by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n
FrontPage Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n This year will be a time of crisis and opportunity. The incompetence of President Obama is now manifest to all but his most devoted followers, who remain trapped in their progressive Jonestown, chanting the bankrupt mantra of \u201chope and change\u201d as they stir the vats of government Kool-Aid. For the rest of us, Obama\u2019s economic failures are obvious in the numbers: $15 trillion in debt, $4.5 trillion of it added just during his three years in office; 8.6% official unemployment, while the real number of jobless is more than 11%; the proliferation of job-killing regulations with an average annual cost of $12.5 billion; and a complete indifference to the looming crisis of \u201cunfunded liabilities\u201d created by entitlements, a tab that Andrew McCarthy has calculated at $80 trillion, more than the whole net worth of the richest country on the planet. All these fiscal dysfunctions are concentrated in the trillion-dollar entitlement called Obamacare, a hijacking of one-sixth of the economy that will increase government spending and debt, and strangle the healthcare industry with intrusive and expensive regulations.<\/p>\n This fiscal failure is matched by Obama\u2019s political malfeasance. The \u201cpost-racial\u201d president who would transcend party and unite all Americans has been one of the most divisive and partisan presidents in recent history. He has exacerbated racial tensions by recycling when politically convenient the old \u201cwhitey done us wrong\u201d melodrama peddled by the race-mongering hustlers and conmen. He even sacrificed his own grandmother to this narrative when he chastised her for voicing the perfectly rational fear of black criminality Jesse Jackson had once articulated. Lately his Attorney General Eric Holder, who once called Americans \u201ccowards\u201d on the subject of race, has been Obama\u2019s racialist Luca Brasi, using the coercive power of his office for his boss\u2019s political advantage. Look at Holder\u2019s ongoing legal thuggery against South Carolina\u2019s voter-ID law, one similar to others already deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court. With a record of dismal failure, not least being a worsening unemployment rate for black Americans, Obama must scare black voters to the polls in November by conjuring up dusty Jim Crow bogeys. As for the coming fiscal apocalypse, all Obama can do is play the class warfare and class envy cards, increasing income redistribution disguised as \u201cstimulus\u201d spending, as he castigates the \u201crich\u201d for not \u201cpaying their fair share\u201d \u2014 even though the top 10% already pay 70% of federal income taxes, and confiscating all the wealth of Forbes magazine\u2019s richest 400 Americans would barely cover Obama\u2019s 2011 deficit.<\/p>\n Then there is the crony capitalism that rewards political friends like the United Auto Workers and the \u201cgreen energy\u201d industry with tax-payer-funded bailouts and subsidies. Perhaps even worse are the disastrous policies the sole purpose of which is to gratify his political base and make sure the campaign donations keep flowing no matter how much damage such decisions inflict on the rest of the country. The refusal to approve the Keystone pipeline, which would create up to 20,000 jobs and replace the oil we now import from thug regimes like Hugo Chavez\u2019s with oil from a friendly Canada, is the most egregious example of partisan opportunism in recent memory. And it is just the latest decision \u2014 think of the ban on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP oil spill, or the EPA\u2019s assault on coal-fired power plants \u2014 that has harmed our economy and national security merely to gratify the juvenile nature-love of well-heeled bicoastal liberals.<\/p>\n Obama\u2019s foreign policy has been equally disastrous. To give him his due, he has kept in place much of the George Bush anti-terror apparatus he vilified as a candidate, though the proscribing of water-boarding has taken away an interrogation technique that generated reams of intelligence, including the information that allowed Obama to enjoy one of his few triumphs, the killing of Osama bin Laden. And his liberal use of drone attacks has been a cause for cheer.<\/p>\n But these few achievements are dwarfed by the more numerous failures. The attempt to push the \u201creset\u201d button with Russia by negotiating an unfavorable arms control agreement and backing off anti-missile installations in Eastern Europe gained us nothing but Russia\u2019s firmer intransigence against supporting meaningful sanctions against Iran. His \u201coutreach\u201d to the Muslim world, replete with protestations of American guilt and fantasy histories of Islamic tolerance and cultural achievement, has made America even more unpopular among Muslims than it was under George Bush, and done nothing to secure our national interests and security. Obama\u2019s groveling courtship of the mullahs in Iran has earned him nothing but contempt from a regime that continues to kill our soldiers, develop nuclear weapons, and most recently has threatened to close the straits of Hormuz.