Rich Lowry has won the 2nd coveted alert for Creating Orwellian Worldview Award for outstanding interpretation of the language and ideological manipulations of public figures that use deceptive language in order to affect change on our society.
In Lowry’s March 14, 2009 article the “Obama 3-step” Lowry outlines how President Barack Hussein Obama is using language to confuse the weak minded among us. (see source)
According to Lowry the President uses a simple three step process, which Obama keeps among his vast repertoire of manipulators:
First: Denounce your presidential predecessor for a given policy, energizing your party's base and capitalizing on his abiding unpopularity.Lowry reports that [t]he latest instance of the three-step in action is the matter of presidential signing statements. The left yowled about President George W. Bush's signing statements, arguing they demonstrated his essential lawlessness.
Second: Pretend to have reversed that policy upon taking office with a symbolic act or high-profile statement.
Third: Adopt a version of that same policy, knowing that it's the only way to govern responsibly or believing doing otherwise is too difficult.
Repeat as necessary. –Rich Lowry
There was nothing new about the statements: Presidents have issued them since the 19th century to indicate that a particular provision in a law might be unconstitutional, or to set out how the executive will interpret a provision to avoid any conflict with the Constitution.
Bush issued more signing statements than any other president, but - with a hostile Congress attempting to limit his war powers - he also was confronted with more legislation involving constitutionally contested ground.
Obama promised change from Bush's "abuse," and the other day issued a headline-grabbing memorandum promising to limit the statements. Oh, blessed day!
Former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer, casting a justifiably jaundiced eye on the memo, noted of signing statements: "This has been a standard practice going back decades. They're going to do the same thing, whenever they feel like it."
It took a mere 48 hours for Obama to issue his first signing statement, in the words of The New York Times, "reserving a right to bypass dozens of provisions in a $410 billion government spending bill even as he signed it into law."
Obama's stipulations in the statement closely tracked those previously made by Bush: Amid the dramatic pose of change, essential continuity.
“A prince,” wrote Niccolo Machiavelli in 1532, “must appear to all who see and hear him to be…pious…faithful…honest…humane, and completely religious. And nothing is more important than to appear to have that last quality.”
A prince need not actually be religious, the Renaissance political analyst hastened to add, and will probably be more effective as a ruler if he is unencumbered by genuine religious scruples.
But a prince must appear to be religious “because the masses always follow appearances…and the world is nothing other than the masses.”--MJDWYW
This president like no other before him is attempting to change our American society through legal coercion and political Fascism as he attempts to usher in a new constitutional paradigm. And what’s more, he is doing it through Machiavellianism and Orwellian use of language.
Again, kudos to Rich Lowry for pointing out Obama’s attempt to create an Orwellian worldview, for your efforts Mr. Lowry you are hereby awarded the 2nd alert for Creating Orwellian Worldview award!
