WhatFinger


The childhood lemonade stand is a powerful symbol of American entrepreneurship, representing our innate embrace of capitalism and its lure of risk and reward

Colder Winter of Our Discontent



Civil War documentarian Ken Burns has famously observed that, before the war when the country was divided, people would say, “The United States are. . . ” After the war when the country became as one, they said, “The United States is. . . ” I wonder how long it will be before Americans say, “The United States was. . . ”

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The anger I have felt since it became apparent that President Obama is successfully keeping his promise to “fundamentally transform” America has recently been joined by a profound sadness. As I watched a TV commercial where a little girl sets up a lemonade stand in front of her house, a childhood memory for many of us, it occurred to me that she represents everything this president despises. For beneath his thin skin beats a Marxist heart. The childhood lemonade stand is a powerful symbol of American entrepreneurship, representing our innate embrace of capitalism and its lure of risk and reward. With Obama and his fellow travelers in Congress hell bent on painting America a socialist gray — and several coats have been applied already — I wonder how long it will be before kids will be emulating not an entrepreneur but a government bureaucrat? One generation? Less? With a constant drumbeat from this president that government is good and free enterprise is bad, it might not take long. President Calvin Coolidge said, “The business of America is business.” He never dreamed those words would carry an expiry date of January 20, 2009. Obama’s credo is, “The business of America is government.” As reported in The Wall Street Journal, substantially more Americans are now working for government than are employed in the private sector. Does this by definition make us a socialist country already? Were there any doubt about Obama’s socialist mindset it should have been dispelled by his recent so-called budget speech where it was obvious his vision for America is a country of class warfare stoked by an ever-expanding, big-spending federal government, fewer individual liberties and higher taxes on the so-called rich, the achievers among us with the effrontery to create jobs in the private sector rather than pucker up at the hind quarters of government. I would not be so pessimistic about what I see as America’s possible downfall — downfall to conservatives, salvation to liberals I guess — were it not for the transformation of the Democratic Party into something Fidel Castro would embrace. In my naivety I thought once it became apparent who and what Obama was, surely at least one patriotic Democrat (an oxymoron?) would go before a microphone and say, in so many words, “I cannot abide this. What our president is trying to do is not my America. This must not stand.” But no, not one. Not one because, apparently, they share Obama’s goal of spending the country into economic collapse so he can proclaim the failure of capitalism and its replacement by overwhelming government control. I believe that in his heart of hearts that is his desire. Whether he can get away with it or not will depend on next year’s election. For even if the Republicans take complete control of Congress, which I believe is likely, a reelected Obama will still try to dismantle the America we have known through executive orders, Supreme Court appointments and other devices at the disposal of a president. While the conventional wisdom is that Obama will lose in 2012, I’m not so sure. Yes, many Americans showed they “got it” by the way they voted last November, but if more voters do not look beyond the beaming smile, the charm, the flowery speeches and the lies, we’re doomed. Another four years of Obama and this country will be wrenched so far away from its founding as to be unrecognizable to those of us who have experienced its greatness. I was among those who used to think my generation was the luckiest in history. We were born too late for the Depression and World War II. We had Viet Nam, but generally speaking did not have to endure many of the hardships borne by our parents. Then along came 9/11 and we realized that no generation gets a free pass. A direct attack on our homeland resulting in thousands of civilian deaths, as opposed to the military attack on Pearl Harbor, was a first. Now we are facing something never before encountered by any generation at any time in our history, a president who deliberately wants to take this country down by destroying the capitalist system, strangling our freedoms and putting out a welcome mat for our enemies. This is made all the more diabolical by the fact he’s doing it with an ingratiating manner and a pleasant and friendly face. But while the face says harmless, the acts say evil. I long for the days when the worst we could say about a president was that he was incompetent. America has survived incompetent presidents. The question before us now is can we survive one who has his sights set on destroying the American dream? I hope more Americans will wake up to the fact that the fate of everything that has made this country great, our values, our virtues and all we hold dear, is hanging in the balance. Having worked in radio, advertising, public relations and as a newspaper columnist, Doug Gamble (Douggamble.com) is best known as a writer of humor and speech material for President Ronald Reagan — including some of Reagan’s most memorable lines in the 1984 re-election campaign — and President George H.W. Bush, and as a writer for comedian Bob Hope. He has also written for Republican candidates and officeholders at virtually every level of government, as well as for the CEO’s of major corporations.

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Doug Gamble -- Bio and Archives

A former writer for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Doug Gamble writes for various Republican politicians and corporate executives.


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