<\/p>\n The abandonment of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, and the \u201cleading from behind\u201d collusion with France and England in removing Gaddafi in Libya \u2014 with no clue about what sort of regimes would replace them \u2014 was another grievous error. Obama sacrificed our national prestige and security to gratify fantasies about liberal democracies midwifed by tech-savvy \u201cFacebook kids,\u201d who are now marginalized by Salafists and the Muslim Brothers eager to impose illiberal Sharia law. The precipitous withdrawal from Iraq, another decision based on politics rather than national interests, has instantly been followed by sectarian violence that threatens the fragile government we left behind, and opens up opportunities for a predatory Iran. Meanwhile, our staunchest ally in the Middle East, Israel, has been bullied and treated with contempt, her security endangered by this administration\u2019s incompetence. Obama has managed to convince the world that being America\u2019s friend is much more dangerous than being America\u2019s enemy.<\/p>\n This litany of failure culminated at the end of 2011 with the report that the Obama administration has been reaching out to Muslim Brother jurist Yusuf al-Qaradawi to help broker a deal with the Taliban. Qaradawi is a virulently anti-American and anti-Semitic fanatic who has called for the murder of American troops and Israeli citizens, and who champions jihad as a means for expanding Islamic Sharia law and recreating the caliphate. Worse yet, Obama is offering in return to release Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo, remove sanctions against the Taliban, and recognize those fanatical murderers of Americans as a legitimate political faction in Afghanistan. Like the administration\u2019s delusional fantasy that the Muslim Brothers are \u201cmoderate Islamists,\u201d this misbegotten \u201coutreach\u201d reflects massive ignorance and ideological myopia that the greatest power in the world simply cannot afford to indulge.<\/p>\n So much for the crisis, one brought to a head by these failures. But we are not doomed to sit passively by and suffer the consequences. Leave such determinism to the progressives and their materialist superstitions. We have it in our power to choose a different fate and to make our own history. The obvious opportunity we have this year is to vote Obama out of office, along with as many as his fellow-traveling congressmen as possible. This means we should end as quickly as we can the internecine primary squabbling and inquisitions into ideological purity, and choose as candidate the one who has the best chance of winning.<\/p>\n That much is obvious. But we also have to acknowledge that our problems reflect not just a bad president, but our own failures and betrayal of our defining political principles. I cannot do a better job of explaining these than political philosopher Paul Rahe does in his magisterial book\u00a0Soft Despotism, Democracy\u2019s Drift<\/em>, based on the remarkable prescience of Alexis de Tocqueville: \u201cIn consequence of our abandonment of our religious and moral heritage, of our rejection of the spirit of individual responsibility and the principles of limited government, over our own people today . . . there \u2018is elevated an immense, tutelary power,\u2019 whose aim is to take \u2018sole charge of assuring their enjoyment and of watching over their fate.\u2019 In America . . . this power is \u2018absolute, attentive to detail, regular, provident, and gentle.\u2019 It works willingly for our \u2018happiness,\u2019 but it exacts a price, for \u2018it wishes to be the only agent and the sole arbiter of that happiness.\u2019 It provides for our security, it foresees and supplies our needs, it guides us in our principal affairs, it directs our industry, it regulates our testaments, it divides our inheritances, and it covers the \u2018surface\u2019 of our society \u2018with a network of petty regulations \u2014 complicated, minute, and uniform.\u2019. . . Only on the rarest of occasions \u2018does it force one to act, but constantly opposes itself to one\u2019s acting on one\u2019s own; it does not destroy, it prevents things from being born; it does not tyrannize, it gets in the way: it curtails, it enervates, it extinguishes, it stupefies.\u2019 And step by step, relentlessly, with every passing day, as we gradually succumb to the spirit of irresponsibility and self-indulgence, this power grows in influence and scope, making us more and more like \u2018a herd of timid and industrial animals, of which the government is the shepherd.\u2019\u201d Obama\u2019s America is evident in every detail of this description.