I serve this up as a reminder
When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor our entire country; progressives, conservatives and ordinary citizens of no particular political persuasion, all turned their entire attention to One Thing…
Victory over the Axis.
Our entire economy, our every waking hour, our hearts, our prayers, our finest sons all dedicated themselves to That One Thing, and history will record that for over four and half years, that dedication produced a total victory that has never been wrought before in all humankind.
True, on closer inspection a lot of people fell short, most often as not out of pursuing some personal interest, from ordinary crooks who avoided the draft just to pinch more purses to Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, who cost the Allies thousands of needless lives so as to secure himself a higher place in the annals of military history.
But just as Montgomery’s boss, and George Patton’s boss, reigned them in, keeping their eye on That One Thing, so did the full weight of the American people those ne’er do well draft-dodgers, who, by war’s end wished they had been better citizens.
We have to match that sort of focus this year. We’re not there yet.
But I have to remind you the Left in general and Obama in particular also want… That One Thing. And today they are more like the Japanese were on December 8, 1941, proud and arrogant, and not like they were after Midway, limping home after their navy had been destroyed by a sleeping giant.
It’s important that we pay attention to what it is, That One Thing, Obama most wants, for it defines virtually everything he does.
Domestically, Obama has a coalition in which each of the constituencies have a different idea of Victory, That One Thing. Today they’re talking about victory over (silencing) the Christians. But last week they were talking about victory over corporate polluters, and before that victory over Wall Street by the Occupy Movement. A year ago it was victory over benign Arab dictators. And never forget that forever and a day black (and lately, Latino) plantation overseers are still out there pitching for victory over a racism that hasn’t existed for forty years.
None of these constituent groups will likely achieve the victory they dream of, and the list is endless as to how many constituencies there actually are and how many different (and even contradictory) victories they want.
But don’t let this encourage you, for while it’s true that down at the touchy-feely front lines of all these various left-leaning groups, who ain’t none too bright, trust me at the top of each group the differences in what is and what is not Victory is very narrow. They all share one common link to Victory.
They are generally on the same page, as we saw from the unions who put up a false (but artful) rebuff of Obama’s denial of the Keystone pipeline. The unions know that a sudden turn in good economic fortune, both in labor and oil, may deny them all That One Good Thing they have been working and waiting for for years.
Barack Obama is the titular head of this coalition. He’s Churchill, Ike, FDR, Stalin (heavy on the Stalin), even de Gaulle, all rolled into one. But as I said, he’s titular. I still am unwilling to say he’s the brains behind this. In fact, I seriously doubt it.
And we don’t know what That One Thing Is. We know it is total control, and control that cannot be easily (or constitutionally wrested away) but what That One Thing that brings this about is still a mystery which we need to be aware of at all times.
In concrete terms, we can surmise a great deal many things just in all the things Obama has postponed simply because of it. For him, That One Thing must occur first.
His dawdling over first the surge in Afghanistan, then slow support for the Libyan al-Q..er Freedom-loving rebels, then his stalling while Christian churches were burned and now Americans held hostage by the same people he helped put into power, are all because of That One Thing.
That he will take no real action, postpone and postpone, against the clear threat of Iran is also because of That One Thing he’s waiting for.
So it’s easy to see, even on matters that require immediate and forceful resolve, such as Iran and its nuclear ambitions, and its spike in European oil sales, which will trickle over into US gas prices at the pump, Obama must still waver. Obama’s foreign policy, from hugging China to kissing Putin’s arse, to bowing to every monarch and graven image the Dadaists will put in front of him, he must continue to wait for That One Thing.
What That One Thing Is, I have a guess, and I assume it is domestic in nature. Of course it will cement his (or his sponsors’) power, but how, when, or where…the financial/currency sector, or political sector, winning the election, or a favorable court ruling on Obamacare, I can’t say.
But I also know Obama has a Plan B.
I just know that all Obama’s plan, whether his own, or the plan of some super-smart overseer (which Obama is not) is directed at postponing, as in Iran, any tip of his hand until That One Thing becomes irreversible.
His re-election is paramount in our minds and that may be That One Thing in Obama’s mind as well. But I doubt it. I’m only 50/50 that he doesn’t have other benchmarks, unseen to us, but it is clear his re-election will allow him to use dictatorial powers regardless of the make-up the Congress, especially considering the fecklessness of the GOP in Congress in repelling him, or at least calling him out, the past three years.
(Mssrs McConnell and Boehner: You just don’t realize that when someone who sees everything in terms of That One Thing, and all others things revolve around it, how much wrecking you can do simply by disturbing the timetable of That One Thing.)
Of course we all know that That One Thing will eventually lead to…
My advice is that you watch and analyze and compare notes. What’s the reason he did this? Why did he do that? Why did he not do that? There are simple answers if you understand That One Thing’s existence. (This is far more therapeutic than outrage and commiseration, in my view and I’ll speak of this more later in other contexts.)
Just know, they are all waiting for That One Thing.
But Obama, I think, has his own personal One Thing, apart from any purely political achievement, and that is getting even.
Never forget, V is also for Vendetta.
