by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n Chapter One \u2014 The Liberal Hope and Dream<\/strong><\/p>\n I think our Obama\u2019s collective story will some day be written something like this. The leftwing anointed vision of America got stalled with the failures of the Great Society, and the high tax, big government discontent of the 1970s and 1980s.<\/p>\n Abroad after Vietnam, the gospel that America was the problem sputtered out \u2014 with the fall of the Soviet Union, the rejoicing in Eastern Europe with the liberation from communism, the market reforms of China, and the general rise of a murderous radical Islam, coupled with the later 9\/11 attacks.<\/p>\n In short, doctrinaire liberalism, now to be recast as progressivism, was in trouble. About all that could be hoped for in lieu of ideological governance were entrenched liberal congressional enclaves, which served traditional Democratic constituencies \u2014 and offered occasional opposition to conservative excess and corruption of the Abramoff sort.<\/p>\n Jimmy Carter was simply too inept, self-righteous, and inexperienced to retake Rome from the barbarians. A gifted Bill Clinton might have; but he was too savvy for subservience to an unpopular ideology, too enslaved instead to his multifarious appetites and too malleable and worried about Bill Clinton to be a principled avatar of hope and change.<\/p>\n So the media, academia, the unions, the foundations, and the elite on Wall Street kept waiting for the Great Stone Face to appear \u2014 the saintly deliverer who would at last have the requisite skill and pedigree to bring a benevolent liberal statism to the unwashed, who for so long in their ignorance and selfish, petty agendas had resisted what was good for them.<\/p>\n Chapter Two \u2014 The Perfect Storm<\/strong><\/p>\n Then the unexpected occurred without warning. The Iraq War was successfully demagogued as Vietnam redux. Indeed, we still apparently think it was lost, and the surge a failure. The Republican Congress by 2006 was mired in corruption. After eight years of Republican rule, conservatives of the base had tired of 50\/50 deal making that had resulted in more big government and big deficits.<\/p>\n John McCain almost seemed more interested in losing majestically to our first serious African-American presidential candidate than conducting a hardball successful campaign. He too had alienated his base in the past, and many never forgot it, as their lackluster emotional and financial support attested.<\/p>\n Barack Obama, in contrast, offered to many an irresistible win\/win proposition: centrist, bipartisan governance, and absolution for past sins through the election of a president of color. That Obama was young and patterned himself after JFK in his eloquence and pizzazz made a nice antithesis to George Bush\u2019s tongue-tied speeches. And that the world promised that they would like us again only made it all the sweeter for the gullible.<\/p>\n Chapter Three \u2014 The Ascension<\/strong><\/p>\n So Obama came in, quickly shed his thin centrist exoskeleton, and started in on the long promised bigger government agenda. In short order, we saw the absorption of some of the private sector, attempts at statist healthcare, and appointments that reflected an equality-of-result philosophy, mandated and enforced by a guardian class of Ivy-League technocrats, immune to the protocols they enforced on ignorant others, although, unlike Plato\u2019s overseers, subject to no harsh regimen.<\/p>\n Abroad, at last we would fulfill the old pledge of the United Nations, follow global consent, back out of worthless old alliances, reach out to misunderstood nationalists, admit prior guilt, appreciate the role of race, class, and gender oppression in world affairs, scoff at artificial Manichean divides and inherit a multilateral world in which an unexceptional United States became simply one among many, unqualified to judge others, unable to enforce artificially constructed rules of international behavior.<\/p>\n Obama was the ultimate homeopathic \u2014 cure the patient by giving more of what caused the symptoms in the first place. If for a half-century an encroaching government, ever more regulations, politicized education, therapeutic stifling of free expression, higher and higher taxes, and expanding entitlements had threatened to make America less competitive, less free, and less prosperous than it could be, Obama in reaction would apply more of the same to cure the patient. Bush\u2019s deficits? Expand them fourfold? Unfunded Prescription Drug \u2014 try Unfunded State Healthcare. Fifty-percent of income given over to local, state, and federal taxes? \u2014 raise them far higher.<\/p>\n Chapter Four \u2014 The Resistance<\/strong><\/p>\n Yet all that was not easy for a variety of reasons.<\/p>\n 1) The United States had become so fabulously wealthy, so unimaginably free, and so roundly envied precisely because for two centuries it had promoted individual freedom, equality of opportunity, and free market economics in contrast to the other Western variant of mandated egalitarianism, government control of behavior, and state-run commerce. As the tea-party protests proved, traditions die hard and free peoples do not easily surrender their prerogatives to Ivy-league philosopher-kings.<\/p>\n 2) While Obama was certainly a new and gifted candidate, and while he was surely to the left even of Carter and Clinton, and while he inherited majorities in both houses of Congress, and while the stars really did line up for him in autumn 2008, he was in many respects to prove a flawed leader of the leftist renaissance.<\/p>\n Obama knew little of Middle America and had little desire to learn. His idea of the nuances of the United States was gleaned from the university seminar and the federal payroll. Hyphenated racial-self-identity had always proved lucrative and was not to be abandoned. Postmodern indifference to the truth and facts ensured that much of what the President asserted, in reality, was not merely inaccurate but the exact opposite of what he claimed.<\/p>\n While Obama, the quick study, understood the role of deception, triangulation, and fudging in free-for-all politics, it was nevertheless difficult for him for long to disguise forty years of inculcation. So like a leaky faucet, the drops of an entrenched and rather scary philosophy now and then splashed upon us \u2014 Van Jones, Ron Bloom, and Anita Dunn echoed a prevailing ideological landscape.