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Leaders? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Leaders!
by A.X. Perez
perez180ehs@hotmail.com

Attribute to The Libertarian Enterprise

More and more, Barack Obama is giving the appearance of being a mediocre President. This has its advantages and disadvantages.

Believe it or mot, this nation will survive the current recession. We may need to re-monetize, but we will survive (Give it a break, Gloria). The intellectual tools and ability to get off our asses and work will survive. If we maintain a proper vigilance our remaining liberties will survive.

This means we don't need a great leader to deal with our economy and other internal issues. BO's limitations should help people realize that it is up to us to seize control of the economy and other issues, ignore the media's scream for a great leader to show us the way and get his country back to being the land of the free.

The danger is that Obama will feel pressured to do something truly stupid to assert his greatness and drag us into a foreign war or civil war. A variant of this is that the media will realize that Obama is largely style without substance, call for, and achieve his replacement with a "Great Leader" (tyrant for those of us who speak plain English).

After two years of being told about the bloodbath across the border in Juarez, the people of El Paso are arming themselves in case the trouble spills the whole fifty feet across the Rio Grande. More people are getting CCW licenses, I assume more people are carrying illegally or in their cars as is permitted under Texas law. This after listening to newscasts about the war for control of the drug trade for a year and a half longer than the rest of the country. And for the second time in a decade, to boot!

Imagine what would be happening if the inhabitants of the Sun City (even the rocks are sun burned, I kid you not) had had to listen all that time, both times, to the media hysteria that was focused on us these last six months. I'm sure the solution would be worse than the problem, and it is a frigging huge problem. Look in your own home town and look at an issue that is being dealt with quietly and efficiently by the people with minimal government involvement and imagine getting the full attention of the national press on the problem and no attention to your success in resolving it. Now imagine a mediocre politician trying to build his reputation and pushed by a media looking for a molehill to turn into a mountain (OK, so some of our fair cities and towns have pretty mountainous problems, lets say turn the Appalachians into the Himalayas) getting turned loose on your problem.

With "healthcare reform" going nowhere, stuck playing out Dubya's endgame in Iraq, the adventure in Afghanistan going into an "it's going to get worse before it gets better" phase, and the recession having had all the money thrown at it that it can handle, thus leaving Obama in a position of a doctor who's already administered the recommended meds, so lets see if they work, pressure is going to be placed on him to prove he's more than just a pretty face. Let's see if Obama has the sense to settle for being a pretty face and the leadership ability to keep Speaker Pelosi and others from doing something stupid when inaction is the best policy.

There is the issue of World Leadership. On this one I say that it is time for an American President to say "America no longer wishes to engage in hegemonistic imperialism. You are adults, sort it out your squabbles without our interference. We'll work out equitable trade terms so that we can do business as honest trade partners. If you insist on having us send our sons and money to defend you, you must agree to abide by the American Bill of Rights, including the equality of women. Even better, apply for statehood. But do not ask us to prop up corrupt governments for the profit of a few corporations or to back your nation in shillyshallying around in dealing with neighbors or sorting out internal ethnic squabbles. Fix your problems and stop asking us to play 'good cop, bad cop' rolled into one so that you don't have to clean up your mess."

It doesn't take being a great leader to do this. If anything,it takes a savvy ward heeler to do these tings. What is called a community activist in politically correctese.

I thought the point of a free society is that we didn't need great leaders, "we're all free men protected by the Constitution." to quote Jaxx from The Sons of Anarchy. But sometimes we do need a ward heeler to help us sit down, cut a deal, and talk instead of shoot out our problems.

Let's see if the man in the White House has the wisdom to play to his strength.

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