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Worries about the future - Obama's actions

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Sorry to be dark but do you think I'm paranoid to worry that Obama might not step down at the end of his term? If the economy comes unraveled or the government goes belly-up and the nation finds itself in the midst of a serious crisis when the next election cycle rolls around, I can just see him saying something like "we can't afford partisan bickering at a time like this" or "we can't afford to let the Tea Party terrorists bankrupt the economy by cutting 1% of the Federal budget" and pushing to suspend the next election, either by executive order or by an act of a Democrat-controlled congress. I say this because I think the man lives for power and I have a very hard time seeing him relinquishing it.

Edited by happiness
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I don't think it is necessarily a paranoid thought.
He wouldn't be th efirst power hungry man to do something just as you describe.

I think what you should focus on is where you are in relation to this.
What you can do to protect you and yours if anything gets out of hand- not just Obama.

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  Unless you have any actual reasons to think he is planning this I would say it is paranoid. 

 

  Lets consider that Hillary Clinton is already in the minds of a lot of people as their next candidate. I don't know why the democrats would risk the reputation as a parry on a coup for one guy.

 

  The kind of emergency that would allow Obama to become a dictator would most likely make Obama and the presidency as a whole irrelevant. (Nukes, Zombies, Plague).  

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I won't call you paranoid (one reason being that this is a professional diagnosis I'm not qualified to make), but your prediction isn't plausible.  Let's agree to wait and see what happens when Obama's term ends.

 

This very allegation was circulating about Nixon during his first term.  There were bogus documents that the believers claimed were proof of the scheme.  Orson Welles plugged the story on at least one talk show.  National Review compared the docs to Protocols of the Elders of Zion.  The whole thing was a hoax, quickly forgotten.

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Sorry to be dark but do you think I'm paranoid to worry that Obama might not step down at the end of his term? If the economy comes unraveled or the government goes belly-up and the nation finds itself in the midst of a serious crisis when the next election cycle rolls around, I can just see him saying something like "we can't afford partisan bickering at a time like this" or "we can't afford to let the Tea Party terrorists bankrupt the economy by cutting 1% of the Federal budget" and pushing to suspend the next election, either by executive order or by an act of a Democrat-controlled congress. I say this because I think the man lives for power and I have a very hard time seeing him relinquishing it.

 

The same "worries" were wafting about during Clinton's second term. It's like the worries about executive orders. There is absolutely no reason to think Obama will not step down at the end of his term. like every president before him. I would add: if some media-source put this idea into your head, abandon it as part of the conspiracy theory crowd that is always worrying about the world coming to an end. 

Edited by softwareNerd
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A Bing search on "nixon cancel elections" turned up some interesting information.

 

Somebody wrote a book in 1970 about Nixon's plans.  You can buy it on Amazon.

 

Bush was planning this in 2004 according to one source and Obama in 2012 according to another, one-time soi-disant Objectivist Robert Ringer.

 

I have worries about the future, but this isn't one of them.

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Sorry to be dark but do you think I'm paranoid to worry that Obama might not step down at the end of his term? If the economy comes unraveled or the government goes belly-up and the nation finds itself in the midst of a serious crisis when the next election cycle rolls around, I can just see him saying something like "we can't afford partisan bickering at a time like this" or "we can't afford to let the Tea Party terrorists bankrupt the economy by cutting 1% of the Federal budget" and pushing to suspend the next election, either by executive order or by an act of a Democrat-controlled congress. I say this because I think the man lives for power and I have a very hard time seeing him relinquishing it.

Obama has no legal choice but to step down at the end of his current term.  Even the bat-sh*t crazy democrats in the house will not tolerate a coup d'etat and the army surely will not support Obama if he tried something blatantly unconstitutional.   

 

Congress has no legal basis for preventing the election of the next president.

 

There is an historical precedent.  With the country split by a Civil War  Lincoln did not declare an emergency.  He stood for an election which he could have lost.  In fact, he expected to lose.  

 

ruveyn1

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I agree with the majority of the earlier responses; it's a very unlikely scenario.

Although, on the other hand, it's only slightly more bizarre than having American drones spying on American citizens, selling firearms to Mexican drug cartels and contemplating the possibility of killing our own citizens without trial or due process, all in the name of safety.  And yet these have all happened, and Obama's fingerprints are on each of them.

 

I don't think that he'll actually declare himself the lifelong dictator one morning; it's far more likely that he'll step down at the end of his term and simply engineer certain mechanisms to allow him to run the show from behind the scenes.  Something shady and secretive like that.

But if he were to declare himself the dictator one morning, I have no doubt that he'll do so very "charismatically" and most Americans will simply adore him for it.

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... it's far more likely that he'll step down at the end of his term and simply engineer certain mechanisms to allow him to run the show from behind the scenes.

That is pretty far-fetched. A lot of Democrats do not like Obama, and think he's pretty incompetent. Clinton was and is far more popular. A retired Obama is unlikely to have more impact than a retired Clinton. And, Obama already has his Nobel prize ... so how's he going to sink lower? ;)
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But if he were to declare himself the dictator one morning, I have no doubt that he'll do so very "charismatically" and most Americans will simply adore him for it.

He won't.  Obama has read the history books too.  Look what happened to Julius Caesar  when it even appeared he would crown himself king for life.  Brutus who was like a son to him,  turned on him.  Et tu Brute?

 

Tyrant Obama would become an instant target if he tried to rule permanently.  

 

ruveyn

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Sorry to be dark but do you think I'm paranoid to worry that Obama might not step down at the end of his term? If the economy comes unraveled or the government goes belly-up and the nation finds itself in the midst of a serious crisis when the next election cycle rolls around, I can just see him saying something like "we can't afford partisan bickering at a time like this" or "we can't afford to let the Tea Party terrorists bankrupt the economy by cutting 1% of the Federal budget" and pushing to suspend the next election, either by executive order or by an act of a Democrat-controlled congress. I say this because I think the man lives for power and I have a very hard time seeing him relinquishing it.

