By Victor Davis Hanson // Works and Days by PJ Media
President Obama is boxed in a state of paralysis—more so than typical lame-duck presidents.
His hard-left politics have insidiously eroded the Democratic Party, which has lost both houses of Congress and the vast majority of the state legislatures, state elected offices, and governorships. Obama has redefined the black vote, as a necessary, no-margin-of-error 95% bloc majority to offset his similar creation of an increasingly monolithic 65% bloc white vote. We are no longer individual voters, but, in Chicago-politics style, merely faceless “Latinos,” “Asians,” “African-Americans,” “gays,” “women,” and now “whites.”
Obama issues a new initiative—and the nation snoozes. He wastes the day on the golf links—and the nation snoozes. He smear his critics, invites a rapper to the White House whose latest album cover has a dead white judge lying in front of the White House—and the nation snoozes. He cozies up to America’s enemies and snubs our friends—and the nation snoozes. For the nth time, he blusters about closing down Guantanamo—and the nation snoozes. He opens the border even wider to welcome in more illegal aliens and future constituents—and the nation snoozes. Lame duckestry means not even being able to wake up your opponents.
There is so far no Obama legacy, except the creation of Donald Trump, a $20 trillion debt and zero interest rates—and the gift of flat energy prices that came despite not because of Obama’s efforts. Almost every major bureaucracy is awash in scandal or charges of incompetence. The common theme of the disasters at the GSA, EPA, ICE, IRS, NASA, Secret Service, and VA is ideological subversion and ingrained hostility to meritocracy. Would anyone be surprised that another government official pled the 5th, created fake email personas, resigned at 5 PM on a Friday afternoon, declared a foremost mission Muslim outreach, or withheld subpoenaed documents?
Obamacare, borne of rank partisanship and serial mendacity, can survive until 2017, only by bailouts and executive-order manipulations. We now call health care affordable by ignoring the new astronomical deductibles: we pay premiums of $6,000 a year and forget that an annual $4,000 “deductible” ensures no one thinks the real cost is $10,000. Is that a small price to pay to ensure granny has contraceptive coverage?
Americans shrug that Obama has left the world abroad a far scarier place. Libya has been destroyed. We can see in Iraq what Obama would have done to South Korea had he been in Eisenhower’s shoes. Syria’s death toll is nearing Saddam Hussein’s. We gave up our golden special relationship with Israel for one of dross with an Islamist and roundly disliked Turkey that, logically, now dislikes us.
What was astonishing about Obama’s empty red lines that finished off any lingering sense of U.S. credibility and deterrence in the Middle East was that after issuing such threats and then ignoring them, Obama then blamed the UN and the U.S. Congress for setting them!
But then again, he blamed congressional Republicans for opposing the Iran deal and compared House members to Iranian theocrat hardliners, in a way his team earlier had compared them to suicide bombers. Even Neville Chamberlain did not blame Winston Churchill for the “peace for our time” travesty. In a tragic sort of way, Obama has reminded us how savage is human nature, by demonstrating that a vicious thug like Putin won more of an amoral world’s respect for his savagery than a whining Obama earned pity for his diffidence.
While the Middle East is aflame, China is marking out new atolls to control, like toll pirates of the 17th century, European-Asian sea traffic. Russia is eyeing neighbors, unsure only whether gratuitously embarrassing Obama is worth the hassle of another annexation. Is the solution to global tensions really a trip to Cuba or shutting down Guantanamo by executive order? When Castro soon harangues Obama in Havana for his country’ sins, will he, as he did after Daniel Ortega’s April 2009 dressing down in Trinidad, sheepishly reply with, “I’m grateful that President Castro did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old”?
Obama cannot address the massive debt he has run up. He cannot address entitlement reform. He has neither the imagination to offer solutions, nor the disposition to share accomplishment with any other than himself—even if he had the political clout to compromise and reach consensus. For the next nine months the Obama presidency will be mostly teeth-gnashing and petulance. He will offer executive orders and do his best to incite division and rancor from a somnolent public, the more the better to please his hard-core base, and to pave the way for a lucrative (and iconic) post-presidency among leftwing foundations, universities, non-profits, foreign governments, sports, Hollywood, Goldman Sachs progressives, and the media.
