The Politics of Liberals Bashing Obama
Here is what I wrote that provoked the outcry. It seems both tame and substantiated by events that have transpired since.
Paralytic Western Society
August 9, 2011 1:03 P.M.
By Victor Davis Hanson
It is fascinating to see how postmodern Western societies react to wide-scale rioting, looting, and thuggery aimed at innocents. In Britain, politicians contemplate the use of water cannons as if they were nuclear weapons; and here the mayor of Philadelphia calls on rappers to appeal to youth to help ease the flash-mobbing that has a clear racial component to it (is the attorney general’s Civil Rights Division investigating?). His appeal is perhaps understandable, but many of the themes of rap music — violence against the police, racial chauvinism, and nihilism—may well be some of the cultural catalysts behind the flash violence, though to suggest as much would be seen as more racist than the racist profiling used by the flash beaters. All these incidents are symptomatic of a general breakdown and loss of confidence in Western society. Such urban violence was of course a constant in 19th- and 20th-century Europe and America, but now it is deeply embedded within modern sociology and no longer seen quite as criminality.
We seem able to admit that massive federal and state entitlements have created a sense of dependency, a loss of self-respect and initiative, and a breakdown of the family, yet we still seem to fear that trimming the subsidies would lead to some sort of cold-turkey hyper-reaction. We assume that society is to blame for disaffected youth and therefore are hesitant to use commensurate force to quell the violence or even to make it clear that perpetrators are responsible for their own conduct. Yet at some point — when the violence reaches middle-class communities or, in serial fashion, downtown or suburban stores — we likewise assume that sufficient force will be used. Sociological exegesis will go out the window. Reality has a way of dispelling such cognitive luxuries.
On the national level, this sad paralysis, this Hamlet disease, is reflected in calls for more spending and stimulus even as we concede that we have no plan or ability to pay back the massive and unsustainable debt we’ve already run up. The president’s Keynesian technocrats, to whom he outsourced economic policy, have all quit or been fired, or are contemplating leaving soon. He is left fearing that the usual progressive stimulants — near-zero interest, massive federal borrowing, increases in unemployment insurance and food stamps, public works projects, middle-class tax holidays — have not worked, and yet he cannot imagine assuming responsibility, taking the heat, and trying something different. We can’t decide whether the Libyan rebels are noble reformers or — as we learn more and more that Gaddafi’s mercenary forces are as tough as many warned — incompetent and worse, so we sorta bomb, sorta not, sorta follow the French, sorta not. In other words, lancing these boils is seen as worse that letting the boils grow, so on matters of debt and foreign policy, for now we do nothing, though we know that at some point nature will take its course in the form of financial insolvency and humiliating defeat. Then our post facto recriminations will be even more acrimonious than our present loud inaction. We are left with the Roman maxim of the remedies seen as worse than the disease.
Dear Professor Hanson,
With the implosion we are now witnessing, liberals have a choice: they can either accept blame for their own failed politics and economics, or they can blame Obama. They will blame Obama because to own up to their own role in this fiasco means to acknowledge the myriad failings of their shared world view. The blaming of Obama is already well underway and it will accelerate. As the election draws near, the criticisms will get louder and uglier as the Democratic Party and liberals, in general, try to preserve what they can of their power and prestige.
The real ugliness, however, will not come until Black Americans realize that Barack Obama has become a sacrificial lamb.
Yours truly,
ThOR
Indeed, America needs prepare for vile paroxysms of black predominant “bad behavior” following the near certain political defeat of Obama. Sadly this inevitable tribal response to the rebuke of Obama by a majority, will overshadow(for a time)an otherwise jubilant country.
Liberals would never accept blame for their failed policies. In their twisted mind their policies are noble, workable and perfect, only if there is a leader who will implement it correctly. They have been trying to find such a leader at least since the French revolution. So far they haven’t, and they never will. As for Hillary, she is waiting in the wings. I said it before I’ll say it again no one should be surprise if she is drafted by the same people who sanctified BHO in 2008. Specially if Hussein Obama’s prospects of losing the presidency becomes crystal clear.
I doubt that more than a handful of liberals will jump on the “Obama screwed-up our liberalism” bandwagon. The mainstream media remains solidly behind Obama because it still believes that it gave him the presidency, that Obama is its man. (Beliefs held despite the fact that Obama used the media to win election and has routinely snubbed the media since taking office.) The influence of our left-wing media vastly exceeds that of the liberal “elite.” Therefore, I expect that Obama’s approval ratings will not fall below 40%**, and that he will be re-elected.
**The bulk of the ObamaCare changes do not kick in until January 2014. The November 2014 congressional elections probably will be devastating for the Democrats.
The finger of blame has turned to point at him and Democrats will pile on. Rather than a sacrificial lamb, a better biblical image is the scapegoat: “A goat upon whose head are symbolically placed the sins of the people after which he is sent into the wilderness”
Insightful.
Good analysis. Leftists are turning on Obama not because he was not leftist enough, since he did everything he could to advance their leftist agenda. They are turning on him because he failed, and they must pin the failure of their leftist policies on Obama the man, rather than admitting the failure of their leftist policies. Clinton succeeded because, after losing congress in 1994, he compromised with repubs constantly, but since he succeeded, he is now the true leftist.
The revisionist history, casting Obama as a compromiser, and Clinton as a real fighter is particularly crazy. Clinton succeeded because he was willng to compromise, by giving up on health care, saying the era of big gov was over, supporting free trade, agreeing to some repub proposed spending cuts, doing some selective deregulation, having some people at treasury that were really respected by the business community, agreeing to repub proposed welfate reform, and taking on Dick Morriss, the great triangulator, to propose small scale initiatives that answered some repub concerns. After 2010 Obama did nothing but whine about how disfunctional everything was.
Even more ironically, on military and foreign policy, the one area where Obama did compromise some with conservative and repub concerns, and continued many Bush policies hated by the left, was also the single area where he had some limited success, by not losing in Iraq and Afganistan, and getting Bin Laden.
This just proves that a god should never disappoint his followers. However I can’t really take leftist criticism of Obama too seriously. For one thing this is what the Left does….They complain. Taking shots at Obama helps them to convince themselves that they are still the red-hot reformers they always claim to be and that they aren’t resting on their oars just because their guy is President.
For another – Where will they go? Obama is the incumbent, he has tons of campaign cash and there is no plausible alternative. Who can the liberals get who is more liberal than Obama? (Gus Hall being dead and all.) If the Left can’t make it with him then the game is pretty much up. The Dems have a sense of party discipline that would make Erich Honecker blush and an almost feral love of power. As soon as the GOP begins to solidify behind one candidate then all will be well. With a real Republican challenger to demonize the Dems will happily embrace Obama with fresh devotion.
I agree with your point that the left have nowhere else to go in the end and therefore must return to supporting Obama. And VDH is correct that the left is trying to create separation between the ideology and the failure that is Obama but they have nothing to gain from actually undercutting him. The harm they do will not be in diminishing his support from the left but undercutting his support among independents. Those who would offhandedly dismiss the Conservatives opposition as racism or wingnutery will suspect there must be some truth when both sides articulate Obama’s shortcomings. Once he loses those who consider themselves centrists or moderates getting them back will be extremely difficult.
