In human relationships, there is the flirtation stage, followed by what my grandparents called “courting” and, if that works out, marriage.
In presidential politics, the analogy also works. We have passed the flirtation stage with Barack Obama, and now it is time for a serious background check before too many of us follow our hearts instead of our heads and enter into a bad “marriage.”
That MoveOn.org and Sen. Edward Kennedy have endorsed Obama ought to be enough for any conservative ? even moderate ? to pause before heading toward the electoral altar. But Obama has offered more cause for alarm by heralding his left-wing economic philosophy in a recent interview with The New York Times.
Obama told the newspaper the top priority of the next president should be the creation of a more lasting and equitable prosperity than achieved under Presidents Bush and Clinton. Obama apparently missed the class that teaches government doesn?t create prosperity; people do.
One reason this socialistic mind-set resonates favorably with many is due to the shift in the last half-century from promoting hard work, self-sufficiency, marriage, accountability, and living within one?s means to a mentality that I am entitled to the fruits of other people?s labor.
Calvin Coolidge, who spoke when he had something to say, cautioned, “The collection of any taxes which are not absolutely required, which do not beyond reasonable doubt contribute to the public welfare, is only a species of legalized larceny. … The wise and correct course to follow in taxation is not to destroy those who have already secured success but to create conditions under which every one will have a better chance to be more successful.”
Given such truths, it is time to break up with our Obama infatuation.
Cal Thomas is America?s most widely syndicated op-ed columnist and an author of 11 books.
