By Bruce Bialosky
Monday, October 22, 2012
If you recognize the name Shel Talmy, you’re a true rock
‘n’ roll aficionado. He was the original producer of The Who and The Kinks.
Producing just one of these legendary bands would in itself make him legendary
– two makes him monumental. He was there when Ray Davies sang You Really Got Me
and Roger Daltrey sang My Generation.
Mr. Talmy walked into my office one day. He wanted help
collecting his royalties for all those timeless songs that he helped to shape.
After decades in England, he had just moved back to the United States, and,
when I asked why he had decided to come home, he replied “England is so dark,
pessimistic.” He went on to say something that I had heard before, but never in
such a personal context: “In England, if they see someone driving an expensive
car, they ask why does that guy have the right to drive it? Who is he? In
America, they say ‘I want to get me one of those.’”
Mr. Talmy expressed the essence of what America is about
– that individuals have the opportunity to accomplish whatever they want. If
you work hard and are willing to sacrifice – and you’re blessed with some
talent or a little luck you can achieve great things in business, the arts, or
sports. That’s why people come here in droves – they want to enjoy the fruits
of their own efforts without the government stripping it away from them. The
right of the individual to achieve his dreams is uniquely American, and this is
the essence of what President Obama does not understand and why he should
therefore not be reelected.
This has nothing to do with the question of where he was
born. That issue has been settled and is not a matter of discussion. This has
nothing to do with his religious beliefs. He states clearly he is a Christian
and it is ridiculous to question that. You can even divorce this issue from his
childhood. This has to do with his life experience.
His inability to grasp this essential principle – in
effect, what America represents – is deeply embedded in his character. It’s the
result of Mr. Obama’s focus for his entire life, including his educational
background, and his “career” choices, along with the people with whom he chose
to associate as an adult. He has molded his own view of life and that view is
significantly different than the American experience. Having never worked for a
profit-seeking company, his grasp of how America functions exists in a vacuum
completely opposite from the America experienced by ordinary citizens of all
races and creeds. When he speaks of how he does relate, those expressions are
not internalized consciousness, but externalized platitudes. He reads from a
teleprompter, not speaking from the heart.
I recently had a discussion with a Rabbi about the Tenth
Commandment, which states "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house,
thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his
maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy
neighbour's." He clarified for me a common misunderstanding about this
commandment. Quite often, he said, people think it means you shouldn’t covet
anything, but that is not true. The scriptures were quite specific and they did
not intend for people never to covet. Rather, they encouraged you to aspire to
things you want as long as you do so legally and through your own efforts. The
Rabbi described the essence of America, and why this country has achieved the
greatness it has. President Obama, from his actions and his rhetoric, clearly
believes the misconceived notion of the commandment as described by the Rabbi –
that to aspire to financial success is immoral, and that those who have
achieved success have broken the Tenth Commandment and have done harm to
others. Therefore, they must be punished by taking their success from them in
the name of “fairness.”
When the President goes off his teleprompter, he betrays
his finely honed image and reveals his true inner core. Two years ago, while
speaking about Dodd-Frank, he said “We’re not, we’re not trying to push
financial reform because we begrudge success that is fairly earned. I mean, I
do think at a certain point you have made enough money.” And it’s why he
willingly embraced Elizabeth Warren’s rant that was derived from Berkeley
Professor George Lakoff’s book Don’t Think of an Elephant!: Know Your Values
and Frame the Debate: The Essential Guide for Progressives, that successful
Americans did not create their own success.
Without the protection of his teleprompter, Obama blurted
out agreement with her un-American belief against individual accomplishment.
His inherent value system allowed him to state “Look, if you've been
successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own.
I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so
smart.” Later, he added the phrase that defines the essential Obama: “If you
got a business you didn’t build that, somebody else made that happen.” There is
no taking that out of context. We’ve never heard that from an American
President because no other President has ever believed that the government –
and not the individual – is the primary engine of our economy and our country.
Even in our darkest hours, presidents like Lincoln and FDR didn’t think we
would win the war because of the strength of our military forces, but because
of the character of our individual soldiers and the men and women working on
the home front.
During the last election President Obama stated “We are five
days away from fundamentally changing America.” He meant that. He has spent the
last four years emphasizing that government is central to our existence, and
that the individual must be subordinated for the greater good. He does not
accept that the real greater good comes from the efforts of individuals
exercising their freedom and that government exists principally to enable them
to pursue their inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness.
President Obama does not understand these central tenets
of the American being. He was given an opportunity to prove otherwise, but he
has failed. We are therefore obligated as Americans to restore to the
presidency someone who does hold these truths to be self-evident.
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