Which certainly is a very significant first step to solving the current problem.
That said, who really can provide the solution which is structural? Is the GOP or Tea Party approach a winner (see Schwarzanegger’s California or the past administrations spending under ‘W’ or the previously GOP congress earlier this decade and the numerous indiscretions).
“American politics have become so hopeless that I begin to be hopeful. From anger and disgust flows the energy for reform” …… There’s now an exciting attempt to do something similar on a national scale: to change not just the personalities or the policies but the functioning of the system itself. It’s called Americans Elect (www.americanselect.org).”
This article provides more insight to the issue and the solution they propose:
‘Can America be put back together?’, TIMOTHY GARTON ASH
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/can-america-be-put-back-together/article2118747/
The “tons of cash” comment is important. I think he is focused on fund raising now in order to shut down any primary opposition, as much to have a stash for the general election. And that pending movie production about him and the SEALS and OBL will make a nice “in-kind” contribution.
Excellent; I don’t know why so many people are so angst-ridden about the fact that there is no clear-cut GOP candidate. If anything what’s happening demonstrates that there are tons, tons, of able, intelligent talent waiting to be tapped in the GOP.
Can you imagine if the Gliberals did not have Obama, failure though he be! Who would they have on the debating stage, Debbie Wasserman? Kirsten Gillibrand? Chuck Schumer?
The Glibs are out for the count; they will NOT get up off the canvas!
Professor,
If you’re eternally wretched, count me in too.
Understatement of the Year:
‘… and so one might with good cause think things are awry.’
Me three.
Wretched … me four.
Obama is the football coach that calls every play not to help his team win, but to insure they lose. He doesn’t suffer from inexperience. He suffers from a deep down hate of the ideals on which this country was founded.
Barack Obama not only is the president who punts whenever there’s a tough decision to be made, but I think it’s worse than that: I think Barack is a mole in the White House, one backed by leftists the world over bent on destroying this nation any way he can.
He’s the fox hired to watch over the chicken coop.
Come election day 2012, I have no doubt that Obama will win two states: California and New York. Yes, finally, a Democrat running for president will lose New Jersey and every other state but NY and Ca. He’ll make Mondale proud.
More appropos to the above article. About leftists bashing of Obama.
I believe that much of it is trying to provide Obama cover; that it’s aimed at the independent vote trying to portray Obama as more of a centrist. I don’t think it’s worth too much attention although Dr. Hanson never wrote an piece I didn’t like.
For me, though, Rachel Peepers, our mission for the next presidential election is to make sure Barack Obama gets the beating of his life.
Hitler, a great speech maker in his own reich, would be proud of Obama. And for all you conservatives that retch whenever a Hitler comparison is made; who think the reference destroys the credibility of the writer, think again. There are mellifluous comparisons between Barack and Adolph. If I listed them, naturally, I’d start with the most obvious: both out to destroy this nation. Number 14 on the list would be: they both hated the Jews.
If these thoughts are too strong for you; if you liken them to drinking straight scotch because they make you gag, then please give me the benefit of the doubt and consider them.
Incidentally, three and a half years ago, when I wrote countless articles why Obama would be a one term President, many scoffed at the idea. Author and political writer Mark Ames, on the night Obama was elected, wrote a mean spirited article mostly aimed at Fox News’ election night coverage yet he included some shots at Pajamas Media.
Ames wrote:
“On Pajamas, the savvier right-wing bloggers and columnists, the ones with their real names attached, have also adopted a grotesquely insincere “let’s be civil and dignified” tone. One Election Day blog article was headlined “Let’s Take Some Pride in Obama’s Election — No Matter Who We Voted For,” repeating a mantra seen by the craftiest right-wingers. No one on Pajamas exemplified this cynical shift more than Rick Moran, a venomous neocon nerd, the missing link between homo sapiens and the Fleck’s box jellyfish. In August, pushing the Bill Ayers smear, Moran wrote, “we can say for certain that Obama is a liar of the first magnitude.” Just two weeks ago, he posted an article titled “‘Adolf Hitler’ Donates to Obama Campaign” — and he didn’t mean it ironically, but rather, to highlight just how far Obama was willing to go to raise campaign money. But then, on the eve of the vote, when it was clear to everyone in America except to the loyal Freeper mob that Obama was going to sweep, Moran published a blog entry titled “Embrace the Future,” in which he tried positioning himself as the leader of the Right-Wing Reconciliation Committee, denouncing the Obama hysteria that he promoted, distancing himself from himself.”
Then Ames quoted Rick Moran:
“Many of us are fearful of the future if Barack Obama wins the presidency and the liberals dominate the Congress. All manner of evils are imagined. “America won’t be the same,” is the cry most often heard on the right. Some even go so far as to say the America we live in now will be no more and a new America will supplant the old one.” (Rick Moran, Pajamas Media)
BACK TO THE LEFTIST, MARK AMES.
“I have rejected that notion as totally unrealistic. But there is absolutely no doubt that change is coming. They’re already congratulating themselves for their own cynical new civility, as in the posting titled “How the Rightosphere Copes With Defeat.
(Ames continued)
Moran is a moron, but he’s keeping up with the Kristols rather than sticking with the mob. That’s the new official line for all the Republicans angling to remain relevant in the new Obama era. But over in the comments section, the cheap seats for the right-wing mob, it was all squealing and rebellion against this new official dignified Republican line.”
THEN MARK AMES QUOTED ME, RACHEL.
Rachel Peepers:
Something tells me this is not the time to be polite. Thus, my congratulations will go unsaid. I think not because I’m a poor sport; it’s not a case of sour grapes because I’ve always been one of the first to congratulate my opponents be they in the political field or on the sports field. But not this time. Because this time my opponent was, as I see it, evil. Did they congratulate Stalin the day after the election. Or Lenin. Or Hitler. Some did. My great-grandfather didn’t.
EPILOGUE:
Where is Mark Ames now? No one seems to know. Maybe he’s bashing Obama. Maybe Rick Moran punched him in the nose. Maybe Mark is hiding in his parents’ basement
crying like a school girl that the mole in the White House not only won’t be running for a second term; instead he may be walking out of the White House in handcuffs. The long history of Chicago style corruption may someday meet the long arm of the law.
Did they congratulate Stalin the day after the election. Or Lenin. Or Hitler.
While I don’t want to challenge your basic points, I’m afraid I need to disagree with the italicized remark.
Neither Stalin or Lenin came to power as the result of elections, at least not any elections we would recognize as broad=based and democratic. Lenin had been leader of the Bolsheviks for a long time and was presumably elected to that role within his party but he was certainly not elected leader of the country by the voters of Russia. Lenin displaced the Provisional Government (which had inherited power after the Tsar abdicated) by means of a coup, not elections. The genuinely democratic elections scheduled by the Provisional Government were allowed to go forward after Lenin’s coup but when they didn’t turn out the way Lenin wanted, he allowed them to meet exactly once, then effectively abolished the Duma.
Stalin was not elected in a fair and open democratic process either. When Lenin had a debilitating stroke in 1922 and was forced to step down, Stalin was just one of several members of the Bolshevik leadership. He gradually parlayed his position into one of absolute control of the country without ever resorting to traditional elections.
