Anatomy of Petulance
I was fascinated watching the recent Obama campaign stops, particularly the contrast with 2008. Gone are the faux columns and classical backdrops. There are no more vero possumus seals (now they fall off the podium). All pretense of “no more red states, no more blue states” nonpartisanship has long ago been dropped. Even the shrill, boilerplate evocation of “Bush-Cheney did it” sounds strained. The blatant divisive appeal to unions, young people, and “black folks” is now unapologetic. Them versus Us is the new theme. Gone is the pretense of inclusivity. Even the fainting now seems rigged rather than spontaneous, the faux cadences forced and more Rev. Wrightish rather than inspired. The eyes of the crowd roll, and have lost their glazed zombie look of 2008. It all reminds me of the failed comeback tour of the proverbial fading rock star, the desperate promos for the sinking supposed blockbuster Hollywood movie, or perhaps something akin to Jerry Ford’s WIN buttons or the Carter desk thump.
So Unfair
The recent interviews with and analyses of the Obama administration — as it descends to a near 40% approval rating — by sympathetic liberal journalists reveal one common theme: a sort of petulance that the actual job of an administration proved so much more of a downer than the giddiness of the 2008 campaign. So unfair, so terribly unjust.
Apparently Team Obama’s disappointment is largely found in others (as is “they” and “them”), rather than this bunch’s own hubris and its invitation to nemesis. There seems to be absolutely no realization about three central truths to the implosion of this administration. And until they achieve self-reflection, they will have no comeback analogous to a Bill Clinton in 1995:
Flukes as Mandates
Obamites still seem to think their arrival signaled a genuine American move to the left, or at least Obama’s singular ability to take the country to the left, rather than a confluence of once in a century events that allowed the northern liberal Obama to do what Dukakis, Kerry, McGovern, and Mondale had not (e.g., the novelty of the first serious African-American candidacy, the anger over the Iraq war, the lackluster McCain campaign that seemed to want to lose nobly rather than win messily, the first orphaned election without incumbents since 1952, the September 15, 2008, panic and meltdown, and the stealth candidacy of Obama running as a centrist moderate).
There was no need right off the bat, in the midst of a recession, to nationalize health care, push cap and trade through the House, digest the student loan program, sell cash for clunkers, or celebrate mega-deficit stimulus borrowing. Unemployment was the key and was ignored, although a great deal of research had shown that targeted tax incentives and reassuring talk about a favorable business climate can accelerate recovery.
All this nonsense was a complete misreading of the election. The result is that in a few weeks Obama will destroy the careers of 50-70 House members and 8-11 senators who followed the tune of our mellifluous pied piper into the abyss. I suggest that he doesn’t care all that much (his post-office future is brighter than theirs) — both because of narcissist tendencies and a sober reflection that a Republican Congress in 2011-12 can be blamed for cutting the “needy” while Obama can take credit for the upturn that will surely follow once business grasps his socialist agenda is stalled.
Private Enterprise Is Run by Humans
This administration is absolutely clueless about the psychological element central to economic recovery. (Yes, yes, I know, some of you think it was a predetermined effort to wreck capitalism. I wrote about that for National Review for tomorrow.) Obama & Co. seem to think businesses and financial bodies are not human, and so don’t mind serial slurs (from the damnation of the Chamber of Commerce [real smart in a recession] to quips like “I do think at a certain point you have made enough money” as the first lady hits Costa del Sol). Yes, businesses are run by real people with feelings and sensory perception. They “get” the demonization of those who make over $250,000, the loose talk of VAT taxes, caps off income subject to payroll taxes, health care surcharge taxes, a return to the Clinton tax rates only on top incomes, higher capital gains taxes and new inheritances taxes.
Add all that to new health care and financial regulations, and the message is clear the American private sector is suspect rather than industrious and critical to our nation’s economic life. After Obama’s slurs against Fox, the Republican leadership, insurers, Wall Street, doctors, police, the people of Arizona, or opponents of the Ground Zero mosque, fairly or not, a lot of people conclude that he does not like them or what they do or what they represent. So trillions of dollars in capital are waiting on the sidelines until November and proof that the Obama agenda is stalled. Even the SEIU or Nancy Pelosi cannot change that fact.
Trumping Nixon
Then there is the constant petulance. The administration has proven itself vintage Nixonian in its enemy lists without Nixon’s foreign policy expertise. Collate all the dark forces like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Justice Roberts, Fox News, John Boehner, the Tea Party, the Chamber of Commerce, and Karl Rove. Then add those nefarious actors with Journolist, Robert Gibbs’s venomous buffoonery, and the president’s own attacks (e.g. “stupidly” acting police, racist Arizonans that deport kids on their way to ice cream, xenophobic Manhattanites) and we are right back to 1972-3, albeit with the hypocritical veneer of hope and change, no more red/blue state, and across the aisle brotherhood. Hypocrisy is a force multiplier to paranoia.
“mellifluous Pied Piper”
For a slightly humorous take on tomorrows Delaware visit, see: “Obama Went Down To Delware“, to the tune of “The Devil Went Down To Georgia”.
“…stealth candidacy of Obama running as a centrist moderate…”
Perhaps we are reaching a turning point. The news media will speak in terms of a republican they want to lead astray as “…so-and-so republican, who is a moderate…”, as though that were the one exception worthy of consideration. That there have been plenty of beltway repubs to take the bait up until now shows how effective the cheap little tactic has been.
We all know by now that this of course refers to a repub who’ll vote for the dem agenda. Not so fashionable anymore…
How long before a dem who style’s his/herself “…conservative on some issues” and wants to be considered an exception too, will also want people to introduce his/herself a “moderate” democrat?
“A confluence of once in a century events…”
I hope this is true. But I maintain that the far left wing of the Dems actually do more damage out of power than in power. That is when they are most free to wage their stealth culture war aimed at undermining people’s faith in traditional values of self-reliance and freedom, destroying the family, fomenting social strife and overloading the system via Cloward-Piven etc. Winning in November and in 2012 alone is not enough to save the Republic.
“…the upturn that will surely follow once business grasps that his socialist agenda is stalled.”
Again, it is vital to deny Obama any credit for this. Let him wear his trillion dollar spending sprees and his pro-redistribution statements like an albatross for the next 2 years, while we take credit for the recovery.
“…predetermined effort to wreck capitalism”
Not so much ‘wreck’. Rather I would use words like ‘control’, ‘direct’, ‘level’, ‘channel’ ‘exclude’, ‘centralize’ and ‘limit’. John Derbyshire’s phrase ‘a spoils’ system’ economy also comes to mind. The idea is to pour cement over American dynamism, limiting technological innovation and the spontaneous formation of unpredictable new nexus of economic power (always threatening to entrenched elites). This creative energy is both the source and the result of American-style autonomy and freedom. And it is the enduring vision of this individual empowerment that so galls the world’s always ravenous autocrats. That is why they want to harness capitalism to serve the global state.
This is in the pattern of the Russian social fascists who were marginalized after the rise of Stalin. A few years later, their ideas found new life in the person of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.
Bad ideas never die completely. There’s always someone who thinks he can make them work…given enough power, of course.
I look forward, in my lifetime and I am 80, to the day when good old American “know how” will surge forward to make America grand again. We have all wallowed in narcissism and self aggrandizement long enough. Time to get back to work. To build instead of tearing down.
From a friend in Canada.
“it is vital to deny Obama any credit for this”
Dubya’s biggest problem was a disinterest in communicating what he was doing and why.
If conservatives don’t sieze control of the message in 2011 and 2012, then all is lost.
“a Republican Congress in 2011-12 can be blamed for cutting the “needy” while Obama can take credit for the upturn that will surely follow once business grasps his socialist agenda is stalled.”
Spot on. The work doesn’t end on November 2. We have to keep our eye on the ultimate prize: 2012.
The ultimate prize is legislation not office.
