by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
NRO’s\u00a0The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n What a Difference a Year Makes<\/strong><\/p>\n A year ago the media resonated with the celebration of democracy, grassroots pushback against the existing order, the renewal of Congress, and the novel harmony between government and the people.<\/p>\n Now? Suddenly all this seems to be inoperative: Our institutions are supposedly broken and fossilized, rendered so by partisanship or inherent structural problems such as filibusters. The people themselves have almost magically gone from enlightened to dense, gullible, and undeserving of their one chance at progressive salvation.<\/p>\n So what changed? The Obama administration offered a statist agenda of massive deficits, and it blamed Bush for America’s current problems. The people revolted, and even the combined power of large Democratic congressional majorities, a ministry-of-truth media, and an Ivy League technocracy could not push through hope and change \u2014 largely due to Democratic legislators’ worries that they were walking out on a plank that would soon be sawed off by the next election.<\/p>\n The implosion of the Obama administration is newsworthy, but not as astonishing as this petulant liberal reappraisal of both popular political participation and the structure of American government.<\/p>\n Given that the people apparently don’t want bigger deficits, more stimulus, statist healthcare, cap-and-trade, or “comprehensive” immigration reform, and given that the most influential members of the Obama administration think the people either do or should want those things, we are apparently left with blaming George Bush, or self-righteously blaming the people for their stupidity, selfishness, brainwashing, or racism. Yet all of those assumptions only exacerbate the problem, and if continually voiced will turn a mid-term correction into an abject disaster for Democrats.<\/p>\n The Truth Is a Precious Commodity<\/strong><\/p>\n The problem with Obama\u2019s new hedging on taxing those who make below $250,000, or his administration\u2019s taking credit for victory in the Iraq War that they so once fervently tried to abort, or the flip-flop on renditions and tribunals, or the embarrassments over closing Guantanamo and trying KSM in New York or Mirandizing the Christmas Day bomber, or trashing\/praising Wall Street grandees, is not that presidents cannot change their minds as circumstances warrant, or even that all politicians are at times hypocritical. No, the rub is that Obama is not merely flipping and triangulating on issues in a desperate attempt to shadow the polls, but he is doing so on matters that he once swore were absolutely central to his entire candidacy and his signature hope-and-change agenda, critical to the future of the U.S., and proof of his opponents\u2019 either ignorance or disingenuousness.<\/p>\n Serially he once screamed about taxing only the wealthy and airing healthcare on C-SPAN. He advocated taking out all combat troops from Iraq by March 2008 and asserted the surge was failing \u2014 at a critical time when our soldiers were in a life-and-death struggle to make it work. Obama built an entire narrative about Bush the Constitution Shredder who presided over Guantanamo and renditions. There was no place in his promised new politics for lobbyists and Chicago tactics. After a single year of governance, there is now scarcely a single issue that Obama & Co. have not backtracked on, flip-flopped, redefined, or quietly dropped \u2014 mostly matters that were once demagogued to score political points. At some point \u2014 I think it was around mid-January \u2014 the public collectively shrugged and concluded of Obama, \u201cI don\u2019t trust anything that this guy says.\u201d And when that happens in American politics, it is almost impossible to restore any modicum of credibility. All we are left with now is three more years of the president\u2019s \u201cBush did it\u201d mantra and a buffoonish Robert Gibbs, like some strutting carnival barker, showing off ink on his palm to a bored press corps.<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s\u00a0The Corner What a Difference a Year Makes A year ago the media resonated with the celebration of democracy, grassroots pushback against the existing order, the renewal of Congress, and the novel harmony between government and the people.<\/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":[609],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-to","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12396,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-doctrine-of-media-untruth\/","url_meta":{"origin":1822,"position":0},"title":"The Doctrine of Media Untruth","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 27, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness As a general rule, when the\u00a0New York Times, the\u00a0Washington Post, National Public Radio, Public Broadcasting Service, NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, and CNN begin to parrot a narrative, the truth often is found in simply believing just the opposite. Put another way, the media\u2019s \u201ctruth\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2345,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-road-to-oceania\/","url_meta":{"origin":1822,"position":1},"title":"Our Road to Oceania","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services In George Orwell's allegorical novel\u00a0Nineteen Eighty-Four, the picture of \"Big Brother\" appears constantly in the adoring media. Perceived enemies are everywhere \u2014 supposedly plotting to undo the benevolent egalitarianism of Big Brother. Citizens assemble each morning to scream hatred for two minutes at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2009"","block_context":{"text":"August 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/august-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12347,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/do-the-media-even-exist\/","url_meta":{"origin":1822,"position":2},"title":"Do the Media Even Exist?","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness If we lived in a fair and just world, most of the current media would simply go away and try something else. The problem is not that reporters are human and therefore sometimes err. The rub is not even that they are poorly educated\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2709,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ministers-of-truth\/","url_meta":{"origin":1822,"position":3},"title":"Ministers of Truth","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner True, the far Left, in the manner of the far Right's hatred of Bush's Iraq War and his support for Israel, has begun to murmur disappointment with Obama. But it is quite astounding that the mainstream liberal media \u2014 NY Times, Washington Post, NPR,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "May 2009"","block_context":{"text":"May 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/may-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12766,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/victor-davis-hanson-after-2020-election-heres-how-to-keep-track-of-upside-down-world-of-media-and-politics\/","url_meta":{"origin":1822,"position":4},"title":"Victor Davis Hanson: After 2020 election \u2013 here’s how to keep track of upside-down world of media and politics","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Fox News After\u00a0Nov. 3, the meaning of some words and concepts abruptly changed. Have you noticed how new realities have replaced old ones?\u00a0\u00a0 Media cross-examination of the\u00a0president\u00a0is now an out-of-date idea. The time for gotcha questions has come and gone. Why ask a president whether he\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7547,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/fictions-as-truth\/","url_meta":{"origin":1822,"position":5},"title":"Fictions as Truth","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"For the Obama administration narrative to be accurate about the swap of five Taliban\/al-Qaeda-related kingpins for Sgt. Bergdahl, we are asked to believe the following: by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ PJ Media For the Obama administration narrative to be accurate about the swap of five Taliban\/al-Qaeda-related kingpins for Sgt. Bergdahl,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "America's Future"","block_context":{"text":"America's Future","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/americas-future\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo by eddriscoll.com via PJ Media","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/obama_us_flag_crossed_fingers_6-8-14-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822"}],"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=1822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1823,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822\/revisions\/1823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}