Hitler did come to power democratically, although not as directly as most people think. The Nazis got the largest number of votes in the January 1933 election but still didn’t have 50% of the votes; they formed a coalition with a small center right party. Then Hitler managed to out-manoeuver his coalition partner and obtain total control.
This, by the way, is why I want to keep the electoral college. I don’t want a president elected by a plurality, even if now the majority is sort of a strange one. (If we must get rid of it, then a runoff.)
Of course Obozo is a socialist/jihadi mole in the White House.
There’s also a Muslim Brotherhood mole in the office – AND the bed – of the Secretary of State.
If you cut your posts to under a screen page, I’ll read them
Rachel, while I completely agree with you about Obama and the rabid left, and I agree that this Ames is obnoxious, I just looked him up and it looks like Vanity Fair seems to think he’s a big deal.
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/02/exile-201002
So Ames probably just has a big ego now.
“He had accomplished very little before he ran for president, having never run a business or a state; that he had a singularly unremarkable career as a law professor, publishing nothing in 12 years at the University of Chicago other than an autobiography; and that, before joining the United States Senate, he had voted “present” (instead of “yea” or “nay”) 130 times, sometimes dodging difficult issues.”
What really is depressing is that there were so many of us pointing this out to people during the 2008 election and nobody seemed to care. We were literally told to shut up or, worse, that if we had any, ANY, criticism of this empty suit that we were being “racists.” Sorry folks, but with me accomplishments matter in a candidate, and this guy just didn’t have ANY. The only thing he ever did was run for office. And if I had to hear that he was editor of the Harvard Law Review one more time, I think I would have thrown up. Yup, being the editor of a college newspaper really qualifies you to be president of the United States.
Obama’s 2008 election was based on spin and hype. He was all public relations and no substance. It also really helped that the main stream media carried his water for him at all costs. But in 2010 it will be different. He will have to run on his record, and the record so far really, really, stinks. He’s nothing but a Chicago far-left liberal and people are beginning to realize it. We will finally come to our senses and elect a conservative in 2012. Then maybe we can get this country back on track again and then just refer to the Obama presidency as the second term of the Carter presidency.
Agreed Liberty. He also brought the corruption of Chicago politics to the Whitehouse.
The Harvard Law Review is not a college newspaper. It is a respected academic law journal. But, Obama was AN editor of the Harvard Law Review, not THE editor. (The Harvard Law Review presently has 82 editors.) I doubt that Obama made any significant contributions to its content, but he was a gold mine for Harvard’s public relations team.
This was an outstanding article Dr. Hansen, one of your best efforts!
Rome tried to buy off the mob with bread and circuses and spent so much appeasing the Roman mob that it could no longer afford the cost of an effective military. And the mob was never satisfied no matter how many gladiatorial games and wheat they got.
The present civil unrest in the West is very similar, young people who have never worked, are raised by their mother’s or in Obama’s case by their grandmothers’ have only an sense of entitlement and no sense of discipline, they will take what they want when they want it, and if that includes beating and killing others, then so be it.
Along with this Western police forces are unable or unwilling, and usually unequipped, to use the force necessary to quell these uprisings and are routinely accused of being the cause of these disturbances rather than the only solution available to preventing or stopping them.
This is the West that trained and raised Barack Obama and goes a long way towards explaining why he is so ineffective, so weak, so lazy, (he is on vacation most of the time or throwing hoops and hitting the links), so Pollyanish, and so terribly unable to lead.
We have an immature Nancy boy man child for a President.
A possibility, the liberal/socialist are a bit miffed at all the money “spent” with nothing to show for it. Has it been spread around in all the wrong places, into the vaults of that black hole Wall Street and the safe houses of the Kenyan’s associates? Maybe it will appear by magic just in time for the election, not likely. What this country needs is a good audit and only then will we know just how corrupt things have been.
Government acountability! What a great idea, but would any of the foxes left, middle, or right support such a straight jacket on their road to riches? Perhaps our tea party politicians but they’ll need lots more support!
To quote a former GM exec
Every liberal believes SOCIALISM failed because they weren’t in charge
They have to admit either their thinking was flawed or blame a scapegoat
Who do you think takes the fall ?
Defeat is an orphan. He’ll get his supporters. As noted in the comments already, they have nowhere to go.
What he won’t get are the undecided, who usually break for the challenger. It’s getting tough to ignore where and why job creation is happening. Make no mistake, this will be a referendum on the economy and the economy stinks.
The Republicans could still lose this election, but they’ll have to work at it.
As usual, there are many Republicans up to that challenge…
Steve, that’s pretty good. I wish it weren’t so true!
Maybe former Clinton supporters could lend us their “It’s the economy, stupid” signs for a while. Your ‘undecideds will break for the challenger’ is a good observation. Of course, with a billion dollars to spend on ads destroying your challenger, along with the media’s water and jock-strap carrying capacity, it won’t be any picnic getting rid of this guy.
McCain, McConnel, McBoehner, are all McPhony conservatives. I’ve never seen anything like this since the ’08 election and the recent debt ceiling negotiations. Each could wear the middle-name Compromise. It’s gone on too long and look where we are today. Principles matter but have been negotiated away over the years. They’ve been ‘reached across the aisle’ and dropped. This has to stop and will, in 2012. The “challenger” from here on out will be liberty while the incumbent remains tyranny.
You use an adjective that is racially charged, unnecessary, and offensive. I ask that you, or PJM, please remove this comment. I don’t care to be associated in any way with it, or people who use it, or allow it.
Then don’t be on this website! I’m a Tea Partier and found the article refreshing!!
What’s racist about the adjective, “specious?”
Whether you’re playing dumb or being dumb, doesn’t much matter.
Step your game up.
You know what he meant.
This sort of reply hurts your credibility, and not just yours.
Which comment is offensive? Perhaps it has already been removed…
Please tell us what the offensive adjective is. I have no idea which one bothers you.
“I don’t care to be associated in any way with it, or people who use it, or allow it.”
You are neither the author nor the editor of this web site. If you don’t want to be associated with its content, closing the web page requires only a mouse-click, menu selection, or keyboard shortcut. And please delete the bookmark so you won’t be offended again. I won’t miss you. Ditto for Desiderius.
Well, at least, the world is as confused as these “pundits”. In Syria, the government kills, one assumes, peaceful protesters as casually as one stomps on a bug, while in England the police are reluctant to shoot rampaging criminals in their streets. What to do? What to do?
Are the police in England now allowed to carry firearms? I HAVE read they’re being constrained from using the evil “water cannons.” Sheesh!
And are the British citizens now wishing they had a 2nd Amendment?
Umm yeah, hello? You friggin Anti-War crazies where are ya? Seriously why don’t I hear of the at LEAST monthly anti-war rallies hmm? Zombie must be bored not having regular San Fran Anti-War rallies to photograph. Or are you tacitly admiting that you’re not Anti-War but PRO-Socialism, Statism, Marxism or what have you? Are you all just shills for the Dems
The reaction to te flash mobs is the natural result of the long-term movement that ha characterized illegal and immoral activity as the result of poor conditions rather than character flaws. Nothing can be wrong if everything can be fixed with an infusion of more money! Since we no longer have moral values, we believe it is wrong to call others’ behavior immoral. If money will solve all problems, everything is our fault for not having provided it. The bankruptcy of this position should be obvious.
