I never voted for Bush and thought he was a moron and an arrogant jerk, but you know what? The country was bigger than him. The cries on the left about how he was ruining the country turned out to be sort of hollow. We're fine. Same thing now with Obama. The right seems unhinged by him. But we are bigger than Obama too. Don't worry, he won't/can't turn us socialist or otherwise ruin the country (he happens to be a millionaire btw, a strange socialist that would make!) Democracy and capitalism turn out to be bigger and more powerful than political winds.
Your arguement is flawed. Obama isn't just a socialist, trying to push our country in that direction, but a Marxist, Fascist, Communist, Muslim, Kenyan who shouldn't even have been allowed to be president. He has an agenda of evil cloaked in Liberalism. AND HE IS BLACK!!!!!!
Each side have their crazies, and each side should recognize it. Sadly this rarely happens in politics or most things in life.
Your comparison is flawed in one important way. Bush wasn't trying to change the political system: Obama is. Bush didn't cut his teeth on "Rules for Radicals": Obama did. Obama is a marxist at heart, despite what he says. Don't read his lips, watch what he does.
How did the cries about Bush turn out to be hollow? He kept us on the path to bankruptcy and created an atmosphere where someone worse would get elected. We can't rewrite history to stop Bush from invading Iraq, how likely will it be that we can recover from the ridiculous spending that Obama wants? Look, I just sold my work car that I paid 1300 bucks for two years ago last night for 600 dollars. If I were a politician I would go out tonight and buy a Lamborghini on credit to drive to work. That is ridiculous. I really couldn't afford to buy a new Camry right now. In this analogy Bush might have bought a Lexus and Obama wants to buy a Bugatti Veyron. Both are stupid but one is so out of touch with reality that you have to realize how stupid you are.
You apparently don't understand the implications of a national health care program that would replace all private insurance, which is what Obama wants. Liberty is not lost overnight; it happens piece by piece. If this healthcare bill passes, it's one more piece of our liberties that goes out the window.
the irony, of course, is that bush *did* dramatically change the political system by vastly increasing the power of the executive branch in ways never imagined in the constitution. so far, to my great disappointment, the obama administration has decided not to reverse many of those dubious legal positions. (presidents tend not to give away the powers that their predecessors seize... that's why the presidency has gotten stronger and stronger and stronger over time, throwing our whole constitutional system pretty far out of balance in my view.) so the verdict is this: bush, whose rabidly partisan lawyers propagated an entirely novel theory of "the unitary executive" to make up unchecked new powers like a de facto line-item veto ("signing statements") and claimed the right to simply ignore congressional oversight (wiretapping, subpoenas, etc), "was not trying to change the political system." meanwhile, obama, who has so far in his presidency done nothing of the sort (although, as i said, he has disappointed in his failure to roll back bush-era abuses) is a "marxist at heart" because... well, we just know it? because we think he once read a book by saul alinksy? madness
so his cunning plan to create a plan to replace all private insurance is to (a) launch the health-care debate by taking single-payer completely off the table, and then (b) further weaken his own plan by refusing to offer vehement support the "public option," which is the only element of so-called "obamacare" that would even compete with private insurance, and then (c) offer support to support a plan (written by health insurance lobbyists!) coming out of max baucus' senate committee that would offer huge government subsidies to existing insurance companies, fine individual citizens who fail to buy insurance from those companies, and offer no real competition to those companies. his plan to destroy the insurance industry must be cunning indeed! from where i'm sitting, "obamacare" looks a lot like a huge taxpayer-funded wet dream for the private health insurance industry... naturally the wingers view it as "socialism"... our country is insane
I think this speaks more to the nature of how lame congress has been. I mean it lacks any leadership that does anything other than trying to keep their party voting in line and the main objectives seem to be getting re-elected and keeping the other party from having much of a say. Reagan's budgets were declared DOA and written from scratch by congress. GHW Bush was forced to go back on his "no new taxes" pledge by congress. Clinton triangulated (his word) by adopting ideas of the opposing party that were good, and accepted congress' balanced budgets. Bush had and Obama will have rubber stamp congresses. Look at 9/11. What happened after? Congress (both parties) were feeble and looked for the president to lead in every way. Same is true for the TARP bailout situation. Meanwhile, I would say that appointing czars who don't face the constitutional Advice and Consent rules is something of the sort.
what's new about "czars"? presidents have been using them for ages (since at least andrew jackson, by my count, although he didn't use the term "czar.") the name is stupid/scary, but if obama's use of various policy advisers ("czars") is so terrifying, then why wasn't it equally terrifying nine months ago when g.w. bush was doing it or ten years ago when clinton was doing it or 25 years ago when reagan was doing it? as with all these tea party anti-obama protests, the protesters who are so vehemently declaring that the current president is a tyrant are protesting things that they accepted as A-OK nine months ago when "their guy" was president... the hypocrisy and ignorance is stunning to me. even fox news (!) has blown this bogus "controversy" out of the water: [video=youtube;jiFoLlSWI2I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiFoLlSWI2I[/video]
You should really know the facts before spouting off like that. And do you even know what a Marxist is? It sure sounds like you actually don't.
Yet, you all were told this and knew about this 11 months ago and you STILL had it in you to vote for him. How in thee hell does this happen?
History of Czars in the US government - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._executive_branch_czars Number appointed by GW Bush - 46 Number appointed by Obama - 35 Number appointed by Clinton - 11 Interesting Czars appointed by GW Bush - Abstinence czar bird flu czar birth control czar faith-based czar/faith czar