After dissecting the proposition that Obama is bluffing and really does not want to go over the “fiscal cliff” as a result of a tax and spend standoff with the Republican led House, Michael Barone concludes that Obama would be quite content with that very thing happening. Its a world view thing. Quoting Barone:
Obama seeks to advance what Alexis de Tocqueville in “Democracy in America” called “soft despotism,” with “a network of small, complicated, painstaking rules” — think ObamaCare — to “finally reduce … each nation to being nothing more than a herd of timid and industrious animals of which government is the shepherd.” Or so it seems to me. If so, why not risk a recession? It would keep the herd in need of shepherding.
It is a good article and we recommend reading it in its entirety. It is available here.
While Barone cannot be presumed to share the view, his is consistent with ours which is that Obama is essentially a Marxist. Every influential person in his life through young adulthood and beyond seems to have had that world view. In terms of attitude we also believe that Obama is imbued with his own personal whipped up anti-colonialist grudge (fantasies from his father), distorted to include resentment towards white America. In short he is one screwed up personality with no concepts beyond an essentially Marxian analysis of world history, the US Constitution and economics.
So what should the Republican “fiscal cliff” strategy be? We like those approaches that are not concerned with whether Obama is bluffing or not. It doesn’t matter. Call him on it. We like the strategy that involves the Republican House to send over a series of individual bills on key spending items and a permanent extension of the “Bush” tax cuts for all Americans. Handled adroitly we think that will serve to flush Obama out and some Democrats down in 2014. R Mall