I agree with the Dr’s piece albeit, ‘..more expressions of legitimate discontent or understandable oppression that demand introspection of society..’.
Doc, I disagree with this last sentence altogether. Many of the North Londoners/Tottenham residents REVEL in their ‘ghetto-like’ behaviors, actions and situation PRIOR to this riot nonsense.
The very same thing can be said for a majority of Philly, Detroit, Oakland, San Bernardino, on and on.
Whether it’s *free” after school programs, school lunches, housing, medical care, lowered standards for college, work performance etc., you know, for ‘equality’ reasons, this ONLY feeds the aforementioned inhabitants lethargy.
Quick example, Obama. The guy didn’t excel in ANYTHING, though if you read his fictitious ‘Dreams for My Father’, he sure painted himself as an, ‘overcoming diversity’ type. he is THEE example of a lethargic nobody getting everything due to ‘equality’. I call B S.
If you think Obama is not going to be reelected you are a fool. With 50% of the country essentially needing an Obama type to keep their entitlements combined with white liberal guilt and the intimidation and fraud that his people will commit, he could do anything and still get enough to win. The lack of a great Republican candidate makes it even more obvious. Romney? Perry? Is that the best we have?
I still think we need to get him impeached over the eligibility issue and the crimes he has committed instead of relying on an election over a year from now. The damage he will do by then is going to continue to increase and once he is reelected, the Republic as we know it is over.
Obama needs to be in prison, not in the White House, and the people who helped him commit the various crimes need to be right there with him. We need a whole new set of leaders in this country and fast.
I still think we need to get him impeached over the eligibility issue and the crimes he has committed instead of relying on an election over a year from now.
You could be right that impeachment presents a more reliable way of getting Obama out of power. But do you really think the country is going to be in dramatically better shape with the Democrats still in control of the White House and Senate and Joe Biden as President?
I think impeachment via the ‘eligibility’ issue by which I presume you mean the location of his birth is a dangerous tactic. First, the documents will be either destroyed, unavailable or fake. And dealing with them will be delayed and obstructed to enable the second tactic:
Second, Obama will fight back presenting himself as a victim of just about everything including ..racism, far-right religion, small towns, blah blah. It would be a tremendous propaganda boon – FOR Obama.
“If you think Obama is not going to be reelected you are a fool.”
—
Obama was elected with 53% of the vote, hardly anything to write home about. And in order to get re-elected, he’ll have to carry independents by at least a margin of 2-to-1.
That ain’t gonna happen.
Unless the Republican nominate is caught wearing a KKK hood at a baby-roast, he’s done.
So relax.
We don’t elect presidents by national votes. We have a state-based Electoral College. Obama received 365 electoral votes versus McCain’s 173. That was more than a 2 to 1 advantage. That advantage will not disappear in 2012 unless Obama does something appalling that cannot be buried by the media AND the Republicans fields an outstanding candidate. Each condition has a low probability.
“If you think Obama is not going to be reelected you are a fool.”
—
Obama was elected with 53% of the vote, hardly anything to write home about. And in order to get re-elected, he’ll have to carry independents by at least a margin of 2-to-1.
That ain’t gonna happen.
Unless the Republican nominate is caught wearing a KKK hood at a baby-roast, he’s done.
So relax.
I think Obama’s election strategy and the mood of the left are still unsettled but there are some basic infrastructures…
1)With regard to Obama, who is becoming, psychologically, more pathological as he feels less able to control people and events – I think we can expect several tactics. He’ll causally isolate himself from events and situations, defining himself as a victim. This is basic Obama anyway. He blames everyone and everything on someone/something else. But I suspect there will be a lot more images of him as ‘pure and a victim’ in the next months.
For example, no photos were to be taken at the return of the soldiers just killed in Afghanistan, by request of the family, yet Obama violated this request, went to the ceremony (one he rarely attends), along with his official WH photographer, to photograph HIM, at the ceremony…and send it out to the press.
2) He’ll isolate himself from decisions. This is also basic Obama; he’s unable to connect to reality and prefers the safety of seminar room rhetoric. So, Obama will, as usual, leave all decisions to committees and commissions whether from the Democrats or GOP – and declare that any problems are due to their wrangling. He’s pure; he’s above it all.
3) This means that the left may be distancing themselves from Obama, but Obama has long ago distanced himself from them. I don’t think that the left realizes that Obama has never been an ideologue, never been committed to socialist principles in themselvles. Obama is a psychological socialist; he’s a leftist because it sets up an elite set of Rulers over the Ruled – and Obama psychologically requires that he feel himself as a Ruler.
The left is just starting to realize that Obama is, ideologically, not with them. I’m not sure that they realize that he’s only ‘with Himself’.
The Democrats really don’t have anyone to challenge Obama; they’ve deliberately kept all new blood out of the party..unlike the GOP which is filled with new energies.
4) I think Obama will also isolate himself from the American people. Again, he’s never aligned himself with America or Americans – from his long alliance with the Rev.Wright’s Black Liberation anti-Americanism, to his anti-American upbringing. But he’ll isolate himself even more – laying the blame on them, on their politics, their ignorance, their ethnicity…
5) And since Obama can’t handle criticism or dissent, then another tactic apart from being ‘aloof and above everyone’ will be malicious, dishonest and vicious attacks against any opponents.
Insightful as usual, but there are some more routine strategies that bear mentioning as well.
The basic plan is to destroy his opponent. They are gearing up to do so to Romney right now, although Mitt is about as close to a secular saint as one can imagine. Easy to disagree with his politics, but hard to deny that he has been an honorable man and true to his family. But that won’t stop them. If they are going full-bore on him, just imagine what they will do to Perry, Palin or Bachmann. It will be surreal.
The second practical element is buying votes, as you know, since you early on identified the purpose of the 2.8T debt ceiling increase. Manna will begin falling from heaven on his brain-dead followers. And it also appears now the the Department of Racial Justice has geared up to squeeze out another 1 to 3% via the threat of the power of the federal government; on top, of course, of the reqular union and local party thuggery.
The third element will be an escalation of the make believe media’s commitment. This may be hard to believe, but it is 100% certain to occur. There will be a virtual merger of Hollywood and “hard news” to create a fantasy world delivered into your living room 24 hours a day for six months in a row.
The fourth element is fear. We are in a preview right now, as the Dow drops over 15% in a few weeks. Does anyone remember September to October 2008. The Down dropped more by a factor of 2 in the two months prior to an election than it ever had before in an election period, even though a Republican was in the White House. And of course, there was the 50% drop in gasoline prices just in time to get the price at the pump below $2 on election day (gas prices being McLame’s big issue), plus the Money Market Run, plus Tarp, plus the disastrous drop in home prices. Between now and November, look for something, probably multiple things, more startling than that, all spun to the Marxist’s advantage. He doesn’t have thousands of staffers stuffed into office buildings all over DC for nothing. If they conclude it will take a nuclear war to get him re-elected, then that is what we will get.