<\/p>\n Then there was the presidential insistence that police stereotype and act stupidly. We heard non-stop the old-time gospel that the better off must pay their fair share and spread their ill-gotten wealth, if they are to be deemed patriotic. As in the 1960s, America should apologize, given that it was as culpable as Europe or Islam for current global tensions. And so on.<\/p>\n 3) The hypocrisy of left-wing redistribution politics and the enjoyment of the high-life, brought about by the fruits of capitalism, is a heavy anchor for Obama. Tim Geithner does not like to pay high taxes. Nancy Pelosi does like nice jets. Barack Obama likes junkets. So does Harry Reid. Charles Rangel likes hiding income on resort property. John \u201ctwo nations\u201d Edwards likes \u201cJohn\u2019s Room\u201d in his mansion, and Green Al Gore enjoys his most ungreen estate. In other words, \u201cprogressivism\u201d is easily identified as cynicism, as a condescending plaything of the well-off, who are exempt, either by government largess or private capital, from the very strictures they would impose on less knowledgeable others.<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media Chapter One \u2014 The Liberal Hope and Dream I think our Obama\u2019s collective story will some day be written something like this. The leftwing anointed vision of America got stalled with the failures of the Great Society, and the high tax, big government discontent of the 1970s and 1980s.<\/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-tV","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12972,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/victor-davis-hanson-on-the-crisis-at-the-border-the-liberal-elites-abstract-empathy-and-what-he-loves-about-americ%e2%80%aaa%e2%80%ac\/","url_meta":{"origin":1855,"position":0},"title":"Victor Davis Hanson on the Crisis at the Border, the Liberal Elite’s “Abstract Empathy,” and What He Loves About Americ\u202aa\u202c","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Dr. Victor Davis Hanson's appearance on\u00a0The Megyn Kelly Show. His\u00a0conversation with Megyn about immigration, Biden's administration and what we can expect in the next four years, as well as the overall political landscape today was both captivating and thoughtful.\u00a0","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11594,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/can-higher-education-be-saved\/","url_meta":{"origin":1855,"position":1},"title":"Can Higher Education Be Saved?","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review America is schizophrenic about its major universities and, to a lesser extent, its undergraduate colleges. On the one hand, higher education\u2019s professional schools in medicine and business, as well as graduate and undergraduate programs in math, science, and engineering, are the world\u2019s best. America\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":7198,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/illiberal-liberalism\/","url_meta":{"origin":1855,"position":2},"title":"Illiberal Liberalism","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The left's disdain for ordinary Americans has deep historical roots. by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0Defining Ideas\u00a0 During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama let slip his disdain for the middle-class when he explained his lack of traction among such voters. \u201cIt\u2019s not surprising then,\u201d Obama said, \u201cthat they get bitter,\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":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/482px-Presidentwoodrowwilson-241x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8248,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-illiberal-immigration-policy-leads-to-chaos\/","url_meta":{"origin":1855,"position":3},"title":"Our Illiberal Immigration Policy Leads to Chaos","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"We need a meritocratic, ethnically blind system \u2014 the opposite of the status quo. by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Obama\u2019s executive order that overrode existing immigration law. The result is more acrimony and chaos. It is a good time to remember\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Immigration"","block_context":{"text":"Immigration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/immigration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/download-24.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2125,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-the-liberal-anger-over-the-asian-tour\/","url_meta":{"origin":1855,"position":4},"title":"Why the Liberal Anger Over the Asian Tour?","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner There is a surprising amount of\u00a0liberal discomfort, here and abroad, with the underwhelming nature of President Obama's Asian tour.\u00a0Apparently this results from\u00a0displeasure over the lack of any substantive dialogue with the Chinese\u00a0about climate change (and\u00a0China's inordinate coal burning), censorship, the lack of human rights,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "November 2009"","block_context":{"text":"November 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/november-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7933,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-defines-hispanic\/","url_meta":{"origin":1855,"position":5},"title":"What Defines \u2018Hispanic\u2019?","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In a racially diverse America, we have no discernible rules for what determines one\u2019s race. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Once upon a time, the liberal position was to reject the old discriminatory branding of people by the color of their skins rather than by the content\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"From left: Bill Richardson, Susana Martinez, and Ted Cruz (Photo via NRO)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/pic_giant_101614_SM_Richardson-Martinez-Cruz-500x291.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855"}],"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=1855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1856,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855\/revisions\/1856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}