Abraham Lincoln Sums Up the Obama Years
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Sherman did worse to Georgia, but not much.
When Obama took office in ‘O8 I wasn’t happy.
Planning to go ballistic and run wild in the streets wasn’t a thought, however the “tolerant left,” seem to be enthusiastic to continue to divide…not mend the tare.
Like Trump or not, it’s better than the Clinton Fungus. May God Almighty guide the outsider in our national interest.
Goodbye traitor.
Hello President Trump.
As we speak, I think American history had decayed into an apologetical subdiscipline. The time it takes for American specialists in the history trade to take their work seriously as something other than a buttress for race-class-gender discourse will delay the advent of sensible assessments of these years. Where that’s not at issue, you can look back after 40 or 50 years and get an idea of an administration. I don’t think time will make BO look any better to an honest man. We have partisan Democrats in our Facebook circle who say the most bizarre things about him (“scandal-free administration”).
By certain measures Obama was highly successful. So, I fear that President Trump may not match zero’s achievements: Democrat election losses – 63 House seats, 10 Senate seats and 14 governorships.
To quote another famous Black leader “Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty, I’m free at last.”
Touche c matt. Touche. 🙂
The commentaries from the ABC, CNN, NBC inaugural event are comical.
They just can’t get it.
They are tripping over themselves.
It’s great.
The best part is that they can’t admit that their choice for president, Clinton, is WHY this outsider is in the house.
I love it!
Pop the cork.
It’s the “Left” behind party.
“By certain measures Obama was highly successful. So, I fear that President Trump may not match zero’s achievements: Democrat election losses – 63 House seats, 10 Senate seats and 14 governorships.”
And almost a thousand state legislative seats.
“Zero’s achievement…”
Donald.
With those losses you mentioned, indeed Obama was successful! Thanks Berry!
One of the GOP’s best friend.
I would certainly say Obama was successful in advancing left wing policies. And I would venture to say the left will still have greater control of government bureaucracies (and that’s who really controls our government, not the elected politicians) when Trump leaves office than they did when Obama took office. And to a hard line left wing ideologue like Obama, that’s success.
“This too shall pass away.”
I don’t like it. In good times it seems to ultimately say that nothing really amounts to anything lasting and could lead to a sense of futility, and in bad times it seems to teach us that there’s no sense in trying to change things for the better– it won’t really matter what you do in the long run.
Inexorable change is a source of insecurity– especially after studying history just enough. That is why we cling to the Lord in Whom there is no shadow of change. The Rock.
There has been a lot written speculating about Lincoln’s spiritual life and Donald McClarey probably has a lot of insight into it.
Perhaps when he made that statement about the passing of human events he knew that kind of thinking was a way out of a knot.
Faced with the slaughter and mayhem of the War and his personal troubles he was seeking that eternal unchanging Truth and steering toward Love even though committing to war seems counter-intuitive to it. A man doesn’t lead like he did if he doesn’t believe it matters.
“And I would venture to say the left will still have greater control of government bureaucracies (and that’s who really controls our government, not the elected politicians) when Trump leaves office than they did when Obama took office.”
How?
How? Do you really have to ask that question? The government bureaucracies have been growing for decades as it is. And Trump has really put forth no real plan to change that. In fact, his “infrastructure” plans will actually grow government bureaucracies.
“Do you really have to ask that question?”
You really have no conception yet Greg of what a Black Swan event Trump is do you? Trump is going to govern as he campaigned judging from his inaugural speech and he will go to war with anything or anyone that stands in his way.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-announces-regulatory-freeze-in-first-executive-orders/article/2612536
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/314991-trump-team-prepares-dramatic-cuts
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/11/21/trump-republicans-plan-to-target-government-workers-benefits-and-job-security/?utm_term=.b569170307db
Before you engage in gloom and doom prophecies wait for six months. Trump is sui generis and people who underestimate him have a very bad track record for the past year and a half.
Philip…the word “tare” is most appropriate ! Obama has spent 8 years being just like the man in the Parable…the Parable about the man who spent all night sowing “tares” in his neighbor’s field. TR
Timothy Reed.