Yes, you probably heard by now that Hollywood is making a movie about the killing of Osama bin Laden–which just happens to be planned for release on October 12, 2012, 3 weeks before Election Day.
That move is so shameless that even liberal columnist Maureen Dowd ridiculed it.
They don’t need to write a screenplay, since the Obama administration already has. There are still a few of us who believe that Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants died in one of the cave complexes in Afghanistan that was destroyed by our military in 2003 and 2004. The charade in Pakistan was designed to bolster Obama’s sagging poll numbers. Go back and review the statements made after the event. Note that they never said that the DNA evidence confirmed that they killed Osama bin Laden. They said that the DNA matched bin Laden’s relatives (while implying that they matched Osama bin Laden. Their statements rivaled Clinton’s at his lawyerly worst.) Osama bin Laden had dozens of brothers, half-brothers, and male first cousins, and one of them was killed in Pakistan. But, we’ll never know because the body was immediately dumped, and the blood or tissue samples almost certainly were destroyed after getting the DNA “match.”
The movie will be a paean to the One and his brilliant handling of the bin Laden take-down. It will be every bit as factual and objective as a Michael Moore production.
Right, right.
The Obama campaign will indeed use the debt ceiling increase for one agenda only: to buy votes. So, we are going to see as you point out, ‘manna from heaven’ being flung out to his base – who are all dependent of govt largesse. The unions, the civil service and..those on social security, welfare, food stamps, unemployment..you name it, Obama will find a way to give them money from this debt ceiling, his Slush Election Fund.
And, he’s going to go after the illegals; he’ll fund them; he’s already doing it via a new health clinic funding for migrants and farmworkers – which will not be allowed to ask for citizen status as it treats them. Remember, they’ll vote; the electioneers aren’t allowed to check whether they are citizens when they vote.
And yes, the vicious and malicious attacks against any who dare to oppose or criticize Obama will be relentless.
And, since Obama’s rhetoric of make-believe is less persuastive this time, he’ll make use of Hollywood. He’s already arranging a move about Him as the White Knight killing Bin Laden. Just watch how Obama will be portrayed: as decisive, stubborn, proudly American (all of which he is not)..and the film will be released one month before the election date next year. How’s that for blatant manipulation?
…willing to take whatever position he thinks will lead to his re-election. Perhaps those of us who were so enthralled with the magnificent story he told in “Dreams From My Father”…
I have nothing but contempt for the alleged disillusioned with the alleged scales falling from their eyes as they (very) slowly grok the true nature of The One™.
It’s a stupid story, the whole process merely a boring morality tale of how a self-professed élite, a clique of backscratching morons, comes laboriously to the knowledge that their emperor has no clothes.
Because of their ignorant self-absorption, we’ve had to endure 2 1/2 years of highly destructive nonsense, with another 1 1/2 to go.
“… CornelWest or a New York Times guest op-ed writer offers Rush Limbaugh-type putdowns”
The difference is that Rush is effective.
Sadly, Cornel West is a “professor” — so-called — at Princeton. A stain on the University, and one that Harvard got rid of itself.
I guess you hated the first season of MASH, too. thank goodness Alan Alda was able to change his tune,
For progressives, it will always be easier to kill the messenger than to admit the idiocy of the message.
LOL, the left did a poor job of vetting Obama, and now that he is being shown as not being up to the job, they’re left with the task of casting about for scapegoats. Hopefully, this story will have a happy ending in which the left drives off the clift to never be seen again. “Good Riddance” can’t be said soon enough to this crowd.
Obama doesn’t really care if he wins or loses. He just likes acquiring other peoples money, and living high while he has the chance. After all he knows that this is the best and only job he has ever had or ever will have and that his future is going to be paid for the rest of his life by the America he hates. This ,of course, explains why he appears so aloof and detached. He honestly doesn’t care. I suspect at some level he actually hopes to lose in 2012 as a means of getting him out of a job for which he has no qualifications and increasingly is losing the support of those he duped into voting for him. The term EMPTY SUIT was invented for this Chance-The-Gardner fake.
“Obama doesn’t really care if he wins or loses”
I agree, but for a different reason than you state.
I don’t think he can conceive of losing, having been carried from triumph to triumph for his entire life, without making the slightest effort, ever.
He assumes he will win, because he always has. In his mind, he IS destiny.
But I do admire Mayor Nutter for his brave address that amplified (and I hope superseded) his strategies. And I expect that he will rely more on such traditional appeals to self-reliance than enlisting the rap community.
A amazingly refreshing diatribe this past Sunday
Back at the same point in Carter’s term, in the summer of 1979, the left already had bailed on him, and were the prime forces behind drumming up the idea of Ted Kennedy challenging him for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination. But Carter always was something of an outsider when it came to the core hard-left faction of the Democratic Party, despite the positions he’s taken in the ensuing 32 years.
Obama, on the other hand, is the creation of the left, or at least the far left part of the Chicago Democratic Party machine. They came in with a theory that if they could just find the right African-American candidate, his historical position would make anything he supported unassailable by the right, because any opponents could be smacked down in the public debate by use of the race card.
But that person had to be the right persona — strongly liberal in personal ideology, but not aggressively so. To run someone like that would have been to scare off even their own primary voters, who would have had visions of a President Al Sharpton dancing in their heads. That’s why Barack Obama was selected, and that’s why he was given a pass on voting for so many controversial issues before hitting the national stage, in order to maintain the ability to present him as a non-threatening blank slate to swing voters.
The left knew what sort of personality Barack Obama had to have to get elected. Where they went wrong was in thinking that — like that flash mob idiot in the AT&T wireless commercial — at the desired moment after he was sworn in, Barack Obama would rip off his bland, ultra-cautious, beta male personality like a trench coat and we’d suddenly see Barack Obama — Destroyer of Conservative Worlds, who would crush his enemies like they were puny ants.
That’s what they’re mad about. Once the Tea Party arose to give voice to the conservative opposition, and the decentralized nature of the Tea Party made using the race card against it’s leaders in Alinsky-like fashion a non-starter, there was no Plan B for Obama and his supporters. So you have a president who is fearful of leading where others haven’t already cut a path, and is therefore tied to the liberal ideology that has gotten us into this $12 trillion hole, and you’ve got his supporters, whose collective egos can’t live with the idea they’re not the enlightened geniuses of social engineering they thought they were, and therefore have to start sniping at Obama for not being the myth they built him up to be in 2008, and now for not being Hugo Chavez when it comes to dealing with their enemies.
I suspect Obama and Michelle will eventually bail out of running again. She will cry racism, and ignite urban fires. We’ve seen how much they love the elitist lifestyle and vacations. That awaits them, and she can’t wait. He will suggest that America can’t be saved, meaning it can’t be turned into a European socialist state as easily as he had thought.
I am proud to say I crossed swords with this same Adomanis, along with daveinboca and several other Hanson readers. He had some problem with Victor’s farming raisins at that time (such evil pursuits as growing grapes require a response from dedicated libruls, it seems).
“Fred Beloit
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It seems Adomanis has a problem with moonlighting or walking and chewing gum at the same time. VDH has adopted “Works and Days” as a title for some of his opinion pieces for a reason, Adomanis, or partly a raisin-reason, if you must have it that way.