Obamacare repeal
Balanced budget
Flat tax
Free trade agreements
ex…
I agree but a presidential veto can nullify the best legislation.
… and defund the Stimulus Pkg before it really kicks in.
Gibson donation made.
Thanks for the heads-up–and for all that you do for us and out country.
Please pardon the typo:
…all you do for us and our country.”
Louis XVI, surely…
Sir,
Most excellent analysis. Now after the election please offer your thought on how to De fang,neuter a caged and angry president so he can do no harm.Your thought on how to keep the newly elected in line as well.
Thanks.
Louis XV? Maybe Louis XVI?
Great article!
But typo alert: wurely Louis XVI, not XV?
Thank you for an insightful and wonderful article. It also a treat to watch your discussions on Uncommon Knowlege in National Review. I carry your conversation style into this article to breathe more life into the wonderful written word. Thank you so much.
I keep waiting for someone to leak the name(s) of the writers of the Stanford Daily editorial. Surely it would be a learning experience worthy of that revered institution to have names of both student essayists and journalism professors who oversee those essays to attach to their efforts, and to let them know exactly how much respect those efforts comnmand in a non-university setting.
I suspect by now the editorial board at the Stanford Daily has received enough responses to their article to understand they really stepped in it. Feeling their pain, I sent them a bit of advice:
– Do not engage Dr. Hanson in debate; you have no argument and you will lose.
– Do not apologize for what you have wrought; coming from you that would only be perceived as disingenuous.
– Do continue to cower behind a cloak of anonymity; remaining the nameless and faceless embodiment of groupthink at Stanford will spare your parents the disgrace that should, by rights, only accrue to you.
What can be said about the Stanford Daily – such passion, conviction, and courage to stand up to Victor Davis Hanson – except like sheep, they’ve run away.
Does this not personify debate in this age!? Serious charges, riddled with invective are called on to be accountable, and they’ve just disappeared, are too busy, or the ‘dog ate my homework’.
How do these people even get to the table to be heard!? Total and complete lightweights – but then, there was an article posted some time ago about wimps and nerds.
I think the (intellectually) poor kids were just stooges. The style was that of a fuming worshiper of Marx, and the spirit that of the good old Pravda (Note to Stanford undergraduates: Not to be confused with Prada.). Faculty member, is my obvious guess. It would be amusing to find out his identity, and someone might just spill the beans in a roundabout way.
Well ‘noted’ … LOL!
The President’s campaign promises were intentionally misleading as his subsequent conduct has proven. The promise of budget discussions on CSpan as against “there is no budget” reality, provides ample proof of the foregoing statement. But what is most disturbing is his incessant condemnation of members of his opposition (the Republicans) as self centered, disloyal, dishonest and unwilling to cooperate with him by not endorsing the legislation the President wants. Disagreement with him, Mr Obama says, makes the dissenter dishonest and corrupt.
“(his post-office future is brighter than theirs) — both because of narcissist tendencies and a sober reflection that a Republican Congress in 2011-12 can be blamed for cutting the “needy” while Obama can take credit for the upturn that will surely follow once business grasps his socialist agenda is stalled.”
Not so this trip Dr. Hanson. This is not a time like your father’s brand of civics and politics.
After November’s elections the American people, Conservatives, Tea Party members / similar are going to focus and hone in on Obama and all of the ding-bats in Congress 24/7/365 like a laser collimator.
The same goes for the liberal mainstream media and press and it especially applies to the establishment Republicans. Your fun is over.
Obama himself recently put it best. When times are hard folks tend to go tribal. I assume that means take no prisoners and no names.
Hence, he just sautéed his already cooked well done goose.
“After November’s elections the American people, Conservatives, Tea Party members / similar are going to focus and hone in on Obama and all of the ding-bats in Congress 24/7/365 like a laser collimator . . .The same goes for the liberal mainstream media . . .”
If you win, shouldn’t you focus on governing? Don’t know if you’ve noticed but there are some very difficult challenges facing this country. You want to spend your time following Barbara Boxer around with Flipcam? Maybe you folks aren’t cut out for this stuff.
Our most difficult challenge, dear boy, will be getting rid of Obamunist policies: the policies that are transforming the downturn of 2008 into a Second Great Depression. Given the way the legislative process works, our major obstacle will be the president who approved those policies: Barack Hussein Obama. Ergo, to govern successfully, a new conservative majority must contrive to neutralize Obama. Now, was that clear enough for you, or should I have used shorter words?
Your biggest challenge, Mister Runt, is coming to grips with reality. What you so courteously refer to as a “downturn” was a full blown economic catastrophe brought on by the Oklahoma Land Grab hosted by Republicans and their oil and banking buddies.
“conservative majority must contrive to neutralize Obama.”
Your veiled threats of assassination aside, let me suggest that NOW you’re playing to your strengths . . . conservatives contriving things.
The general tenor of this site lately, as we get closer to some degree of Republican resurgence, is a tasty combination of pre-emptive excuses for lack of progress and blaming Obama for your impending failure.
Guess what, folks, in a couple of weeks you can’t play the indignation card any longer, no more of this pathetic jilted lover whimpering into your hands about unrequited respect.
Time to man up, boys.
(And yes, next time please use shorter words. You’ll get more of them right that way.)
“If you win, shouldn’t you focus on governing?”
No. As was stated, we will focus on Congress.
Congress can focus on governing.
Civics 101…
“Congress can focus on governing.”
As was stated, they won’t. They’ll be too busy analyzing Pelosi’s handwriting. Hey, do you think John Boehner will give up the practice started by Dennis Hastert that the Speaker gets the use of a private jet? Big spending and all, don’t you know. Better get ready to do some of that “focus on Congress stuff you promised. you promised.
Reading 101
“Don’t know if you’ve noticed but there are some very difficult challenges facing this country.”
very difficult for idiots perhaps, but not for people with a brain.
1. Paul Ryan has already explained how the massive deficit can be reversed.
2. Reagen demonstrated how to reverse recessions.
3. Terrorsists have little power, little support and are incompetant with technology. They can be crushed and eliminated with ease. All it takes is the will
4. Iran can be stopped with a single conversation. Perhaps it would also take one follow-up “intervention”.
These problems are trivial compared to many this country has overcome.
Sorry buddy, I don’t buy your idiot liberal spin.
The biggest problem, by far, is people like you.
“1. Paul Ryan has already explained how the massive deficit can be reversed.
2. Reagen demonstrated how to reverse recessions.”
Which one you going to pick, Ryan or Reagan, cuz Reagan ballooned the deficits, but then, “Deficits don’t matter” according to Dick Cheney. So, you’re gong to have to actually commit to a point of view rather than surfing the wave of arbitrary principle.
“Terrorsists have little power, little support and are incompetant with technology. They can be crushed and eliminated with ease. All it takes is the will”
Really? So why didn’t the Republicans do it?
“4. Iran can be stopped with a single conversation. Perhaps it would also take one follow-up “intervention”
You think threatening a nuclear attack will cure everything? Really? That’s your strategy? Kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people only to inflame a global revenge-capade?
I think you should stick with torturing small animals.
Here’s a solution you can live with: push for Obamycare to cover injuries incurred by hand-wringing. You would have died from hand-wringing in WWII or the Civil War.
Every “major” problem in this country is a result of liberalism . They wouldn’t even be minor problems but for liberals. That includes all of the ones I listed.
And it’s no coincidence that the only people who succeed from the liberal agenda are the ones pushing it.
Who are you folks? These people as opposed to what folks. It is totalitarianism or not. That simple, Bozo.
The newspapers and media won’t be dead by the time he gets out of office, and 40% of the country will claim to love him, and the longer he’s out of office the more any temporarily enlightened liberals will backslide and gild their memories of his presidency. Whatever he calls his “Its not my fault” book of his historic campaign and presidency will make him more millions.
