Obama on the Iranian election

June 29, 2009

 

The president’s response to the rampant theft of the Iranian election is irresponsible and pathetic. His administration procrastinated as long as possible in order to avoid saying anything controversial, and only when it was demanded of him did the president begin to timidly mention the outrage for what it was: the second stolen election in a row in Iran. The truth is that Iran is held prisoner by the regime in Tehran, a regime that does not have popular support. The ruling mullahs are completely corrupt, and they rule the country for their own depraved self-interest. They are a joke within Iran.

 

To speak as if maybe the election was fair, to speak as if we need to look at both sides dispassionately, is ridiculous – what cave do you live in, Copernicus? The ruling clique in Iran is dishonest, and has been ever since it took power in 1979. There’s no ‘if’ about it, it’s a lying regime that wishes regional hegemony for no reason whatsoever but its ludicrous totalitarian designs. What we need is a strong president who will stand up for truth, not an eloquent salesman.

 

Barack Obama sees himself as the third chapter of the New Deal, begun by FDR and pushed forward by LBJ. But at least FDR brought eventual economic prosperity to America with some of his financial and banking programs, but LBJ brought only inflation, high interest rates, and unemployment. The policies of Lord John Maynard Keynes were the inspiration for both these men, as they are for Obama.

 

But our new president does not live in the actual world, but rather in a world of fiction. That’s why he’s a Keynesian. Further, his domestic and foreign policies are of a piece, in that he foolishly applies a priori theories to the actual world, and thereby drives us off a cliff. In economic policy he is going to prolong the current recession with his deficit spending, since it is based on mere entitlement programs, and not on the creation of wealth. Thus did LBJ cause a recession. In foreign policy, Obama is busily giving the message to the radicals of the world that America does not stand up for truth, or stand against totalitarianism, but only blah-blah-blahs a little bit. Obama is waiting for the news to lose steam, so he doesn’t have to keep addressing it. The Iranian election is Obama’s chance to be the change he talked about in the election season here, but so far he’s just milktoast, while stupidly letting the enraged Iranian people turn into burnt toast. The American people, however, will not notice who he is: they voted for an end-in-itself: a black man in the Oval office. Those who voted for Obama never thought beyond that end, or about whether he could govern worth a damn.

 

Tony Downing