Barack Obama has proven extremely lucky in his past political competition.
In his 2004 race for United States Senator from Illinois, a scandal forced his chief opponent. Jack Ryan, to withdraw from the race.
In his 2008 race for President, his opponent, Arizona U.S. Senator John McCain, chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Her laughable ignorance persuaded millions of voters they didn’t want her “a heartbeat away” from the Presidency.
Four years later, on August 11, 2012, Mitt Romney, the expected Republican nominee for President, gave Obama another unexpected gift: He chose Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his vice presidential nominee.
Paul Ryan
In 2011, as Chairman of the House Budget Committee, Ryan released “The Path to Prosperity,” a 2012 budget resolution that he claimed would end “uncontrolled government spending” and “crushing levels of taxes.”
According to economist and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich:
“More than any other politician today, Paul Ryan exemplifies the social Darwinism at the core of today’s Republican Party: Reward the rich, penalize the poor, let everyone else fend for themselves. Dog eat dog.”
On March 12, 2012, details of Ryan’s 2013 House Budget Committee proposal were released. Among these:
- Repeal the Affordable Health Care Act of 2010.
- Turn Medicare into a private health insurance system.
- Slash funding for Medicaid, which ensures medical care for the poor, forcing states to drop coverage for 14 to 28 million low-income people, according to the non-partisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
- Reduce food stamps for poor families by 17%–$135 billion–over the decade, leading to a significant increase in hunger, especially among children.
In addition, his “H.R. 212: Sanctity of Human Life Act” would give fetuses full personhood rights from the moment of fertilization.
This would:
- Outlaw abortion even in cases of rape and incest; and
- Ban certain methods of birth control, such as IUDs and spermicides.
Unsurprisingly, Obama found it easy to turn Ryan’s Right-wing extremism against him–and Romney.
Fast forward to 2904–and the mid-term Congressional elections.
The 2010 mid-terms had given control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans. For Obama and Democrats generally, it was vitally important that their party retain control of the Senate.
But throughout 2014, a series of unexpected problems arose to plague the Obama administration.
Among these:
- Tens of thousands of women and children flooded into the United States from Central America. Many of the children came unaccompanied by their parents.
- The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) started blitzing Iraq, routing the American-trained Iraqi army.
- The Secret Service allowed a White House fence jumper to penetrate the East Room through an unlocked door. Luckily, Obama and his family had just left for Camp David.
- Unknown to the Secret Service, an armed–and several times arrested–security guard rode in the same elevator as President Barack Obama.
- An Ebola-infected man flew from Liberia to Dallas to visit family. Admitted to a hospital, he died on October 8–after infecting two nurses, making them the first American victims of this deadly disease.
None of these actions was Obama’s fault:
- The flood of illegal alien children resulted from a change in legislation during the Presidency of George W. Bush.
- ISIS would have tried to establish an Islamic empire no matter who was President.
- The series of foul-ups at the Secret Service were a product of longstanding neglect within the agency.
- The series of foul-ups at the Dallas hospital were entirely a local matter, beyond the control of the White House.
Still, taken together, they convinced millions of Americans that the Federal Government was too inept or corrupt to efficiently address domestic and foreign crises.
Fortune had turned for–and on–Obama.
As Niccolo Machiavelli explained in The Prince:
If it happens that time and circumstances are favorable to one who acts with caution and prudence he will be successful. But if time and circumstances change he will be ruined, because he does not change the mode of his procedure.
No man can be found so prudent as to be able to adopt himself to this, either because he cannot deviate from that to which his nature disposes him. Or else because having always prospered by walking in one path, he cannot persuade himself that it is well to leave it.
And therefore the cautious man, when it is time to act suddenly, does not know how to do so and is consequently ruined.
Another reason for Obama’s change in fortune: Given to making inspiring speeches, he has proven consistently timid in advancing his agenda.
As Machiavelli puts it:
I certainly think that it is better to be impetuous than cautious. For fortune is a woman, and it is necessary, if you wish to master her, to conquer her by force.
And it can be seen that she lets herself be overcome by the bold, rather than by those who proceed coldly. And therefore, like a woman, she is always a friend to the young, who are less cautious, fiercer, and master her with greater audacity.
With little more than two years left in office, Obama must act decisively–and ruthlessly–if he is to secure a legacy beyond being America’s first black President.
Whether he can bring himself to do so is entirely another matter.
