He Didn’t Mean That

* The video below is the “in context” quote as cited by Democrats and Obama’s campaign. 

By now, just about everyone has seen the President’s “you didn’t build that” remarks.  And while the newness of the story has worn off, the controversy over what that statement means is just heating up.  Among conservatives, the message is clear.  The President said what he said, meant what he said, and his behavior throughout his term is consistent with what he said.  But Democrats, depending on who their target audience is, are divided.  The more moderate-friendly point of view is that President Obama was, once again, misunderstood.  They assure us that “Yes we can” man would never really say, “no you didn’t” and any accusation to the contrary is another example of right-wing fear-mongering. However, when targeting the more liberal voters, Democrats switch gears entirely and claim that not only did the President mean what he said, but that he was right in saying it.  They argue that the only reason people are upset is that they aren’t used to hearing to the truth (or that they are an evil wealthy person who doesn’t want poor people to hear the truth).  But having watched the Presidency of Barack Obama for 3 1/2 years now, I would like to argue that both arguments are not only false, but blatantly disingenuous as well.

Come on, obviously he didn’t mean that
It may not seem like much, but it’s a phrase that has been employed by the media to protect Barack Obama from the moment he arrived on the national scene.  Not only has it been used to excuse much of the President’s rhetoric during his time in office, it is largely responsible for how he came to hold that office in the first place.  Without it, there is little chance that anyone but the super far-left would have even considered voting for this man.  Even having run against a weak candidate like John McCain, the 2008 election would have been remembered as “that time when the lunatic ran for office” and Hope and Change would be less of a rallying cry and more of a cautionary tale.  From day one, the power brokers in the Democratic Party and the national media have known that in order to get/keep Barack Obama in office they had to convince most of the people that he never meant what he said.  His words, his life, his friends, his memoirs, and his voting record were all a misunderstanding.   Just take a moment to reflect upon a few of the times we’ve been told that we were taking him out of context:

