The Virtue of NO

The entire Obama agenda and its premises should be flatly rejected…

Americans need to stand up and shout NO! to the entire Obama agenda. There is virtue and power in the simplicity of this approach. Whether expressed in letters or emails to Congressmen and Senators, through public demonstrations such as tea parties and their progeny, participation in 24/7 sit-ins at every office in every state of every Congressman and Senator, or marching on Washington D.C.,--NO! communicates with a clarity that even today’s Political Class can understand. And it is the best, most complete and final answer needed for these times.

Elitists will of course lecture the people that we can’t just say no, or in the case of the Republicans, that they can’t just become ‘the party of no’. To paraphrase Sarah Palin’s recent remarks, “Screw elitists”.

The Obama agenda is wildly out of bounds, not only in the sense of constitutional boundaries, but also in, to us, the more important sense of the boundaries set by the election campaign of 2008. The speeches and debate performances and public persona of Barack Obama in the election campaign of 2008 cannot be reconciled with his agenda as President except by the simple explanation: Obama lied about who he was and what he meant by ‘change’. In this context, it is both unnecessary and morally wrong to accept the premises of any Obama agenda item. The right, effective and most potent response is simply, NO. We the people will have our own ‘do-over’ by stopping this fraudulent agenda in its tracks, and forcing a more out-in-the-open campaign in 2010 and beyond.

Here are a few examples:

Nationalizing industries….NO. The people have been consistently opposed to bailouts; the Constitution does not authorize the government to do this; and no voter in November 2008 thought that less than six months later an American President would be deciding (through 31 year old unvetted, unconfirmed-by-the-Senate appointees) what cars can be built, what dealerships must be closed, what executives may be paid and on and on. The people certainly were not informed of and did not vote for a plan to overturn commercial law relative to the rights of secured and unsecured lenders. So NO to any additional nationalizations, NO to anything other than the immediate government divestiture of its shares to the American taxpayers who paid for them, NO to more bailouts.

Climate change legislation….NO. Global warming ‘science’ has become a farce. There is no consensus about anything, and science is not supposed to be about consensus anyway. The campaign of 2008 established only that both candidates drank the Gore Kool-Aid, but in no way were the American people given an honest appraisal of the just what costs and limitations on freedom are involved in something so grandiose and preposterous as an attempt by a small portion of humanity to control the weather on planet earth. The premises of the entire issue are shot full of holes. Nothing needs to be done to address climate change. Nothing. And so the answer can be shortened to NO

Nationalized Healthcare…NO. Tinkering with the system was the message of both 2008 campaigns, not nationalizing everything into a single payer monstrosity. The implications of such a monstrosity on human freedom are mind-boggling. Think about it: is there ANY aspect of human life that could not be regulated in the name of managing healthcare costs? Eating? Drinking? Sleeping? Exercising? Driving? Attire for different weather? It is criminal for an American Presidency and Congress to try and get away with this kind of wholesale dismantling of Constitutional freedoms in a manner almost entirely concealed from the people in the 2008 campaign. So the answer is NO to each and every healthcare initiative from now until the next election. Unless and until the economy starts recovering, this is irrelevant.

Aligning with Muslims against Israel…NO. There’s no way to sugarcoat it—this is what Obama is doing and it bears no relation whatsoever to the policies expressed by Obama the candidate. It needs to stop. Israel matters to America in ways Americans know instinctively. See our essay, "Israel Matters". A President may have Constitutional authority to conduct foreign policy but not in a manner radically inconsistent with his campaign promises.

Continuing with the stimulus and trillion dollar deficits…NO. It is now patently obvious that the stimulus bill was a complete fraud—a cynical political payback bill that did not warrant the urgency with which it was handled, and has done nothing whatsoever that had been promised. Whatever is not spent should be stopped; and the trillion dollar budgets should be rescinded.

Americans in every part of the country are outraged at what is happening to their country, but they are being told and are accepting the premise that nothing can be done. It’s time for a NO! to this premise, too. At Brushfires we know all about legalities, and procedures, and presumed headcounts/votes in Congress. But the Ten Commandments are the last laws we know of that were etched in stone. We don’t think any politician will stand up to an engaged and enraged citizenry. If we the people stand up now and shout NO over and over and over and over, the message will get through. Waiting it out is not an option when presented with fraud on this scale. The radical left is hijacking the American Constitutional Republic. It’s time to stop them. Let’s roll!

Paul Gable

Posted June 8, 2009