by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n The Rich<\/strong><\/p>\n I confess I never admired John Edwards \u2014 and used to argue\u00a0with the late Christopher Hitchens<\/a>[1] about the blow-dried lawyer\u2019s suitability for president. I didn\u2019t think much of Al Gore or John Kerry, well before the \u201che lied!\u201d vein-bulging fits and the wind-surfing spoofs. I was not surprised when Susan Rice just disclosed that she is worth\u00a0considerably over $30 million<\/a>[2] \u2014 and\u00a0has money in Keystone<\/a>[3] no less. Are they all part of the \u201cone percent\u201d? Did they pay \u201ctheir fair share\u201d? Do they \u201cspread the wealth\u201d? At what point in his life did Al Gore know that he had made enough money (before barreling ahead and making more)?<\/p>\n Why do a Timmy Geithner and John Kerry preach about raising taxes whiletrying their best<\/a>[4] to break the law to avoid them? I remember the Clintons seeking write-offs for the donation of their underwear, Tom Daschle not counting limo service as income, and Hilda Solis with a lien on her husband\u2019s property. Why wouldn\u2019t the above pay too much rather than too little? If Barack Obama did not get free government everything, and made several millions on his serial memoirs, with his mansion, prep schools, and\u00a0Martha\u2019s Vineyard vacations<\/a>[5] to pay for, would he still preach that guys like him need their taxes raised?<\/p>\n Of course, I accept without much worry that government service can lead to the contacts that lead to big money. Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld made millions in the private sector in between DC jobs. I grant too that old-boy networking is lucrative. George W. Bush\u2019s Texas Rangers small fortune came from having powerful friends in the right places. No doubt Colin Powell and Bill Clinton are multimillionaires. Bravo to them both.<\/p>\n But what we cannot stomach is all the sermonizing about \u201cfair share\u201d and \u201cplay by the rules\u201d and \u201cthe one percent\u201d from those who seek to be exempt from their own rhetoric. Can\u2019t Warren Buffett keep quiet and just leave his $50 billion to his heirs \u2014 and let the wonderful federal government do what it must with a $30 billion estate tax on his earnings? Can Bill Gates\u2019 people really manage the Buffett $50 billion better than HUD or HHS? And if so, why a HUD or HHS? His estate will dodge more tax liabilities than what millions of his proverbial overtaxed secretaries pay. Why isn\u2019t George Soros one of the despised money speculators of the sort that Occupy Wall Street was enraged about? Isn\u2019t trying to break the Bank of England a bit too much money-grubbing? So weird what constitutes good and bad riches!<\/p>\n I guess the rub is not big or small money, or what you must do to get it and keep it. No, the lesson instead is what you say when you get it. If I were to advise a young rich man, I would promote entering politics or the media and talking up the liberal redistributionist state, the model being a sort of Chris Matthews, Katie Couric, Nancy Pelosi, Jon Corzine, or Jay Rockefeller. You may meet and marry a rich person, while all sorts of doors will open that allow you to keep and compound what you garner \u2014 and you will feel wonderful in the bargain.<\/p>\n Prejudicial Immigration<\/strong><\/p>\n I also confess as a misfit that I was one of the few who never understood the rhetoric of illegal immigration. Of course, \u201cundocumented worker\u201d leaves millions out of the definition who are not working and never applied for, or ever had any, documents to begin with, in a way that the damnably exact \u201cillegal alien\u201d does not.\u00a0\u201cThe borders crossed us\u201d<\/a>[6] did not make sense, given that 99% of present-day illegal aliens could not cite a California residential pedigree back to 1900.<\/p>\n If we add all the contradictory declarations and try to sort out a common theme, then, it would, to be honest, go something like the following: \u201cI am leaving my home in Latin America and crossing the border illegally into the United States, because I have that right since my cheap labor is going to be exploited. But if I do not work or cease working or go on public assistance or get arrested, I still have that right to ignore the law to enter illegally because the American Southwest was once the land of my forefathers. True, I am leaving one land of my forefathers for another land of my forefathers that interlopers have changed. I don\u2019t particularly like what they have done, but by all means I must go there and not return to the more pristine and unsullied land of my forefathers.\u201d<\/p>\n For immigration to be fair and without prejudice, race and skin color must alone count \u2014 not biased skill sets and education levels. Do you think an immigrant who needs public assistance and does not speak English is any less valuable to America than one with a PhD in electrical engineering, English fluency, and $10,000 in the bank?