By STEVE DAUGHERTY

I was nothing short of aghast upon reading Darrell M. West’s July 11 Guest Viewpoint, “Obama could be likened to Reagan.” If that statement is not political blasphemy, I don’t know what is. Ronald Reagan has been collectively judged as one of the greatest presidents in American history, while the inexperienced Barack Obama is the most liberal member of the Senate and would continue America down the slippery slope that it’s been on since the early 1960s. The unfulfilled promise of grandiose accomplishments by the do-nothing ’06-elected Democratic Congress should be omen enough of the peril awaiting this country, should a populist president take office in January.

The U.S. is snowballing toward the fate of the Roman Empire, but it’s absolutely no fault of the Republican Party. The irony of this catastrophic situation is that it is occurring despite the GOP being in office, not because of it; they are only trying to slow the inevitable demise. The whiny “Robin Hood Party” socialists have, over the past few decades (insidiously yet successfully), brought this country to its collective knees. Clinton also chose to pull out of Somalia, launch cruise missiles against an aspirin factory in Sudan and admittedly “tried and failed to get Bin Laden.” As succinctly stated by the late Ronald Wilson Reagan, “Facts are stubborn things.”

Before you cast your vote in November, heavily consider the potential of a presidential candidate who is mourning the lost opportunity of an “open dialogue” (by the fortunate capture and hanging) with Saddam Hussein. Obama’s race or religion are of absolutely no issue; he is simply a flip-flopping unaccomplished “Sherwood Forest” liberal who will “rob from the rich and give to the poor” — just the same old left wing tax/spend garbage — packaged in tired “hope and change” platitudes. Reagan once said, “A baby is an alimentary canal with a loud voice at one end and no responsibility at the other.” Barack Obama is simply the Democratic Party’s latest newborn.

In stark 21st century reality, the current downward spiral of the U.S. has nothing to do with political persuasion; it is the right-or-wrong choices that have been (and continue to be) made: the Second Amendment vs. illegally-armed thugs, legal immigration vs. foreign invasion, nature’s eternal fluctuation vs. global warming paranoia, families vs. broken homes, freedom vs. terrorism, political correctness vs. real civil rights and (the bottom line in a faltering economy), work vs. sloth. Entitlement is the worst epidemic to ever hit this country; living far beyond one’s means is now not only accepted, but expected, and it is the chief platform of the far left. Under “The Spell of Obama,” if you work, you’ll be penalized, if you don’t, you’ll be rewarded. Rest assured, “my friends,” Obama will do his best to keep your blinders on, ensuring that your priorities can continue to be putting the newest iPhone on your 20+ percent interest credit card and scoring your next bag of weed. Putting aside the federal government’s necessary care of children and the truly incapacitated: if everyone else is offered a free ride, how many Americans are willingly going to pay? You are witnessing the answer to that question daily, if you have the cast iron stomach needed to turn on your TV.

One of Reagan’s most famous quotations is, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” 2008’s Republican nominee is also twisted to the left, but if Obama is elected president of the United States, he will tear down this country, at breakneck speed.

Steve Daugherty is an Anderson resident.