by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n President Obama came close, but he still just cannot admit that his radical policies and their effects on the economy are the cause of his devastating political rebuke. For most of his press conference, an oddly depressed Obama voted present, as he all but said that the problems are mostly ours, not his \u2014 or at least not his agenda but perhaps an occasional inadequate communication.<\/p>\n In clingers fashion, he once more is talking down to us, explaining that we confused his necessary solutions with a bogeyman increase in big government, and so typically, in fright and ignorance, lashed out at his party. He is claiming the outrage grew from the same frustration that elected him, rather than arising precisely because of him and his agenda. In short, we are angry because his EU-socialist agenda is progressing too slowly and hasn\u2019t delivered as promised \u2014 as it will in time. Perhaps then we will thank him for his proper big-government, big-spending solution.<\/p>\n He seems bewildered (for the first time?) that his popularity as a campaign rhetorician did not last when he became responsible for actual governance. For most of the press conference, a humbled but deer-in-the-headlights Obama half-heartedly argued that the populist outrage against his own massive debt, huge wasteful government, and elitism was really outrage against the economy he inherited, an outrage that he shares. We don\u2019t know it, the president hints, but we are still angry at the Bush years, and yesterday mistakenly took our wrath out on Obama\u2019s methodical, albeit too slow, efforts at recovery. In short, there was little admission whatsoever that Obama\u2019s message and the way he pushed it turned off millions \u2014 there was no repentant Clinton, circa autumn 1994, here; instead, a shocked Obama who seems hurt that we do not appreciate him.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think the American people \u2014 who just last week heard their president boast that Republicans had to sit in the back seat, and that Latinos should punish their Republican \u201cenemies,\u201d and who have now given him the greatest midterm putdown in over a half-century \u2014 suddenly will pay much attention to his calls for an end to the old divisiveness.<\/p>\n Otherwise, I have two reactions to the election \u2014 one about the national scene, the other about my home state, California.<\/p>\n Had not some zealots talked of possible 90-to-100-seat gains, the Democrats would be in greater shock today at the near-historic 60+ House pick-up, along with a stunning near sweep of state legislatures and governorships, as well as gains in the Senate \u2014 and all a mere 21 months after the beginning of hope and change. The idea that we are going to copy EU socialism is dead. So is Keynesian massive borrowing. So is the promised second wave of Obamism, such as cap-and-trade and blanket amnesty. Obama\u2019s supporters can brag that erstwhile absolutely safe senior Democratic senators like Boxer and Reid managed to get reelected, but they must understand that Obama\u2019s vision and his method of enacting it simply turned off the vast majority of the country.<\/p>\n Some things also have to change on the conservative side. Congress must not remain hostage to farm-state representatives and senators, for whom the huge agricultural subsidy programs are sacrosanct; a decade ago, we went from \u201celiminating\u201d those programs via the \u201cFreedom to Farm\u201d Act to calling farm pork a post-9\/11 matter of national security. On the budget front, I doubt we will hear much talk, at least in the short term, of massive tax cuts that eventually will result in greater supply-side growth and thus greater revenue. Instead, I assume that any Republican tax-cut attempt will have to be matched in the here and now by a commensurate cut in spending, dollar for dollar \u2014 or rather, given the deficits, one dollar in tax cuts, two dollars in spending cuts. I also don\u2019t think we will see representatives bragging of the new pork-barrel community centers they brought home, with their own names plastered on them \u2014 at least for a while.<\/p>\n In California, there is some irony: The philosophy that led the state to the highest tax rates in the country, along with the near-worst schools, largest deficits, and most crumbling infrastructure, was reaffirmed. Now California\u2019s state government will have to deal with the reality that if the highest-tax state in the union raises taxes still higher, it will lose even more high earners than the current 3,000 who leave each week. A Republican Congress is not likely to bail out a bankrupt California. More likely, we will see even more of the present ad hoc government-by-euphemism. More \u201cfurloughs\u201d instead of pay cuts for unionized public employees, \u201ctemporary\u201d larger class sizes in the schools, more \u201cuser fees\u201d imposed by executive order in lieu of getting new taxes passed.<\/p>\n The state will continue to descend into a pyramidal society. On top there is the wealthy, leftist coastal elite from Napa to Hollywood, which is seemingly immune from the effects of high taxes and regulation (and wants more green laws, gay marriage, abortion, and therapeutic bromides). The top of the pyramid is in league with a growing underclass in part dependent upon a huge entitlement industry; this coalition thus favors more taxes, entitlements, unionized public employees, open borders, etc. Meanwhile, a squeezed middle-class private sector is slowly being strangled, shutting down, and leaving.<\/p>\n What are we left with? Public money in California running out is, in fact, a solution of sorts.<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online President Obama came close, but he still just cannot admit that his radical policies and their effects on the economy are the cause of his devastating political rebuke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[504],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-iu","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9797,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/when-normalcy-is-revolution\/","url_meta":{"origin":1146,"position":0},"title":"When Normalcy Is Revolution","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review Trump\u2019s often unorthodox style shouldn\u2019t be confused with his otherwise practical and mostly centrist agenda. By 2008, America was politically split nearly 50\/50 as it had been in 2000 and 2004. The Democrats took a gamble and nominated Barack Obama, who became the first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1211,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-obama-rope-a-dope\/","url_meta":{"origin":1146,"position":1},"title":"The Obama Rope-a-dope","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services After 2010, will he be Carter or Clinton? That is the ongoing parlor game now played among pundits over how President Obama will react to a probable shellacking of the Democrats in midterm elections next month. 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