No, he really has nothing to worry about. His future is assured by the “Former Presidents Act”, you know, that piece of 1960′s legislation that was designed to aide citizen presidents after they leave office. As a minimum he will get $200K per year,plus staff, plus office, plus secret service (10 years) and anything erlse he can con his successors out of. Like Alfred E. Neuman, he wears the ‘What, me worry?’grin, but he knows he does not have to.
That’s TERA-deficit stimulus borrowing, Dr. Hanson. Were it only MEGA-deficit stimulus borrowing we’d be in much better shape.
‘Tara’, as in ‘Gone With the Wind’?
How about that one for a play on words!
The loss of any and all Democrats (and Rhinos) will be a welcome change. Couldn’t happened to a a more deserving bunch of parasites.
I have to disagree with one point. I do not think the Administration misread any mandate. In fact, they where well aware of the economic woes that where/are on the top of the electorates minds. They knowingly choose the health care legislation, cap-trade and immigration over economic policy. They finally had their lock on running all three branches (house, senate, wh) and could not help themselves to put into place their cherished Statist mandates on the general public. They knew the risks and moved forward with eyes wide open. The public be damned, the economy damned –we have just one shot at getting our prime socialistic goals established. I strongly contend they did not misread anything, rather this was the risk they where willing to take.
after reading the part where being in congress was described as “careers” I stopped reading. I know that the article means well for conservatism but being in Congress should never, ever, be a career! career politicians are among the biggest problems in this country, especially in Congress. term limits would really be good at this point in time.
Dr Hanson, your brilliance illuminates us who lack it. Thank you.
re: “Flukes as Mandates”; is it possible that the administration outspent the McCain campaign by 10:1 (That’s TEN to ONE), and must have received a 20:1 margin in the MSM, and actually thinks its victory represents anything more than the triumph of PR over the lack of attention paid by the average voter? Apparently that is the case- thus the assumption that the vote represented a mandate for Obama’s choice of change.
No one need to mourn for the “50-70 House members and 8-11 senators who followed the tune of our mellifluous pied piper into the abyss,” and will thereby suffer the end to their political careers. Since when is a political career a worthy goal for anyone? 3 terms and out (2 for senators). Let them get back to public work (as we call it in the South).
I feel for the folks running the businesses. As a recently retired physician, I spent 20 years watching Medicare convince itself that physicians’s only interest is to cheat Medicare if and when possible (while at the same time failing to find numerous fraudulent schemes netting millions of dollars). Thus, if Hillary’s plan had been enacted, the transposition of single digit in a diagnosis code would have subjected the offending physician (not the office clerk who made the error) to fines of up to $15,000. For years I said that as badly as the insurance companies treat their enrollees, at least they couldn’t send physicians to jail if they were unhappy with them. Who knows what can happen now? Who knows what lurks in the pages of Obamacare? Plan to stay healthy!
A columnist in our local paper (heavily Democratic in preference, of course) complained recently about the lack of civility in our political conversation. Aside from the fact that to be uncivil is only to honor our present president’s style, there is an analogy to the observation that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”, i.e. calls for civility in discourse are the last refuge of people who can’t win arguments by any other means than by shutting up the opposition.
Let such incivility be the order of the day!!!
As a Massachusetts resident who blogged and twittered and phonebanked my heart out for Scott Brown’s historic win — and am currently applying my social-networking skills toward helping unseat Barney Frank by supporting citizen legislator Sean Bielat — I was delighted to see that you are supporting your own prospective citizen legislator, Chris Gibson. ‘Have sent him a little something, and may the best men win!
This is the same man who repeatedly said during the ’08 campaign, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for”. I asked myself – and others – just what in the hell that meant? For me it was breathtakingly full of hubris – to the point of being pathological. I knew that what he really meant was “I am the one you’ve been waiting for” and understood that he knew that even he couldn’t get away with so brazen a claim so he dressed it up in the plural to make it more palatable to the fawning crowds of lemmings he was trying to bewitch. Just think about it – this is a man so full of himself, so devoid of any iota of self reflection, so sand poundingly full of self regard that he would dare anoint himself so. And people just lapped it up without so much as a raised eyebrow? Or at least 52% of us did. All I can say is heaven help us. This man is truly dangerous and equally so are the halfwits that put him there.
“Pluralis Majestatis”: The practice of royalty referring to themselves in the plural.
It is all those half-wits that I worry about. Until a good number of them smarten up, the situation won’t get better. We have lived with a collectivist mentality for so long that most half-wits don’t even realize that there was once a better way. We are Borg, eh?
52% mmmmmmm, let analyze the content. The gimmes, both amateur and lifelong; the victim minorities who would vote for a stick albeit the right flavor stick; and the tweenies who think that they can take a train to get to Hawaii if they are able to find it on a map. One other group…angry females like Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg who will always feel disenfranchised for whatever reason.
Despite the continuing excellence of Dr Hanson’s analyses and writings, and the understandable and justifiable enthusiasm prevailing here and elsewhere for the end of the Democrat’s ‘brave new world’ social experiment, we will all find ourselves on November 3rd in a still horrible situation that is guaranteed to get worse.
Here’s why:
1. Even if the Republicans win majorities in both houses, the majorities will not be anywhere close to being numerically dominant. What’s more likely anyway is that they will NOT capture both houses, but only one. Furthermore, the WH will be inimicably, vociferously, stubbornly, energetically and dogmatically hostile to the new Congress and its newfound republican strength. It is a certainty that Government will spend the next two years locked in a death struggle of a level of viciousness this country has never seen. It is also a given that absolutely nothing of consequence will be done regarding repeal or mitigation of Obamacare, the utterly insane deficit, or the stunning level of delusion and fantasy in foreign policy.
2. The Republicans have already made it clear in their vague and unconvincing “Pledge” that they simply don’t have the stomach to truly tackle the deficit or Obamacare, but will use the ‘time-honored’ Washington playbook to negotiate with their colleagues behind the scenes to do things which they believe will be sellable/promotable as impressive achievements in ‘controlling’ the deficit or ‘managing’/'recrafting’ health care legislation, while still preserving outlays and programs for their districts and special interest supporters. The Tea Party infiltrators will not have the numerical strength to successfully oppose this.
I fully expect that 2012 will arrive with the nation in much worse shape on every front, and with real fear and desperation in the public arena, accompanied by an utter collapse in support for either major party.
Unfortunately, you are 100% right my Dear Friend. The weakening and even the destruction of America by her domestic communo-fascists was the clear strategy that was easily discernible form as far as Aussie, even before the DEMON appeared on the political scene.
In that case the so called “will of the American people” doesn’t bear any influence on Obama’s designs.
In, exactly, the same way the will of the Chilean people didn’t bear any influence on Allende and his commie degenerates.
Therefore, the only logical option that remains today to save America is the application of the PINOCHET OPTION.
In a few years the only option that will remain shall be the FRANCO OPTION…
It is much better to be hated, vilified and demonised by the world’s commies and be ALIVE than be DEAD and having your grave pissed on…
I very much fear you are correct.
The major mistake of all ‘useful fools’ is that they believe they will be on top after the collapse of the system they worked so hard to destroy. It has yet to work out that way. The winner always comes at the end of a gun, and these pinheads think guns are yucky.
It is much better to be hated, vilified and demonised by the world’s commies and be ALIVE than be DEAD and having your grave pissed on…
Yes – complete;y agree. “Oderint dum metuant”.
Also, you left out one more option: the Ceaucescu option. Otherwise known as “Romanian term limits.”
Under normal circumstances your pessimism would be well founded. These are not normal times. The Tea Party is just getting started. No-one has yet fully measured it, or sounded its depth and breadth. No one really even knows what it is yet. My sense is that there is a lot of percolation still going on (the pot is not yet fully brewed). Pressure is building but it is contained because the expectation is that steam will soon be released in a productive way. However if it is not, it will find other outlets. Obama has unleashed forces that none of us fully understand yet. These are the kinds of forces that change the course of history. Not some pie in the sky ‘change’ tropes masking a giant cash grab), but the real passions of huge masses of informed, empowered humans who are angry and alert.
