Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
It must really suck to be President right about now.
Faced with an economic conundrum, President Obama is making every effort to appease Congressional Republicans with his naive and ever hopeful outlook that compromise can be achieved between Republicans and Democrats. What he fails to understand is that Republicans have no intention of ever compromising. Sure, they will make noises like they are open to compromise but ultimately, they will refuse any bargain offered.
The President’s optimism, while honourable, is terribly misguided. Comparisons to Neville Chamberlain are being made to President Obama. Arthur Neville Chamberlain was Great Britain’s Prime Minister leading up to WWII most noted for his appeasement to Nazi Germany in an attempt to avoid conflict. He did everything in his power to avoid plunging Britain into war with Germany. Yet Hitler kept invading countries after every agreement not to. Chamberlain had no choice but to declare war because Hitler would (and eventually did) come after Britain. Historians have judged Chamberlain’s efforts as exercises in futility that left the nation unprepared for war and ripe for conquest.
Some say Obama is doing the same. Negotiating with those who would hold the economy hostage in order to get what they want is an exercise in futility. The President seems to be the last to recognize it. What needs to happen now is for the President to recognize that there is not treaty to be obtained. He needs to become a wartime President and fight for the middle class. He needs to be FDR.
What happens in the next couple of weeks will dictate the outcome of the 2012 elections. If Obama loses ground and appeases the enemy, he will certainly be a one term president. If, however, he stands firm, we could have a promising future.Chamberlain was a nice enough fellow who did not want to take his country to war. President Obama seems to be a nice enough fellow who doesn’t want to see his nation go through financial hard times. But hard times are here and sometimes you just have to take off the gloves and fight.
Related articles
- President Obama and the New Deal (dailykos.com)
- Debt Negotiations: Can A Deal Be Struck? (abcnews.go.com)
- Democracies’ Temptation With Appeasement (thewesternexperience.com)
- 1938: Chamberlain declares “Peace for our time” (guardian.co.uk)
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