 

I don't see Obama as any more of a minimal personal threat than the majority of people living in the US who live by the same values he does. After all, they're the ones with the power to elect him, so it's fitting moral justice that they should get the government they deserve rammed down their gullets.

 

 My resolution to this situation is to live out on the edge a safe distance from crowded urban areas where centers of government power and control reside.  That's where individual Americans can enjoy the most autonomy.

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He won't.  Obama has read the history books too.  Look what happened to Julius Caesar  when it even appeared he would crown himself king for life.  Brutus who was like a son to him,  turned on him.  Et tu Brute?

 

Tyrant Obama would become an instant target if he tried to rule permanently.  

 

ruveyn

In addition to which:  If Obama attempts to stay in power,  the Army will step in and put an end to that pretending.   There will be a coup or putsch from the military who will not obey orders from someone not constitutionally in power.  The U.S. has been fortunate to avoid  military takeovers,  but a bold attempt at tyranny will be put down in a matter of days  if not hours.   The folks in the Army take their Oath seriously

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I don't see Obama as any more of a minimal personal threat than the majority of people living in the US who live by the same values he does.

 

I recall AR saying through Rearden, something along the lines of, Jim and his friends don't matter. I think that applies well to this topic.

 

As to Obama 'living for power' - what? In AS, Jim knew what he was doing and the code he was living by was wrong, he just didn't care to think about it. I don't think that is the case with Obama. He seems like a sincere guy who truly believes that his actions are moral. If true, that doesn't excuse him from all the crap he's done- but it doesn't make him an evil, power-hungry monster, either. It makes him Andrei, from WTL- one of my favorite characters.

Edited by mdegges
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I recall AR saying through Rearden, something along the lines of, Jim and his friends don't matter. I think that applies well to this topic.

 

As to Obama 'living for power' - what? In AS, Jim knew what he was doing and the code he was living by was wrong, he just didn't care to think about it. I don't think that is the case with Obama. He seems like a sincere guy who truly believes that his actions are moral. If true, that doesn't excuse him from all the crap he's done- but it doesn't make him an evil, power-hungry monster, either. It makes him Andrei, from WTL- one of my favorite characters.

Nice guys do not lie under oath or take an oath in vain.  Especially as serious an oath as Presidents must affirm

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He'll most likely just enjoy the honorific for the rest of his life, 'write' a few bestsellers about how it wasn't the fault of his policies that couldn't fix the damage of his predecessor.. and probably work on his golf game. And some Republican will hold the office and yada yada yada .

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He'll most likely just enjoy the honorific for the rest of his life, 'write' a few bestsellers about how it wasn't the fault of his policies that couldn't fix the damage of his predecessor.. and probably work on his golf game. And some Republican will hold the office and yada yada yada .

He and Jimmy Carter will have their portraits hung top front in the Hall of Disdain.

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Off topic but , isn't public oath taking odd? It seems so archiac and ritualistic. Do we need actually perform such rites to make say perjury(lying in an official preceding courtroom or congressional hearing) stick. same with judges' attire "Off with the robes!!" Thank god we got rid of the wig thing, I have a hard time watching British officialdom when they purposely wear those ridiculous outfits.

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Whether Obama wants to stay in power or not is irrelevant. The fact is that he can't. He is a relatively unpopular President, during the most prosperous and politically stable period of American history thus far.

 

The notion that anyone would support any kind of move against the democratic process is easily traceable to the paranoid propaganda coming from irrational right wing conspiracy theorists.

 

I agree with the majority of the earlier responses; it's a very unlikely scenario.

Although, on the other hand, it's only slightly more bizarre than having American drones spying on American citizens, selling firearms to Mexican drug cartels and contemplating the possibility of killing our own citizens without trial or due process, all in the name of safety.  And yet these have all happened, and Obama's fingerprints are on each of them.

You're blatantly misrepresenting every single one of those events. Basically, you're just senselessly regurgitating right wing propaganda.

 

The objective way to phrase the same things is:

 

1. Using drones to aid law enforcement efforts, possibly violating privacy rights (though this is not entirely clear yet)

 

2. Carelessly selling firearms in an effort to set up sting operations to catch criminals, and then shirking responsibility for the mistakes made;

 

3. Sticking with established law enforcement policies to kill dangerous criminals when arrest is not feasible.

 

Of the three, only the second involves clear wrongdoing, and neither involve anything bizarre. The kind of wrongdoing described in point 2 is very common, and so is the kind of violation of rights that MAY occur with the spread of drone use. In fact, I would describe the violation of rights as mild, compared to many provisions in the Patriot Act, and even many well established local law enforcement policies and laws, like "stop and search" and urban anti-gun laws.

Edited by Nicky
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"Off with the robes!!"

 

.The robes, gavel, raised seating area, the order to stand when the judge arrives, etc, are the trappings of power that help bend the courtroom to behave as the judge wills. Right or wrong, they serve a purpose very effectively.

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I think it is important to identify news-sources and entertainment sources in one's life that either support conspiracy theories or are overly cynical and negative. Cutting them out from one's life -- or restricting one's use of them -- can help give one a view that is more realistic and more positive, and thus more productive.

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.The robes, gavel, raised seating area, the order to stand when the judge arrives, etc, are the trappings of power that help bend the courtroom to behave as the judge wills. Right or wrong, they serve a purpose very effectively.

But they are the trapppings of power this republic adopted , from the very government with which it broke. Off with their robes!! Edited by tadmjones
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