The President's Hyper-Partisan Inaugural Address

Many commentators -- on Fox -- noticed how partisan the inaugural address was. The typical inaugural speaks in the broadest themes about the core of America, those things which are not generally disputed; this speech was more like a State of the Union, with a partisan political agenda and Designated Villains.

See, for example, Joel Pollack's reaction at Breitbart:

Throughout his address, the President maintained his voice in a near-shout. This was not an historic address, a reflection on a moment in history; it was an exhortation to political action, in contrast to the political reality of a divided Washington, in defiance of the profound economic challenges still facing the American people.

It was a declaration of political war on individual liberty.

Even lefty columnist Eugene Robinson acknowledge it, stating "this might have been the most progressive speech he's given as President," and noting that the heavy implication was "there's more to come." Joe Biden further threatened:

“I want you to know something else about this guy Barack Obama — he’s just getting started,” Biden added. “He’s just getting started.”

Obama has always considered himself the Anti-Reagan -- he would not only undo the Reagan coalition and the Reagan era, but do what Reagan did but for the left, create a semi-permanent liberal majority.

Obama is on the way to accomplishing that, but for one thing: Reagan's presidency was a great success. Obama's is not. Success tends to attract fans; that's why people ask celebrities for autographs and read biographies of superstar athletes and innovators like Steve Jobs.

Obama has had many political successes, but he's had no non-political successes except for the assassination of Osama bin Ladin (and that of course was built on the earlier efforts of Bush, and was a longstanding bipartisan goal).

There is nothing he's done yet that a non-political person, or someone opposed to his politics, can point at and say "That's a good thing."

He won't seal any kind of deal until he manages that, and I don't think he will. The trajectory of socialism is failure. And yes, Obama is a socialist. And so history says he will fail.

Buzzfeed's Ben Smith Thinks Obama Can Be Reagan Absent Any Actual Accomplishments... For liberals, Obama's unabashed liberalism is enough.

Not so for non-liberals -- and by non-liberals, I don't just mean conservatives. I mean the great swathe of less political voters who aren't ideological enough to have strong opinions one way or the other, but who can tell the difference between a recession and an expansion.

So, contra the liberals, no, Obama's not Reagan yet.

This may shock liberals, but Being Very Liberal is not in and of itself an accomplishment. They themselves believe that it is an accomplishment -- a great deal of their own self-worth is based on who they vote for every two or four years -- but the rest of us think that accomplishments are different from mere beliefs and bleatings.

posted by Ace at 02:27 PM

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