I think the Republicans will be surprised too at the kind of pressures they find themselves under. They will not have much time to figure it out either. I hope that their most principled and most adaptive leaders are thinking ahead along multiple different possible paths. We still need epxperienced helmsmen like Cheney too. We know where we want to go, but still have to figure out the best way to get there. I think the next two years should be a combination of sound, sober policy proposals (see Christie in NJ) on the one hand, combined with the calm, careful and relentless exposure of Dem crimes over the last 2 years (are they crimes? perhaps malfeasance is a fairer term).
We don’t really know what is simmering but my guess is we haven’t seen anything like it since the civil war. We need to show, with well documented example after example how the left has preyed on the poor (while pretending to care about them) and perpetuated their poverty in order to harvest their votes for their own personal aggrandizement. We need to show everyone of good will how the Dems have lied elaborately to manipulate their idealism in order to take away their money and their freedom. Republicans need to expose the Big Lie, even if some the fallout singes them too. It will take a lot of courage because the counter-attack while be withering. Bring the pain, for it is a sign of healing. And we need some true incorruptables, because we will need people we can trust… Bolton could do it. Palin, Petraeus maybe, VDH of course… A lot will depend on leadership. If a leader finds the right formula to guide the Tea Party, it will sweep everything in its path. If none comes along, we will have to do it ourselves. We can use the internet, our dollars and our votes to decide which path we want to follow. This is one way in which the internet can strengthen democarcy. Ignore the ads and the scaremongering. This is what got us into this mess. Instead THINK, with both your head and your heart. It is not hard to tell those who love freedom more than they love power. They look like you and me.
We can solve any problem as long as we resolve to do it. The trick is find the right balance between releasing the economic power of the individual while strengthening America’s competitive edge at the corporate level (a combination of stability and principled muscularity) – and opening doors for the poor and dispossessed to carve out their share of the American dream without becoming dependent (or a net drain) on the system. Entitlements will have to be rolled back, some unions will need to be taken down a notch or two. There will be conflict… On the other hand I hear IBM came up with a good plan re healthcare. It was to dramatically improve access and coverage while (if I recall correctly) cutting costs! (Naturally Obama rejected it, something the American people need to hear more about!) This is the kind of ingenuity America excels at, so long as government enables us (basically gets out of our way) rather than tries to engineer us.
Pardon this rambling response but your concerns are important ones, and not easy to respond to. But I don’t think your fatalistic conclusions are warranted. We are creating / witnessing something unusual which our normal metrics don’t fully account for.
And there is much work ahead…
Distrusting Obama has become progressively easier over the last few years, and more so over the last 20 months when the cover of centralism vanished. I thought that the bottom of my opinion of him had been reached until: Earlier this week in the WSJ was an editorial about the O’s collection on his I-Pod. The quotes were from that Rolling Stone interview. It seems that his taste in music is gangsta-rap and hip-hop. Today he did a town hall meeting on MTV. I am sure that he will exceed himself in playing to a more and more limited audience.
As I listened to Obama in one of his speeches, I was reminded of all the
televangelists that have to shout and holler as if they cannot be heard.
And to me it was even a poor imitation of them
.
These Congresspeople were fully aware that if they voted for Obamacare which the majority of the people did not want, they would go down in the November election. If they are surprised they are fools. Since they voted for Obamacare they must be fools. Fools eventually don’t get reelected.
The supreme commander of the fools, Chuck from New York, will be re-elected in another blowout. Your reasoning only applies to locations where most people are still reasonable.
When divine judgment–Nemesis, Karma–meets this man and this presidency, the result will be literally awful : it will leave us full of awe of the numen, the manifestation of the divine. It will be terrible: it will evoke terror at what God does to a man who so lifts himself up in pride.
Re: Stanford and Diversity “Standards”
Maybe a Freedom of Information request will pry some information or lack thereof from the University.
For that matter, would/could FoI pry the names of the editors out of the University?
Another great piece from the Professor. The takeaway bullet points:
Obama liked running for President; turns out the actual presidentin’ is hard, and kind of icky!
A Harvard degree and background as a neighborhood militant qualify one to be… something, but not US President
Those members of the ‘press’ that foisted the fraud Obama on the voting public are every bit as much to blame for the havoc wrought as is Obama himself
America is a great country and has survived some truly awful Presidents- AND WE WILL AGAIN!!
I have to admit, I am surprised at how negative Obama has become. I thought he would be more conciliatory. This is going nowhere fast.
while Obama can take credit for the upturn that will surely follow once business grasps his socialist agenda is stalled.
Private Enterprise Is Run by Humans
This administration is absolutely clueless about the psychological element central to economic recovery. (Yes, yes, I know, some of you think it was a predetermined effort to wreck capitalism. I wrote about that for National Review for tomorrow.
Ok, VDH…you have me anxiously awaiting the cliffhanger juxtaposition…his socialist agenda is stalled, but it was NOT a predetermined effort to wreck capitalism?
Maybe he’s not a crypto-anarchist like Michael Moore, but if I WANTED to wreck capitalism….how would I differ in my tactics and strategies from:
a)sucking the blood out of it like a vampire with tapeworms…bleeding red ink all over the budget to the tune of $119 trillion dollars in mounting debt?
b)giving the word “seizure” multiple meanings when it comes to private banking and quasi-private GSE’s?
c)jamming a health care boondoggle down the throats of a furiously resistant public, who didn’t like it, didn’t want it, didn’t need it and couldn’t pay for it?
d)attacking the very lifeblood of job producers and the overwhelming bulk of taxpayers…as greedy, robber barons, selfish and repugnant Gordon Gekko types.
e)talking immediately about “redistribution” of wealth, property, benefits, Constitutional rights, privileges and protections.
Again, VDH…how would I differ if I wanted to “wreck” capitalism…as opposed to simply “redirecting” it? I know that the hard, unhinged left wanted to do “more”…right away. And they are disappointed that we aren’t already all walking around in grey pajamas…(although at least the Nobel Prizes earned in prison, are for…you know..actually doing something).
But if I wanted to soothe and calm the passengers while I hijacked the economy, what would I do that would look any different than this?
It may be true that it is not the “intent” to “wreck capitalism” that is the motivating force behind what has taken place the last 21 months. But if the intent and the consequences aren’t identical twins, they sure do bear a strange resemblance.
I agree with you in this, and not Dr.Hanson .
I believe this takeover of the USA a long-term contrivance by the International Left. The debt mountain a part of the contrivance. The September 15, 2008 announcement of economic meltdown,after the selection of Sarah Palin was reported to have “panicked” the hierarchy of the Democratic Party and threatened the certainty of Obama to the Presidency just too convenient in the endgame.
My views on WJ Clinton, not only in character but for the safety of the US Republic markedly different from Dr.Hanson’s. In my view the Clintons at the center with the Kennedys for the coup d’etat of the tainted election of Obama.
Legislative,educational and propaganda behaviours in US civic institutions too reminiscent of those of the Nazis and the Bolsheviks in their takeover of their nations, with worldwide destruction and CHANGE.
Of interest to me is those who decry “conspiracy of the left” , e.g. Hillary Clinton in a rage names the opposition “that vast right-wing conspiracy”.
Perhaps this is all just incidental.But the decouement
of the behaviours of “liberals” since the 1960s certainly is eerily dramatic.
(Forgive if this is a double posting, but v. 1 didn’t seem to go through)
The divine judgment against this man and this presidency will be awful and terrible:
It will evoke awe at the numen, the manifestation of divine power, and terror at the destruction that Judgment, or Karma, or Nemesis can produce.
At least one end of the year B- thesis will have those letters for public view.
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Interesting that the Capitalists investments are about to destroy the Socialists demagoguery.
