Right-wingers are worried that President Obama will bring even more socialism (if that’s possible after Bush) to America and radicalize the whole country. Bill Ayres will become attorney general and Bernardine Dohrn secretary of HHS.
They shouldn’t worry. Presidents always break their promises.
Lyndon Johnson promised peace and a “Great Society” of racial equality. He gave us the Vietnam quagmire and an assault on the black family, whose illegitimacy rate rose from 25% when he took power to 70% today.
Richard Nixon promised to end the Vietnam War and “bring us together.” The war continued but he did bring us together — against himself over Watergate, for which he was forced to resign.
Gerald Ford promised to “heal” America — it got sicker.
Jimmy Carter asked, “Why not the best?” We got the worst.
Ronald Reagan best kept his promises, dumping Soviet socialism in the “dustbin of history” and restoring economic prosperity. But he also broke two major promises: instead of shrinking government spending, it grew 90% under him. And instead of appointing “strict constructionists” to the Supreme Court, we got one guy like that, Scalia, but also two radical leftist anti-constitutionalists, O’Conner and Kennedy.
George H.W. Bush promised, “Read my lips: No new taxes!!!!!!!!” In office, he increased taxes — which crashed the economy — to pay for the first Iraq War, part of the Bush family’s weird obsession with Iraq, dating back to when Bush’s Zapata Corporation had a contract with Kuwait in 1959.
Bill Clinton promised a “middle-class tax cut.” Never got it. Instead, he loosened lending rules for mortgages, which by 2008 had contributed to the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, a major assault on the middle-class.
George W. Bush promised a “humble” foreign policy and economic growth. We got an strutting, globe-straddling empire that bankrupted America and threw us into a new depression.
Obama is promising “the audacity of hope,” so we’re sure to get the mendacity of despair.
Have a nice election.
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Next time. Next election, they’ll do what they say. Yes, next time.