If a grammatical errors can be found in come boxes on TAC, undoubtedly they will be under my name. Proud? No. I apologize.
Your take on my mistake however is cleaver and most appropriate.
Obama has been sabotaging the field.
Very good.
For the record…tear. ?
Philip….I admire you, Lad. There are people who cannot explain their own errors so eloquently. TR.
Eloquence?
It is more acceptance than eloquence.
I continue to work in a field that does nothing to sharpen the full noodle that is above my shoulders, but my heart has been expanding each year that I stay in the trenches. I love our elders. I wash them with Christ’s heart in the morning. Make them laugh in their long lonely hours in what is not their home. Pray with them and stay with them to their last breath if providence provides.
Eloquence?
No.
Just aware of my many faults.
TAC has been very patient with me over the course of the last four years.
I thank them, and you.
Your career as a patrolman is / was a heart expanding endeavor. Who else could walk in harm’s way to care for the addict, mentality ill or fearfully terrified individual who has lost all sense of reality.
Doing your job was another chance for the fear ridden to be healed by our Merciful Savior.
Well done officer.
When I was nine years old, I was diagnosed with a rare bone disease that was destroying my body. The best doctors promised my parents that I was going to be bed-ridden, in traction, for years. After which, I was only going to be able to walk with crutches and braces, for life. I was never going to be able to become either a Police Officer, or a Soldier. In my autobiography entitled, “Wings held up by Hope”, I relay those years in the hospital and the struggle to walk again. Those same doctors, who guaranteed me a life of disability, wrote me up in their Journal as a “Miracle Child”. God raised me up for His purposes ! I have two pictures on my dresser. One shows me standing with my brothers and sisters, held up by the crutches and braces. The other picture shows me working with my K9 ( Ex ) outside of my barracks in Germany, wearing the uniform of a Military Policeman. The time lapse between those pictures is exactly Six Years ! The book, “Wings held up by Hope”, by Timothy Reed, is available at all major book outlets. And I am not trying to sell books. I have something to say about the Lord’s love ! TR
Beautiful.
God is so good.
He is the end of all things, has the last say, searches hearts and sees to completion His works in us.
Especially the ones that the world has defined.
In my care at the moment I have a 96 y.o. Family Practitioner. Still very coherent, he speaks of the relationship between his abilities and God’s influence. He had found the balance of Science and the creator of Science. In that relationship he testifies of never loosing any of the deliveries, over 1,000, and attributes the successful deliveries of newborns in the most difficult positions and circumstances to his willingness to pray and believe in the Divine physician.
Your message is one I wish to read.
Please direct me to your internet purchase site where I may obtain a copy of “Wings held up by Hope.” Amazon?
Miraculous outcomes are glorious testimonials to the love God has for all his children.
Looking forward to your book.
Timothy Reed.
Just ordered your story through Amazon.
Peace.
Thanks Philip. I guess I never was able to completely work thru my experiences as a child. For, when I first sat at the PC and began to write about my hospital experiences, I had to get up often and walk around my den, crying like a little child. And each time I sat down to work on my book, I prayed and asked the Lord to keep me from saying anything that would challenge another’s Faith. My book is dedicated to Him. Timothy R.
TR.
🙂
Fear not!
Giving witness for His glory is priceless.
“You really have no conception yet Greg of what a Black Swan event Trump is do you?”
I do understand the Black Swan event, but Trump himself is as white as every other swan in the pond. He has effectively exploited the cult follower like tendencies of those who have made up his most ardent supporters. Watching these people deny that which has unfolded before their very eyes with everything from Trump melting down like a three year old during the primary debates to his brushing away his bragging about engaging in sexual assault as mere “locker room talk” is disturbing to put it mildly. If Barack Obama had struck a deal like what Trump did with Carrier, DaDonald’s supporters would have rightly condemned it. But they are gushing over Trump doing it. On a somewhat positive note, the Trump phenomena did expose much of the conservative punditocracy as the unprincipled sycophants they really are, especially Sean Sycophannity (er, Hannity).
“Trump is going to govern as he campaigned..”