Also of interest…
I estimate that 50-70 House and 8-11 Senate jobs lost will account for another 5,000-6,000 unemployed Democrat sympathizers on the February Washington payrolls.
Welcome to the real world.
“Obama will destroy the careers of 50-70 House members and 8-11 senators who followed the tune of our mellifluous pied piper into the abyss…”
“Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother!”
Obama destroyed the careers of …
Did he ? Are the representatives of the people not considered, at least legally, adult. There are age, in addition ot other requirements for what they’re worth, to apply for, and to get, the job. One supposes that adults are aware that actions have consequences, even in these days of dumbed down public education and brainwashing to train, oops educate, to the highest good of infancy or at best adolescence.
In this “philosophy” then, those congressmen and senators who are up for grabs have in fact made their own beds by their own decisions to follow the leader of their “party” rather than hold to their freely taken oath (pledge?)to Uphold and Defend the Constitution of the USA, “above and beyond the call of duty” to any political party : MEANING OF COURSE to uphold and defend THE RIGHTS OF THE AMERICAN CITIZENS.
So many lawyers who do not evidently believe an oath binds them to their “promise”.
Now let’s see how many of their constituents agree that an oath is of no value and can be ignored when the “coachman” cracks the whip
And keep in mind the President swings a big bat. Without a budget (vetoed), without appropriations (vetoed), the President has significant power to decide what parts of the government to shut down, and what to keep.
There will be a difference between what a responsible man would do and what Obama would do.
Just sayin’…
Dr. Hanson, it is extremely unlikely there will be any recovery. Think about it.
In order for business to invest in job creation, almost all of it in the service sector (less than 10% of jobs are manufacturing based), they must see strong demand, that they can no longer meet with even marginal increases in existing worker hours. Indeed, worker hours have been declining. That in turn requires, Catch-22, in wages and job security increasing along with employment to stimulate domestic demand. Obama, Geithner, Bernanke, have all tried pushing on a string with near zero interest rates ala Japan’s two lost decades, and nothing has worked.
Fundamentally, the US lacks increasing productivity. We can’t just throw capital at the country, like the Chinese are doing (roads, electricity, indoor plumbing, railways, where there was nothing). We lack tranformational technologies like the steam engine, telephone, radio, television, automobile, or personal computer. Energy is not getting any cheaper either, so we won’t get a Reagan like boost in income from falling oil and gas prices (China’s demand will keep a floor of about $75 a barrel for oil). Or Reagan’s military build up that created a goodly portion of the nearly 5 million jobs in 1984 and won him re-election.
Goldman-Sachs predicts the same as now, or far worse (double dip) with catastrophic results (un-funded pension plans in the cities and counties of about $1 trillion, and another trillion for that of the states). Goldman-Sachs is well aware of a likely Republican House. That’s baked into their estimates of bad to very, very worse.
All of that bad stuff goes away, if we jump-start employment and consumption via a WWII style military build up (and conscription to reduce the labor market), but that is very, very unlikely.
The strongest bet is continued stagnation in employment (actually losing ground to population growth) until an inflection point in inflation by QE is reached. Then rapidly increasing inflation and economic crisis. Intersecting of course with crises around the globe.
Keynesian pump-priming DOES work, but only if done by massive military build-ups (because it is the only thing big enough to actually pump-prime, due to the huge labor and material needs of a big navy, air force, and army). Or perhaps, manned Moon mission, on a crash basis. But that is the “icky” intersection of science, technology, and the military that Dems and Obama abhor.
Things are likely to get so bad, economically, under Obama, the only question is if he will be the first President to be convicted as well as impeached. I don’t think Americans will be willing to live in Obama-villes for two years until a new President is elected.
But … but … but … what about infrastructure in our beloved USA? Take a look at this:
http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/
2.2 trillion dollars needed over 5 years to upgrade everything from aviation to bridges to wastewater to zoos. Also, we could privatize the national debt, as a recent article at PJM featured. Quite a lot of government-owned land has large coal deposits; developing these would make electricity cheaper. Once we started privatizing the debt, T-bills would mean something again.
Ideas, no shortage. Political will, here’s the problem.
Whiskey,
I agree with you in part, but also feel you underestimate what Americans can do when their backs are against the wall. There may indeed be transformational technologies out there. Recall the Manhattan Project. In just 4 years we went from a limited knowledge in nuclear physics to a working atomic bomb.
Actually, Keneysian pump priming doesn’t work. True, WWII provided many jobs, but such a tactic isn’t sustainable. During the war, we accumulated debt while sending much of that manufactured wealth (in the form of ships, airplanes, etc) to destruction. After the war, surplus hardware representing a massive investment in time and materials was reduced to scrap value.
The real recovery came later, when we rebuilt the parts of the world that were in ruins. Only then did true wealth creation begin, as our exports aided the recipients in increasing their own personal wealth, rather than destroying what they had.
A peaceful government consumption of GNP, such as a moon mission, has little more to offer the economy than war. Without promise of economic return on the investment, it results in a lot of money being shot out into space, with little in return. This is not to disparage the achievement of the moon missions as an example of a great accomplishment and heroism. However, such ventures are usually not a viable economic strategy.
It is often repeated that the government spending of WWII, rationing, and the conscription of soldiers (giving everyone a “job”) somehow produced prosperity. But, what possible mechanism produces prosperity out of war? People can’t eat or enjoy tanks, and shooting people produces nothing of value beyond winning.
It would be correct to say that WWII interrupted FDR’s plans and changed the mood of the American people to reject big government. It was the post-war reaction of the people against FDR’s policies that resulted in good policies and renewed prosperity.
→ FDR’s Policies Prolonged the Depression (and Obama’s policies will too.)
UCLA economists Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian concluded that New Deal policies prevented economic recovery for seven years. “The Depression dragged on for years, convincing generations of economists and policy-makers that capitalism could not be trusted to recover from depressions. They decided that government intervention was required. Ironically, we show that the recovery would have been very rapid had the government not intervened.”
→ Government Spending Divides, It Does Not Multiply
Robert J. Barro is a Professor of Economics at Harvard. He found that spending in World War II decreased GDP by 20% (a multiplier of 0.8). Government spending killed GDP, even assuming that the spending itself was useful.
Quip: If you think WW2 ended the Great Depression in the U.S., then we can carry out the same enlightened policies without needing a war. Conscript most of the able bodied men and have them build tanks. Then destroy the tanks. Impose rationing for good measure. At the end, everyone is supposed to be rich.
Actually, this isn’t so funny. Keynesian economics recommends to do just that. Borrow and spend, even if you pay only for digging holes and filling them back up. And, Obama and many in congress are Keynesian in their thinking, because they like the recommendation that the government should tax a lot of money and spend it on signs saying “Brought to You by Caring Democrats”.
→ Spending did not end the Great Depression
Reduced spending and lowered tax rates did it.
=============
[edited] What happened in 1945 at the end of WWII? FDR was convinced the only way to employ the 12 million returning soldiers was another New Deal program, but he died before he could impose his plan. The new President Truman proposed it, along with national healthcare.
Both the Congress and Senate had Democratic majorities. They said “No” to the whole New Deal revival: no federal program for health care, no full-employment act, only limited federal housing, and no increase in minimum wage or Social Security benefits.
Instead, Congress reduced taxes across the board. Top marginal corporate tax rates effectively went from 90% to 38% after 1945.
By the late 1940s, a revived economy was generating more annual federal revenue than the U.S. had received during the higher tax rates of the war years. Price controls ended by the end of 1946. The U.S. began running budget surpluses.
Unemployment had remained double-digit throughout the whole New Deal. One year after the end of New Deal policies and the return of economic freedom, it was under 4% despite the return of a huge number of soldiers.
=============
STANFORD DAILY IN DECLINE
The letters to the Daily are largely a triumph of civil criticism of the Daily’s petulant reaction against Hanson’s opinions on racial selection in the student body.
