A good friend who flew World War II night bombing missions over Italy told me he knew he was over the target when they started shooting at him. By that measure, my column on how America has changed in my lifetime must have been on target as I got two critical replies in this paper.
Those replies were written by people who self-identify as Democrats and progressives. By implication, and in an ad hominen manner, they accused me of being racist, sexist and homophobic. These are people who don’t know me and who are members of the party of tolerance and choice. Except when it comes to tolerating Republicans or choosing to watch Fox News.
What is it about Democrats and progressives they think they are shaming someone when they mention slavery? Slavery was perpetuated and defended by the Democrat party, not by Republicans. Remember the Emancipation Proclamation? Republican Abraham Lincoln signed it. Remember who opposed the Voting Rights Act? You guessed it — Democrats.
Which political party had a senior member of the KKK sitting in the U.S. Senate? That would be Richard Byrd, KKK Grand Kleagle and long-serving Senator from West Virginia. I could continue, but you get the drift — Democrats accuse Republicans of doing what they themselves do.
Meanwhile, a senior member of the Obama administration — Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes — has just revealed in a long New York Times Magazine article he lied to the public and manipulated the White House press corps regarding the so-called agreement that was supposed to delay development of the Iranian nuclear bomb. I opposed that agreement when it was being finalized a year ago. When I read the full text I recognized it as one-sided: we would give up sanctions on Iran in exchange for no concessions on their part.
More incompetence in foreign affairs from this administration, and it could turn out to be damaging to the USA and Israel. Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry told us the agreement was good for America and there was no alternative to accepting it. Now we know this was a lie, and one of the most active proponents of this lie was the same senior national security adviser who was behind the lie about the Benghazi attack being triggered by a video — none other than Ben Rhodes, whose qualifications include a master’s degree (MFA) in fiction writing. Yep, that sounds about right.
Only last year another senior Obama adviser, Jonathon Gruber, admitted the administration had purposely lied about Obamacare in order to get Congressional support for it. He had originally said their analysis showed Obamacare would lower healthcare costs and would not drive physicians out of the profession. Gruber knew this was untrue at the time and said last year he was proud of that obfuscation. Tyrants like to say “we did it for your own good.” It never is.
That makes two major policy initiatives of this administration — the Iran agreement and Obamacare — that are based on lies and misdirection. These are not small policy issues. Obama talks about them as his legacy, along with the lowering of military standards so women could qualify as Army Rangers. And on the war front, ISIS is cutting off heads while Obama worries about allowing men to use the Lady’s Room if they self-identify as a woman.
Obama compliments people by saying they are “punching up,” meaning they are competing in a higher weight class. It’s now obvious Obama and his White House are punching down, and dangerously so.
Fred LaSor retired from the Foreign Service to the Carson Valley. He lives there with his wife and her horses.