<\/p>\n So the present discrimination is fair when it prejudices those by ethnic affiliation, but bad when it is color blind and adjudicated through merit-based education and skills. There is no longer such an arcane thing as a federal law that says you must enter the United States legally. Instead it is\u00a0de facto<\/em>assurance that if you wish to enter the US with an advanced degree or capital, and if you are not crossing into the United States across the Mexican border, then you must get in line and wait years while we adjudicate your dubious case. Latino politicians who demand amnesties for illegal immigrants from Latin America are disinterested and fighting bias; all others who favor legal immigration from all countries on racially blind considerations of education and expertise are racist.<\/p>\n I think that sums up the debate and will explain why the Dream Act is the beginning, not the end, of amnesty \u2014 and why a return to merit-based legal immigration will be fought most of all.<\/p>\n Taxes<\/strong><\/p>\n Given that the president does not wish to return to the Clinton-Gingrich spending cuts, or even the Clinton-Gingrich tax hikes across the board, and given that he does not wish to embrace his own Simpson-Bowles commission\u2019s recommendation, and given that he wishes to tax only those who make over $250,000 to reduce the deficit by 7% \u2014 and has no real plan to find the other 93% other than through new capital gains hikes, estate taxes, and commercial taxes, then all the other wisdom about making and saving goes out the window.<\/p>\n Why would one farmer scrimp and save to pay off debt or bypass a new tractor or pickup to ensure that one day his heirs receive his 80 acres free and clear \u2014 only to have his survivors pay 55% of any value over $1 million to the more deserving government? Would it be all that much worse to live it up, spend, enjoy life, and leave them a farm tax-free, with a $500,000 bank debt on it? Is the man of debt morally preferable to the man of capital \u2014 the former a noble victim with the right non-monetary values, the other a suspect Scrooge hell-bent on private lucre? Will my grandchildren one day brag, \u201cI thank my ancestors that I had no inheritance and now have zero net worth, and I thank God that I managed to keep my income under $250,000\u201d?<\/p>\n Why would anyone get another degree at night school, work weekends for another $20,000 a year, add 30 more patients, or seek to expand a sales route if it put you over the dreaded us\/them limit of $250,000? Or, conversely, why would anyone on unemployment or disability or food stamps go out to find an entry-level job that paid less than government receivables?<\/p>\n As I understand the Obama message, it goes something like the logic of illegal immigration: The free market quite illogically and wrongly sets salary levels. Education levels, specialized skills, experience, hard work, character, luck, accidents, good health \u2014 and all the other criteria that arbitrarily factor into one man making $250,000 and another $50,000 \u2014 are just too random and unfair.<\/p>\n Therefore, a well-educated Ivy League technocracy, with lofty moral intentions, can fix what the market broke. Simply tax those who make too much at a level where they live about like those who unfortunately make too little and pay no federal income taxes. That way everyone but the technocracy can live about the same, and the economy will not be dragged down by all those unnecessary things that too much disposable income buys \u2014 from private swimming pools and assault rifles to jet skis, crew cab pickups, and Hummers. Why, though,\u00a0do we not stop tax breaks for Hollywood<\/a>[7], or have a 70% surtax on incomes over $5 million (per picture), or tax incomes of those in government who go into the private sector at 80% for the first two years of the revolving door?<\/p>\n In any case, I hope there are enough Volts, Solyndra-like jobs, loan forgiveness programs, and new Fannie and Freddie mortgages to go around. I also hope that enough self-employed Californians of the despised group stay around who will soon pay 39.5% on large portions of federal income, 15.3% in SECA taxes, and from 10.3% to 12.3% in state taxes, as well as the regular sales and property taxes and assorted \u201cuser fees.\u201d Let us hope that our schools, freeways, courts, and parks are exceptional enough for them to offset the cost of remaining a Californian.<\/p>\n Race<\/strong><\/p>\n I have been studying the recent national conversations on race \u2014 from the Susan Rice matter to Joseph Lowery\u2019s\u00a0whites-in-hell rant<\/a>\u00a0[8] \u2014 and talking to as many minority friends as I can. I think I have almost figured it out.<\/p>\n There are two things going on: affirmative action and diversity. In the first case, it is not a matter of minority or majority populations. Here in California, so-called Latinos are a majority. Nor is it necessarily a matter of skin color. Rather, finding an edge as a deserving group eligible for federal and state advantage hinges on one thing: self-identification as a Latino, African-American, or Native-American who has historical claims against the collective white majority. Elizabeth Warren taught us that one can land a Harvard professorship not by a proven Indian pedigree, but by assertion now and then of \u201chigh cheek bones\u201d \u2014 and by association the inherited trauma from Wounded Knee to the Trail of Tears. I am still confused, however, as to why Ward Churchill, who went to so much trouble to adopt Indian dress, nomenclature, and tribal affinities, was ostracized as a rank faker (inter alia<\/em>), while the multimillionaire, elegant Warren pulled it off, with blond hair and business suits to boot. True, Churchill fudged federal affidavits, but so must have Warren, who never quite had a law license to boot.