The Editors have not uttered a peep since their flame-job. Dr. Hanson, and many of the letter-writers, have invited those Editors to engage in a University-level defense of their position. To date, silence.
It is as if they flashed their gang colors at this uncouth Hoover fellow, expecting a return in kind, and are now baffled for further clues how to proceed. Hey, you learned Professors at Stanford, now’s your opportunity for a teaching moment. Help these editors begin their reluctant path to an education.
We are witnessing a political maelstrom, but we are unacquainted with understanding such an historical event as it occurs. Most of us are more accustomed to analyzing the full record of events, and of their effects, after a time when the fog of confusion has dissipated.
Now is the time to think and act like a combat commander, making decisions without certainty of outcome. Chris Gibson, and others (COL West(R), 22-district FL), are those whom we have to support; then it will be at the next generation’s leisure to recognize we made the right choice.
Who could have predicted the decades of prosperity subsequent to having walked into a voting booth to cast a ballot for Reagan rather than Carter?
Though we are not now voting for one man, not for the Chief Executive and CinC, we are voting for a way of life in each congressional district.
The time will come to make our historic first Islamic apostate president a one-term anomaly. We have started the fight to overcome “compassionate ‘conservatist’ ” government expansion and careerist republican party go-along-to-get-along Washingtonitis, in order to restore our Founding Fathers’ vision of the transcendent value of freedom.
VDH has eloquently described the many obstacles fettering our freedom; this election is a battle in a long war underway.
You write of wistfully of 80 or so destroyed political careers. Isnt’s it wonderful that voters are preventing these craven politicians, who voted against the will of their constituents and arguably failed to defend the Constitution, are being stopped before they cause more damage? We need at leat 80 more legistlators (take my Congresswoman please – it’s Nancy Pelosi) and a several thousand White House staffers and executive branch bureaucrats to follow 2 years later.
“…and the message is clear the American private sector is suspect.”
I have heard that there has been public interest in the Presidential underwear. Boxers or briefs? Obviously he favours anti-business, anti-free market, anti-entrepreneurial jockey shorts (a nut-cruncher garment that restricts blood flow to the brain). He needs to stamp the following words upon said garment:
“There are almost no political solutions to economic problems but
every economic problem may be made into a disaster by attempting a political solution.”
All government can do is establish and referee a stable, transparent and widely accepted set of rules within which a respected private sector operates. Nothing more, nothing less. President Obama – please change your underwear.
You’re assuming he has a brain and isn’t a hand-puppet being manipulated by rich foreigners, a Manchurian President. Or isn’t an Affirmative Action President, with absolutely no qualifications (including a brain), chosen to meet a racial quota.
Opening lines from this morning’s first 3 essays in the Stanford Daily Opinion section:
“Many people believe that generally, unattractive people are very interesting, because they have to be to compete socially and sexually.”
“When it comes to believing, there are two dangerous pitfalls. Dogmatism is the traditional one…”
“We knew it wasn’t good for us, but for many years we couldn’t stop. In fact, our entire existence to the outside world has depended on this legally dangerous product known as “having fun.”
The next essay is from a ’65 grad who denounces the SD article’s slander of VDH in a short paragraph, then defends Stanford U itself as the free-thinking wonderment of the Western world. A few other graduates of Stanford have written OP/Ed comments in the SD with basically the same take.
So, continuing in a sophomoric vein, what’s “interesting” and “fun” to note here is that current Stanford students are preoccupied with more intellectual concerns than are their graduates. Perhaps, also, they worry about falling into the “dangerous pitfall” of “Dogmatism” should they venture an opinion, or that they would be unable to “compete socially and sexually” on campus if their views were to differ. Their “entire existence to the outside world” has been put on display, yet down on the Farm they would just rather be engaged in “having fun.” Or writing about it, ‘cuz that’s “fun” too.
I mean, you gotta’ laugh. They are clueless.
>> The result is that in a few weeks Obama will destroy the careers of 50-70 House members and 8-11 senators.. <<
Personally I consider at least this much of his presidency a feature, not a bug.
Why is it, whenever I say ‘oh, god’ these days, that I get two voices in response? One sounds deep and heavenly, and the other sounds shallow, and childish; Almost as if he were reading from a tele-prompter?
Y’all just don’t understand; Obama inherited this failed presidency!
Thank you for the heads up about Chris Gibson. Hope he gets lots of contributions like mine as a result of this post.
“…[Obama's] post-office future…”
I had to laugh. In any reality-based world, this guy’s picture would be on the post office wall, not hanging in the White House.
This is the best blog.
There are ‘truthers’…I’m definately not one of them.
There are ‘birthers’…I’m more than a little curious about the circumstances of the President’s birth. (bir-curious)
But I’m definately a Clover/Piver. I believe that Obama meant to destroy the system.
Obama has a great smile. He’s a sharp dresser and speaks well. He’s engaging and will look you in the eye. I like that type of person.
I just don’t like him.
I’m betting that Obama is trying to crash the ecomomy to the point where he has a clear majority of leaches who will keep the Dems in power.
“…in a few weeks Obama will destroy the careers of 50-70 House members and 8-11 senators…”
No, much as I despise the man, I can’t attribute this to Obama. These twerps earned this distinction all by themselves.
Dr. Hanson,
Regarding the Stanford Daily… I have just emerged from the college application process with my son. Previously, we both naively thought that academic merit would be the ONLY thing that mattered to an academic institution. A year ago we might have questioned your assertions, too. What we have since learned blind-sided us, was shocking, and confirms all that you, and authors like Dr. Thomas Sowell, have warned us about. I have mentioned a couple examples already in this blog, from a variety of so-called elite schools. Here is a third. In the Swarthmore College brochure they list a series of statistics highlighting their intellectual accomplishments. For example, “percentage of graduates who go on to earn a PhD.” Right in the middle of these is this incongruous beauty: “38%–number of undergraduates who describe themselves as persons of color.” Although of German, Scottish, French, and English heritage, as I look down at the back of my hand on the keypad I clearly see the color brown, even medium brown–not white, not some form of translucency. As unsuccessful applicants, perhaps we emphasized the wrong things.
As I watch the President and his fellow Democrats speechify, debate, and campaign in this election season, I keep having one particular image in my head: that this is the “Spinal Tap’s last tour” version of the American left, which will end with a lot of smoke and lights and tiny little stonehenges, followed by infighting and recriminations, and finally some sunset years of pretentious memoirs and excuses. And maybe some drugs and alcohol, and then rehab……
…. in a few weeks Obama will have destroyed the careers of 50-70 House members and 8-11 senators ….
And some would say, ‘There is no God?’
…. Obama turned a recession into a near depression ….
Not, in fairness, a ‘resession’ but rather a monetary crisis, caused by a small group of recidivist, treasonous and abjectly corrupt bought and paid-for politicians, of whom one Sayiid Buraq Hussayn bin Buraq Hussayn bin Hussayn Obama, who had then attended the United States Senate on only 140 occasions, was, measured by the amount kicked-back, the second (to Christopher ‘C-is-for-Country-Wide’ Dodd) most corrupt.
…. Millions of criminal aliens and/or felons and/or the mindlessly mean-spirited and/or mindlessly greedy and/or the crypto-fascistic and other academics feel embarrassed that they voted for a Euro-peon-ized modified Marxist — and won’t ratify his agenda in November ….
And some would, again, say ‘There is no God?’
Terrific as usual, Mr. Hanson, and your 3 reasons for the coming liberal nightmare are certainly high on the list…but there is an even more important reason.
We hate liars.
And there has never been a liar like this one. It’s far beyond the Big Lie. This is the process:
1. Seek out those things that have the potential to be the most destructive to a nation and society in general.
2. Grind on those weak points like steel on steel. Gig em. Inflame em. Exacerbate them. Exaggerate them. Rub salt in the wounds.
