by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n From the Embarrassing to the Pathetic<\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u2019t want to beat the proverbial dead horse, but these media polarities are getting to the point of absurdity. Bush, the lazy golfer while we were at war; Obama the engaged commander-in-chief playing golf for needed relaxation more in one year than in Bush\u2019s eight. Katrina, the emblem of federal inaction and culpable incompetence; the BP slick, either a result of private greed overwhelming noble federal auditors or proof of the Obamian competent response. Bush\u2019s illegal war clearly alienating Muslims and thus creating terrorists daily; laughable excuses from a terrorist that Obama\u2019s stepped-up targeted Predator assassinations \u201ccreated\u201d would-be killers such as himself. Right wingers in bed with Wall Street oligarchs greedily crafting federal policy for the exploiting class; Obama for some odd reason, no doubt in the end a noble reason, taking more money from the likes of Goldman Sachs and British Petroleum than any politician in history. The Bush-Cheney nexus shredding the Constitution with the Patriot Act, Guantanamo, Predators, and renditions; Obama the civil libertarian reluctantly forced to maintain or expand such protocols, albeit at last under a watchful liberal eye. Bush\u2019s \u201clost\u201d war in Iraq miraculously soon to be Obama\u2019s \u201cgreatest achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n What is the theory behind all this other than partisanship or cynicism? I think it involves the power of faith and the irrational, in some cases not confined to the left. (e.g., I once got a prominent conservative angry at me when I suggested Reagan embraced large deficits, signed an amnesty bill, wanted nuclear disarmament, and raised payroll taxes). Politics is a religion, never more so than in the case of Obama. And true believers always prefer the saintly explanation rather than the most logical.<\/p>\n An Era of Zero Interest<\/strong><\/p>\n I went to two banks the other day. The interest rates on interest checking, or short-term savings, or money market accounts (without tying money up for a half year or so) were all below 1%. In my lifetime of some 56 years, I cannot recall lower rates. I just refinanced last fall a loan at 4.8%. Two observations. That is quite a spread of profitability for banks; and, two, given inflation at 2-3%, it seems better to borrow than to save. For conservative, thrifty retirees, worried about the mercurial stock market in the post-2008 days and post-real estate crash age, there is essentially little income to be had from their savings. I don\u2019t follow the inter-workings of either the Federal Reserve or the Treasury Department, but as an historian I note only that we are in a cycle in which debt trumps capital, and we are witnessing an enormous redistribution of wealth far beyond the implications of new tax policies. Interest income on savings simply has ceased to exist for millions \u2014 leading to profits for banks, and essentially cheap money (the interest rate minus inflation) for debtors. Was this an artifact of the recession or a planned act, and have we seen anything quite like it in recent memory?<\/p>\n Verdict in on Red\/Blue?<\/strong><\/p>\n A number of recent comparative studies of economic performance broken down by state, and in some by county, are revealing. The worst performers are California and Michigan, and the most dismal counties are mostly in the interior of California. In other words, we have been given a rare laboratory study (as if Greece\/Germany were not enough) of the financial consequences of high taxes, large government, and generous entitlements versus lower taxes, less government, and less entitlements. Note what I mean by \u201cstudy\u201d: if an entity were to have generous services and high taxes, then its financial health might be no different from its antithesis that opted for fewer services and lower taxes, all things otherwise being equal. But that is not happening: the high service governments are running out of money despite their high taxes, as people either shut down, move away, or hide income, while others on the receiving end either lose incentive to seek employment or increase their claims. And in the case of the Central Valley of California we see the perfect storm of cut-offs of contracted irrigation water to thousands of once productive acres (in this, the wettest year since 2006 with an enormous snow pack), the flood of illegal immigration, a nearly bankrupt Medical system and social service agencies, and tens of thousands of high-earners, who for reasons of taxes, crime, and failing schools, have been leaving Modesto, Merced, Fresno, and Bakersfield in droves.<\/p>\n Immaculate Destruction<\/p>\n \u201cOrwellian\u201d is overused, but what other word is there for the recent spate of terrorist incidents \u2014 a Maj. Hasan, Mutallab, and Shahzad? Hasan was given exemption to hate, due to political correctness (cf. Gen. Casey\u2019s reaction to the murders by lamentation over possible harm to his diversity program). Mutallab was an \u201calleged\u201d terrorist (as smoke wafted from his groin?) and Mirandized, his own father\u2019s warnings unheeded, while Shahzad seems to have brazenly operated, perhaps suspecting that we would be far more worried about a \u201cwhite terrorist\u201d angry over healthcare than a Pakistani naturalized citizen who voiced his anger freely and traveled quite often to Pakistan, that oasis of religious tolerance. My liberal friends have assured me that Obama\u2019s reset-button diplomacy, apology tour, Cairo speechifying, euphemisms (\u201coverseas contingency operations\u201d and the like), \u201cvirtual\u201d closing of Guantanamo, and all that trashing of Bush gave him the cover to step up renditions, tribunals, and Predators, and escalate in Afghanistan without either liberal or Middle East criticism. Perhaps. But aside from the hypocrisy and cynicism involved in such thinking, we are in a symbolic war as well. And so far the philological message has been: \u201cWe Americans under Bush were culpable in our war against you, and promise to be nicer to you and harder on those who were not nice to you.\u201d For many in al-Qaeda, they look to words and symbols \u2014 aside from the Predator body counts and the days that Guantanamo is still open past Obama\u2019s promised closure date \u2014 and they see a stumbling pony not a strong stallion. They are encouraged and emboldened \u2014 and they act. To quote our president, \u201cDon\u2019t tell me words don\u2019t matter!\u201d<\/p>\n Some Modest Suggestions for the May Day Protestors<\/strong><\/p>\n Suggestions for open borders advocates: do not plan protests on May Day. It is traditionally associated with hard left politics and embodies precisely the message you do not wish to convey \u2014 not when 60% of the voters either support the tough Arizona law or feel it is too soft. Ban all Mexican flags at your demonstrations: when they are ubiquitous, your message, fairly or not, comes across as \u201cI am waving the flag of a nation that drove me, in desperation and in poverty, to seek a new life away from it, and I am chanting in anger at policies of a majority of a nation that I most definitely wish to stay in.