Overestimationalism

Tying nicely to the "Reprise" post below, this essay from John Galt's Shenandoah speaks to the dangers of believing one's own press.

Read it all, but here's a taste:

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...The executive order that President Obama signed above, directly from the White House pages by the way, shows the extent of just how far and how much the people in charge in Washington, D.C. are beginning to overplay their hands. The only reason for signing this particular Executive Order is to allow the International Criminal Court in the Hague to issue arrest warrants for American citizens, including soldiers, and bring them to trial using the powers of INTERPOL, as their representatives on our homeland. The President brags about the passage in the first quote above being as important and large as the Social Security Act passed under FDR and completely understands how that has managed to enslave decades of American workers to the idea that they would always have a sufficient retirement thanks to the government, while at the same time overestimating the value of this retirement when the day comes. They failed to understand the concept of monetary degradation where inflation destroys their “retirement program” faster than they can add to it or multiply its effectiveness thanks to the very same government which created Social Security.

This President is overestimating and overplaying his hand and the blow back is about to begin.

Meanwhile, across the aisle, the smug Republicans are content to think they have successfully elicited the support to the Tea Party Movement, the 9-12ers, along with disaffected American Conservatives and they are planning to nominate a lot of the same type of slugs that were rejected in the 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008 elections, failing once again to learn the lessons of history. Their lazy leadership is one again trying to use the “we’re not them” as their only serious issue in their national platform. Thus once again, they are engaged in the historic mistake of assuming that conservative and Constitutionalist voters are not of principle, the same mistake they made with the nomination of McCain, and will find that after the 2010 elections, the only gains will be in those areas where true Reagan/Goldwater style conservatives ran for office.

The Republican Party and their allies are overestimating their relevance to this current, critical and possibly final turning point in American history...
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There is no way out but through.

And actually getting through will require each individual American to stop deceiving himself or herself about the dangers we face.

The violated corpses of today's hopeful Pollyannas will be found, strangled and rotting, in history's ditch.

Observe, orient, decide, and act.

And do it faster than the other guy.

Audentes fortuna iuvat.