3. Watch the anger and frustration rise to a fever pitch.
4. Blame the fury on your opponent.
5. Claim that only you can stop the horror.
There has never been anything like it.
That’s a pretty good description of a Community Organizer.
Hey, Vic ‘dude’ Hansen, welcome to the OBAMA-NATION(tm)!
You always get bad mojo when political officer types er I mean ‘community organizer’ who vote present get to run the land.
Smooth talking amateurs who can “Pile it higher and deeper” while extolling the virtues of ‘government action’.
The OBAMA-NATION’s(tm) tenure could not end fast enough…before the crew turn it into the “WEIMAR STATES OF AMERICA”
or “WSA” which isn’t too far from the “USA”.
Or is that harking back to “Dubya States of America”?
But be of good cheer, Halloween will almost be over and November 2 approaches…
and then there is Blessed Christmas!!
Cheers
Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
Frankenstein Battalion
2nd Squadron: Ulanen-(Lancers) Regiment Großherzog Friedrich von Baden(Rheinisches) Nr.7(Saarbrucken)
Knecht Rupprecht Division
Hans Corps
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
“We lack tranformational technologies … Energy is not getting any cheaper”
Actually, we have a new ‘tranformational technology’ that will dramatically lower the price of natural gas: fracking enabled by slant-drilling, but this is being held up by enviros in and out of governmnet.
Liberty really is the answer. ‘Tranformational technologies’ will follow, and if you build it, they (customers) will come. Demand is created by advances in technology.
“I don’t recall George W. Bush going after Keith Olbermann, Bob Shrum, MoveOn.org, or the AFL-CIO.”
Please. Dr. H., I’m sure you have heard of the balance fallacy. In case you’ve forgotten, I’ll remind you. Just because you have two sides in an argument does not mean that both sides are equally valid, or that both sides should be equally considered. And it follows that to assume the same, you run the risk of looking foolish.
Fox News is the political arm of the Republican Party and the Tea Party candidates. Fox News does NOTHING but promote the POLITICAL posturing of the right wing and this is all done for profit.
The Liberal press does lean to the left – but Fox pushes its agenda to a degree of magnitude more; Fox does it for monetary gain in a way that can only be described as bizarre and barely legal.
The time is going to come very soon that you and your ilk will have to put up with a very different form of Liberalism. You think we are pushy now? Just wait. The house of cards built by big business, Wall Street, foreign corporations, foreign national interests and plain ‘ole stinking rich people in the United States is crumbling. The middle class is falling and failing. The Republicans have nothing. No answers. No action. No ideas beyond protecting the very wealthy. Average Americans are not buying this tripe wholesale anymore. Upward mobility based on trickle-down is a myth. The Man Behind the Curtain is pulling the levers but the smoke and sound effects ring hollow.
Rich people don’t invest in American jobs (even under “favorable regulatory conditions”) – they actually do quite the opposite, as has been demonstrably shown – they invest overseas.
Empty promises of opportunity and the casting about of random words like Liberty, Freedom and Capitalism won’t fly. Even the old siren call to social conservatism and imaginary friends in the sky will wear thin. Keep up your sarcastic ranting but understand that the demographics are running against you. It’s only a matter of time.
“You think we are pushy now? Just wait.”
they tell you who they are
Yeah, sort of a penultimate “Us” vs. “Them” rant, huh?
I’m getting a distinct whiff of young’un’s out to take away the oldesters’ perceived riches. A generational Robin Hood take from the rich and give to themselves — this generation’s version of “Never trust anyone over 30.”
But they seem to forget that the Boomers started that concept, *and* made up all the rules to the game starting then and continuing to today. And we’re sort of used to marching en-masse since the 1960′s, while the current crop consists of Gen X *and* Gen Y *and* Gen Z *and* welfare mothers in Detroit *and* illegal Mexicans. Not a lot of cohesiveness there.
The 21st Century version of Old & Sneaky (and strong), vs. Young and Strong (and dumb).
“You think we are pushy now? Just wait.”
Oh I can’t wait. I’m chomping at the bit for liberals to get real pushy. Please. We dare you.
Nate,
While there are SOME progressives that really are action and not just talk; the vast majority are some of the laziest, weakest and most punitive bullies around. Unfortunately, for us all, there is only one way to deal with a bully (which I learned many years ago) and here’s a hint; it’s not by talking. Bullies will smile, lie and deny when confronted and, then, later when they get you alone… We, the bullied, found that strength in numbers will do the job just fine. Should the bully think that they can pick us off one by one; they find that we ALL will come back and let them have a dose of their own medicine, since it didn’t work the first time. True story. Well, Nate, consider this (an et al)your first time.
“I don’t recall George W. Bush going after Keith Olbermann, Bob Shrum, MoveOn.org, or the AFL-CIO.”
Please. Dr. H., I’m sure you have heard of the balance fallacy. In case you’ve forgotten, I’ll remind you. Just because you have two sides in an argument does not mean that both sides are equally valid, or that both sides should be equally considered. And it follows that to assume the same, you run the risk of looking foolish.
[YOU DIDN'T ATTEMPT TO REFUTE DR HANSON'S ASSERTION SO I ASSUME YOU ACCEPT THE TRUTH OF IT. APPARENTLY YOUR "BALANCE FALLACY" STATEMENT CAN ONLY BE INTERPRETED AS SIMPLY, "YES, WE ENGAGE IN THAT KIND OF BEHAVIOR, BUT BECAUSE OUR SIDE'S RATIONALE AND MOTIVES ARE CORRECT WE CANNOT BE JUDGED THE SAME AS YOU."
Fox News is the political arm of the Republican Party and the Tea Party candidates. Fox News does NOTHING but promote the POLITICAL posturing of the right wing and this is all done for profit.
[THEN WOULDN'T FOX NEWS ACTUALLY BE THE MEDIA ARM OF THE RIGHT WING?]
The Liberal press does lean to the left – but Fox pushes its agenda to a degree of magnitude more; Fox does it for monetary gain in a way that can only be described as bizarre and barely legal.
[I SEE, SO BECAUSE THE LIBERAL (MEANING ALL NEWS OUTLETS OTHER THAN FOX)LEAN LEFT AND DO EVERYTHING THEY CAN TO TILT THE POLITICAL PLAYING FIELD TO LEFTIST DOGMA IS OK BECAUSE THEY DO IT FOR FREE? BOY, THAT MAKES THEM SOUND EVEN DUMBER THAN THEIR IDEAS. LOVE YOUR LINE ABOUT FOX BEING "BARELY LEGAL." IT'S ALWAYS NICE TO INJECT THAT OLD STREAK OF LEFTY TOTALITARIANISM INTO AN ARGUMENT. NOTHING SAYS "MODERN LIBERAL" BETTER THAN THAT KNEE JERK TENDENCY TO WANT TO SUPPRESS IDEAS AND SPEECH YOU FIND DISAGREEABLE]
The time is going to come very soon that you and your ilk will have to put up with a very different form of Liberalism.
[I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO SEE THAT! WOULD LOVE TO SEE A NEW FORM OF LIBERALISM THAT EXTOLS THE VIRTUE OF PROTECTING INDIVIDUAL AND PROPERTY RIGHTS, FREEDOM OF SPEECH, ECONOMIC FREEDOM, SELF-DETERMINATION, DECENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT AND A COMMITMENT TO REDUCE THE SIZE, SCOPE AND POWER OF GOVERNMENT OVER THE INDIVIDUAL. THAT'S A LIBERAL TICKET I COULD GET BEHIND.]
Rich people don’t invest in American jobs (even under “favorable regulatory conditions”) – they actually do quite the opposite, as has been demonstrably shown – they invest overseas.