• His memoirs- Dreams From My Father was the book was that launched the career of Barack Obama into what it is today.  It was heralded as an inspiring story that showed the character of our soon-to-be President.  Until, that is, people actually starting reading it.  First, there is the title.  The “dreams” of Obama’s father were not the dreams of an American hero.  As Pamela Gellar puts it, Barack Obama Sr. was “an all-around bad guy.”  He was an abusive polygamist who abandoned multiple wives and children (including a two-year Barack Obama) in his personal quest to travel the world and spread communism.  He was not a fan of the U.S. or the U.K. and was seemingly willing to sacrifice a relationship with his own family to bring down what he viewed as western imperialism.  It’s a sad story until you remember that this isn’t a book about a boy who overcomes being abandoned by his father and vows to be a better man, it’s about a grown man who looks at the life of Barack Obama Sr. and wants to continue his legacy. Just about everyone that he cites as having been an influential figure in his life, was some sort of anti-Western activist.  His mother and her parents, his mentor Frank Marshall Davis (author of “semi-autobiographical” erotic fiction involving adults and children, and the subject of the new book The Communist), Rev. Jeremiah Wright (In Dreams of My Father he even quotes the Reverend’s “White folks greed runs a world in need” line as one of his favorites), and the “marxist professors” and “structural feminists” he sought out as a student, were a few of the people who he says helped shape him.  He never at any point claims to have “seen the light” and changed his views.  He says these people shaped him, never disavowed them, and leaves the reader no reason to think he now believes differently.  And yet, if someone so much as mentioned one of these people during the campaign, liberals went into a fit of hysteria.  That’s not what he meant! Obviously, he doesn’t agree with those people.  He didn’t mean they were mentors, he just meant he knew them. But even if we put aside the people that did/did not influence young Barack, Dreams From My Father had whole sections that were, quite frankly, pretty racist.  But no one asked him to expound upon his hatred for “white man’s rules” or to explain why “any distinction between good and bad whites held negligible meaning.”  (Keep in mind, this was a guy who spent his life traveling the world and attending elite private schools, not someone who had been kept down by “the man).”  Because if anyone raised questions about it, the other side was quick to attack. That’s not what he meant, you’re only saying that because YOU are really the racist! And what about all of the life-changing moments that have turned out to be totally fraudulent?  The ex-girlfriend that made him realize that a white person could never understand his pain and the grandfather that was captured and tortured by the British, completely made up! This is an actual quote by Professor Gerald Early defending Obama’s false memoir, “It really doesn’t matter if he made up stuff.  “I mean, after all, it’s like you going to a psychiatrist and you make up stuff, and the psychiatrist can still psychoanalyze you because they’re your lies…Autobiographies are not really good sources if you’re looking for absolute complete factual accounts of someone’s life… I don’t think it much matters whether Barack Obama has told the absolute truth in Dreams From My Father. What’s important is how he wanted to construct his life.” Oh, that’s a relief.  He isn’t a liar, just a guy who fabricated his past in order to “construct” a life of power and influence, like fellow American heroes Clark Rockefeller and The Talented Mr. Ripley.  Now I feel better.
• His ideology-  Most people aren’t  aware that the President voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act ( a law that states that once a child is born it is a person, with a right to life, and can’t be aborted or left to die) twice while he was in the Illinois senate.  I’ll say that again, he voted to allow the premeditated deaths of babies after they were born.  And yet, even his documented voting record meant nothing.  Of course Barack Obama is against infanticide, that’s not what he meant, that’s ridiculous.  He just wanted to protect a woman’s right to choose.  However, abortion access was expressly protected in the bill, leaving no explanation for his pro-infanticide vote.  Anyone remember Joe the Plumber?  Not the media circus that followed, but does anyone remember what actually happened there?  Does anyone remember that he was just a guy standing in his front yard armed with nothing more than a simple question about taxes when the Candidate Obama came through? Does anyone remember that it was Barack Obama who said he wanted to spread the wealth around, not something ol’ Joe accused him of wanting to do?  Few people do because the response from the left was intense and immediate.  He didn’t really mean spread the wealth around and besides Joe the Plumber is a jerk.  He was obviously a Republican plant. Think about that for a minute.  It was a more plausible explanation that this unknown guy was planted in the front yard of his own home just in case a Democratic candidate rolled through town in which case he would trick them into saying something kinda communist sounding, than to believe that Candidate Obama really meant what he said?! How about when video surfaced of Barack Obama explaining his view of the Constitution?  Did anyone ask him to explain, specifically, which parts of the Constitution “reflected the fundamental flaw of this country that continues to this day?” Or what that flaw was?   Or, when speaking about its relationship with the Constitution, did anyone ask about his complaints that the Supreme Court “never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth” and “didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution?” Nope.  He was just speaking hypothetically. Of course, he respects Constitutional restraints  His promise to tax energy producers into bankruptcy?  Didn’t mean it.  Higher gas prices are a good thing?  Nope, didn’t mean that either.  Campaigned in Illinois as a supporter of gay marriage?  That’s crazy talk, he has always and will always support traditional marriage only.  “Punished with a baby?”  Come on, have you seen how handsome he looks holding a baby? Quote: “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal healthcare system.”  No, he isn’t.  He was doing an impression of a Canadian.  People bitterly cling to guns and religion out of bigotry? No, he meant that they lovingly embrace their First and Second Amendment rights out of patriotism.  Embarrassed by Americans when he travels oversees?  No way, didn’t you see that time he almost participated in the pledge of allegiance?                                                                               Bottom line, the reason so many people didn’t know what Hope and Change meant is that they were told to ignore Barack Obama every time he tried to explain it.
• Since he’s been in office-       You know what’s creepy in any other year in American history?  A sitting President saying that we, as a society, should decide whether or not someone gets life-saving care.  But don’t worry about the above video.  He didn’t mean to say that.  In fact, he didn’t say it.  Sarah Palin made it up to frighten people because she’s stupid.  The day he took office, the mainstream press and the Democrat pundits picked up right where they left off.  President Obama’s worldwide-apologize-for-America-and-bow-to-foreign-leaders tour, was  just a big misunderstanding.  He was just talking bad about our country to get other countries to love the U.S. as much as he does. When he told supporters that he would make policy “alone” if Congress refused to give him what he wanted, there was no cause for alarm.  Of course, he respects Congress.  He taught Constitutional law, you know. When he scolded the Supreme Court in front of Congress and the entire nation and later said that overturning a law would be “unprecedented,”  he didn’t mean that either. Of course, he respects the Supreme Court and their authority to overturn laws.  Have we mentioned that he taught Constitutional law?  The police “acted stupidly” didn’t mean he was falsely accusing them before the facts were known, in order to protect a friend.  He meant that he was withholding judgement until the facts came out.  Anybody up for a beer summit? Telling the Russian president, during discussions about taking down our missile defense shield, to give him some “space” because this is his “last election” and he’ll have “more flexibility” after he’s re-elected, wasn’t nearly as ominous (and presumptuous) as it sounded.   He would never abandon our ally Poland or agree to take down our defense shield while Russia is cozying up to Iran.  He’s just super busy right now.  And when he said that business men owe their success to government employees and paved roads he didn’t mean that either.  He loves the private sector.  He’s even met some people who’ve worked in it.

