The defeated, in their denouement, have a choice to make. They can accept defeat with grace, or they can raze the crops, salt the field and scorch the earth. They might choose the former either to show their morality or in the hopes of a future comeback. They might choose the latter either to diminish the victor or out of sheer petulance. This choice faces the defeated in everything from all-out war to a card game, and certainly in politics.
President Obama has, sadly, chosen the latter path. In a series of actions, Obama has opted to act in ways that will hamper Trump’s ability to effect his agenda. The starkest of these is America’s abstention in the recent UN vote on an anti-Israel resolution, the result of which cannot be undone. Worse, there are early reports that this vote was actually orchestrated by the administration. Other lame-duck actions include a ban on oil drilling in large swathes of the Atlantic and the Arctic, an action that, thanks to the language of the legislation empowering him to do so, may be difficult for Trump to reverse. There’s more, of course, and there are still 23 days to Trump’s inauguration within which Obama can wreak more mischief.
Clearly, Obama is not taking Donald Trump’s victory gracefully. He is not deferring to the will of the voters, he is not respecting the public’s desire that the country move in a different direction, he is not accepting the rejection of his “vision.” Indeed, he recently insisted that his vision is in tune with the nation’s desires, despite the remarkable rejection his party has suffered over the past 6 years.
Since his first appearance on the national scene, we have been told that Obama is a brilliant man, a deep and nuanced thinker, a man of high moral standing and great vision for the nation. We are awash in the new talking point that his was an administration without scandal (a talking point that ignores a healthy list of them, of course). We’ve been treated to messianic and hagiographic images and writings throughout his tenure.
How does any of that jibe with a man who’s choosing to raze the fields behind him rather than gracefully withdraw? Does he believe that he is still mandated to fulfill his vision and enact his agenda to the extent possible in this lame-duck period? Why would he wait, then, to do the things he’s doing? If his vision was truly in tune with America, wouldn’t Americans have appreciated these actions before election day?
It’s hard not to conclude that he knows these actions are, in fact, contrary to the will of the people. Why else do them in this last-minute, unilateral way? It’s hard not to conclude that Obama’s actual vision for America is as a nation and populace to be done unto, rather than one to be heeded and served. That is the way of a tyrant, and we are lucky that we still have some vestiges of limited government holding this tyrant’s petulance at bay.
I didn’t vote for Trump, I didn’t care for a good chunk of his professed agenda, and I remain skeptical of the assertion that he will “make America great again.” However, what I have seen in the 7 weeks since his election: the hyperventilation of the Left, the despicable behavior of the Clintonistas, the utter lack of respect for the voters’ will from Democrats and liberals high and low, and of course the scorched earth actions that Obama has taken, makes me glad, in hindsight, that Trump won. Obviously, Trump might make a giant mess of things, but the sheer ugliness of these past few weeks tells me that the Democrats really, really needed this slap-in-the-face repudiation. They’ve forgotten what government in America is supposed to be about.
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I may disagree on some points but I believe it needs to be read. Well done.
I agree with this article, in its entirety. Happy New Year Peter!