But at least Obama was an iconic president, who transformed racial relations? Not really. Perhaps no single individual has done more to erode racial reconciliation than did Barack Obama. The racialism of the 2008 campaign — the nativist clingers of Pennsylvania, his “typical white person” grandmother who did so much to ensure his own upper-middle-class prep-school existence, the savage anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism of consigliore Rev. “audacity of hope” Wright, the childish calls to “get in their faces” and “bring a gun to a knife fight” — really was the foundation for the next eight years of Trayvon Martin as the lost Obama son, the Ferguson mythologies, racism explains all opposition to Obama, the beer summit, “punish our enemies,” and Eric Holder’s “nation of cowards” and “my people.”
Obama’s racial legacy is the strange phenomenon of whiny, wealthy black elites—whether a Skip Gates, Spike Lee, Melissa Harris-Perry, Will Smith, or Chris Rock—acting hurt and oppressed if rewards to elites such as themselves are not doled out on the basis of racial percentages. When Oprah feels disrespected at a Zurich boutique called Trois Pommes for not being shown quickly enough a $38,000 crocodile-skin handbag for sale by a European clerk, we are supposed to feel across the Atlantic the ripples of Jim Crow racial psychodramas.
America is now supposed to work on a strict 13 percent racial spoils system, everywhere except in non-disparate impact professional sports or federal employment. Complaining that an awards show this year only had 10% black nominees in the top categories (3% short?) is about like whining that the secretary of State was either black or female or both for over 15 years between 1997 and 2013. Who knew, who cared? Will the NFL face court orders to recruit Asian-American split ends, with outreach, mentorship, and proportional representation writs? Are there no talented Hmong or Vietnamese athletes in a nation of 330 million who can run, catch, and hit? Or are the criteria for NFL participation arbitrary and likely culturally constructed? In our sick society, is cultural appropriation white rappers with cornrows or black opera singers with blond Scandinavian-like streaks in their hair? Neither or both?
Christians are baited at their prayer breakfasts with pseudo-historical snipes at the Crusades. Cairo-speech mythohistories pass for foreign policy. Euphemisms about terrorism only empower radical Islam. The mythologies of Ferguson are canonized at the UN. All that can be said for all this and more is that our enemies were put off guard and confused that a president of the United States seemed so intent on deprecating his own country and traditions, and thus could think Obama’s sermonizing might really be some elaborate hoax, con, or Trojan Horse.
Nothing in the last eight years is sustainable or can be emulated. Race relations will change after Obama for the simple reason that if they were to continue on his segregationist trajectory we would quite soon end up like Bosnia or Beirut. Fiscal policy will change, because if we followed Obama’s all “by his lonesome” Bank of China credit-card binge borrowing of another $10 trillion in the next eight years, the country would implode. Monetary policy will change because eight more years of zero interest would wipe out the age-old idea of the wisdom of saving money altogether. Government policy will change because the bureaucracy cannot endure legions of more Lois Lerners, Lisa Jacksons, Kathleen Sebeliuses, Hilda Solises, or Eric Holders. Health care will change after Obama, because if Obamacare were to persist, the entire country would turn to cash-only concierge medicine. Foreign policy will change after Obama, because to persist with his policies would lead to four or five major theater wars, a nuclear Middle East, Russia in the Baltic states, and Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan as client states of China.
Immigration will change, because to follow Obama’s open borders policy is to arbitrarily declare federal law null and void, and to establish the roots of a new third world country, neither American nor Mexican, along the border, but inside the United States. The media will change after Obama because it is about to be enshrined as an embarrassing government Ministry of Truth. It cannot again proclaim that the next president is the smartest person in the history of the presidency, a veritable god, a wizard that can lower the seas and cool the planet or send tingles down our legs or make us wish to press our pants just like the commander in chief. At some point, journalists will get back to sniping that the next president should know that there are not 57 states, that “corpseman” is not the proper pronunciation, that the trilled politically correct name for the Falklands is not the Maldives, and that presidents do not normally make fun of the Special Olympics.
We are witnessing the lamest of the lame-duck presidencies, with the power neither to act nor inspire—nor even to shock or surprise.
