Did you vote for Barack Obama in 2008? A lot of people did –
obviously.
What a time. There’s still room for improvement, but what a
testimony to just how far we as a nation have come in terms of racial harmony,
tolerance and diversity.
Only decades earlier a man like Barack Obama – a black man –
couldn’t even drink from the same water fountain as a white man, let alone
become president of the United States. A hundred years prior to that, and he
may well have been counted another man’s property.
On Nov. 4, 2008, millions gathered at the ballot box to prove,
once and for all, that, in large measure, we as a nation have healed from our
disgraceful, self-inflicted wounds of racial abuse, bias and division.
That we could elect an African-American to lead the free world is
indeed a very good thing.
We just happened to elect the wrong African-American.
In life, we sometimes find that the idea of a thing is far better
than the thing itself. As a boy, I once ordered, from a comic book, a pair of
X-ray glasses that promised to allow me to see the bones beneath my hand (my
motives were a bit more ignoble). The two weeks it took for the glasses to
arrive seemed like an eternity.
Once they did arrive, I ripped into the package and put them on,
darting my head to-and-fro. It’s difficult to express my level of
disappointment. As I quickly discovered, the glasses merely formed a halo
effect around objects, creating the illusion of transparency. I felt
embarrassed. I got took.
Barack Obama’s presidency has been a halo effect. Like I did so
many years ago, in 2008 America fell victim to false advertising. As the past
four years have demonstrated beyond any serious debate, the idea of President
Obama was far better than the reality of President Obama. We were promised the
world. We were promised transparency; but we were sold an illusion. We got
took.
Indeed, during the 2008 campaign, a then-Sen. Barack Obama
promised us that, if elected, we would look back upon the moment he took office
and “tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care
for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of
the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when
we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best
hope on earth.”
That was the idea of President Obama. That was what many good,
well-meaning people voted for. That was the hope offered and the change
promised.
That was not what we got.
Though it’s certainly not a comprehensive analysis, during the
second presidential debate, Mitt Romney, in response to Mr. Obama’s attempts to
gloss over his mounting leadership failures, summarized a few of the big ones.
While addressing an audience member who, perhaps like you, voted for Obama in
2008, Romney observed, in part, the following:
I think you know better. I think you know that these last four
years haven’t been so good as the president just described and that you don’t
feel like you’re confident that the next four years are going to be much better
either. …
He said that, by now, we’d have unemployment at 5.4 percent. The
difference between where it is and 5.4 percent is 9 million Americans without
work. …
He said he would have, by now, put forward a plan to reform
Medicare and Social Security, because he pointed out they’re on the road to
bankruptcy. He would reform them. He’d get that done. He hasn’t even made a
proposal on either one.
He said in his first year he’d put out an immigration plan that
would deal with our immigration challenges. Didn’t even file it.
This is a president who has not been able to do what he said he’d
do. He said that he’d cut in half the deficit. He hasn’t done that either. In
fact, he doubled it.
He said that by now middle-income families would have a reduction
in their health insurance premiums by $2,500 a year. It’s gone up by $2,500 a
year. And if Obamacare is implemented fully, it’ll be another $2,500.
The middle class is getting crushed under the policies of a
president who has not understood what it takes to get the economy working
again. … [T]he number of people who are still looking for work is still 23
million Americans.
There are more people in poverty, one out of six people in
poverty.
How about food stamps? When he took office, 32 million people were
on food stamps. Today, 47 million people are on food stamps. How about the
growth of the economy? It’s growing more slowly this year than last year – and
more slowly last year than the year before. …
The president has tried, but his policies haven’t worked.
Recently, my wife and I attended an outdoor festival in central
Virginia. Although the event was not political, there were people from both the
Obama and Romney camps handing out campaign stickers and other items. I suspect
that if a poll were taken, liberals out-numbered conservatives by about
two-to-one.
That’s why I was so taken aback. Although we saw dozens of people
wearing Romney stickers, we only saw one man wearing an Obama sticker.
We walked up to a fellow with a gray pony tail, John Lennon
glasses and Birkenstocks. He was wearing a Romney sticker.
“Mind if I ask why you’re voting for Mitt Romney?” I asked. “I
assume you are.”
His reply – and these were his words, not mine – was short and to
the point: “Because I refuse to be that stupid twice.”
Changing one’s mind doesn’t always reveal a tendency toward
indecision. Sometimes, changing one’s mind reveals a tendency toward wisdom.
Matt Barber (@jmattbarber
on Twitter) is an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. He serves as
Vice President of Liberty Counsel
Action. (This information is provided for identification purposes
only.)