[HUH? IF THAT'S TRUE THEN WHERE DID THE ALL THOSE U.S.-BASED COMPANIES COME FROM? I WAS JUST DOWN AT THE LOCAL SAFEWAY STORE THIS MORNING AND I SWEAR I SAW PEOPLE WORKING THERE. SERIOUSLY THOUGH, NO COMPANY "INVESTS" IN AMERICAN JOBS, OR CHINESE JOBS, OR MEXICAN JOBS. THEY INVEST IN ACTIVITIES THAT PRODUCE A MONETARY RETURN ON INVESTMENT OF CAPITAL. THIS IS WHAT ALL BUSINESSES DO. BUT SINCE YOU MUST BE A MODERN LIBERAL THIS BASIC FACT OF LIFE HAS ELUDED YOU AND YOUR LIKE MINDED BRETHREN CURRENTLY RUNNING THE GOVERNMENT. HENCE, THE ACCELERATED DEPARTURE OF INVESTMENT IN THE U.S.]
Empty promises of opportunity and the casting about of random words like Liberty, Freedom and Capitalism won’t fly. Even the old siren call to social conservatism and imaginary friends in the sky will wear thin. Keep up your sarcastic ranting but understand that the demographics are running against you. It’s only a matter of time.
[WELL, I BELIEVE YOU PROVIDED A PERFECT SUMMATION OF WHAT CONSTITUTES THE GULF BETWEEN MODERN LIBERAL THINKING AND EVERYONE ELSE: TO YOU "LIBERTY, FREEDOM AND CAPITALISM" ARE RANDOM WORDS - NOT IDEALS WORTH PROTECTING. NOT SURE I FOLLOW THE MEANING OF THE COMMENT ABOUT "IMAGINARY FRIENDS IN THE SKY" BUT EVEN SO, IS THAT ANY MORE ABSURD THAN PUTTING ONE'S FAITH IN IMAGINARY FRIENDS IN WASHINGTON DC?]
Did you remember the lefty talking points from 2000-2008, or did you have to use the Wayback Machine?
The anatomy of flatulence.
PJM is a jilted lover.
Mr. Hanson saved his best for NRO. Got there and read his article on “How to Turn a Recession into a Depression”….the article he references in today’s missive.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/249783/how-turn-recession-depression-victor-davis-hanson
That one even a regular critic (but an admiring one) can find no fault with.
VDH:
“(I don’t recall George W. Bush going after Keith Olbermann, Bob Shrum, MoveOn.org, or the AFL-CIO).”
As you know well, Obama’s attacks have demeaned the Presidency. Why is a supposedly intelligent individual, with great communication skills, having to stoop when he picks a fight? And why the change in political style from one cycle to the next?
Obama’s politics have become a shotgun approach. At first glance, the reason for this shotgun approach could be explained by Obama’s concern about a Republican majority. However, even if Obama was not content with the public’s perception of the legislative accomplishments of the democratic congress, there would be no need for petty politics because he accomplished what he wanted. Instead, there is an air of desperation to Obama’s politics. But Obama tries to hide the desperation in a clearly self-defeating way; Obama says that he did not run to be popular.
What is the real reason for the desperation and urgency that Obama now shows? The explanation is more than likely a selfish one. Obama’s current behavior is consistent with the self-serving political tactics that Obama has employed throughout his life when Obama was in trouble. When there was a legal way to win in Illinois politics, he selfishly took advantage of it. I think Obama is now repeating the selfish behavior because he is concerned about the personal consequences that might entail if Republicans take control of congress.
Obama has shown his cabinet and executive officials that he is much more concerned about the ends than the means. He does this through incendiary, irreverent rhetoric, that is often divorced from the truth. This type of leadership tends to foster corrupt behavior, because cabinet officials can be urged to the level of indignity, and feel justified in exchanging the law for their superior will and justice. Press Secretary Gibbs may be one example of an individual who Obama has influenced to the extent of being untruthful. There are potentially many others as well, from Labor secretary, to DOE, EPA, etc…
If Obama did not execute his office consistent with the law, Obama may have a lot more at stake than just the loss of the Democratic majority. If a Republican majority exercises their constitutional right to executive oversight, Obama might not have the facts on his side.
Hence, Obama may have concluded that his own freedom is at stake with the upcoming elections. This would explain the source of Obama’s desperation; there is now a tangible risk to himself, where before, the risk was only to congress. The change in political tactics is about survival, and those are the same political instincts that Nixon once employed when he was cornered. If this is true, the real explanation for Obama’s politics is fear, not petulance.
Nate is an idiot without a single original thought in his head, “as has been demonstrably shown.” Fox News does lean to the right, but MSNBC pushes the liberal agenda to a degree of magnitude more. It is the political arm of the Democrat Party and MoveOn.org, with George Soros playing the role of the Man behind the Curtain. Of course, their empty promises of equality and their casting about of random words like Racism, Community and Hopey Change haven’t flown. The Democrats have created a fiscal nightmare, and they have no ideas, no answers, and no solutions. The house of cards built by Big Unions, European Socialists, foreign interests (see Soros, Abbas, Chavez, and Calderon, for example) overeducated academics, and community organizers with no real-world experience is collapsing about their heads. Nate, you think we’re driving now? Just wait until 2012, when you and all your free-loading friends will be driven out into the marketplace to seek real work. Now that’ll be a new experience for you!
Well done Old Bull. Nate is rather full of himself and thinks he has something to contribute. He is a clueless moron without an original thought or functioning gray matter. He seems to believe that demographics are on his side. Perhaps, but the polls still indicate that 40% of the country self identifies as conservative and 20% as liberals. An even smaller number than that are full on Marxists such as our president. Nate is a small minority and getting smaller by the day.
You could almost feel sorry for the moron. Nah.
Fine analysis Dr VDH:
Day by day Obama has made himself a smaller less impressive little black man. Such a pathetic let down for the first american black president. After 2012 we can all expect that he will spend the rest of his life trying to get even – perhaps as president on the UN. What other stage could possibly hold his ego. Chance the gardner lives.
“Hypocrisy is a force multiplier to paranoia.”
Simply Brilliant.
VDH writes:
“The Tyrrhenian Sea tour for some reason sold out (65 with staff) this year quite early. Perhaps it was the itinerary of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Italian Coast, or this year’s focus on military history lectures on everything from Napoleon to Invasions of Sicily from the Athenians’ to George Patton’s.”
..Dr Hanson, you must be joking, right? I mean you cannot be serious. I’ll wager that you could offer a two week trip to those twin mid-Californian empires of Milpitas and Alviso with their attendant cultural splendor and have the sojourn sold out before the ink on the handbill was dry..
..so enticing would be the opportunity to spend time basking in your humble intellect.
Come to think of it, my IRA balance is up a bit and I am over 59 and 1/2..
..oh, by the way, good writing per usual, Doc. A keeper.
Natey Boy, you are a puke. We would throw you a life preserver but silly a$$ twittys replicate like snow flakes. Don’t hold your breath as you go down; it will be over quicker if you don’t.
“The result is that in a few weeks Obama will destroy the careers of 50-70 House members and 8-11 senators who followed the tune of our mellifluous pied piper into the abyss.”
Too bad Congress….we never envisioned “career” politicians. It’s time for term limits. We’ve had our fill of Kennedy’s,Reids, Pelosi’s, Byrds, Spectors, Barney Franks, Dodds, Feingolds, Boxers, Browns, and yes…Bush’s too. The folks will strike back. The career pols need to know what life outside the beltway is really like. Oh…and no lifetime pensions, perks, transportation, medical care. They have to live like we do…Period.
More evidence of his inexperience. Saul Alinsky doesn’t work on a national scale, especially since the media don’t have the kind of power they once did. In the next two years, if the Republicans play their cards right, he’ll veto a whole lot of popular measures and end up looking like the obstructionist he’s been falsely charging the toothless Republicans of being.
Today I heard a clip in which Obama claimed that he had to push through his agenda because it was such an “emergency” he didn’t have time to let the people consider and debate his budget busting measures. What he didn’t add was, “And you never let a good crisis go to waste.”