Discussion (24)
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Undeniably believe that which you said. Your favorite reason seemed to be on the net the simplest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I certainly get annoyed while people consider worries that they just don't know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top as well as defined out the whole thing without having side effect , people could take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks
Obama is no lame duck. Obama is chickenshit.
Few will bother to read this and fewer still understand.
As a lay person with less than one tenth the number of 'scholarly' awards that you have received, I found your article very Insightful....everything until I read this... "Obama’s racial legacy is the strange phenomenon of whiny, wealthy black elites—whether a Skip Gates, Spike Lee, Melissa Harris-Perry, Will Smith, or Chris Rock—acting hurt and oppressed if rewards to elites such as themselves are not doled out on the basis of racial percentages." As a lay person, it shows you have no clue how the experiences of the so called 'wealthy black elites' echo the what is truly going on the lives of the not so elite. But, its clear which demographic you were writing the above quote for. As far as the rest of the article is concerned: It would have been better to balance your article because the hyperbolic exaggerations of the failures of the Obama administration contained in this piece makes you lose credibility. This lay person grades you D minus for impact. A plus for style. Enjoy your day.
This is a short list of those who fear/despise Donald Trump: El Chapo (has a contract out on Trump), Reverend Al Sharpton (promised to leave the country if Trump wins), Mitt Romney, Vincente Fox, Republican billionaire puppet masters, billionaire Wall Street supporters of Hillary Clinton, Jorge Ramos, effete anti-American Europeans, snooty, know-it-all academics, Garry Trudeau, Alfredo Guttierez, National Review, the Mexican finance minister, Rosie O'Donnell, the neocons, Mexican drug cartels, Chris Rock, Megyn Kelly, the Democratic National Committee, the Republican National Committee, Barack Obama, every MSNBC air personality, every Fox News air personality (with one or two exceptions), Christie Whitman (compared Trump to Hitler and Mussolini but not Stalin), Stephen Colbert, the Koch Brothers, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter, Big Finance, Big Pharma, Big Insurance, Big Military Industrial Complex, K Street, the vast legions of Washington DC lobbyists...etc., etc., etc. This is a short list of those who support Donald Trump: The American people.
Dear Mr. Hanson, I have been a fan ever since a friend sent me one of your articles. I can only hope that we will survive a president who promised to fundamentally change our country. He has changed our country; he has ruined a relationship between blacks and whites by inciting anger and discontent when, in fact, that relationship had improved dramatically, I thought. Somehow, without being thoroughly vetted, he was nominated and won the presidency. Where was Republican outcry when Democrats questioned John McCain's eligibility? I think Republicans have been too passive and must take the high road when vetting a candidate, be he or she Democrat or Republican. I did not vote for Obama because, as a Chicagoan, I read articles about him. He was a Senator who voted "Present" in response to Important issues, which means they were non-votes. He didn't seem to me to be a vital candidate. Of course our votes were non-votes in a country that was eager to have the first black president. A person's color is insignificant to decent people; instead, that person's character and past should be vetted for our country's sake. Had that been done, we wouldn't be in the trouble we are in today. But, we can see we haven't learned from past experience. Now we have another person running for president who has a questionable past. And, incredibly, she is not being vetted. And if her past is being questioned, the people who will be voting for her are not interested in vetting her. It's a real dilemma! I think something must be done to educate our people of the importance of choosing a candidate who seeks the presidency with love for country and not for personal gain. We need another Ronald Reagan or Abraham Lincoln.
Excellent summation
Super article VDH, totally 100% correct on the Press, Pols and O especially. I just wonder when the Blacks in America will finally figure it out that the Left is there biggest enemy, and I assume that the Hispanics are in the same boat. The Left want to divide and conquer all, it's what only helps the Left. When Americans stand together is when they are the strongest. Great article!
"The media will change after Obama because it is about to be enshrined as an embarrassing government Ministry of Truth." The Media elites are more to blame than anyone else, they have been lying for decades and are only in it for the prestige (inside connections to Pols & Hollywood stars) and money. The Press has morphed and changed to be the tool of the Global Corp elites. If this doesn't change nothing will anywhere else.
Frighteningly spot on. Well done, Professor.
