Warning: Rant to follow.
Baker College announced this week
that due to Affordable Care Act (ACA) aka
Obamacare regulations, they will be required to reclassify their part-time
(adjunct) faculty (which is most of its faculty) in a way that limits the
number of classes adjuncts will be able to teach. This is no doubt a well
intentioned move by bureaucrats to keep employers from classifying large numbers of
employees in part-time status so that they can escape the Obamacare
requirement to provide health insurance for them. On the surface, it seems
harmless. In the real world (a place unfamiliar to Washington bureaucrats) it
just means more of us will be forced into lower income brackets.
Washington is also discussing another
O-bomb-a attack on citizens to determine whether the President has the
Constitutional right to kill American citizens on US soil using drones. OMG!
(Sorry. Wasn’t it the Democrats who were so upset with George Bush’s use of
drones to assassinate foreign terrorists?) The Senate is examining
Attorney General Eric Holder on the policy which he seems to be defending. Kentucky
Senator Rand Paul is filibustering
in Congress to block the confirmation of CIA Director nominee John Brennan
because Paul adamantly opposes the administration position on drone use on
American soil. May his tribe increase.
I fondly remember Nancy
Pelosi’s comment during the original Obamacare debate (debacle?) saying,
“We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it.” Those were
the days. Back then we only feared that President Obama and his ilk were trying
to take over America. Fear has been replaced with certainty; it is happening. This
is the change some people hoped for. Obama has admitted that he wants to
rebuild America. Bill Clinton affirmed
this during the 2012 campaign. What many people do not realize is that in
order to “rebuild” one must first raze the existing structure.
Voters in this country are
clearly divided on whether we want the Obama rebuild or not. A la Pelosi’s
comment about healthcare, now that we have elected Obama, we are seeing what he
really meant by “hope and change.” Barak Obama and the current crop of
political progressives hope to reshape America in the pattern of socialist
Europe. The rest of us would like to keep the model of America that allowed us
to achieve the exceptional success we have. Europe is not currently doing well by
any honest appraisal; following their lead is not attractive to those of us who
realize that America’s uniqueness has spared us some of the Continent’s pain.
Greece (or Spain or even Great Britain) is not an appealing model at present.
I believe the driving force
behind Obama’s popularity is a tectonic shift in the American spirit. Something
happened in the middle of the last century that fundamentally altered the
attitude of millions of Americans. Many things doubtless contributed to this
change of heart: the unbridled prosperity immediately after WWII; the breakdown
of moral restraint regarding sexuality, drugs and behavior in general; a
burgeoning welfare state (this may be effect and cause;) the disappearance of the
traditional family unit and its ancillary components; the gradual take-over of
media by the political left.
The strength of character that
got us through two World Wars and an economic disaster in between is fading
from public view. I say “public view” because I think there is still a large
conservative cadre in this country; its views are not widely or fairly presented
due to media bias. Because the media only reports those things that are
complimentary to the Obama administration and its policies, many Americans are
fooled by the President’s rhetoric (see Words
Have Meaning.) Add to this the human tendency to want something for nothing,
and Obama wins re-election by 53%. I hope that this week’s events will stir some
of those “five-three-ers” to reconsider their vote for change. Smaller pay
checks and armed drones overhead is definitely not the America I hope for.
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