Opinion: Obama, populist?

By Jordan Yost
Unapologetic liberalism is so last year. Just ask President Obama who last week attempted to reinvent himself as a 21st century William Jennings Bryan by distancing his presidency from sky rocketing deficits and introducing legislation that will limit the size of certain financial institutions.

The president said that he was ready to fight large banks and special interests in order to defend Middle America from further exploitation by Wall Street elitists. Immediately after Obama left the stage, the media began fawning all over themselves by the notion that President Obama had collected himself after the Brown catastrophe and was prepared to make a political pivot in a way that President Clinton didn’t on the eve of the 1994 midterm elections.

During his “populist” outburst, President Obama also outlined a three year freeze on discretionary spending. See, he’s a centrist. What the president forgot to mention is that the freeze doesn’t include defense spending, social security, Medicare, Medicaid or the stimulus package passed last February. The non-partisan CBO reported the plan would save 15 billion dollars out of a budget that is projected to be 3.5 trillion dollars. Now that’s the kind of “populism” even “Fighting Bob” La Follette could get behind.
Perhaps the office of the president inevitably cuts the office holder off from the national consensus and therefore he doesn’t realize his calls for fiscal responsibility look phony. Maybe President Obama is receiving information that pleases his ear and he doesn’t realize he’s out of touch with America.

However, my belief is that there’s a certain smug elitism that permeates throughout the halls of this White House causing party wide tone deafness. I have to believe that it’s purposeful arrogance because after being told everyday for over a year by liberals that Barack Obama is the smartest man to ever occupy the Oval Office, he surely isn’t stupid enough to believe Americans will take him at his word that he plans to stop spending.
Are we watching the evolution of limousine liberalism right in front of our eyes? Now the president has morphed from the most faithful liberal in the United States Senate, when he wasn’t voting present, to a “progressive” during his presidential bid, which is a euphemism for big government, now to a “populist” who criticizes the very spending and deficits that he created.
Mr. President, you may think the American people are incapable of seeing past your polished rhetoric and capturing the truth behind your beautifully articulated lies. You may think that by pretending to be a populist that it makes it so.

But come Election Day, the American voter will wake up in a house that, through cap and trade, you’ve deemed too hot and you’d attempt to regulate its temperature through ‘smart meters.’ This American will then eat a breakfast with ‘too much’ transfat which you’d try to restrict through the ‘preventive’ clause in your healthcare reform. That American will next drive to their polling place in a car that, unless it’s a hybrid, will soon be taxed to the mile because of your proposed odometer tax, and they’ll vote in a way that teaches you what true populism is.

Mr. President, sooner than later, regardless of how many hundreds of speeches you give between now and the midterm election, the American public will reach a breaking point. Words are no longer enough, empty promises will fall on deaf ears. Populism is indeed on the rise. Mr. President, you’ve made your bed built on liberalism, and no, you can’t vote present this time.

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