ObamaNation3: Buyers' Remorse

A few months back, I noted with some pleasure the attack of "buyers' remorse" that was spreading throughout New York City's financial environs. Statistically, every one of Wall Street's thieving bankers and hedge fund operators got on the fashion bandwagon last fall, donating to and voting for Barack Obama for President.

They and their money won. Cause for celebration, and after all, being New Yorkers, they were ready for "anyone but Bush" anyway.

You can imagine that they, like their counterparts in the trade and public employee unions, just sat back, no matter what trouble they were in, and waited for January 20, 2009, whereupon "The One" they funded would do what politicians usually do upon election--put top priority on paying off their supporters first with contracts, money, and other political plums such as swell ambassadorships.

But surprise! Just like the general public I referred to in my earlier post above, they voted for a media manufactured image, not a real person. Had they bothered to actually think, they'd have realized they were voting for a closet Marxist. But they didn't because they don't think.

Within a month or two, they had ample cause to re-examine their enthusiasm, according to a couple of good pieces in the Wall Street Journal. (I subscribe, but can't link, since content is generally subscription only.) The unions, of course, like the socialists they are, knew what they were buying and got their payoff in the stimulus package.

As to those wealthy Idiotarian poseurs, imagine their further surprise and horror as they discovered this week that Obama's "pay czar" (an unelected, unvetted, unconstitutional invention of this White House) was going to unilaterally roll back the pay of major financial executives by as much as 50%!! Oh, the humanity! More taxes at eleven.

These financial bigwigs have about as much political acumen as they do fiscal sense. As a current teen might say, "It's, like, who KNEW??" Ditto their wealthy friends in DC and elsewhere. Fashion sense, it seems, trumps common sense these days. Now, all of these wealthy dopes are terrified as they face squarely the horror they created for themselves.

PowerLine carries some dead-on comments today that I can link to, penned by a gent named Mark Falcoff. They echo my own thoughts from earlier this year as well as the Wall Street Journal's observations. But they're incredibly well presented.

Falcoff first sketches the scene:

The latest polls show Obama sinking among independent voters (and a few Democrats as well, though possibly for different reasons). They bring to mind an epiphany I had last summer while driving through the residential suburbs of Chevy Chase, Maryland. I was overwhelmed by the abundance of Obama lawn signs, many more than you might see in my own neighborhood of Dupont Circle in downtown Washington, which probably has the highest rate of Democratic registration in the nation.

Falcoff goes on to describe the incredible wealth in the Chevy Chase community which, in case you didn't know, vastly pre-dated the self-important Saturday Night Live comedian using the same name. You know, the kind of wealth that New York's (and LA's) financial and entertainment bigwigs currently enjoy.

Having lived and worked in area for nearly thirty years I have a pretty good idea of who lives in these houses. If I don't know the occupants, I know their neighbors or people like them. Typically the owners are a two-income couple, usually both lawyers. The husband may be a partner in a blue chip law firm downtown, the wife a principal of a "consulting" (e.g., lobbying) firm. Or the husband is the president of some sort of data processing company and the wife is the lawyer for a medical insurance concern. Or the husband is an ex-congressman, now lobbying for the Mattress Ticking Association or the Cotton Council or even some fat-cat union like the AFSCME, while the wife has an almost equally well paying job at some association or business concern.

They have big money, but, as Falcoff observes, really big expenses, too. But what's the point here?

As F. Scott Fitzgerald once said about "the very rich" -- "they are different from you and me."

It's not difficult to see that these people are living beyond their means.

And now the Savior Obama is threatening to raise their taxes. How else is he going to finance his various projects?

(Picture Homer Simpson slapping his head and shouting, "D'oh!!")

My question is: what were these people thinking back in the middle of last summer? [Italics here and elsewhere are mine.--tlp] That the outcome of a presidential election as ideologically polarized as the last one would make no difference whatsoever to their lifestyle? That voting for Obama was more of a style choice than a political decision? That they thought this would establish beyond all doubt that they weren't racists? Who knows? Maybe even they couldn't answer these questions now.

The point is: the chickens have come home to roost. Somebody is going to have his taxes increased, and there just aren't enough super-rich people around to finance Obamacare, the so-called stimulus, the nationalization of General Motors, and other bottomless pits for government revenue. Our friends in Chevy Chase (and several dozen suburbs like it across our land) are going to be hit in the pocketbook, and hit hard. One can't feel sorry for them, but one does wonder how things came to this.

I couldn't agree more with the above, save for that last sentence. Falcoff may "wonder" about this, but I don't.

To wit: When you get smug and wealthy; when you can't stand in the same room with someone who doesn't share your often shallow political "beliefs;" when you routinely condescend to those who live in 90% of this country; and when, in fact, you stand for nothing except that which gets you ahead today, you have essentially abandoned your God-given intellect and reason.

You have divorced your action from responsibility for that action. You have lost your ability to connect the dots and no longer dwell in a world that is real. You have accepted the fantasies, imagery, and false gods of others because they've helped you get ahead and because it's easier to go along with your fashionable crowd rather than question their actions. And now you have to pay the price for your wilful ignorance.

Too bad the rest of us also have to pay the same price. Your ill-considered support for your sworn enemies has placed them in power over us as well as yourselves.

You now have one of two choices: either wake up, join the American team, and help get the situation fixed in 2010.

Or get the hell out of the way.