{"id":479,"date":"2013-08-14T22:35:30","date_gmt":"2013-08-14T22:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/?p=479"},"modified":"2013-08-17T18:02:56","modified_gmt":"2013-08-17T18:02:56","slug":"republicans-dont-throw-obama-in-the-briar-patch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/?p=479","title":{"rendered":"Republicans, Don\u2019t Throw Obama in the Briar Patch"},"content":{"rendered":"

To the modern ear the Uncle Remus stories sound racist because they\u2019re in the dialect of the \u201cold South,\u201d and call to mind Jim Crow and demeaning racial stereotypes.\u00a0 But I agree with Professor Damon Fordham (catch his excellent analysis in the video below) that the witty tales told by West African story tellers, passed on to American slaves, collected by folklorists in the late 19th<\/sup> century, published by Joel Chandler Harris as The Tales of Uncle Remus<\/b>, and ultimately popularized by Walt Disney (Song of the South<\/b>) should not be buried under a pile of political correctness.\u00a0 They deserve a better fate.<\/p>\n

Republicans can benefit from the most famous of these stories, about \u201cBre\u2019r Rabbit,\u201d the wolf, and the tar baby.\u00a0 As Professor Fordham tells it, the wolf saw that someone was eating the peanuts in his peanut patch, noticed rabbit tracks, and decided to put up a scarecrow.\u00a0 But Bre\u2019r Rabbit was not fooled by the scarecrow and kept eating the peanuts.\u00a0 So the wolf took a big lump of tar, dressed it in clothes and a hat, put a pipe in its mouth and a cherry for a nose.\u00a0 Bre\u2019r Rabbit saw the tar baby and thrust out his hand to shake the tar baby\u2019s hand. When his hand got stuck, Bre\u2019r Rabbit tried to dislodge it by pushing the tar baby away with his foot, which also got stuck.\u00a0 Suddenly the wolf appeared, wrapped a bandana around his neck, and proclaimed \u201cWe\u2019re gonna have rabbit stew tonight!\u201d<\/p>\n

Bre\u2019r Rabbit replied, \u201cYou can cut off my head, you can boil me in the boiling water, but please please please don\u2019t throw me in the briar patch<\/b>.\u00a0 You can cut off my ears and slit open my stomach, but just don\u2019t throw me in that briar patch<\/b>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which the Wolf prompted proceeded to do, tossing the rabbit up in the air and into the brambles.<\/p>\n

Then Bre\u2019r Rabbit said, \u201cYou forgot two things.\u00a0 Number One, I was born and raised in the briar patch.\u00a0 And Number Two, I am now free to eat your peanuts again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obama\u2019s Bre\u2019r Rabbit Act<\/b><\/p>\n

Before he flew off to Martha\u2019s Vineyard to join his fellow 0.01 percenters, President Obama played the rabbit at his press conference, telling Republicans \u201cPlease please please don\u2019t shut down the government in order to defund Obamacare.\u201d <\/b>\u00a0Specifically:<\/p>\n

“And let me just make one last point about this. The idea that you would shut down the government unless you prevent 30 million people from getting health care is a bad idea. . . I can tell you that the American people would have difficulty understanding why we would weaken our economy, shut down our government, shut down vital services, have people who are not getting paid who then can’t go to restaurants or shop for clothes or all the other things that we’re doing here, because Republicans have determined that they don’t want to see these folks get health care.”<\/p>\n

The press is dutifully playing along.\u00a0 Every one of the Sunday talk shows re-played Obama\u2019s warning not to shut down the government.\u00a0 The reason is obvious.\u00a0 Obamacare is quickly turning into precisely the epochal \u201ctrain wreck\u201d that Sen. Max Baucus predicted.\u00a0 Hardly a day goes by without Obama suspending another part of the bill, or granting preferred insiders (such as Congressional staff) a waiver, or seeing it attacked by another friendly interest group (Big Labor, IRS employees).\u00a0 It is becoming alarmingly apparent to Democrats that ObamaCare truly is \u201chistoric legislation\u201d \u2013 the worst legislation passed by Congress since the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.\u00a0 Democrats find themselves inextricably stuck in the Obamacare tar baby.<\/p>\n

137 Frequently Asked Questions ! ! !<\/b><\/p>\n

To appreciate just how bad this law is, you need to do something media pundits rarely do — read the actual legislation, along with hundreds of\u00a0associated rules and regulations.\u00a0 They comprise an impenetrable thicket of arcane legalese that even Obamacare experts cannot decipher.\u00a0 \u00a0Consider, for example, yesterday\u2019s New York Times<\/b> story, \u201cA Limit on Consumer Costs Is Delayed in Health Care Law.\u201d\u00a0 It turns out that way back in February the Labor Department delayed for one year Obamacare\u2019s limit on out-of-pocket deductibles.\u00a0 However, no one noticed the change for six months<\/b> because it was \u201cobscured in a maze of legal and bureaucratic language\u201d in the DOL\u2019s answer to one of 137 \u201cfrequently asked question.\u201d\u00a0 Roll that around in your brain for a minute.\u00a0 137 \u201cfrequently asked questions?\u201d\u00a0 From just one of the many agencies implementing Obamacare?\u00a0 No wonder job growth is weak and small business confidence remains near recession levels. It\u2019s so bad even economists may eventually notice.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Throw Obama in the Briar Patch<\/b><\/p>\n

Rather than defend the indefensible for the next year leading up to the 2014 elections, the Press and the President would like to change the subject from ObamaCare to the imminent shut-down of the government by the dastardly Republicans.\u00a0 Rather than explain why he grants so many waivers to his wonderful legislation, and offers a delay to the business mandate but not the individual mandate, Obama would much prefer to explain how he will protect Seniors, Children and Veterans from budgetary Armageddon.<\/p>\n

To win the 2014 election, Republicans should not let Obama change the subject.\u00a0 They should force votes in the Senate and the House that oblige Democrats to vote for it or against it.\u00a0 Many of those who vote for it will be vulnerable next November.\u00a0 It\u2019s that simple.<\/p>\n

Dumb Wolves?<\/b><\/p>\n

Some tough guys on the right disagree.\u00a0 Senator Ted Cruz, along with radio heads Limbaugh, Hannity, and Levin, want the House to fund the rest of the government but not Obamacare.\u00a0 They admit this scheme would never become law.\u00a0 But during the legislative impasse Senator Cruz would \u201ctake our case to the American people.\u201d\u00a0 Sorry, Senator; Obama and the Press will make sure your case is never heard.\u00a0 Even leaving aside their political bias, media types would much, much rather cover the excitement of the coming government shutdown than try to explain dreary details of health insurance that, frankly, they don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s avoid playing the dumb wolf to Obama\u2019s smart rabbit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Copyright 2013 Thomas Doerflinger.\u00a0 All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To the modern ear the Uncle Remus stories sound racist because they\u2019re in the dialect of the \u201cold South,\u201d and call to mind Jim Crow and demeaning racial stereotypes.\u00a0 But I agree with Professor Damon Fordham (catch his excellent analysis … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[154,152,151,14,153],"class_list":["post-479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brer-rabbit","tag-damon-fordham","tag-government-shutdown","tag-obamacare","tag-uncle-remus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=479"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":489,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions\/489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}