{"id":2030,"date":"2011-09-19T18:32:10","date_gmt":"2011-09-19T18:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=2030"},"modified":"2013-03-14T18:34:34","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T18:34:34","slug":"obamas-new-maiestas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-new-maiestas\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama’s New Maiestas"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n

Ricochet.com<\/p>\n

There are a lot of disturbing \u2014 and ironic \u2014 things about the new Obama effort (AttackWatch.com<\/a>) to monitor, hunt down, and attack his critics. It used to be a classically liberal idea that conservatives and liberals would debate policies, put their views out, and let the public decide the validity of their positions. Supposedly disinterested newspapers would occasionally weigh in on disingenuous or especially egregious transgressions of good manners and basic professionalism.<\/p>\n

At certain times \u2014 so the liberal narrative went \u2014 this notion of an arena of ideas was perverted by the paranoid and vindictive right-wingers, like a Joe McCarthy shaking papers \u201cwith the names of known communists\u201d, or Richard Nixon with his enemies lists.<\/p>\n

Yet go onto the new (“Paid for by Obama for America”)\u00a0AttackWatch.com<\/a>website. It reads and looks like some sort of Stasi file (\u201cfile\u201d is their vocabulary, not mine). It asks readers to inform them of criticism of Obama. The format is, I guess by intent, supposed to resemble a government intelligence dossier (“Attack files”), with its blaring black and red headers: “Attack”\/”Attackers” (followed by names and pictures of the supposed bad guys)\/”Attack Type”\/(“public statements”) followed by check off boxes like \u201cHave you seen or heard this attack?” “Yes\/No”. It reminds me of of living in 1973 dictatorial Greece, when we all kept silent about the Colonels upon entering the apartment building, lest the government-paid concierge write something down not nice in her black book.<\/p>\n

Apparently no one in the administration learned from the spooky tone of the now defunct Journolist. That obtuseness begs the question, what is it with these extra-journalistic efforts to intimidate critics, as if the 2012 campaign will be based around deterrence: e.g., as if: \u201cBeware: if you criticize Barack Obama, your name and picture will appear on our “Attack File.” We are watching you, so you watch out!”<\/p>\n

So creepier still is the request to snoop around and collect evidence for what the Roman emperors and French monarchs used to call maiestas\/L\u00e8se-majest\u00e9 \u2014 supposed crimes against the head of state, by circulating criticism of his authority that might lessen his proper sense of majesty. Indeed, onAttackWatch.com<\/a>\u00a0there is a special pop-up window that is reminiscent ofCrimestoppers.com<\/a>\u00a0that supposedly will help form some sort of a clearing house: “Your email”\/”content of attack or link”\/”Attack type”, “Attach” with a link “Report” that pops up yet another window.<\/p>\n

This is yet another disturbing symptom of Obama\u2019s current malady: Near 40% approval polls; widespread terror of 2012 Democratic candidates that Obama may bring them down in the fashion of the 2010 tsunami (cf. the wipeouts in the Nevada and New York special elections); leftwing columnists scapegoating Obama in hopes that they can blame the public rejection of their own statist agenda on a supposedly inept messenger.<\/p>\n

I predict\u00a0AttackWatch.com<\/a>\u00a0will fail and go the way of Journolist. It is contrary to the American tradition of unfettered free speech to post, in psychodramatic style, names and pictures as if they were criminals for speaking out against the head of state. The request for millions of spies to report such incorrect discourse will offend rather than inspire. As in the case of the 2008 Obama rejection of public campaign financing funds, it is hypocritical; and also antithetical to the supposed liberal tradition of tolerance and free expression without worry of intimidation.<\/p>\n

I also predict in the following weeks we will see a lot of pushback from even the liberal media that will seek to disassociate itself from\u00a0AttackWatch.com<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 lest the names and pictures of themselves start showing up on it.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a92011 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson Ricochet.com There are a lot of disturbing \u2014 and ironic \u2014 things about the new Obama effort (AttackWatch.com) to monitor, hunt down, and attack his critics.<\/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":[187,536],"tags":[641,12,308,1054],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-wK","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6732,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-fallout-for-the-left\/","url_meta":{"origin":2030,"position":0},"title":"Obama’s Fallout for the Left","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"He will not be harmed by his \"misspeaking,\" but his fellow liberals will. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online\u00a0 Conservatives keep blaring, \u201cObama lied!\u201d over the president\u2019s serial untruths about the Affordable Care Act. Even liberal pundits now talk of the president\u2019s \u201cmisspeaking,\u201d or even of his \u201cmisleading\u201d statements\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":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/3963358921_d33ba22354-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2032,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-becomes-the-fall-guy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2030,"position":1},"title":"Obama Becomes the Fall Guy","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Suddenly, liberal op-ed writers are trashing \u2014 even lampooning \u2014 Barack Obama as a one-term president (\u201cone and done\u201d). 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On race, in the wake of the Shirley Sherrod mess, we are told he needs to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2010"","block_context":{"text":"July 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/july-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1211,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-obama-rope-a-dope\/","url_meta":{"origin":2030,"position":3},"title":"The Obama Rope-a-dope","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services After 2010, will he be Carter or Clinton? That is the ongoing parlor game now played among pundits over how President Obama will react to a probable shellacking of the Democrats in midterm elections next month. 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Then suddenly scandals erupted on nearly every conceivable front: the crony-capitalist half-billion-dollar loan guarantee to a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Left"","block_context":{"text":"The Left","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/politics\/liberalism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11786,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-progressive-revolution-from-democratic-to-liberal-to-progressive-to-socialist\/","url_meta":{"origin":2030,"position":5},"title":"The Progressive Revolution: From Democratic to Liberal to Progressive to Socialist","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 16, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Americans voted for Barack Obama in 2008 despite, not because of, his most partisan voting record in the Senate. They were once willing to look past his earlier dubious associations with abject anti-Semites such as the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, former terrorists like Bill Ayers,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Progressivism"","block_context":{"text":"Progressivism","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/progressivism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030"}],"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=2030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2031,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030\/revisions\/2031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}