Krauthammer seems to be yet another either a victom of or purveyor of fear

The other day a neighbor and former column reader forward me an email they'd received and asked me what I thought about it. What follows is that forwarded email, followed by my reply.

Dr. Krauthammer is on Fox News. He is an M.D. and a lawyer and is paralyzed from the neck down. A friend went to hear Charles Krauthammer. He listened with 25 others in a closed room. What he says here, is NOT 2nd-hand but 1st. The ramifications are staggering for us, our children and their children.

Last Monday was a profound evening, hearing Dr. Charles Krauthammer speak to the Center for the American Experiment. He is brilliant intellectual, seasoned & articulate. He is forthright and careful in his analysis, and never resorts to emotions or personal insults. He is NOT a fear monger nor an extremist in his comments and views. He is a fiscal conservative, and has received a Pulitzer Prize for writing. He is a frequent contributor to Fox News and writes weekly for the Washington Post. The entire room was held spellbound during his talk. I have summarized his comments, as we are living in uncharted waters economically and internationally. Even 2 Dems at my table agreed with everything he said! If you feel like forwarding this to those who are open minded and have not drunk the Kool-Aid, feel free.

Summary of his comments:

1. Mr. Obama is a very intellectual, charming individual. He is not to be underestimated. He is a cool customer who doesn't show his emotions. It's very hard to know what's behind the mask. The taking down of the Clinton dynasty by a political neophyte was an amazing accomplishment. The Clintons still do not understand what hit them. Obama was in the perfect place at the perfect time.

2. Obama has political skills comparable to Reagan and Clinton. He has a way of making you think he's on your side, agreeing with your position, while doing the opposite. Pay no attention to what he SAYS; rather, watch what he DOES!

3. Obama has a ruthless quest for power. He did not come to Washington to make something out of himself, but rather to change everything, including dismantling capitalism. He can't be straightforward on his ambitions, as the public would not go along. He has a heavy hand, and wants to level the playing field with income redistribution and punishment to the achievers of society. He would like to model the USA toGreat Britain or Canada

4. His three main goals are to control ENERGY, PUBLIC EDUCATION, and NATIONAL HEALTHCARE by the Federal government. He doesn't care about the auto or financial services industries, but got them as an early bonus. The cap and trade will add costs to everything and stifle growth. Paying for FREE college education is his goal. Most scary is his healthcare program, because if you make it FREE and add 46,000,000 people to a Medicare-type single-payer system, the costs will go through the roof. The only way to control costs is with massive RATIONING of services, like in Canada. God forbid!

5. He has surrounded himself with mostly far-left academic types. No one around him has ever even run a candy store. But they are going to try and run the auto, financial, banking and other industries. This obviously can't work in the long run. Obama is not a socialist; rather he's a far-left secular progressive bent on nothing short of revolution. He ran as a moderate, but will govern from the hard left. Again, watch what he does, not what he says.

6. Obama doesn't really see himself as President of the United States, but more as a ruler over the world. He sees himself above it all, trying to orchestrate & coordinate various countries and their agendas. He sees moral equivalency in all cultures. His apology tour in Germany and England was a prime example of how he sees America, as an imperialist nation that has been arrogant, rather than a great noble nation that has at times made errors. This is the first President ever who has chastised our allies and appeased our enemies!

7. He is now handing out goodies. He hopes that the bill (and pain) will not come due until after he is reelected in 2012. He would like to blame all problems on Bush from the past, and hopefully his successor in the future. He has a huge ego, and Dr. Krauthammer believes he is a narcissist.

8. Republicans are in the wilderness for a while, but will emerge strong. Republicans are pining for another Reagan, but there will never be another like him. Krauthammer believes Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty & Bobby Jindahl (except for his terrible speech in February) are the future of the party. Newt Gingrich is brilliant, but has baggage. Sarah Palin is sincere and intelligent, but needs to really be seriously boning up on facts and info if she is to be a serious candidate in the future. We need to return to the party of lower taxes, smaller government, personal responsibility, strong national defense, and state's rights.