<\/p>\n I know a lot of proverbial Bob Smiths these days with Latino mothers. They look no different than Italians or Armenians. They have a rougher time proving aggrieved status than do Juan Lopezes whose mothers are Anglos. Two of my students married Mexican-Americans and divorced, and kept their names to apply (successfully) as minorities for fellowships. And why not? After all, do we want to get in the racial pedigree business to determine that the applicant Linda Martinez is actually Welsh and Linda Jones is actually one-half Mexican-American \u2014 if we can\u2019t tell by talking to them or examining their bank accounts?<\/p>\n Ethnic emphasis of any sort helps \u2014 a trill, accent, native dress, or exotic spelling. Self-identification is important, along the lines of a pony-tailed Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell that conveys quite a different notion that being born one Benny Campbell. I saw a bumper sticker the other day forCuesta JC<\/a>[9]. It now reads Cu\u00e9sta College \u2014 a little PC flair is all it takes. Had I only been named Thor, with a middle name Ragnar, and changed my spelling a bit \u2014 Thor Ragnar Hansson \u2014 I think I could have pulled off the Swedish exotic thing. I once had a used Volvo 544 and a used Electrolux, and ate Rye crackers.<\/p>\n Diversity is another matter. My Punjabi friends, far darker for the most part than Latinos or Native Americans, complain that they get no help, even as diverse peoples. Even rich Portuguese can piggyback onto the Latino edge. But there is nothing for Pakistanis or those of the Hindu faith. I investigated all this on numerous occasions for students (one of my Egyptian students got caught, against my advice, checking \u201cAfrican-American\u201d \u2014 too literal or too northern). Armenians, Greeks, or Arabs don\u2019t qualify. So skin color, appearance, and economic status matter little.<\/p>\n Still, honorific diversity\u00a0is a consolation prize<\/a>[10]. There is a larger community of hyphenated Punjabis, Japanese, Koreans, and Arabs who don\u2019t receive affirmative action and who by name and race count as \u201cdiverse,\u201d which in the words of liberal post-election commentators meant that they are not old white guys and thus the stuff of a new coalition in America. That was the brilliance of Obama and ultimately his legacy: he redefined America by uniting rich Japanese-American orthodontists, affluent Cuban-Americans, Oaxacan illegal immigrants, African-American students, Indonesian taxi-drivers, and all sorts of others as \u201cus\u201d and not \u201cthem\u201d \u2014 with the even more brilliant qualifier that for the shrinking white majority there was still one last opportunity for salvation by loudly announcing one\u2019s Obama sympathies and deploring rampant racism. At least I think that was what all the \u201ccivility\u201d was about \u2014 \u201cpunish our enemies,\u201d \u201cnation of cowards,\u201d the Trayvon Martin and Skip Gates commentary, \u201cmy people,\u201d \u201cput y\u2019all in chains,\u201d \u201cgot your back,\u201d white people in \u201cHell,\u201d and on and on.<\/p>\n Still, don\u2019t ask me for consistent rules about who is qualified for affirmative action, or about who is part of the diverse community, given that even universities can\u2019t figure it out: again, just note Senator Elizabeth Warren \u2014now our first Native American female senator<\/a>[11].<\/p>\n URLs in this post:<\/p>\n [1] with the late Christopher Hitchens:http:\/\/fora.tv\/2008\/07\/09\/Uncommon_Knowledge_Hitchens_and_Hanson<\/a> \u00a92012 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media The Rich I confess I never admired John Edwards \u2014 and used to argue\u00a0with the late Christopher Hitchens[1] about the blow-dried lawyer\u2019s suitability for president. I didn\u2019t think much of Al Gore or John Kerry, well before the \u201che lied!\u201d vein-bulging fits and the wind-surfing spoofs. I was not […]<\/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":[11,86],"tags":[12,1014,84,94,1031,134,1042,110,1020],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-30","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1383,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/democratic-leadership\/","url_meta":{"origin":186,"position":0},"title":"Democratic Leadership?