http://ulstermanbooks.com/2015-end-beginning-obama-era/Came across an interesting tidbit from the left-leaning The Atlantic this morning that was boldly titled “The End of the Obama Era.” I would suggest, not so boldly but with far more trepidation, that 2015 in fact marks the end of the beginning of the Obama Era, and here is why…
(While true the day to day machinations of the Obama White House are winding down and the public’s political attention already looks elsewhere, the damage inflicted upon Americans by this administration will linger on for many years after.)
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Molly Ball’s take in The Atlantic said this:
But fortunately for those of us who didn’t sleep through 2014, we know a lot of things today that we didn’t know a year ago. And the midterm elections, while narrowly predictable, may have reshaped the political landscape in subtler and more interesting ways than a simple binary transfer of power from one party to another. In other words, what we witnessed in 2014 wasn’t just a swing of the ol’ pendulum; it was the end of the Obama era in American politics.
I would offer one name, an example of a long ago departed president, to counter this “end of an era” premise – Jimmy Carter.
Carter’s presidency is deemed by most to be an abject failure. Ah, but while the day to day operations of the Carter White House were in many ways, just that, there remains a lasting and negative legacy that continues to endure long after President Carter retreated into one-termer obscurity.
Take his Department of Education for example. A massive expansion/intrusion of federal government authority over state and local education agencies. The Founders believed education to be the job of individual states to decide regarding how best to educate their citizens. Control of education was an assurance in helping to maintain and protect states rights so that they might exist within the Republic without giving up their own unique autonomy.
Carter’s Department of Education has broken part that education autonomy until little of it remains today. From the smallest public school district to the largest – all must bow to the will of the Feds. And so, school books, lesson plans, the very mindset of educators are required to project an education upon students that builds upon the concept of more government and centralized authority. The Department of Education was approved by a Democratic controlled Congress in 1979 and has grown exponentially since that time with an annual budget of some $70 billion.
In the 1980’s Ronald Reagan ran on dismantling the then newly formed federal government entity, and received wide approval from voters to do just that. The Democrats in Congress refused to negotiate such an idea though, and soon the idea of faded away and was eventually replaced by Republican presidential candidates pushing to make the Department of Education better through more power, more money, more federal government intrusion that would supersede state authority.
George W. Bush was by far the worst of Republicans to do so. His No Child Left Behind was a massive expansion of the federal government’s role in local and state education, and though that program has faded away during the Obama era, the power of the Department of Education has not. So even though President Carter left office nearly 35 years ago, this one example of his failed legacy lives on, thrives in fact, under the increasingly costly and authoritative federal government umbrella that looms over all of us.
Now imagine the impact then of a law far greater and more intrusive such as Obamacare/The Affordable Care Act. Here we have the federal government given the powers of legislation filled with rows of mandates for which the private citizen is required to follow. These mandates dictate how you must live, sleep, what hospital and doctor you are allowed to see, and in turn, what treatment that hospital is allowed to then give you. Obamacare is literally cradle to grave government control over you daily life, and it was passed by Democrats with the clear intent of growing that control just like very other federal government program has grown since its initial inception.
As bad as Obamacare is now, it takes little imagination to realize how much worse it will be in ten years, and how much worse still it will be after that.
The end of the Obama era?
If only that were true.
The stink and pain and divisiveness of recent years will remain with America for some time.
Many of my readers have lamented they think we will never recover from the destruction that has, and continues to result from the Obama presidency.
They may very well be right. I pray history to prove them wrong, but also know history proves even the most weak and seemingly ineffective of presidents can forge legacies that live on long after they have left the White House stage.
The Obama era will most likely be no different.
2015 is merely the end of the beginning…
-DWU
Posted by
ulsterman
December 29, 2014