So, now that we’ve ignored everything the President has ever said about himself, the people he admired, and the things he believes, what are we left it? Radical progressive czars (Van Jones, Cass Sunstein, etc.), unchecked regulatory boards to bypass Congress, recess appointments and executive orders to bypass Congress, a corrupt and racist Department of Justice, a healthcare plan that will almost certainly lead to single-payer, a healthcare plan with panels to determine whether life-saving care is worth the cost, a foreign policy plan that lands us on the wrong side of almost every issue, soaring gas prices, a crippled coal industry, and a war against the “99%.”  In other words, we ended up with everything that he told us we were going to get, but no one was listening.  The whole “he didn’t mean it” and that was “taken out of context” strategy was nothing more than that, a strategy.  It was the only way to get to most people to vote for a man with views that are fundamentally opposed to American culture.

So why does the President say these things at all, if the Democrats are going to backtrack on it anyways?  The answer is that they want the best of both worlds. If you notice, Barack Obama himself rarely, if ever, corrects or tries to explain these comments. Others try to rush and make excuses, but he is typically content to let those statements linger as is.  That’s because, in order to get the more politically active far-left out organizing for him, he needs them to know that he’s on their side.  So, with a wink and a nod he says what he means and allows his surrogates to go out and convince mainstream America he meant something different.  But all the while, the true believers in the progressive movement know that he is really one of them.  Which brings me to my next argument, what about those who believe in what he’s doing and say that he was really speaking the honest truth about capitalism?

“You didn’t build that”

First let’s look at the statement itself. (Again, this is the full in context quote as cited by Obama’s campaign and liberal sites such as the Huffington Post):  ” If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help, There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”  Yes, most successful people probably had at least one good teacher and probably drove on a state-funded road at some point, but this hardly justifies the President’s point.  1.) Let’s be honest, the only reason we have roads and schools is because wealthy people pay for them.  They pay for them with hefty personal income taxes and donations. They pay for them with payroll tax, capital gains tax, property tax, and by employing others who also contribute tax money.  It may sound callous, but poor people, who don’t pay income tax, aren’t buying the roads and providing the education for future business owners.  Current business owners are paving the roads and building the schools for the future’s less-fortunate.  2.) If the roads and teachers make the success, why do more than half of new businesses fail?  Why isn’t everyone wildly successful?  Did those unsuccessful people have only bad teachers or no access to public roads? 3.) If it were not for the roads and teachers, would we have no successful people?  History shows us that this is most certainly not true. The vast majority of historical icons had no such society to propel to them to greatness.  Early settlers, famous inventors, and legends of industry did it all without a government handout, without wealth redistribution.  What about those who found ways to thrive under tyrannical foreign governments?  What about all of the African-American heroes that were successful in spite of living in a country where they did not have access to the same schools and public aid as their white counterparts?  We certainly wouldn’t say that society made them successful.  4.) What came first?  Did the first settlers or even our Founding Fathers become great because they discovered an unknown magical land filled with great schools and paved roads?  Or did they hack it out in the wilderness and slowly use their successes to build a new and prosperous nation?  The idea that successful people would have nothing without the government is laughable.  Societies don’t build great men.  Great men build great societies.

