by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
NRO’s\u00a0The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n Van Jones in his final communiqu\u00e9 says, “On the eve of historic fights for healthcare and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide.” I have not watched the now supposedly infamous Beck exposures, but I am curious what exactly constitutes a \u201cvicious smear campaign.\u201d Did Jones or did not Jones in public and in interviews compare the president of the United States to a crack-cocaine addict, assert that white people are polluting the ghetto, that only white students commit mass murders in the public schools, that Republicans are a**holes, and sign a petition calling for an investigation of the Bush administration\u2019s purported role in causing 9\/11?<\/p>\n The Jones mess brings up a larger issue. Americans were assured that with the ascendance of Barack Obama we would evolve beyond race. Yet in the last ninth months it is almost as if precisely the opposite has occurred \u2014 but with a strange twist. The country has been serially lectured about race from some of the most privileged Americans in the country. Columbia law grad elite Eric Holder accused the country of cowardice for its reluctance to speak about race. Harvard-law alum Barack Obama accused the Cambridge police of profiling and acting stupidly in taking elite Harvard professor Skip Gates down to the station after his screaming invective episode. Harvard-law educated Michelle Obama explained Justice Sotomayor\u2019s unease at Princeton by comparing her own ordeal there. Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee Charles Rangel who had serially dodged his tax obligations claims that white angst explains his IRS problems. New York governor David Paterson blames his sinking polls on white racism, more prominent than ever in the age of Obama. Now Yale law graduate Van Jones claims smears did him in. The list could be easily expanded.<\/p>\n What we are seeing is a very unfortunate turn of events in which racism is now the guaranteed retreat position once many prominent African-American elites find themselves in controversy. The problem is that the rest of the population of all races and classes looks at this privileged cohort and does not really detect bias or ill-treatment in their past or present circumstances, but rather remarkable tolerance and race-blind attitudes, as exemplified by their career successes.<\/p>\n The roots of all this scapegoating were in the campaign, not just with the mansion\/golf-course living Reverend Wright, the president\u2019s mentor and pastor, slurring his country and its various constituencies, but also with Obama\u2019s own stereotyping of Pennsylvania voters, once the election there did not go his way. Worse still, we are only in month nine of this new age of Obama \u2014 with more than three years to go in his first term \u2014 and the country is already tired of the blame-gaming and whining, when officials like Rangel and Jones start to defame others for their own lack of ethics and judgment. This is all very unfortunate, but I predict it will only intensify given the example at the top, and sadly probably result in a polarization that we have not seen in generations.<\/p>\n \u00a92009 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s\u00a0The Corner Van Jones in his final communiqu\u00e9 says, “On the eve of historic fights for healthcare and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me.<\/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":[652],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-B2","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2272,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/deconstructing-the-whup-ass\/","url_meta":{"origin":2296,"position":0},"title":"Deconstructing the “Whup Ass”","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media New Communique from the Ministry of Truth At one point, the Obama administration was bragging about bagging one Van Jones; Valerie Jarrett, in fact, even gushed that they had been scouting the erstwhile mostly unknown Jones for quite a while. The word czar was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2009"","block_context":{"text":"September 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/september-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2292,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/rep-charles-rangel-sign-of-the-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":2296,"position":1},"title":"Rep. Charles Rangel–Sign of the Times","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, is becoming a metaphor for almost all the sins of our age. Let us count the ways. How about corruption? Currently, Rangel is under investigation by two House subcommittees for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2009"","block_context":{"text":"September 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/september-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11016,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/rethinking-watergate\/","url_meta":{"origin":2296,"position":2},"title":"Rethinking Watergate","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 22, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Hoover Institution The Watergate break-in is now 45 years old. The scandal is as distant from our own time as it was once from 1928. The median age of Americans is about 38 years old. Half of all Americans were likely born after the break-in. 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The public was reminded that Representative Gerald Nadler (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2278,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-rise-of-the-uncouth\/","url_meta":{"origin":2296,"position":4},"title":"The Rise of the Uncouth","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media American Stasis The historian Thucydides warned about the escalating violent language and behavior that we are witnessing. More on that later. For now, yes, I thought Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) was a boor to scream out at the President during a joint session. If\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2009"","block_context":{"text":"September 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/september-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2311,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/van-jones-resignation\/","url_meta":{"origin":2296,"position":5},"title":"Van Jones’ Resignation","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner 'Oooh. Van Jones, alright!' 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