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…

GOT OBAMA'S BACK???

Now that he's President, it's no time to roll over and fall asleep. The honeymoon has passed. 1/20/09 left us reeling, but now, we are drifting. Time to wake up and smell the garbage, hurling from the mouths of the Right daily. Their objective: to see Obama fail at ANYTHING and EVERYTHING, even if it means we, the American people who have no - or flawed - health insurance CONTINUE TO HAVE THE SAME. It's a crime, and each and every Republican (and Blue Dog) receiving kickbacks (yes, I used that word) from the Insurance Companies to trip us up should be voted out of office, or better, REMOVED, FINED AND FORCED TO WORK AT MCDONALD'S FOR ONE YEAR - if they can find one that's hiring.

It's time we step back into action. Let's get back into campaign mode once again. Phonebank. Call your representatives to keep the public option on the table, Descend upon your local senator's office and demand he/she take immediate action to keep the Public Option on the table. Email the media and tell give them a piece of your mind. Show up at town hall meetings armed with INTELLIGENT INFORMATION and present it RESPECTFULLY and ARTICULATELY, when one of the hateful fearmongers opens their fat traps. In short, DO SOMETHING. Or else, this health reform will not pass with the Public Option in it, and we will have only ourselves to blame.

THERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FEAR ITSELF.

F***ING BUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!! by Dyan Kane & Robert Redford

Bush is going out with a vengeance. In 8 years, he has worked ceaselessly to undo 30 years of environmental protections for short term financial gain that benefits himself and his friends, and in his last 57 days of quackery, he is going for the gold. WE MUST WRITE ANYONE WE CAN IN LOCAL OR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RIGHT NOW AND STOP HIM BY CONSENSUS. BUT WE MUST DO IT NOW. WE ONLY HAVE UNTIL THE FIRST WEEK OF DECEMBER to SPEAK OUT.

Part of the change Americans just voted for in overwhelming numbers was to move away from the failed energy philosophy of "drill, baby, drill" to a more farsighted strategy, emphasized by Barack Obama, based on clean, renewable energy and efficiency. Yet on the very day that we raised our voices for change, the Bush administration dragged us in the opposite direction.

The Bureau of Land Management cynically chose November 4 to announce a last-minute plan to lease huge swaths of majestic wilderness in eastern Utah for oil and gas extraction one month before President-elect Obama takes office.

As its clock runs out, the Bush administration also is trying to open-up drilling all over the Rockies and Alaska, to green-light oil shale leasing, and to weaken the Endangered Species Act. Though sad, it's no surprise, coming as it does from the same crowd that designed a misguided national energy policy in secret meetings with the oil, gas and coal industries.

The BLM didn't just try to slip the audacious Utah lease maneuver past the American people on an historic election day, it actually hid the ball from its sister agency, the National Park Service, and then rejected the Service's request for more time to review the scheme.

Among the 360,000 acres to be auctioned for industrial development is pristine land near Canyonlands National Park, adjacent to Arches National Park and Dinosaur National Monument. This Christmas gift to the dirty fuel industry includes parts of Desolation Canyon, named in 1869 by the explorer John Wesley Powell, which has been proposed for national park status. In fact, the BLM itself described Desolation Canyon nine years ago as "a place where a visitor can experience true solitude -- where the forces of nature continue to shape the colorful, rugged landscape."

Words alone cannot do justice to the beauty of these places, but they do capture the absurdity of the Bush plan. Oil and gas drilling in Desolation Canyon? Industrial development along the meandering Green River? The thought makes one wince.

The Obama transition team already has signaled its opposition to the leases, and said that once in office the Obama administration will try to reverse them. Let's hope that's possible. Utah's eastern expanse is one of America's few remaining wilderness treasures. It's our land, it's our legacy, but will it still be here for our children and grandchildren? We made our wishes about that known loudly and clearly on election day.

We voted to take control of our own destiny by breaking our addiction to dirty fuels. We voted to re-power America with clean energy from wind, solar and geothermal power. We voted to use of our greatest resource, American ingenuity, to build economic, energy and climate security, and to preserve our natural heritage. Yes we did. And yes we can.

Robert Redford, an actor, director and environmental activist, is a Trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council and is the founder of Sundance, in Utah.

This post also appears on NRDC's Greenlight blog.

* Barack Obama

Part of the change Americans just voted for in overwhelming numbers was to move away from the failed energy philosophy of "drill, baby, drill" to a more farsighted strategy, emphasized by Barack Obama...
Part of the change Americans just voted for in overwhelming numbers was to move away from the failed energy philosophy of "drill, baby, drill" to a more farsighted strategy, emphasized by Barack Obama...
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