"We Don't Need No Stinking Principles"

Are principles dead -- or only dying?

On October 30, 2008, just days before the presidential election, Barack Obama stood before a crowd in Columbia, Missouri, and uttered the line that sent Republicans into a frenzy: “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”

To conservatives, that line wasn’t just annoying — it was something akin to blasphemy. Transform America? Change who we are and what we stand for? The outrage came fast and furious. Republicans lined up to say, “We don’t need fundamental change. We don’t need to tear down what makes this country great.”

Those were the days when “principles” were still something people claimed to care about. Key word, “claimed.”

Fast forward to now, and guess what? We’ve got another president who wants to fundamentally transform America. Only this time, it’s not the guy who campaigned on hope and change. It’s the one who sues pollsters whose numbers he doesn’t like, sues networks whose coverage he doesn’t like, and wants to impeach federal judges whose rulings he doesn’t like. He’s even gone after law firms that had the audacity to offend our president because they represented clients he didn’t like.

If he had his way, Canada would be our 51st state. NATO? Out the window. Allies? Alienated. Chaos? Right here at home, courtesy of the Commander-in-Chief.

And yet, this time around, the same people who gasped for air over Obama’s “transformative” language are — how do I say this gently? — eerily silent. The same party that once warned us against changing the fundamental fabric of the country is now applauding the president who is changing the fabric of the country. The double standard isn’t just obvious — it’s embarrassing.