Obama: What REALLY Scares Them (Us?)

I'm reprinting this from an email I received. Food for thought...--Dyan

SCOFFLAW NATION
by Dale Lockwood


I’ve been busting my brain trying to figure out what it is about this Administration that has so many people pissed off. Racism can’t be the whole story, though I’m sure it plays some part. I can’t believe that the GOP or special interests have conspired to create this situation. It seems more like they’re riding it, not guiding it. The gun fanatics and tea baggers and birthers are actually INVENTING reasons to complain. The President has not even mentioned “gun control” or “amnesty”, but he’s accused of planning for it. They’re sure he wants to raise their taxes; contrary to anything he says or does. They buy into, repeat and refuse to reconsider the most outlandish misrepresentations. Why?


It occurred to me of late that there is a significant thread in the tapestry of President Obama’s agenda that hasn’t been examined closely. It appears in his health care reform outlines when he promises to help cover costs by eliminating fraud and waste in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. It appears in his plans for the financial industry, which involve new and improved regulations and reformed regulatory agencies. It’s sure to appear in the debate over immigration when we ask how it is that millions of people live in the U.S. illegally in spite of clear rules, and how to correct that. And it is the unspoken subtext to his promise to make government more effective and efficient, not just bigger. How many times has he talked about a new era of personal responsibility?


The thread has a simple title: EFFECTIVE LAW ENFORCEMENT.


Picture, if you will, a frontier town out west with a sheriff who has looked the other way for years while the land barons, outlaws and drifters have had it their own way hereabouts. They’ve kept him supplied with whisky and women while ignoring the laws he’s supposed to enforce, profiting handsomely at the expense of the common folk.


Well, things get out of hand, people complain to the Territorial Governor, who fires the sheriff and his deputies and appoints a new one. The new guy is an idealist, very smart and brave, good with a gun; his deputies are behind him 100%. Some of the outlaws put up a front at first, but soon clear out. The drifters play it cool, fading into the background, while the barons shake the new man’s hand and promise to play by the rules while opening up lines of communication to the Governor.


The regular folks are pleased as punch at first, but they soon realize that the new sheriff means to hold EVERYBODY to the law, not just the bad guys. “Mend your fences, clean out your privies regular, control your animals and send your kids to the schoolmarm. That schoolmarm better be teachin’ right, too, ‘cause that’s the law. Barkeep: make sure your saloon is clean. Blacksmith: Safety first.”


Be careful what you wish for. “He who has never sinned… “


I wonder how many readers here have fudged a little bit on their tax returns?


How many, at some point in their lives, have collected unemployment for a few weeks while pretending to look for work?


How many have managed to drive without auto insurance for a while?


How many blessed with excellent health have avoided the expense of health insurance their entire lives? The reform bills under consideration in Congress aim to change all that. How does it make you feel?


And how many have elderly parents with a little too much money in the bank to qualify for Medicare. What do you do? If you take steps to correct that, you are defrauding the government. Watch out. The new sheriff will be looking for you.


Perhaps it’s not a question of enhancing fairness in our society. It’s a question of changing the BOUNDRIES OF ENFORCEMENT that people are afraid of. We’re used to what we can get away with, and maybe a lot of people are worried that the new deputies in town will reach down far enough to draw some brighter lines, catching some ordinary folks who KNOW they’ve been cheating the system.


I think we can agree that advantage taking -- “gaming the system” -- is a common occurrence, to say the least. Would it be fair to say that we are a nation of scofflaws, or that we live in a scofflaw world? If prices are regulated, black markets arise. If campaign finance rules are adjusted, players find ways around them. If tax loopholes are closed, accountants search for new ones. And if we’re far enough down the pecking order, we mostly count on flying under the radar in any case.


It’s human nature, and history is rich with examples. Remember Prohibition?


The recent tragic news of a murdered census taker makes some sense in this light. The poor victim was not an armed game warden or ATF agent. But he was WORKING FOR THE GUV’MINT! A FED! Some ignorant savage decided a census taker was no better than a cop. They had something to hide, perhaps, and the census is no less than an attempt to keep tabs and deny their right to… something. During the days of bootlegging, the enemy was the "revenooer". Are we regressing to the days of Jim Crow in more ways than one?


Reconsider the outcome of the Somali pirate drama back in April. And what about Obama’s cool dispatch of a pesky fly during an interview back in June. The first made his supporters swell with pride. The second made us laugh out loud. But maybe… just maybe… some folks are not so much IMPRESSED with such displays of competence as they are INTIMIDATED. The perplexingly negative response to the Presidents address to the nation’s school children might have been an expression of this unease. Perhaps his articulate displays of intelligence, good humor and capacity – the things we admire most in him – are prone to provoking a disquieting fear in others. Do some citizens PREFER clumsy, indifferent leadership? Does it make them feel more secure as they go about cheating the system?


This is not to say that there’s anything reasoned and rational about this response. Much of it is subliminal, insensible. But that just makes it more apt in explaining the town hall shouting and ludicrous references to Nazis and Commies. We invent targets for our anger when we can’t identify or admit to what it is we’re REALLY afraid of.


Historians have suggested there is a vein of mistrust for intellectuals in the American electorate. My theory is that Obama is provoking that mistrust in a big way by being too savvy and sophisticated. I’ve suggested that his constancy in addressing the public on all the important issues we face is consistent with good leadership, but I couldn’t fathom the unreasoning populist backlash. My scofflaw hypothesis can’t be the whole story, of course, but I wonder if it plays a part in popular resistance to the change he has promised.


At the risk of offending those who consider themselves pure and law-abiding, I venture to say that everyone sins now and again. The President is calling us out. But lots of people might be bothered by evidence that the new sheriff is a capable man, good with a gun. Maybe too good…