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's The Corner Not Quite the Clinton Solution In all the talk about returning to the Clinton income-tax tables, I have been confused on one small point: As I remember the Gingrich-Clinton years, the tax raises were followed by spending freezes and caps, and some time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2010"","block_context":{"text":"August 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/august-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7017,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/aristocratic-sermonizing\/","url_meta":{"origin":186,"position":1},"title":"Aristocratic Sermonizing","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO's The Corner\u00a0 Secretary of State John Kerry, a veritable billionaire who is not shy about acquiring carbon-consuming luxury boats, cars, and toys, and who leaves an incorrectly large carbon footprint when he engages in private travel, just gave a screed to relatively poor Indonesia on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Energy"","block_context":{"text":"Energy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/energy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3764,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/kerryism\/","url_meta":{"origin":186,"position":2},"title":"Kerryism","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Kerry surely must be one of the saddest Democratic liabilities around. Some afterthoughts about his latest gaffe, which is one of those rare glimpses into an entire troubled ideology: (1) How could John Kerry, born into privilege, and then marrying and divorcing and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "November 2006"","block_context":{"text":"November 2006","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2006\/november-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4405,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/democratic-suicide\/","url_meta":{"origin":186,"position":3},"title":"Democratic Suicide","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 6, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"When will the Dems start winning again? When they start living and speaking like normal folks. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online We are in unsure times amid a controversial war. Yet the American people are not swayed by the universities, the major networks, the\u00a0New York Times, Hollywood, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "May 2005"","block_context":{"text":"May 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/may-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10151,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-12\/","url_meta":{"origin":186,"position":4},"title":"Angry Reader","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"From an Angry Reader: Mr. Hanson, I don\u2019t know anything about Stanley Baldwin, but I\u2019ll assume your description of him is accurate. In that case, you have to stretch quite a bit to make Obama into Baldwin. For instance: You call Baldwin a pacifist. Obama is decidedly not a pacifist.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":986,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-campaign-dictionary\/","url_meta":{"origin":186,"position":5},"title":"A Campaign Dictionary","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The bogeyman of the Washington insider is often a target of the Gingrich campaign, but we have as yet no definition. To be an \u201cinsider,\u201d should the candidate have served in the federal government for, say, ten years? Should he be currently living\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campaign 2012"","block_context":{"text":"Campaign 2012","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/campaign-2012\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186"}],"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=186"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions\/187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n[2] considerably over $30 million:\u00a0http:\/\/freebeacon.com\/susan-rices-enrichment-program\/<\/a>
\n[3] has money in Keystone:\u00a0http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/susan-rice-owns-stock-in-company-that-wants-to-build-keystone-pipeline\/article\/2514622#.ULbBv4WhUeM<\/a>
\n[4] trying their best:\u00a0http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2010\/07\/23\/john-kerry-saves-500000-b_n_656985.html<\/a>
\n[5] Martha\u2019s Vineyard vacations:\u00a0http:\/\/www.mediabistro.com\/tvnewser\/pres-obama-drops-by-marthas-vineyard-home-of-comcast-ceo_b81465<\/a>
\n[6] \u201cThe borders crossed us\u201d:\u00a0http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/d6w592q<\/a>
\n[7] do we not stop tax breaks for Hollywood:http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/sunday-reflection-repeal-the-hollywood-tax-cuts\/article\/2503964<\/a>
\n[8] whites-in-hell rant:\u00a0http:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2012\/10\/31\/all-whites-are-going-to-hell-says-civil-rights-icon\/<\/a>
\n[9] Cuesta JC:\u00a0http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cuesta_College<\/a>
\n[10] is a consolation prize:\u00a0http:\/\/www.hoover.org\/publications\/defining-ideas\/article\/135416<\/a>
\n[11] now our first Native American female senator:http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/332902\/making-history-elizabeth-warren-first-female-native-american-senator-eliana-johnson<\/a><\/p>\n