Smith: Credibility doesn't come with a refill

photo Robin Smith

In his own words, President Barack Obama has used the soaring promise of "fundamentally transforming America" throughout his seven years as either presidential candidate or commander-in-chief.

Much of Obama's "progressive" agenda comes from another president's efforts to expand the role of government with disregard to the U.S. Constitution -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

In a 1932 speech to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco just before his election as president for 12 years (and before term limits were needed to prevent an American monarchy), FDR declared, "Government is a relation of give and take, a contract. Under such a contract, rulers were accorded power, and the people consented to that power on consideration that they be accorded certain rights. The task of statesmanship has always been the redefinition of these rights in terms of a changing and growing social order. New conditions impose new requirements upon government and those who conduct government."

"Rulers were accorded power" to grant "certain rights" in "a changing and growing social order" in their "redefinition of these rights."

What a great snapshot of progressive socialism that redistributes wealth and property of the rightful owners to ensure a desired outcome while picking winners and losers in commerce by providing subsidies for public entities that compete with the private, and supposedly free, market.

This ideology of transformation has resulted in historic levels of government dependence and a welfare state that has grown to malignant levels under the "transformation" of Barack Obama and his Democratic Party.

Owning the "Lie of the Year," as awarded by PolitiFact.com in 2013 about ObamaCare, that "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it," Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress have downsized our work week to part-time status. Our labor participation rate matches that of 1978, a time of "malaise" as described by former President Jimmy Carter.

In recent days, the beheading of two American journalists at the hands of Islamic terrorists points to the failed policy of "transformation" promised by the progressive left to "restore America's standing in the world."

Yeah, I've been shaking my head, too.

Despite having specific intelligence briefings that, according to Pentagon officials were "exquisite" and "granular" and warned against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria for more than a year, Obama continues to stun the world.

It's obvious that the Islamic extremist terrorists and their ideology now control more land and resources in the world "than at any time in history," according to the Independent Journal Review in March of this year.

A frequently used statement has proven true: Credibility doesn't come with a refill.

Whether it's smooth-tongued politicians whose lies have garnered positions devoid of principles and results, business colleagues who find every corner to cut for personal benefit, or a friend capable of gold-medal verbal gymnastics to avoid the truth, we've all encountered those who have gradually, or completely, lost their credibility.

Tragically, too many in leadership, partnerships, friendships or other relationships are running on empty.

Robin Smith, immediate past Tennessee Republican Party chairwoman, is ownerof Rivers Edge Alliance.

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