So why use an argument that is so condescending and illogical? The answer is that in order to keep pushing along his radical agenda, the President needs to capture the hearts of radical America.  The committed Marxists who really believe that people are too stupid to manage their own lives and that a powerful, centralized government is the only solution  are very small in number (oddly enough, everyone who embraces this theory seems to see themselves as one of the intelligent managers and never as one of the managed).   Barack Obama knows that the majority of people who share his views to “fundamentally change” the country, the ones that sell-out stadiums and faint during his speeches are not looking for a sound economic plan, they are a bunch of whiny cry-babies who think the world has yet to realize just how special they are.  He knows that for the first time in American history, an entire generation is dominated by those who grew up getting trophies just for being alive.  They were told that every opinion they blurted out was brilliant just because the “felt” like it was true.  They learned there were no right or wrong answers.  And they were told that having self-esteem was more important than living an estimable life.  In other words, they believe that 26 year-olds who live with their parents, won’t “sell out” and get a real job, can’t pay for their own health insurance, can’t pay for their own birth control, and collect a government check  are just as valuable to society as someone who worked hard their whole life, now runs a business, employs hundreds of other people, and, oh yeah, pays a fortune taxes.  So when Barack Obama looks at these clowns and tells them that businessmen are just products of a centralized society, he is implying more than that.  He is implying that the takers of the world are in some way responsible for the successes of Bill Gates and Henry Ford, that they are just as smart and hardworking, and that they deserve a piece of the pie.  He is validating their arrogance, promoting a sense of entitlement, and fanning the flames of class-warfare.  To put it bluntly, he’s using the oldest trick in the book, flattery, to manipulate a bunch of lazy idiots into believing that they are the true saviors of humanity.  As long as they vote Democrat, nothing else is required of them.  They have changed the world just by existing  and, gosh-darn it, it’s about time the rest of society appreciated them too.

What we choose to believe

Barack Obama’s presidency has been marked by one outrageous statement after another.  If you still believe that he never meant any of those things, I don’t know what else to say to you.  Perhaps you should consider what that really means, to say he didn’t mean it.  George W. Bush may have mispronounced some words and had a few gaffes, but he never accidentally called himself a communist.  Or insulted businessmen.  Or the military.  Or Christians.  Or gun-owners.  Or threatened to pull the plug on granny.  These aren’t slips of the tongue.  You would have to be an absolute moron with no sense of politics, economics, or even public relations to make mistakes like that.  And, no matter who it is, no one rises to the office of President of the United States that is that clueless.  No one.   The real reason so many ordinary hard-working Americans are willing to say that the President just “misspoke,” is that the alternative is a serious indictment against his character.  To charge that President says what he means to say, what he plans to say, what is, usually, written on the teleprompter for him to say, means that the President really is as radical as the “right-wing extremists” warned he would be.  It means that he doesn’t really like capitalism, isn’t a big fan of checks and balances, has nothing but disdain for large portions of the American public, wants soaring energy prices, and values “social justice” over actual justice.  And that’s why it’s a lot easier to accept that he just bumbles along and keeps putting his foot in his mouth than to believe the obvious truth.  This President does not like this country as it was founded, as it was intended to be, or as most Americans see it.  We can either accept the truth about who the President is now, while there is still time to turn things around, or we can accept it later, when the Occupiers are running the show and traditional ideals like the American Dream are long forgotten.  One way or the other, we’ll see his true face.