At what point during his campaign are we talking about Donald? For example, although now he talks tough about defunding Planned Parenthood, but just as recent as the later primary debates, he was singing the praises of PP and was, at best, non-committal about defunding them.
“and he will go to war with anything or anyone that stands in his way.”
Donald Trump will only go to war with those he knows he can bully. Look at how he reacted during the debates to tough questions. And his treatment of Megyn Kelly. It was Trump who had the vendetta against her more than the other way around. That’s why Trump only went on shows where he got his buttocks massaged by people like Hannity and O’Reilly. Megyn Kelly refused to act like his surrogate anymore than she would Hillary or any of her surrogates. And Trump couldn’t take it. Her exchange with Newt Gingrich showed just how low his surrogates were willing to stoop to protect him.
“Before you engage in gloom and doom prophecies wait for six months.”
I’ll do better than six months. I’ll give it four years. Trump’s plan to “improve” our infrastructure will involve spending on a massive scale that would more than offset any savings made by any of these things you link to. And that’s assuming these things will actually take effect. And on that note, you apparently don’t understand who controls the Federal Government on a day-to-day basis. It’s not elected politicians, it’s the entrenched career bureaucrats. And to actually get a hold on the growth of government, you have to do more than elect the right people. You have to get people in these career positions who share a conservative view of government. This is something the left has understood for a century and the right, by and large, refuses to understand. Presidents are there for eight years at the most and individual political appointees are four and out the door at best. But the careerists remain long afterward and further consolidate their power as time goes on. That’s just basic inertia. And that’s what I have seen over the last 24 years as a federal civil servant. If that’s what takes place at the very low level I am at, you know it is even more the case the higher you go up.
Sui Generis? Yes and no. No, in that his views (such as they are on any given day) are not unique. In many respects, he is a Teddy Roosevelt Bull Moose wannabe. Yes, in that he is the first third party candidate to win the presidency, albeit under the banner of one of the two parties.
I don’t underestimate him. I just don’t trust him. He masterfully exploited an overcrowded GOP field. To win against such a field, you have to be able to stand out like salt and a pepper shaker. And Trump did exactly that! He was able to portray himself as an outsider when he was and is really nothing of the sort. He was also able to take advantage of people like Ted Cruz’s kissing his ass in the early campaign while Trump was stealing the anti-establishment mantle from him. I think it is safe to say that Cruz, for all his conservative orthodoxy, is a moronic, self-serving demagogue.
Trump is better than Hillary and Obama, but he is still a gutter rat.
‘I do understand the Black Swan event”
No, you don’t. Trump should have had absolutely no chance in this race, especially being outspent two to one, with virtually the entire media against him. He broke all the campaign rules and won. Absolutely astonishing.
“At what point during his campaign are we talking about Donald?”
He is not making peace with the establishment, he is going to war against it. His inaugural speech was a declaration of war against business as usual as practiced in this country since the 60’s.
“Donald Trump will only go to war with those he knows he can bully.”
Simply not true. In the last campaign he beat both parties, the media, the entertainment establishment and academia.
“I’ll do better than six months. I’ll give it four years.”
Good.
“And on that note, you apparently don’t understand who controls the Federal Government on a day-to-day basis. It’s not elected politicians, it’s the entrenched career bureaucrats.”
Scott Walker in Wisconsin has provided a blueprint to Trump to cow public employee unions. Trump is already demonstrating with the National Park Service who is in control.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/21/politics/trump-national-park-service-tweets/index.html
“Trump is better than Hillary and Obama, but he is still a gutter rat.”
In many ways I think that is correct. He is not a gutter rat to be underestimated. I made that mistake before and I will not make it again.
The power of the press! They have been embarrassed by this black swan. . They are like a wasp nest that Trump and voters just hit with a stick. They are going to get meaner and meaner. Something about Trump’s run and win brought out who/what people are deep inside. The snarks are snarkier while the optimists are more optimistic than ever.
The “entrenched career bureaucrats”, in Russia, both during the Soviet era and today, are called the “Nomenclatura”. The simularities between them and our ECB is striking, and terrifying. A good place to start, if one wishes to see what they are capable of, is with studying what happened to Yuri Andropov. TR.