The more totalitarian a state’s ambitions are, and the further to the left it goes (but I repeat myself), the more it needs an enemy to demonize. Which is why, in the future, everyone will be Emmanuel Goldstein for 15 minutes — and the future, under the “Them vs. Us Presidency,” is now, Victor Davis Hanson writes:
The White House has apparently decided to continue with its them-vs.-us polarization. I suppose finding demons revs up the base and provides fodder for local races’ (mostly ad hominem) ads.
Almost every ten days, a new bogeyman appears — John Boehner, Fox News, the Tea Party, Rush Limbaugh, or this week’s, the Chamber of Commerce, all as fresh relish to the main course: George Bush and Dick Cheney.
When the history of this administration is written, a key theme will be the abyss between the hope-and-change, across-the-aisle rhetoric and the almost gratuitous way Obama has caricatured his supposed opponents. The current “don’t make me look bad”/“like a dog” psychodrama follows attacks of various sorts on Arizonans, Wall Street, opponents of the Ground Zero mosque, insurers, police, doctors, and anyone above the hated $250,000 income level.
After the media’s embarrassment over the hagiographic coverage of Obama in 2007–9, they still cannot quite fathom that we have the most lashing-out and paranoid president since Richard Nixon — a nebulous and nefarious “they” always behind every administration stumble.
One of Ace’s co-bloggers adds to VDH’s list:
Remember when we started talking about Obama’s inevitable temper tantrum over a year ago? I was just reminded of that this week with the White House’s lashing out at, well, pretty much everybody: Wall Street, apathetic Democrats, Boehner, the Chamber of Commerce, the “professional left,” Rove, congressional Republicans, congressional Democrats, bankers, the “rich” (for not spending money), Israel, Arizona, Fox News (his go-to, evergreen Emmanuel Goldstein) , the TEA Party, Limbaugh, Beck, Bush, police, insurance companies, the media (for “distorting” the news), doctors, and, of course, America. I’m sure there are others, like the recent, preemptive, “Don’t make me look bad” (or I’ll have to lash out at you too). Mostly it has been serial lashing out, but lately there has been a bit of an overlap–a logjam of blame. All of this hearkens back to something Ace mentioned last January–something that Victor Davis Hanson touched on yesterday–that there is always a “they” to spirit away the sins of Reverse Jesus.
Which helps to place the attacks on the Chamber into perspective, Allahpundit writes. It’s not personal, it’s strictly business, Sonny:
Obama’s always needed a villain for his messianic passion plays. At first it was Rush Limbaugh for saying “I hope he fails,” then it was the health-care townhall “angry mobs,” then it was Fox, then it was the tea party, then John Boehner, then Palin, now it’s the Chamber of Commerce. There’s always someone standing at the foot of the cross, sippin’ on a Slurpee, while our poor unappreciated president spends trillions that we don’t have in order to redeem our sins. Look at it this way, Chamber members: It’s not that The One has it in for you. It was simply your turn.
On the other hand, could the Chamber actually be hiding something? This video reveals all….
Related: And speaking of VDH and Orwell analogies, here’s Scott Johnson of Power Line on “The Stanford Daily’s Two Minute Hate.”
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