9. The current level of spending is irresponsible and outrageous. We are spending trillions that we don't have. This could lead to hyperinflation, depression or worse. No country has ever spent themselves into prosperity. The media is giving Obama, Reid and Pelosi a pass because they love their agenda. But eventually the bill will come due and people will realize the huge bailouts didn't work, nor will the stimulus package. These were trillion-dollar payoffs to Obama's allies, unions and the Congress to placate the left, so he can get support for #4 above.

10. The election was over in mid-September when Lehman brothers failed, fear and panic swept in, we had an unpopular President, and the war was grinding on indefinitely without a clear outcome. The people are in pain, and the mantra of change caused people to act emotionally. Any Dem would have won this election; it was surprising it was as close as it was.

11. In 2012, if the unemployment rate is over 10%, Republicans will be swept back into power. If it's under 8%, the Dems continue to roll. If it's between 8-10%, it will be a dogfight. It will all be about the economy. I hope this gets you really thinking about what's happening in Washington and Congress. There is a left-wing revolution going on, according to Krauthammer, and he encourages us to keep the faith and join the loyal resistance. The work will be hard, but we're right on most issues and can reclaim our country, before it's far too late.

Do yourself a long term favor, send this to all who will listen to an intelligent assessment of the big picture. All our futures and children's futures depend on our good understanding of what is really going on in DC, and our action pursuant to that understanding!! It really IS up to each of us to take individual action!! Start with educating your friends and neighbors!!!

What I hope to do is share my perspective on a few things. Hopefully you will feel like I’m filling-out your own knowledge, even if you still disagree with me on anything I write here.

First a little bit of background.

Krauthammer may be a Pulitzer prize winning, widely syndicated columnist, however his two main venues are FOX NEWS and the Weekly Standard- both of which are extremely conservative and not exactly balance. Just as many are suspicious of a so-called “liberal media,” one should probably also be leery of any “conservative media” too. Do they really mean to inform, or to persuade?

For the most part, Krauthammer is a neoconservative (meaning he agreed with much of George W. Bush's foreign policy, expansion of American ideology by military means). However, on domestic issues, Krauthammer is a supporter of legalized abortion; an opponent of the death penalty. He describes himself as "not religious," and is a critic of intelligent design, and creationism. So I'm not sure he's your kind of conservative.

Now, what I think about the email.

Considering some of what we know about Krauthammer, one has to wonder if this is really a very accurate summary of his views or if whoever put this together is just using him to try to lend their opinions more credibility. Just a suspicion, but it could be exactly the way he thinks.

My personal reaction to the summarized points 1-3 are that either he, or whoever is reporting this is paranoid and frustrated that the neocons lost power. Obama is a young, charismatic speaker, but I think that it is the ideals in his speeches that are inspiring, and that he actually believes what he says. Krauthammer seems to believe that he is a sinister megalomaniac bent on world domination. At best this is fear, at worst it is propaganda.

Point 4 is false and misleading. Progressives would like the government to initiate programs that would lead to a "green economy" which would 1. create jobs, 2. improve the environment and 3. free us from our dependence on foreign oil (Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, & Russia). That's not the same as total control. I've actually been disappointed that Obama is so far continuing much of the education policies of W. which have created a lot of problems for schools with unfounded regulations and unfunded mandates. And we could obviously go rounds forever about health care reform but essentially Obama is weak on this as far as REAL Liberals are concerned, making too many concessions.

In a nut shell, the public option would've just been an independent (govt. contracted and initiated, but not controlled) non-profit insurance company meant to promote competition among the big insurance corporations. Krauthammer says that adding 46M people would make costs skyrocket, but the way that insurance already works is that the more people contributing to the pool, the lower the average costs for everybody. That's why Denison schools have lower premiums than Charter Oak-Ute, bigger pool, lower costs- not higher. Again, at best FOX and/or Krauthammer are scared, at worst, they're lying in order to scare viewers. Either way, Obama is not George Orwell's 'Big Brother,' he does not want to control everything.