\u201d Do not showcase anybody from the National Council of La Raza. This is 2010. The \u201cRace\u201d is a fossilized word; in a society of Asians, blacks, whites, and everything in between, even the mere scent of racialism is odious and, again, counter-productive. Finally, get the narrative straight on the Left. Are the bad guys the unscrupulous employers who hire cheap labor or the same employers that give illegal aliens a job? Are aliens union-busting low wage earners or allied workers who reflect the solidarity of the toiling classes? Are aliens fellow people of color victimized by the dominant culture, or undercutters who ensure that poor African-Americans and first-generation Hispanics cannot organize for decent wages? And again, is Mexico a corrupt cadre of elites who oppress indigenous peoples and drive them out in expectation that they in turn will send back billions of dollars in subsidies, or a revolutionary mentor that energizes \u201cLatinos\u201d of the U.S. in their struggle for social justice (e.g., when the ubiquitous Mexican consular official habitually lectures the U.S. on the maltreatment of an illegal alien that fled Mexico, are we to laugh or cry?)?<\/p>\n What is the role of race? The accusation is that those who want laws enforced do so for racist purposes (e.g., as if they would not object to a million white Canadians each year, without diplomas and English, illegally swarming into Montana or the Dakotas); but to emphasize racism, why display all those placards that encourage racial solidarity? The message should be: \u201cWe want to get far away from Mexico, learn English, learn all about the traditions of this wonderful country we are fleeing to, and embrace the American notion of the content of our character rather than skin color.\u201d Somehow I don\u2019t get that from the demonstrations, the talking heads, and the politicians. \u201cThe borders crossed us,\u201d \u201cGet over it,\u201d and Che flags just don\u2019t resonate that lost message.<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media From the Embarrassing to the Pathetic I don\u2019t want to beat the proverbial dead horse, but these media polarities are getting to the point of absurdity. Bush, the lazy golfer while we were at war; Obama the engaged commander-in-chief playing golf for needed relaxation more in one year than […]<\/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":[589],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-pW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":137,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/bush-reconsidered\/","url_meta":{"origin":1608,"position":0},"title":"Bush Reconsidered","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online George W. Bush left office in January 2009 with one of the lowest job-approval ratings for a president (34 percent) since Gallup started compiling them \u2014 as compared to Harry Truman\u2019s low of 32 percent, Richard Nixon\u2019s of 24 percent, and Jimmy Carter\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Retrospective"","block_context":{"text":"Retrospective","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/retrospective\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1990,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-fairer-verdict-on-bush\/","url_meta":{"origin":1608,"position":1},"title":"A Fairer Verdict On Bush","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A reassessment of the 43rd president has already begun. by Victor Davis Hanson Forbes Magazine Critics are tallying the Bush administration's pluses and minuses, and some consensus is emerging that in time George W. Bush, like Harry Truman, will be seen in a far more favorable light than his low\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2009"","block_context":{"text":"December 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/december-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1251,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/rethinking-george-bush\/","url_meta":{"origin":1608,"position":2},"title":"Rethinking George Bush?","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Former President George W. Bush left office with the lowest approval ratings since Richard Nixon. In reaction, for nearly two years President Barack Obama won easy applause by prefacing almost every speech on his economic policies with a \"Bush did it\" put-down. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2010"","block_context":{"text":"September 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/september-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5907,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/bushs-warranted-rehabilitation-will-come\/","url_meta":{"origin":1608,"position":3},"title":"Bush’s Warranted Rehabilitation Will Come","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner George W. Bush\u2019s September 14, 2001, so-called \u201cbullhorn\u201d speech, that he gave with his arm around fireman Bob Beckwith at Ground Zero (\u201cI can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people \u2014 and the people who knocked these buildings\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Retrospective"","block_context":{"text":"Retrospective","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/retrospective\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":720,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-hypocritic-oath\/","url_meta":{"origin":1608,"position":4},"title":"Obama’s Hypocritic Oath","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Barack Obama has a habit of identifying a supposed crisis in collective morality, damning straw men \u201cthem\u201d who engage in such ethical lapses, soaring with rhetorical bromides \u2014 and then, to national quiet, doing more or less the exact things he once swore\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Second Term Policies"","block_context":{"text":"Second Term Policies","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/second-term-policies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":115,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/when-big-deficits-became-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":1608,"position":5},"title":"When Big Deficits Became Good","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services As a senator and presidential candidate, Barack Obama said that he detested budget deficits. In 2006, when the aggregate national debt was almost $8 trillion less than today, he blasted George W. Bush's chronic borrowing and refused to vote for upping the debt\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Debt and Deficits"","block_context":{"text":"Debt and Deficits","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/politics\/debt-and-deficits\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1608"}],"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=1608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1609,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1608\/revisions\/1609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}