by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n Obama Versus the Way of the Universe<\/strong><\/p>\n I wish the President well, but he is butting up against human nature. And that is a fight one cannot win. If one runs up nearly a $2 trillion annual deficit, and then persists in such red-ink to the point of adding another $9 trillion, all to reach an aggregate $20 trillion national debt, there are not too many options. If there were, everyone \u2014 both states and individuals \u2014 would simply spend, call it stimuli, and then find academics to offer contorted explanations why it was okay and the money need not really have to be paid back. Does Obama think his debt is like buying a house in a down market with an up market inevitable? \u2014 that is, we borrow to the max and then count on our equity to come to bail us out? But houses do not always go up, and we can\u2019t quite sell off the U.S. to capture our speculative profit.<\/p>\n So we all know the old rules, because the universe works according to time-honored precepts: we either must tax all of us (there are not enough of those evil \u201cthey\u201d who make between $200-500K or even enough of the noble generous rich who make over $10 million a year and think Obama should increase inheritance taxes so that their children get only $1 billion instead of $2, while the hardware store owner\u2019s kids sell the business) in insidious ways; OR simply cut government expenditures elsewhere to pay the annual interest payments, OR print money and screw the Chinese, European, etc. , creditors, inflating our way out via the late 1970s.<\/p>\n Sorry, there are no other real alternatives.<\/p>\n The only mystery? How the choice of payment is rhetoricized in the hope and change mode.<\/p>\n Deficit Foreign Policy Too<\/strong><\/p>\n So it is with foreign policy as well. Obama\u2019s make-over will have positive short-term effects, as he reminds the world\u00a0ad nauseam<\/em>\u00a0that he is black, sorta, kinda from a Muslim family, and the son of an African who is more like the world than he like most Americans \u2014 and not George Bush and not a thieving capitalist and not a warmongering imperialist and not (fill in the blanks). (My favorite Cairo line was the apology on Gitmo where inmates have laptops and Mediterranean food, spoken to millions whose societies kill and maim tens of thousands in Gulags on a yearly basis.)<\/p>\n But in the long run?<\/strong><\/p>\n He hits against human nature. Most of you readers \u2014 in business, law, the professions \u2014 don\u2019t continually praise your friends, competitors, and enemies (e.g., \u201cGlad you got that job, Home Depot \u2014 we at Lowes didn\u2019t really need it; what a wonderful bid you submitted, Hilton, much better than ours here at the Four Seasons; it was my fault here at Goldman Sachs that I didn\u2019t match your better offer at Credit Suisse; I grew up working for the Royals, and can empathize why you Yankees don\u2019t like us; it\u2019s time we at Citibank \u00a0apologized to Chase for our past cutthroat competition; we are just too arrogant over here at Delta and wanted to let you guys at United know that.\u201d)<\/p>\n Sorry<\/strong><\/p>\n The world sadly does not work that way. If one were to do that, we know the outcome: a group of rival execs would say \u201cHmmm, time to steal market share from Citibank, or Hilton isn\u2019t really up to the arena anymore, let\u2019s move in on its Western region, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n Only someone who has not been in the real world, but only marketed rhetoric without consequences (e.g., if Obama had a bad day organizing, or legislating, was he fired?) could believe such things.<\/p>\n A Farmer\u2019s Tale<\/strong><\/p>\n In short, Obama reminds me a little of myself \u2014 at 26. I had left the farm for 9 years to get a BA in classics, PhD in classical philology, and live in Athens for two years of archaeological study-all on scholarships, TAships, research-ships and part-time summer and school jobs tucked under the aegis of the academic, no-consequences world. By the end of endless seminars, papers, theses, debates, discussions, academic get-togethers, I had forgotten much of the culture of the farm where I spent years 1-18.<\/p>\n The Return<\/strong><\/p>\n Then after the requisite degrees I left academia, and returned to farm 180 acres with my brother and cousin \u2014 and sadly was quickly disabused of the world of the faculty lounge.<\/p>\n Oh yes, I came back to Selma thinking, \u201cI am not going to be the grouch my grandfather was, yelling at neighbors, worried all the time, nervous, seeing the world as rather hostile, hoarding a tiny stash of savings, worried as if bugs, the government, hired men, weather, and markets were out to destroy him. I\u2019ll farm with my Bay Area manners and sort of think, \u201cI will reset the farm, and things will at last work as they should\u201d (not thinking that my grandfather raised three daughters, sent them to college while mortgaging the farm in the Depression, and spent on himself last, and was a saint compared to my pampered existence in the university).\u201d<\/p>\n One small example of my late coming of age. A rather brutal neighbor (now dead and not to be mentioned by name (de mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est<\/em>)), an immigrant from an impoverished country, a self-made man, veteran of infamous fights and various bullying, shared a communal ditch. We talked and exchanged pleasantries \u2014 at first \u2014 at the standpipe gate. He lamented how rude my late grandfather had been to him, and even had made unfounded accusations that he was less than honest (he was also sort of playing the race card, remarking about the prejudicial nature of California agrarian culture).