On point 5- so far he's been governing from the corporate middle, just like Clinton and the Democratic Leadership Committee, the pro-business wing of the party. The thing is, since 92 or so we have become more and more polarized not so much by actual policy and/or ideology but by team or camp or tribe. People hate the opposition not because they think differently but just because they're not on the same side. I know nothing about Oklahoma except that I'm a Nebraska fan.

6.What they wrote here is nonsense and probably is meant to evoke anxieties about a one-world government or the antichrist smears some fringe people were emailing around during the campaign. The ironic thing is that neoconservatives like Krauthammer are part of something called the project for a new American Century, which envisioned the U.S. as the leader of the world. The difference is that Bush hoped to do it with momentum created by our victory in Iraq whereas Obama probably received the Nobel Peace Prize today because he appeals to the same kind of values of peaceful cooperation and diplomatic negotiations which Dwight Eisenhower and George Marshall did in the aftermath of WWII.

If with #7 they're talking about TARP and the bailouts, those were started under Bush and probably prevented a much deeper collapse than we had. No one runs for President without a huge ego, but I've observed President Obama being much more humble, self-effacing and understated than almost any of his predecessors except maybe President Carter.

8. Just as someone who watches politics like other people watch sports, I'd say that it would be unwise to count the GOP out, but that Tim Pawlenty & Bobby Jindahl have more of a future than Romney, Gingrich or Palin. She may be sincere, but not intelligent. Gingrich may be a genius, but I think too many people mistrust him as too many people find Romney two-dimensional. I also think that it may be that what the GOP needs is more than just a repackaging or a re-branding. People still share and seek many conservative values, family, country, suspicion of bureaucracy- but I suspect (could be wrong) that more and more people are skeptical of if not fed up with Reaganomics and are ready for something new.

Using "Redistribution of wealth" as an accusation used to work to make people frightened of communism, but with the Goldman Sacs and Lehman Brothers and AIGs out there, I think that maybe voters realize that Reaganomics has redistributed wealth to the people who already had too much of it. The progressive tax structure we had from FDR through Ford really promoted a more sustainable economy and allowed the middle class to grow and flourish. That may or may not be "socialism," but Republican Teddy Roosevelt might call it fair, like his "Square Deal," which the Democrat's Fair Deal was modeled after. And government intervention and regulation of some of those big banks and huge corporations is needed to SAVE capitalism, not destroy it or replace it.

They may be right about how a Republican couldn't win in 2008 and how 2012 will be closer than people think, however Obama had over 50% of the youth vote (18-25 yr old first time voters) in 2008 and that's kind of like being the brand of your first car, first beer, first cigarette, first gum or cola. People tend to build a brand loyalty. Just as Reagan's election in 1980 meant that the pendulum had finally swung back to the right, it might just be that the Republican party will be fighting an uphill battle for the next 12-20 years. Only time will tell. With a 24-hour news cycle thanks to cable/satellite/internet and such short attention spans-anything is possible.

I hope since you know me and know that I love the Lord and the Bible and my family and community- and believe it or not, I also love our country and cherish our history, because you know this about me, I hope that even if you never agree with another “Liberal” on anything or oppose President Obama on most every one of his policies or proposals, I hope that you will at least remember that most Democrats, moderates, progressives, and liberals are not out to destroy America. They genuinely want what they think is best for our country, just as much as you do. And probably, that goes for President Obama too- he’s not an evil maniacal genius bent on world domination, he may even be the servant that God intended to lead us through these times. I’m not saying you have to believe that- but I guess I think that he’s a decent man with good intentions who has one hell of a huge job and needs our prayers- even when he makes us mad.

Sorry this turned into a 3 page epic. I guess I miss writing (especially run-on sentences).

Stay warm this week!