One speculates that spending a great deal of time energetically working on various intellectual and practical projects is a foreign concept to you. Perhaps your six hours of lecturing to undergrads on the penumbraic subtleties of the social sciences exhausts all of your faculties[pun for free].”
At the time I thought this Adomanis might be a college professor…for obvious reasons.
America is in Deep, Severe Denial.
Today’s Consequences are result of ignoring reality since early 70′s. People seriously believed replacing Gold backed US dollars with Saudi Petro dollar is a good Idea..? Congress certainly thought so, this is what allowed the government to print obscene amounts ever since. And the American Voter swallowed the Lie….. hook, Line, and Sinker.
The USA has been driving ever faster towards the cliff, with voters completely oblivious to reality, and blinded by political partisanship.
Arguing over Left / right is ridiculous..anyone working in DC knows the perception of politics is a Mask.
If people had any idea the business interests actually managing Washington they would set fire to the city and start again. This may happen when markets force Washington to Face its actions and take responsibility for 50 years of fantasy economics.
I debate myself here and now, whether to pick some rather tiny nits…or to not do so. Oh, what the hell.
VDH, you know by now that I admire you greatly. We are precisely the same age, but you are somehow wiser, certainly more brilliant and a better writer than I.
But, in all the times you have written wonderful essays, shared your thoughts, stretched my own thinking…we have never once conversed. In writing, by email, in person. I understand how busy you are, the many duties and obligations. As your devoted reader and someone who relishes each thing you write…a fan, I suppose…I often wondered if you read the comments here.
You have chosen not to engage or comment on them. There are some here, whose comments I look for…to see if they have taken a tach that I did not consider. Proreason, ETAB, pelaut, bear, tanstaafl, Francis Poretto, …many, many others.
We share a bond with each other and I believe with you…that I consider quite valuable and most certainly cherish. It is often a silent one.
To give these two meaningless cretins, these pipsqueak insignificant dust mites…the value of your time, the credibility of space on an essay here, the relevance to the discussion …is to grant them more than the silence they so richly deserve.
They attacked you personally, as a gnat attacks a lion. Irksome, nettling, buzzing little irritants. Nobody had ever heard of them before, imagine the rush they must feel having made the “big stage”, by fouling it first and having their stench carried across it, to remain wafting for the rest of us to smell all the while. I have made it worse by this response, of course.
I enjoy VDH’s writing but actually come to these as much to see input from yourself and all those you mention (and more). I believe we’re all of a certain age, education and professional experience not found on other blog sites. One thing I look forward to is when a VDH column makes it into the local paper. In NY that’s a small victory.
Honored cf. We disagree from time to time on the margins but nobody besides a few public pundits write as well as yourself.
Same team, same battle.
It has been a godsend to read you guys who make the effort to write it down at PJM.
As for the detractors written about above, it seems to me an intentional technique to twist or take out of context the points and arguments of an effective writer like VDH.
Since the detractors don’t have the cojones, or the smarts, to attack the statements on their own merits, they use that device a sneaky and backdoor means of dissing the opposition. (to quote an infamous conservative radio talk show host this week, people who go into journalism aren’t that smart)
To some extent, the Left thinks it won the presidency by first selecting McCain and then destroying Palin.
It’s a prime component of their toolkit to selectively edit remarks and misrepresent other remarks.
It will only get worse over the next 15 months.
The media keep telling me how eloquent Obama is and what great speeches he gave, but I have never seen any evidence of them.
“But the argument remains incoherent: Obama is being blamed for not being liberal enough …”
Dr. Hansen, wouldn’t the ‘argument’ be more of a psychic imperative? It would go like this: liberalism is wonderful, what Obama has done is not wonderful, therefore it must not be ‘real liberalism.’
I personally have heard this argument a hundred times with regard to communism: communism is wonderful, what [Lennin/Stalin/Trotsky/whomever] did was not wonderful, therefore what was done was not REAL communism.
It’s tiring once you are familiar with it, but it seems to keep its votaries in line.
It’s the True Scotsman fallacy in action.
Bugs: “It’s the True Scotsman fallacy in action.”
Indeed- I am fascinated by WHY people deploy such fallacies. It’s not because of a lack of rationality- such folk can be entirely reasonable about other matters.
I am calling it a psychic imperative, which occurs in place of a theological imperative… sort of like a religion without God.
This comment also gives me the opportunity to apologize for misspelling Dr. HansOn’s name.
I still disagree that Obama duped the Left or anybody else. I think he did what any presidential candidate would have done – put on his best performance, tell people what they wanted to hear, and try to persuade them to vote for him. Other than the race thing and being something of a Washington outsider, he was just another candidate.
What got him elected was the complete and utter insanity of the American liberals. I think they were so angry, so frustrated, and so paranoid after eight years of Bush that they were looking for someone to rescue them from “what America had become.” Their love affair with Obama was nothing less than a voluntary retreat from reality into fantasy. He could have been a department store mannequin or a pet rock – it wouldn’t have mattered because he was just a symbol, a talisman, a vessel into which leftists poured all their hopes, dreams, and desires. He was going to make it all come true, the whole Progressive program once and for all. They imagined him sweeping the opposition aside with his strength, winning every debate with his eloquence, countering every objection with his intellect, making an ally of every enemy with his charisma. Obama represented the final victory of the American Progressive movement, bringing nothing less than its full, perpetual dominance of the US Government. It was, for them, the End of History.
I can’t imagine thinking any of that about a fellow human being. I’ve seen too many politicians come and go. I know nobody’s that good. That’s why I think at least half the country went completely mad in 2008.
My second nit, to pick.
I am convinced (after reading and absorbing Radical-In-Chief by Stanley Kurtz and The Shadow Party by David Horowitz, that we do ourselves a grave and dangerous disservice by calling small c communists progressives or liberals .
The time has long since arrived when we should call a thing what it is, not what it pretends to be. More importantly, we give power to the notion that if we oppose a “progressive”…we are against progress and they are for it. If we oppose a “liberal”, we are narrow-minded and closed-minded and they are open-minded and tolerant.
The use of the vernacular of those who are skilled and trained at delivering “the message” as well as their discipline in advancing that “message”…is killing this land of ours. The failure on our part to unveil that “message” for what it truly is….the failure to expose the propaganda, brainwashing and indoctrination that has taken place over the past half century…has us on the brink of collapse.
Radical extremists who hate capitalism are trying to replace it with small c communism. They believe they had their best chance, when they had the White House, the Senate and the lower House. And, they are furious with Obama because he did not seize enough, confiscate enough, grab enough, fast enough…before he lost the lower House.
THAT is what they are angry about. Obama has always preferred the “hidden agenda” over the toe to toe confrontation. His methodology is to “soothe the fears” with well masked words hiding the true feelings and intentions.
He has had this internal fight many, many, many times before within the ranks of the radical extremists. They want to come out and brawl. He wants to duck, cover, hide…and implant hidden viruses.
The radical extremists want him to show himself as one of them. He wants to be able to live in both worlds at once, doing their work…in our house.
And, if I may…I respectfully disagree that we have seen the last of the race card. If they can pull it on Hillary, Geraldine Ferraro and “the first black President…Bill Clinton”, it can and will be pulled on anyone. Most certainly ANY AND EVERY Republican who dares to run for office. And the people who support them.
