Conservatives that have been anticipating 2016 as the beginning of an Obama–free era had best think again.
According to Joel Kotkin, writing in the Orange County Register, Obama merely established the beachhead for a group of elitists that view democracy as too messy and slow to effectively govern in this modern age. Kotkin describes this cabal of control as “the new clerisy, which encompasses the media, the academy, and the expanding regulatory bureaucracy.”
Quoting Daniel Bell he contends, “This new priesthood of power would aim for the rational ordering of mass society.”
Unfortunately he may be correct.
Take universities for a start. He cites statistics that show 96 percent of all presidential campaign contributions from Ivy League schools went to Obama in 2012. (The other 4 percent may have gone to the draft Leon Trotsky committee; records are unclear.)
I don’t know that the old Politburo in the Soviet Union had this level of ideological uniformity and what may be worse is it was all done without the KGB lurking in the background.
Second leg of the troika is the MSM or mainstream media. He includes an observation from Pat Caddell, a pollster that worked for the previous worst president in modern times — Jimmy Carter. “This press corps serves at the pleasure of the White House and president.”
Topics that undermine the big–government–will–solve–our–problems narrative simply disappear. Obamacare failures, Benghazi, IRS targeting, illegal immigration and Ebola are covered as if any criticism is out of bounds and exaggerated. A courtesy that was never extended to George Bush who was even blamed for hurricanes.
The final and most dangerous leg of this three–legged–stool–from–hell is the “unelected permanent government.” The same people that can’t manage a website will still be collecting a paycheck and chasing carbon dioxide long after Obama departs.
Kotkin’s chilling observation is that it may not matter all that much if Republicans control both the House and the Senate after November, because, “By 2016, our daily lives may be controlled more by unelected agencies than through the legislative process.”
Conservatives have somehow managed to let the country be stolen out from under them. It took 50 years for the left to be poised on the threshold of total control. I don’t want to predict what it will take to reverse this process, assuming it can be reversed.
The situation is bad enough that I actually agree with something Sen. Elizabeth Warren said last week. She proclaimed that the system is “rigged.” And she’s right — it’s rigged against you and me.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan. He is president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation and chairman of the League of American Voters. Mike is an in-demand speaker with Premiere. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.