Angry Reader #3

by Victor Davis Hanson

Private Papers

Angry Reader #3 writes:

I won’t take the time to deconstruct your little essay line by line but trust me, almost everything you post is pure, unadulterated, kool-aid-inspired nonsense straight from the fever-swamp of the Reich-wing disinformation echo-chamber, all of it intended to create the Invisible Obama that only you and your ilk can see, a fascist, socialist, communist, Muslim, foreign-born, Manchurian Candidate out to impose Sharia Law and destroy America. And, oh yeah, he can’t think for himself so must read thoughts programed by others on a teleprompter and his wife wants to make us eat carrots.

VDH replies:

Calm down and take a deep breath. Why does the Left become unhinged anytime it cannot address an argument, and instead raises all sorts of straw men. Let’s go through these fantasies:

“Invisible Obama”: Actually Obama is pretty transparent: class warfare: “you didn’t build that!”; race: “punish our enemies”; the US: exceptional only to the degree that Greece or the UK believe they are too; energy: Solyndra, inflating our tires and tuning up cars; Steven Chu’s $9-a-gallon gas, etc.

“fascist”: I never wrote that and don’t believe it, although the Chicago strong-arm tactics and circumvention of the law by executive orders, from granting amnesty to trying to shut down a Boeing plant, are disturbing.

“Socialist”: Obama, not I, was a member of the socialist New Party in his Chicago political days. When one laments that the Supreme Court did not take up forced redistribution, or brags about trying to ‘spread the wealth’ or believes the private businessperson did not build his business, then what are we to call it?

“communist”: Never used such a term.

“Muslim”: As Hillary Clinton said, I take Obama at his word that he was a Trinity Church, Rev. Wright Christian.

“Foreign born”: Never said that. I believe he was born in the US, but I do believe that for some strange reason, Obama simply does not disclose his medical records, his college transcripts, and delayed for no reason authorizing his birth certificate release.

“Manchurian Candidate”: Never said that — why resort to fiction when reality offers enough depressing examples?

“Sharia Law”: Never said that. Obama does not wish to impose Sharia Law, but seems oblivious to its repercussions abroad, given that his Director of Intelligence called the Muslim Brotherhood largely “secular,” and he can’t quite utter the word “radical Islam” or “Islamic terrorism” in association with terrorism, thus we get “overseas contingencies operations”, “man-caused disasters”, “workplace violence”, etc.

“Destroy America”: Never said that. But when Obama promised to “fundamentally transform America,” many of us would interpret that as ending the America that brought us to such a preeminent world position and was such a generator of wealth and freedom. Equality of result and redistribution, whether in the USSR, South America, China, Africa, or the EU, has always been a sure prescription for serfdom.

“teleprompter”: Anyone who listens to Obama speak on his teleprompter and compares that scripted mellifluousness with either his debates (dating back to his one against Bobbie Rush) or his rare press conferences, can appreciate the abyss between his gift at reading and his inability to think and speak on his feet.

“carrots”: I have no problem with Michelle’s diet crusade, given the national epidemic of obesity and the staggering healthcare costs to treat it on the horizon. But from her earliest college days to her 2008 campaign slurs (‘never been proud’, ‘downright angry country’, ‘raise the bar’, etc.) there was a recurring theme: the benefits of compensatory affirmative action seemed to make her ever more angry in direct proportion to the greater salary and influence she garnered. As First Lady, she has wisely cooled the rhetoric, but now back on the campaign trail, she voices once more the absurd, such as a strong recovering economy, and the continual oppression facing minorities. Does Ms. Obama really feel her admission and record at Princeton, Harvard Law School, and initial work at a law firm and the University of Chicago were hurt by her racial status — rather than enhanced? All we expect is a little honesty.

This was another rant, not a commentary. When I look at the last spate of campaign ads, the Dunham actress comparing voting for Obama with sex, or the Michael Moore vulgar ad with the elderly promising riots and groin punching, or school kids singing of a Romney Armaggedon, there is the consistent Sixties theme of vulgarity, hysteria, and poor taste — just like these commentaries.