After typing out my piece wondering whether any MSM outlet will list Tea Parties as one of the political phenomena of 2009, I considered what those big stories might be. So, about an hour ago, I scribbled out a list of what I thought were the big issues of this year about to conclude. In no particular order:
- Obama’s inauguration and his pushing of a great variety of big government initiatives and regulatory schemes at the legislative and administrative level. Focus on health care in the second half of the year even as fewer Americans see health care reform as most pressing issue.
- His blaming Bush for the problems he “inherited” as deficit skyrockets and unemployment increases.
- Increased poltical polarization in Washington.
- Stabilization of financial markets.
- Obama’s “smart” diplomacy, apologizing abroad, but achieving few results.
- Continued decline of MSM.
- Climategate and increased skepticism about anthropogenic global warming.
- Iranian uprising and its brutal suppression.
- Revival of the conservative movement/energy of Tea Party protesters.
Did I miss any? What do you guys think were the big political stories of 2009?
I vote for the Tea Parties. They represent perhaps the largest grass-roots movement we’ve had in decades. Quite the contrary of the way they’re often portrayed, they offer a chance for a widely divergent mass of the citizenry to come together in the common cause of taking back our country. If gays and lesbians get involved — on behalf of something larger than themselves — they may find themselves building bridges with people who never realized, before, how much they have in common with us.
“If” gays get involved? Sweety, some of us have been there from the beginning. :o)
How about the record number of apologies President Obama has made on behalf of America to the world?
Oh, 9/10 redux: framing terrorism as a mere criminal matter and then the unsurprising resurgence of terrorism!
The KosKids are actually congratulating themselves on our new mature approach. “If this were Bush, he’d invade Venezuela by mistake. Yuk.Yuk.”
Where the hell do these people come from?
Cordially,
-MFS
The first one on your list is definately true, and probably even worthy of being #1 if you had ranked them. Then I’d say the 2nd most important story is the historic and unprecedented drop in Obama’s approval ratings as the Independents who got him elected rejected his agenda in masse.
I also think Obama being nominated for the Peace Prize in spite of having only been in office for 3 weeks was stunning. That he later won the prize with no noteworthy accomplishments to advance world peace was farcical and astonished even hsi staunchest supporters. That action further cemented popular belief that the Nobel Organization is nothing more than a shill organization for global Leftists.
Of course, since we’re talking about lists prepared by the MSM, neither of my suggestions will make the cut, if they are worthy or not.
CORRECTION: Obama winning the Peace Prize may be noted on some MSM lists. But the point I was trying to make, and the more important story, is that most people feel it is undeserved.
Would the Specter flip be one of the stories? The Dems gained total party control of government in that one move.
I should have said, “Ongoing destabilization of financial markets”.
0% interest rates, 10%+ (of GDP) deficits, ObamaCare, and other Obammunist acts of war on the prudent and productive are a continuing disaster. They directly destabilize financial markets. 0% interest rates punish savers (including successful businesses), while creating asset bubbles which, in the context of the rest, must inevitably be followed by a new crash.
Picture a house where people on the second story are celebrating Christmas and putting decorations on the windows, while the supports are being hacked away by nihilistic squatters on the first floor. It will take awhile for the people on the second floor to get their rude awakening – yet it is coming. They indulge themselves a few more moments with the illusion of stability, while the house is in fact being actively destabilized and destroyed.
That’s where we are right now, with the financial markets (and Obammunism). The next, greater crash may come in a month or in five years – and if it does take five years, Obama gets re-elected in 2012 – but it is coming. It is being made right now, and for the past 15 months (since the Bushies first started talking bailouts). “Stabilization of the financial markets”? No way. Dow 10,000 is just a sign of the times, an asset bubble powered by unsustainable and destructive 0% interest rates.
(continued) and bailouts. The U.S. has the finances of a banana republic, and U.S. dollar-denominated assets are the new “high risk” assets. That will be felt and seen in the next crisis.
“You Lie!”
to Lori Heine….
The year was 1977, the place was a concert at Chicago’s Medinah Temple…. My opponent was Anita Bryant and It was the 1st time I possessed the courage needed to raise my voice in order to effect change in the political mood of the country. Thousands were picketing her appearance that day, but I was one of only 4 protesters managing to gain access to her concert. Try as we did to stifle the wench, we were hauled off to jail and Anita sang on. Luckily her voice was eventually silenced in the days to come. I’ve been involved in politics in some way ever since.