<\/p>\n The central challenge this coming year, then, is not just to win the election, but to effect a sea of change in our own thinking and expectations. This year the opportunity we must grasp is to shake off these bad habits of passive dependency accumulated under Republicans and Democrats alike, and return to the vision of the Founders: a republic of free and autonomous citizens who take responsibility for their own fates and managing their lives, and reject the \u201csoft despotism\u201d of the federal leviathan. Getting rid of Obama is just the first step.<\/p>\n \u00a92012 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine This year will be a time of crisis and opportunity. The incompetence of President Obama is now manifest to all but his most devoted followers, who remain trapped in their progressive Jonestown, chanting the bankrupt mantra of \u201chope and change\u201d as they stir the vats of government Kool-Aid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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":[22,271],"tags":[12,321,228,473,479,1043,88,1052,67],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-ja","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":360,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/explaining-the-democrats-success-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1188,"position":0},"title":"Explaining the Democrats’ Success","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton FrontPage Magazine The election postmortem has identified all manner of causes for the Republicans\u2019 defeat, from the \u201cwoman problem\u201d and the \u201cHispanic problem,\u201d as Peggy Noonan put it, to Romney\u2019s fat cat persona and his inept campaign. But there\u2019s a simpler reason, one consistent with the critics\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":171,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-nation-of-takers-hurtles-toward-the-fiscal-abyss\/","url_meta":{"origin":1188,"position":1},"title":"A Nation of Takers Hurtles Toward the Fiscal Abyss","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton Frontpage Magazine The on-going negotiations over avoiding the tax hikes and spending cuts we call the \u201cfiscal cliff\u201d are simply the latest act in a farce of self-serving political denial. For decades now both parties have overseen and nurtured the expansion of the entitlement state all the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":523,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-the-ryan-choice-means-for-november\/","url_meta":{"origin":1188,"position":2},"title":"What the Ryan Choice Means for November","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton Frontpage Magazine Last week\u2019s poll numbers seemingly confirmed the doubts about democracy\u2019s viability expressed in last week\u2019s\u00a0column. After a barrage of outrageous smears fired off by the Obama campaign, which accused Romney of killing a woman with cancer and failing to pay any income tax, Obama is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":862,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-a-creature-of-the-corrupt-university\/","url_meta":{"origin":1188,"position":3},"title":"Obama a Creature of the Corrupt University","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The November presidential election was the favorite topic at the Freedom Center\u2019s West Coast Retreat last weekend. Amidst the prognostications and arguments about which Republican would or should get the nomination, or how pessimistic or optimistic conservatives should be about defeating the President, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":335,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/explaining-the-democrats-success\/","url_meta":{"origin":1188,"position":4},"title":"Explaining the Democrats’ Success","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton Frontpage Magazine The election postmortem has identified all manner of causes for the Republicans\u2019 defeat, from the \u201cwoman problem\u201d and the \u201cHispanic problem,\u201d as Peggy Noonan put it, to Romney\u2019s fatcat persona and his inept campaign. But there\u2019s a simpler reason, one consistent with the critics of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Political Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Political Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/political-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":454,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/let-bush-be\/","url_meta":{"origin":1188,"position":5},"title":"Let Bush Be","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The theme of the president's 2012 re-election campaign is that George W. Bush left such a terrible mess that Barack Obama could hardly be expected to clean it up in four years. In other words, 43 months of unemployment rates above 8 percent,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Punditry"","block_context":{"text":"Punditry","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/punditry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1188"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5658,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188\/revisions\/5658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}