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TWO TALIBANS: THEIRS AND OURS
In History, Politics, Social commentary on January 16, 2015 at 12:03 amMalala Yousafzai is the 17-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head and neck by a Pakistani Taliban gunman.
Her “crime”? Campaigning for the right of girls and women to pursue an education in Pakistan.
Malala Yousafzai
The attack came on October 9, 2012, when a Taliban gunman forced his way into a van full of schoolgirls, asked for her by name, and opened fire.
The assault provoked unprecedented levels of public outrage, both in Pakistan and Afghanistan—even among people who have in the past sympathized with the militants.
But the Taliban had a different outlook on it.
“For days and days, coverage of the Malala case has shown clearly that the Pakistani and international media are biased,” said a Pakistani Taliban commander in South Waziristan. “The Taliban cannot tolerate biased media.”
The commander, who called himself Jihad Yar, argued that death threats against the press are justified. “Ninety-nine percent” of the reporters on the story, he claimed, were only using the shooting as an excuse to attack the Taliban.
Leaders of the Islamic Taliban
Yar did not apologize for the attempt to assassinate the girl, who passionately opposed the Taliban’s efforts to close girls’ schools.
“We have no regrets about what happened to Malala,” he said. “She was going to become a symbol of Western ideas, and the decision to eliminate her was correct. If she was not important for the West’s agenda, why would a U.S. ambassador meet her?”
According to unnamed sources, the Taliban dispatched 12 suicide bombers against the news media. And it is particularly eager to target female journalists. Said Yar:
“They were at the U.S. Embassy party with wine glasses in their hands and wearing un-Islamic dress with Americans.”
But the Pakistani Taliban have no monopoly on hatred of women’s rights.
On February 4, 2013, two North Carolina state representatives introduced a bill to “clarify” state law to specifically prohibit the baring of women’s breasts.
The proposed legislation, House Bill 34, would make it a Class H felony to expose “external organs of sex and of excretion, including the nipple, or any portion of the areola, of the human female breast.”
North Carolina law already forbids “indecent exposure,” but doesn’t specifically define breasts as “private parts.”
Accused violators could face one to six months in prison.
Rep. Rayne Brown, a Republican who co-sponsored the bill, said, to some people, the issue might seem frivolous. But “there are communities across this state, there’s local governments across this state, and also local law enforcement for whom this issue is really not a laughing matter.”
Rep. Rayne Brown
Brown said that she was prompted, in part, by the second annual topless protest and women’s rally in Asheville in August, 2012. Asheville is about 130 miles from Brown’s own district.
Rep. Annie Mobley, D-Ahoskie, voiced concerns that the bill could affect people wearing “questionable fashions.”
“All we are doing is codifying the Supreme Court definition of ‘private parts,’” said House Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Rep. Sarah Stevens, R-Surry. “That’s it. “
Stevens said using pasties or other nipple coverings would protect women against prosecution. “They’d be good to go.”
For Rep. Tim Moore, R-Cleaveland, the issue was a laughing matter: “You know what they say–duct tape fixes everything.”
So far, the bill seems to be stalled in the legislature.
And, not to be outdone, the Wisconsin state legislature enacted a budget for 2011-2013 that eliminated funding to family planning clinics that provide abortions or refer women to a clinic that performs the procedure.
In a press conference, Nicole Safar, director of public policy for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, said that some 2,000 low-income women who rely on the clinics for cancer screening, breast exams, pregnancy testing, and other services would now be left out in the cold.
“They are small centers in small communities and they needed the state funding to make them financially viable,” said Planned Parenthood spokesperson Teri Huyck.
“It’s terribly unfortunate for the women who live in these areas. Without the state support, we didn’t have a choice.
“None of these centers provided abortion services. There is nowhere else for low-income women to get these services. These centers focused on preventing unplanned pregnancies and reducing the need for abortions,” said Safar.
Due to the loss of $1.1 million in state funding, Planned Parenthood closed facilities in Beaver Dam, Johnson Creek, Chippewa Falls and Shawano between April and July.
For those who believe women should control their own lives, the message should be clear: This will never be possible in some parts of the world.
And these include Islamic countries and those states controlled by Rightist Republicans.
It is pointless to expect those who believe they are God’s anointed to renounce their absolutist beliefs. Or to cease trying to gain absolute power over others–especially women.
In Afghanistan, the United States is waging a losing battle to eliminate the freedom-hating Islamic Taliban.
It would do better to start waging war against the freedom-hating Rightist Taliban within its own borders.
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