associated with him. To this day -- many months into a new administration -- characterizations of him as Hitler, a monkey, mass murderer, liar, mentally retarded, and worse continue apace.
And as glaringly illustrated in the 2008 campaign, this malignant focus is still applied by media and the enlightened to anyone or any idea not ideologically compatible with or subservient to their own. Obama is one of their own and yet the derangement continues.
It is not progressive to vehemently react to any criticism of Obama or his administration with cult-like zeal, attacking with a systemic, spiteful vigor that is striking for the depth of its rankness. The Intertubes are rife with malicious pettiness, even when it is smugly but erroneously rooted in semantic obtuseness. No word is too harsh, no road too long to wound.
And for some, any length traveled to foment harm will never be long enough to restrain it.
Transformation
The progressive hysteria during the Bush years was a spectacle that did more harm to America than it ever did to the president. The progressive hysteria during the Obama years is still harming America but is as illogical as it is indefensible. You can't sow naked hatred for years without reaping a similar crop.
Growing opposition to Obama is because of his wrong-headed policies and not race, as progressives insist -- he simply could not have won the election without a preponderance of white voters.
Middle America is just beginning to resist the agenda he presents because of a slowly-growing awareness that it insulates a massive "shadow cabinet" from controlling authority, reverses the polarity of American ideals, redistributes the wealth of the nation, and indebts our progeny.
Options
It is an understatement to say that his policies are unreasonable when measured against founding principles. But although a committed statist, Obama is not a national socialist, international socialist, or anarchist.
He is merely in step with today's radical Left, and his personal history supports this claim. He is no more a socialist than are Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Schumer, Waxman, or Durbin.
But they are the radical cream, the elites who now rule rather than serve. They govern with a callous, core-deep disregard for individual liberty and the traditions of American freedom.
Given an option based upon facts without hype, we are seeing that Americans will choose prosperity and the traditional American way over indebtedness, mediocrity, and a life controlled by central authority.
Hype and Chains.