Don's Tuesday Column

THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson   Red Bluff Daily News   2/27/2015

Villains and Heroes among us

         Burt Bundy, Supervisor, district 5, and current Chairman, will appear before the Tea Party Patriots to provide attendees with an update and take questions.

My first choice for a column topic is the “snake oil” salesman-like, duplicitous performance of “Emperor” Obama in his circus of misstatements, straw men, and reality-defying assertions. That would be his State of the Union speech from a week ago, wherein was the predictable laundry list of yet more grand and generous (with other people’s money) government goodies combined with thinly-veiled proposals to stick middle and upper middle class Americans with fees and tax hikes to pay for them.

Believe me when I say that the only laundry list that could be agreed upon by honest observers was the serial obfuscations and, well, lies. Obama’s polling numbers have risen to 40+ percent approval based on a mildly growing economy. That is based on recent 5% growth that I provided proof showing it was only due to Obamacare’s mandated hikes in health insurance spending by consumers, reflecting no actual improvement in the broader economy. Economic improvement, in turn, has been due to lower gas prices resulting from private sector and state-driven oil and gas drilling—in spite of Obama’s policy opposing such drilling, not because of it.

Blatant fabrications included that he is “stopping [the Islamic State’s] advance,” is “opposing Russian aggression” (toothlessly, if at all), and is ending a Cuba policy “long past its expiration date.” That falsehood was predicated only on the supposed policy ineffectiveness—itself a misrepresentation of how Cuba’s malign influence in our hemisphere has successfully been neutralized directly due to 50 years of America’s embargo policy.

“Once again, we heard how much he hates cynicism and partisanship, defining cynicism and partisanship in his own special way: disagreement with Barack Obama. The president denies this, of course…And yet, prior to the great ‘shellacking’ of 2010, Obama governed as if the Republicans were at best a nuisance. When Republicans expressed concern over the partisan nature of the stimulus, he responded, ‘I won.’” (Jonah Goldberg, nationalreview.com) For example, given complete Democrat control of Congress for 2 years, the faux-magnanimous Obama chortled, “We don’t mind Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back.” To the “Emperor,” the debate over health care reform was over the minute Democrats had sufficient votes to ram it through, procedural rules and disapproving public opinion be damned.

Goldberg: “And when Republicans had a historic victory in the 2014 midterms, largely by running against Obama and his record, the president responded by unilaterally sidestepping Congress on every issue he could, from Cuba and Iran to carbon-emission standards and immigration. This is Obama’s real understanding of ‘bipartisanship’; it is a political hack’s cudgel to unleash on your opponents, not a tool for governing.” I see Obama as perhaps the most villainous man to ever hold the office; and that competition includes some pretty incompetent and malignant characters. We can only hope that, in addition to presiding over the single largest decline in federal and state elective seats held by a president’s party, the Obama legacy will lead to a conservative, America-defending Republican president in 2016 and a long term inoculation against leftist, redistribution-based federal taxing and spending practices.

On the other end of the villain vs. hero spectrum, I saw “American Sniper,” directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper as the legendary Navy SEAL, Chris Kyle (known to fellow soldiers and Marines as simply “The Legend”) locally on Friday the 16^th. I found the story of the deadliest, most successful sniper in American military history (over 160 confirmed kills, possibly over 220 total) to be what, in the apparent opinion of many millions of Americans, is a story of heroism and valor lacking in virtually all of the many movies churned out by a wildly leftist, anti-war Hollywood.

It is not unlike how the movies about the Vietnam War seemed intent on advancing the worst narratives possible about the military conflict and the inevitable (in movie makers’ warped view) twisted psychological and emotional toll that turned veterans into (fill in the blank demon-possessed character). Then, when an actual reality-based movie came along, like Randall Wallace’s “We Were Soldiers Once, and Young,” Americans flocked to see an inspiring version of our military that they know in their bones is the truthful narrative—which holds little appeal to the military-hating Hollywood film-making establishment.

Take the time to search, by title, “The ‘American Sniper’ Freakout—Why the left can’t tolerate this movie” by Mark Hemingway at weeklystandard.com. The list of movies advancing the ambivalent to despicable attitude toward America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and our military, is long: Stop-Loss, In the Valley of Elah, Redacted, Green Zone, Grace is Gone, War, Inc. Mild improvements were The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty (condemned for showing how water-boarding produced actionable intelligence). A genuine inspiration was Act of Valor, in which actual SEALs (simpler to teach SEALs to act that it was to teach actors to be SEALs) were brought in to present a truth-based story of a mission to recover a kidnapped CIA agent.

Only by watching “American Sniper” can you share the experience of clapping with heart-thumping pride in an audience of like-spirited American patriots.