Even though all you write is true, and I wish more would follow your writings, I do not have much hope for us US. The fix is in, and I believe our government provokes us more by the day, no, the hour, in the hope that we will respond with violence, in order to throw off our chains, much the same as was done in the Revolutionary War. Leviathan has the means in place, within every agency, to crush same............
Thank you and bless you, Prof. Victor Hanson, for your continuing efforts to reveal and analyze the gathering symptoms of our 21st Century "decline of the west". Myself a writer with family memories of Stanford, I know that gearing up to comment on each infuriating and sad new major item in the news of the day requires psychological commitment above and beyond the call of your normal academic duties. It is comforting for me to feel that someone else is "bearing witness", but nerve-racking to know that our children will have to experience and deal with the outcome.
You wrote: "merely faceless “Latinos,” “Asians,” “African-Americans,” “gays,” “women,” and now “whites.”" True. Because our political system has become overly corrupt; votes by all the latter are bought and paid for, particularly by Democrats. I am afraid that we are past the tipping point so your 2nd to last paragraph will not be realized. Additionally, we cannot remain an American culture if you replace Americans with non-American cultures. Like it or not, PC or not, America was founded by Europeans, not by Africans and/or "Hispanics" (Mexico through South America - indigenous "Indians"). Israel is a Jewish nation because it is inhabited by Jews, not Arabs. We are not a melting pot; After our founding by Europeans, immigrants were predominantly European, not Black or Brown. Europeans made America. Blacks and Browns are destroying America, with the help of corrupt White politicians; the goose that lays golden eggs is being killed by parasites. I am afraid that our coming election, no matter if a Republican is elected, will not save America because our demographic is irretrievably changed. One thing could restore our Country is a second 1776. Those with American values will be allowed to remain, whether White, Black, or Brown. The corrupt and the parasites must leave.
Another brilliant article, lets hope Hanson doesn't get tired or discouraged. I excerpt talking points from Hanson's articles for e-mailing and as talking points in answer to other blogs. I always credit Hanson in hope that others will subscribe to his e-mail and read his voluminous missives
Obama is super smart but he is an evil man. His agenda is FAR from a pro-american one and he wants to be the leader of the U.N next or a Supreme Court Justice. Could you imagine Obama in the Supreme Court? If we aren't already finished by the time his term is up we DEFINITELY would be if he was elected to SCOTUS.
Well, Prof. Hanson, you may slag Vladimir Putin all you want, but he is bombing the Hell out of ISIS, and the US is doing nothing effective. And may I remind you, that the US has the best surveillance system ever, and yet "somehow" failed to note the ISIS oil convoys. Who profited from this blind eye? As for Oprah, she turned on a clerk "for not being shown quickly enough a $38,000 crocodile-skin handbag for sale", and yet English almost certainly was the clerk's third language.
I wish I had been one of Victor's students.
Well? It's been proven...I guess. You can fool some of the people some of the time and even some of the people all of the time. Also? lol There's a sucker born every minute. No one in his whole entourage ever had the guts to tell the guy that he was a total jackass? And they thought Bibi was a coward. Let's all just be thankful for the mans incompetence. If he'd had a tenth of the Weimar republics last chancellor's abilities we'd be in way more trouble.
"...from a somnolent public..." I don't think so...look at the rise of Trump. The public is not somnolent, they're energetic and pissed. Obama may have unwittingly given rise to a "White Pride" movement.
I'm really disappointed to see the political term "lame duck" so misused. As I understood the term it referred to a officeholder holding an office for the period of time between an election for that office and when the newly elected candidate would be sworn in to hold that position. As the term is used here it applies to every congressman. They would all be lame duck congressmen. The entire House of Representatives would be lame ducks!
I welcome readers comments
Sorry, Victor, in your repeated description and characterization of "the nation snoozes". I beg to differ, in your otherwise excellent article. You left out the most key point( in my opinion). With all of these policies of Obama and the societal changes, you left out the Congress, and all of those we donated to, walk the neighborhoods for, made phone calls, to get them elected, the "CONGRESS SNOOZED". The third branch of our government that is to represent the people, and counter balance this "king of the USA"
Dr. Hanson knows America better than anyone else I know or ever heard of.
ten more months, and the coming election seems to suggest we are not digging it out anytime soon....