Obama’s Crying Case of the “Do-Somethings”

Mr. President, crying is not going make us want to do something that wouldn’t have prevented tragedies in the first place. Such calls may actually harden our heads and hearts.

by Joey Clark

 

Yesterday, President Obama, you asked the nation, “How did we get here? How did we get to the place where people think requiring a comprehensive background check means taking away people’s guns?”

If I may venture an answer, Mr. President: a bad case of the do-somethings.

The do-somethings. The left catches ’em when it comes to gun violence, economic downturns, and climate change. The right when it comes to terrorism, the drug war, and impeaching you, President Obama.

RELATED: RNC Weighing Obama Impeachment

That is, in the face of a tragic event, it has become an American pastime to hear the people and their politicians propose policies that either (1) have no chance of passing or (2) will do nothing to mitigate such tragedies in the future.

Yet, the people will still say government must do something.

As we all know, the people must never be told there may be problems too complex for their central government to solve. It must never be suggested that to truly stop one act of evil one day at a time, to save just one life, requires vigilance on the part of individuals and tight-knit local communities rather than dictates from D.C.  

RELATED: In One Year, Gun Owners Stopped Hundreds Of Criminals, Saved Countless Lives

No, the public trauma fosters a false hope in the central government’s power to change things for the better, and scapegoats are soon offered up to satisfy the people’s calls for action–American liberty often serving as the sacrificial lamb. In the end, nothing usually gets done. But even when something does get done, it would not have prevented the tragic events spurring the government to act in the first place. Thus, failing to achieve stated goals in the face of tragedy, a case of the do-somethings is, ironically, tragic itself.  

But I have yet to really answer your question, Mr. President: “How did we get here? How did we get to the place where people think requiring a comprehensive background check means taking away people’s guns?”

Well, a bad case of the do-somethings can often come across as, to use a phrase famously uttered by your former Chief of Staff,  “never letting a crisis go to waste.”

Or, put simply, political opportunism.

And on the issue of gun violence, where even you admit your “common sense” proposals would not have the stopped the very crises you are now trying not to waste, people tend to suspect your motives.

RELATED: Obama’s Gun Control: Separating Fact from Fiction

Your political opponents, indeed, have become “numb” as you have put it: not to the deaths of the victims but to your political rhetoric. Not only do your political opponents suspect you, they feel like your scapegoats, wondering whether the latest “reform” will truly be the end of the road or just another pit stop on a long journey towards a much more ominous destination. 

“If we do this,” they rightfully ask themselves, “what will we be asked to do next?” 

Mr. President, I am highly suspect of your inclination to centralize more and more power in almost every aspect of American life. But I do not question your heart on the issue of gun violence. I do not question your sincerity to seize the “fierce urgency of now.”

I say this because I watched you cry. I saw the pain, anger, and grief as you said:

“Our unalienable right to life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -– those rights were stripped from college students in Blacksburg and Santa Barbara, and from high schoolers at Columbine, and from first-graders in Newtown. First-graders. And from every family who never imagined that their loved one would be taken from our lives by a bullet from a gun. Every time I think about those kids it gets me mad. And by the way, it happens on the streets of Chicago every day.”

But more than your show of emotion, I also saw a face I know all too well, a face I’ve seen in the mirror. 

I spent much of my last year crying, mostly for personal reasons. There were the quick hit sobs–quick to burst to the surface as I just as quickly tamped down the tears in order to save face or avoid facing the source of my sadness–but the most difficult and dangerous of my tears from this past year, were those outpourings where I knew there was nothing I could do. 

I had to watch those I loved suffer a loss beyond their or my control. But even though I knew there was nothing I could do, I still felt like I needed to do something or could have done something. The prospect of death can bring such a blind cry. And when you began to shed a tear in front of the American people, I was reminded of that horrible feeling of being swept away by events beyond my control.

President Obama, even though you hold the most powerful political position on earth, you looked downright defeated, beholden to events beyond your control, and desperate to get something done even if it means trampling on the constitution you swore to uphold.

It is one thing to pray after a loss. It is another to read or write poetry or spend time reminiscing with family and friends. But to find hope in political action is a much more complicated matter. Grief and fear driven politics always runs the risk of conscripting innocent bystanders to kneel at the feet of one’s grief and submit to your demands. Grief is no argument. Grief is no excuse to sacrifice liberty. And when mixed with politics, grief can often harden the hearts and heads of those you wish to persuade to action.

RELATED: Obama Grandstands on Oregon Tragedy

Channeling the wisdom of the serenity prayer, Ayn Rand once wrote, “Most men spend their lives in futile rebellion against things they cannot change, in passive resignation to things they can, and—never attempting to learn the difference—in chronic guilt and self-doubt on both counts.”

I have tried to “learn the difference,” and accordingly, I admit laws can be changed. Even the 2nd Amendment.  The question is would that be wise? Do you really believe giving up more liberty is the only way to “protect” our liberty?

Well, the “common sense solutions” on offer would not have prevented the tragedies. Not the shooting of first-graders in Newtown or the many lives lost in Chiraq’s firearm induced bloodbath.

So why, in the name of these tragedies, would we act in a way that does nothing to solve them? Why accept a conclusion that has no basis in the premises?

You anticipated this line of thinking saying,

“Each time this comes up, we are fed the excuse that common-sense reforms like background checks might not have stopped the last massacre, or the one before that, or the one before that, so why bother trying. I reject that thinking. We know we can’t stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world. But maybe we could try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence.”

So, you admit it, Mr. President. We couldn’t stop these tragedies.  Our true disagreement is not over the intensity of our feelings for those who suffer evil. Suffering brought about by human evil is, unfortunately, part of our struggle to live. We would be foolish to think it can be eradicated completely, as you admit. Our true disagreement is over how we should stop one act of evil one day at a time.

You wish for further regulation from the center. I wish for a greater positive peace and cooperation throughout the periphery. We must stand against evil, but we must also be wary of destroying our liberty by granting a central authority more power over our lives in the name of defending life and liberty.

If we are to do something, anything at all, I hope it is to realize that stopping acts of evil will not be found by seeking solace through our government or our politics, but within ourselves.

Otherwise, my guess is the more we turn to politics to do something about our tears, the less anything will seem to get done.

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