We are not up against “progressives” and we are not up against “liberals”. The Democratic Party is run by small c communists, the mass media are their propaganda machine and we are at war with those who mean to overthrow our current system of government..via stealth, hidden agendas and coordinated distortion.
They cannot win at the ballot box if we exposed the plot and called the question. If we called them what they are, who they are, what they intend and why they intend it.
Instead, we lazily and recklessly use THEIR propaganda terms to describe and frame the issues. We help deliver THEIR message…and get beaten to a pulp every time we try to deliver ours.
If we keep losing this message war, we are going to lose this land of ours to those who mean to destroy it from within. We have no coordination and no discipline. They get us to fight amongst ourselves all the time.
This fight THEY are having…is about the speed of the revolution. We damn well better wake up in time to decide whether we have a nation worth saving from it.
Their messaging is targeted at the youth. Capture the youth and you’ve captured the future. Totalitarianism 101. The FUD created by the economy has to be exploited to turn this ship. The counter-messaging has to be compelling and targeted…maybe a soup line in a forest surrounded by predators, with a caption ‘thank god we saved the planet’(lol)…invoke some primitive archetypes..kids today don’t read, they think via imagery.
Excellent disquisition. The simplest explanation for the Obama phenomenon is that he was drafted by a communist cabal, groomed in the Red farm system, and then sprung on an unsuspecting nation with the complicity (and indeed, enthusiastic support) of a deeply penetrated news media. (In this connection, I was alarmed to read some leaked JournoList postings referring to the desirability of creating a “popular front,” their terminology clearly reflecting their communist convictions.)
Newt is the only major politician who comes close to calling them what they are.
I find it so mysterious that others are so unwilling to do so that it makes me extremely suspicious of the motivations of many on our side.
However, I do exclude Sarah and Bachmann because they have been extremely clear on policy matters and extremely critical of the Menace. I’m hoping Perry will follow their lead and approach the matter the same way.
From stylistic perspective, Newt also has it right. He says it matter-of-fact, doesn’t make a big deal about it.
Back in 2004, when Obama was running for U.S. Senate, there was a letter to the Chicago Tribune from a woman in Michigan. She wrote about being so excited by Obama that she said, and I quote, “I wish I lived in Illinois so I could vote for him!” It was shamelessly stupid. And then voters from the rest of the country got introduced to this Empty Suit. My brother, who lives in the D.C. area, drinks the Kool Aid every day of his life. When I said to him that BO was an Empty Suit, his reply was that so was Bush. When I said, Come on, Bush was a governor, he had an MBA–he had no response.
“Those of us who were bewitched by his eloquence on the campaign trail chose to ignore some disquieting aspects of his biography: that he had accomplished very little before he ran for president, having never run a business or a state; that he had a singularly unremarkable career as a law professor, publishing nothing in 12 years at the University of Chicago other than an autobiography; and that, before joining the United States Senate, he had voted “present” (instead of “yea” or “nay”) 130 times, sometimes dodging difficult issues.”
WELCOME TO THE PARTY, PAL!
I swear, some people are just too dumb to live. All this was instantly noted by about 40% of the voting age population. It took you 3+ years? Good God.
And he was not a professor at the U of Chicago. He was a ‘Senior Lecturer,” a glorified adjunct, who had no academic production. My wife is an honest-to-God full professor there, an extremely hard thing to achieve, and folks like her do not appreciate this failure to draw the proper distinction.
One thing is abundantly clear about liberals. They don’t study logic in school.
BTW, why aren’t Obama’s neo critics being called racists?
Because they’re black?
It would be lovely to be able to wish the whole Leftist/Commie/Marxist/Racist lot of them into a cornfield. Since we can’t though… What are we going to do?
Great article, Prof. Handsome.
I truly hope you and yours are safe, healthy and well in the eye of the storm [i.e. CaliPORNia].
Yours affectionately,
Delia
“What are we going to do?”
I know! I know! We get a Really BIG can of RAID! (apologies to actual insects)
The most amusing quip I’ve seen that sums up President Downgrade’s lack of experience-
“The clothes have no emperor”
Dr. Hanson:
I am extremely cynical when it comes to liberal Democrats. In my opinion, they will criticize Obama from the left not becuase they are in any way principled, but to make him appear moderate and beleaguered. It will all be orchestrated.
Keep up the good work (and fight).
“America is not in decline (a choice, not a fate) and, compared to our competitors, we are uniquely positioned, with the proper guidance, to reassume global leadership and regain national prosperity.”
Yes. But. The ‘but’ is that ‘proper guidance’ is becoming ever more remote. There is a slim chance of reversing our fortunes. A necessary but not sufficient condition is the replacement of the current President and Congress with a pro-growth, pro government integrity administration. Even then, a huge mandate will be required to overcome the counterattacks of the Left, the Fellow Travelers enconced in government, and the organs of information, all captured under the umbrella phrase of “The Political Class.”
If this does not happen, a ‘soft landing’ for America seems unlikely. Some kind of singularity — perhaps seccession coupled with regionalization — is likely.
All this liberal griping about Obama is much ado about nothing.
It’s coming from columnists and pundits who now are embarrassed over how much flattering verbiage they had written about Obama to date. Now they have to explain away their mistake.
It’s remarkable how columnists suddenly discover that their erstwhile champion–the one they had pushed so hard for in the election–is really “betraying their principles”. That discovery usually comes only after the champion’s approval rating drops below 46%.
And so we had:
1979: President Carter is “violating sacred Democratic principles” (and had become unpopular too, of course)
2008: President George W. Bush is “not a real conservative” (conservatives didn’t seem to have noticed that in 2002).
Gallup shows that among ordinary Americans, liberal support for Obama remains very high. Partly that’s due to black support which is nearly universal for obvious reasons, and Hispanic support due to Obama’s stand on amnesty for illegal aliens.
“2008: President George W. Bush is “not a real conservative” (conservatives didn’t seem to have noticed that in 2002).”
Conservatives knew that before the 2000 presidential primaries, but got behind Bush when he received the nomination. (Were they going to support Gore?) In 2002, conservatives were rallying behind a President who was taking the fight to the al Qaida and Taliban thugs in Afghanistan. Conservatives never forgot that Bush was a self-professed “compassionate conservative” (translation: not a conservative at all except for his continuation of the War on Drugs), and they did not support his expansion of Medicare and his bigger-government budget proposals. What many do not know is that true conservatives comprise a minority of Republicans, and they don’t control the party.
Let us not leave unexplored the possibility that independent, liberal, and conservative voters may recognize that the “public servants” are our employees, and we have allowed them to take over 100 week vacations per year, plus campaign time, plus perks that we would not afford ourselves. It may just be that we the people are better understanding that we the people are being had!
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON ON OBAMA’S NEED FOR MENTAL THERAPY
Click my name to read this Forbes, USA Today, India Times linked article.
Soros and Huffinton did their most to ensure the election of president Obama in 2008. Yet now the bashing of the left has already begun with Arianna Huffinton leading the charge on MSNBC: “No body believe in Obama job’s rhetoric anymore.” she called Obama’s bluff.