My personal life has never once hindered me from actively participating in many facets of the political process…. cause I’ve refused to allow people to lessen who I am and minimize my voice. For 40 years now, the LGBT community has effectively struggled to change the way we are included in the dialogue. I’m grateful to the movement, if for no other reason than I haven’t been forced to make an exit from a bar’s back-alley window in a very long time.
I think when reflecting on 2009, it can not be discounted how the LGBT community was on the front lines of the political discourse.
Steven – LOL 🙂 I wish.
I would nominate the resistance to Obama and his policies. It seems the more people know about them the less popular they become.
Thats pretty good for a freshman year.
While not exactly political, but with political implications, the big story for me is the opening of the Episcopal and Evangelical Lutheran churches to gay couples and ministers.
I have two thoughts — though they might not be “Top 10”:
1 – The rejection by the Obama Administration of liberty & freedom (Iranian Green Revolution) and rule of law (Honduras) and the implications that will have for years to come.
2 – The massive corruption in the Obama Administration and Democrat-controlled government (including ACORN-issue).
I just wouldn’t call it a 2009 story. It may be “2009” for you, if you just started noticing or if ELCA did something new and big this year. But I’ve been watching the Episcopalians opening to gays for a couple decades.
Yeah. I would have to cite ACORN as a top political story of 2009. To the extent it was *not* treated that way by the mainstream media: well, that’s part of the story.
“I think when reflecting on 2009, it can not be discounted how the LGBT community was on the front lines of the political discourse.”
Spartann, our “community” may have been on the front lines for 40 years, but not always as profitably as we could have been. Too often a few people (usually of a very Left-wing ideology) have taken it upon themselves to speak for everybody.
Some of the protesting that has been done, for example, has been poisonsouly anti-religious, with hostility especially directed at Christianity. One of the reasons it took people like me so long to come out was that for years, we’d see self-indulgent displays of anti-Christian hate and find ourselves totally unable to identify with what was going on.
Trampling on the communion host? Peeing in holy water? Sorry, can’t relate. Moreover, want nothing to do with it. Nor do I care to associate with political protest activities so hyper-leftist they might have been organized by Castro or Mao. Even when I was considerably further to the Left, politically, with where I am now, I thought anybody who could participate in stuff like that had to be totally devoid of common decency or common sense.
I insist, now, on taking part ownership of my own “community.” I will hold protestors to standards far higher than those many adhered to in the past. I’m grateful for what the Baby Boomers did for me, but I’m quite frankly getting a little tired of having it rammed down my throat again and again and again. Especially since many of them still show little sign of having grown up.
When my pastor and associate pastor (both of whom are openly gay) wear their collars to Pride, people actually spit on them. I can’t help but wonder how this must look to Christians who aren’t sure whether to believe people like Falwell and Robertson, but who look to our “community” for a clarification of what we’re really all about and see — that.
Both the Episcopal and Lutheran churches passed official resolutions this summer, which is why I think it is this year’s story. I also think, sadly, the lack of response to the death penalty for gays proposed in Uganda is a big story.
How about his trips to Copenhagen, coming home empty handed? I was happy when RIO got the Olympics, and when it snowed on his parade for the Climate summit!
You know how folks from other parts of the world LTAO at Bush? You should see how they laugh at “the one”.
ex pat, living in Europe,
greetings,
-pamela
Add the “Czars” positions and the cabinet positions filled with Tax cheats, and/or questionable backgrounds.
#1 story to me is that Socialism is on the march worldwide. From Copenhagen to Caracas to Capitol Hill, the left feels emboldened and they are seizing power over individuals and industry as fast as they can — despite the unpopularity of their agenda. Even as much of their underlying organization and even justification, which they spent 12 years out of power building up, crumbles beneath them and is exposed as nothing more than leftist corruption (i.e Global Warming Fraud, ACORN, etc). Many of our enemies, Chavez, Castro, etc, have never had a bigger friend in the White House.
Ronald Reagan and our founders must be spinning in their graves.
The interference of the Obama administration in Honduras, and its subsequent failure.
Also, the lack of condemnation over events in Iran.
The Greens in Iran – their story strikes me as the biggest political story of the year. And the one to have the most repercussions in the long term.