Seems that the tide has turned against Obama as the ocean of Obamanism begins to recedes, and the earth begins to shift under Obama.
one additional thought.
These guys are so devious, liberal “bashing” Little Lenin could very well be an orchestrated attempt to convince Independents that he is a middle-of-the-road guy.
They spend 24x7x365 coming up with schemes to con regular people. This might be just more of the same.
Just as a point of interest, The Twilight Zone episode referenced here starred Billy Mumy, not Ron Howard as the picture is tagged. The episode was titled “It’s a Good Life”. The boy had the ability to whisk away to the cornfield anyone or anything that he didn’t like.
Be specific and substantive, dumb name-calling and motherhood won’t cut in public discourse for Desiderius credibility.
Anyone who tracks liberal media bias should be well aware that there is no chance that they (which is to say most of the media) will allow Obama to become a whipping boy to America’s problems, as the very reason Obama was elected was to veer the country hard to the left. He was simply the vessel to do it that could enrapture the youth, and the “victimized”. I don’t believe the large majority of Obama voters are capable of admitting they were wrong (if they believed it) after observation, because there is a lot of pride and envy that is in play that isn’t so simply reversed. They will get a light of inspiration, but me thinks it will still serve the progressive ideal.
The class of all (mostly all) voters that voted for Obama can be divided into three groups: those who voted for Obama for the man, those who voted for Obama for the man and the vision, and those who voted for Obama for the vision. In all cases, they, if they have any sense of victory in battle, will cling to their chosen leader when it comes time to vote again because Obama is the constant to their combined vector (and there is no Democrat who can out-vector him).
The ones causing commotion on the left right now are of the lattermost type: older, and/or more educated liberals who are probably, in the end, the surest vote for blue. It isn’t necessary or even right to lay all the blame on Obama. He sold something, and the people bought it. They were in the market for it! The majority of the people are the ones who WANT the vision; or the man. They still do, and that is why they will fight off the evil Republicans.
It is funny, because we indeed have entered into an era of some sort. Before the majority seemed to believe in the power of individual choices combined, but now (the new era) it is the age of destiny. Though we still speak of matters of choice they are, in effect, becoming either faded, jaded, or immaterial. This goes for all sides… just listen.
“These are Chicken Little Conservatives. Every week, as headlines filter in from around the globe, they take the most disturbing as an occasion to strut around with ruffled feathers and cluck that the sky is falling.”
Leftys love to play Whack-A-Mole with any conservative who is being widely read. So as one of the bigger “moles” they are taking whacks at you VDH.
And if they want to see real ruffled feathers and sky-is-falling rhetoric they need look no further than Nancy – “We’re saving the world as we know it!” – Pelosi.
Now we right wingers finally have the answer from the left to our question, How much government is enough?
The stimulus didn’t work because it wasn’t big enough or smart enough. It follows that government should spend more and get smarter, which means learn through trial and error regardless of the damage done by the errors. ObamaCare didn’t work because it wasn’t big or bold enough. It follows that the feds should have seized a monopoly in health care, nationalizing hospitals and clinics and putting everyone in Medicare. Taxes are the answer to deficits, and there would be no national debt problem if only government were allowed to seize its rightful share of GDP. Anthropogenic Global Warming, er … Climate Change has lost its crisis rating; Obama’s bumbling in Copenhagen and with the BP oil spill let this crisis go to waste. Ditto his Nobel Peace Prize, which he should have used to force the Jews out of Israel and pull the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. And he could have packed the supreme court with 4 or 5 extra justices a la FDR after it’s decision in Citizens United but didn’t. Oh bummer.
For the left, Obama is a failure because he won’t go all the way to totalitarianism with his fellow travelers even though he had the juice. Recall that some of them, e.g. Thomas Friedman, extolled the virtues of totalitarianism or decried America’s constitutional order every time the GOP successfully resisted Obama’s fundamental transformations, e.g. Card Check and Cap & Trade.
So there’s our answer from the left: Government will not big enough until it’s all there is. To the extent that Obama exercised restraint or incompetence, we owe him a debt of gratitude even while opposing him bitterly and doing everything within our lawful power to make him a one term president.
They did not realize the elected a dolt. Something every Law Review editor recognized instantly.
I’m tired of whiny liberal men. Can that friesdorf guy and admonanis dude just go ahead and get the sex-change operation they so desperately crave?
With all the coordinated DNC work, this is just another scripted farce. Wait for it, when the time is right one by one they will all see the light of the Munificent Obama, claim their fealty and shout it from the highest rooftops, to be repeated ad nauseum by MSM to drown out all other news.
This is going to be a lot like the analysis of the collapse of the Soviet Union: it wasn’t a failure of communism, oh no…it was a failure of the Soviets to implement it properly.
Nope, the stimulus wasn’t the problem; you just didn’t give it enough money.
Regulations didn’t make things go south; too few regulations made the first set of regulations ineffective.
Too quote Digital Underground (look it up, kiddies), “all around the world, same song.”
Mr. Hanson,
This is all pretty simple. Obama was elected because of the financial and geopolitical mess that the Right had backed this country into in 2008.
We are in better shape now than that unprecedented low left us – on all accounts.
Now we are faced with Federal revenue drop because of the high unemployment and lackluster economy left us by the devastating policies of run-away profit-taking among the financial sector. This drop in revenues now forces cutting over- bloated Defense spending as well as Social safety net programs.
We will do both and any good president has to sell and implement this. And yes it is not politically feasible that the bottom 99% take the hit and the top 1% (which controls 25% of the economy) is not involved in this re-capitalization of the American economy.
The “liberal-bashing” you refer to is directed to Obama’s political acumen and his lack of ability to frame the debate against the propaganda of the far right. With American influence and wealth in decline as well as its changing ethnicity the top 1% is able to use the fear of losing one’s culture/ race /thus your place in America and activate this paranoid fear into a social movement called “conservatism”.
Like all ‘Regressive’ movements it will use violence and bullying to reach its end – but eventually reason will win out and fear will be overcome.
Society is becoming more compassionate and civilized and Progressive leaders like Obama (maybe with more political will) will be around far after you and I return to dust.
WOW I must say as a first time visitor that you sir, (VDH) have the most engaged and deep thinking people I have encountered as readers and comment(tators) participating in this monumental moment in US history..I shall stay tuned
So, I assume this means that Cornell West is a racist?
Of course, some of us have known that for years.
Re-elect me because these last four years could have been much worse; Obama’s new election strategy.
I just re-read a lot of the comments to take a second look at what others are saying. One paragraph stuck to my mind as being so correct and true, I decided to memorize it. For it tells us why we fight.
“We are not up against “progressives” and we are not up against “liberals”. The Democratic Party is run by small c communists, the mass media are their propaganda machine and we are at war with those who mean to overthrow our current system of government..via stealth, hidden agendas and coordinated distortion.”
Incidentally, cf, I did get a reply from Dr. Hanson. Well, from a member of his staff as I remember. She was very polite as she told me that the doctor has no desire to run for President of the United States.
We have a Gingrich and a Romney, and maybe they’ll step up and make us all proud, not to mention save this nation.
We need a Washington or a Lincoln. And, to my way of thinking, a Hanson.
rachel
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