<\/p>\n Hope and Change<\/strong><\/p>\n I was shocked to hear that, and assured him that there would be no such incitements on my part on the new age of the Davis farm. No more \u2018me first\u2019, no more disdain for newcomers and upstarts. And then after about 3 months of sizing me up (at 26, I confess looking back I was not 1\/8th the man my grandfather was at 86) he began stealing water in insidious ways: taking an extra day on his turn, cutting in a day early on mine, siphoning off water at night, destroying my pressure settings, watering his vineyards on days that were on my allotment. Stealing no less! And in 1980!<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how I rushed into action. First, I gave a great Obama speech on communal sharing and why the ditch would not work if everyone did what he did. Farmers simply would perish if they did not come together, and see their common shared interests. He nodded and smiled \u2014 and stole more the next week.<\/p>\n The Enlightenment to the Rescue<\/strong><\/p>\n Then I appealed to his minority status, and remarked how wonderful it was that he came from dire poverty abroad and now farmed over 500 acres. He growled \u2014 and stole even more.<\/p>\n I took the U.N. route and warned that I would be forced to go get the ditch tender (a crusty, old hombre who enjoyed watching fights like these for blood sport); he pointed out that the tender was, in fact, on the alleyway across the street watching us, and meeting him for coffee in an hour.<\/p>\n Multilateralism<\/strong><\/p>\n I went to the irrigation district and filed a formal complaint. Nice people with smiles and monogrammed hats promised they\u2019d look into it, but pointed out the season was half over anyway, and I should \u201cget used to it\u201d and start anew next year. Meanwhile, I noticed by July my vineyard was starting to be stressed, and his was lush. He watered so much that he began to flood the entire vineyard middle, the water lapping out the furrows and reaching berm to berm.<\/p>\n Hmmm<\/strong><\/p>\n For a while I went the Clement Attlee mode and rationalized, \u201cHmmm, maybe all that watering is going to give his vines more mildew, while my dusty dry vines will aerate more. Do I really need my water? Did I offend him in some way? Do I really want to lower myself to his troglodyte methods?\u201d A few meetings went well with his, \u201cOK, it\u2019s a misunderstanding.\u201d I heard \u201cNo problem\u201d about a zillion times the next two weeks.<\/p>\n Then by July 15, after three months of such aggrandizement I tried the empathetic route with the neighbor, \u201cIf you don\u2019t stop this, I\u2019ll have to turn on my pumps and spend hundreds of dollars to supply the water I\u2019m supposed to get by virtue of my irrigation taxes. You know that\u2019s not fair!\u201d He laughed at the use of \u201cby virtue of\u201d.<\/p>\n I felt sorry for him, really did, that he had reduced a dispute over something as mundane as \u201cwater\u201d into some sort of existential issue of regional peace. What did he wish me to do \u2014 descend down to his level, to become exactly like him, to settle differences on the basis of primate strength?<\/p>\n I thought about this for yet another seven days, compulsively so as I looked out at the parched vines. Couldn\u2019t I just pay the power bill, pump for 10 days, and feel as his moral better that I had not descended to his cave-dwelling status? Oddly, I began to hear a once familiar voice in my head whisper, \u201cHe\u2019ll take your crew next right when you need it. He\u2019ll take over your alleyway. He\u2019ll drive on your place like he owns it. He\u2019ll\u2026\u201d).<\/p>\n The Inevitable Overreaction?<\/strong><\/p>\n Then in a trance-like fashion, I went out to restore deterrence. I got a massive chain and lock, and simply shut down his communal lateral. Locked the gate so tight, he couldn\u2019t even get a quarter-turn. He\u2019d be lucky if he got a 100 gallons in a week. Then I got a veritable arsenal of protective weaponry, got in my pickup, drove back over to the gate, and waited with ammo, clubs, shovels, etc.<\/p>\n In an hour he drove up in a dust cloud. He was going to smash me, get his football playing son to strangle me, sue me, bankrupt me, hunt me down, etc. He swore and yelled \u2014 I was a disgrace to my family, a racist, a psycho, worse than my grandfather. He was going to lock my gates, steal all my water, and indeed he leveled all sorts of threats (remember the scene in\u00a0Unforgiven<\/em>when Eastwood walks out and screams threats to the terrified town? \u2014 that was my neighbor). I got out with large vine stake and said something to the effect (forgive me if I don\u2019t have the verbatim transcript \u2014 it has been 29 years since then), \u201cIt\u2019s locked until you follow the rules. Anytime you don\u2019t, it\u2019s locked again. Do it one more time and I weld it shut. Not a drop. So sue me.\u201d<\/p>\n He got up, screeched his tires, blew a dust cloud in my face, and raced down the alleyway \u2014 honking even as he left.<\/p>\n Pax<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n For the next ten years until his death, he was the model neighbor. He would stop me with, \u201cVictor, I shut off tomorrow, half a day early \u2014 why not take my half day to jump start your turn?\u201d And indeed we finally began to have philosophical discussions (he was widely read) about Sun-Maid, Carter, Reagan, the U.S., literature, etc.<\/p>\n Here was his final compliment, one that apparently connected my once elite disdain for his grubby world of the muscular classes with my inevitable failure and bankruptcy to come. It went something like this, though after three decades I have forgotten his exact phraseology: \u201cVictor, I used to drive by your grandfather\u2019s house, and see you up there on the scaffold, scraping off the old paint. I\u2019d say to my friends \u2014 look at that young fool, he\u2019s painting my house. You see, I knew you\u2019d go broke, and I\u2019d buy your place. Always wanted it, and knew you were getting it ready for me. Why not let you finish before I took it?\u201d (I didn\u2019t tell him, that in fact he used to say that not just to friends, but to me as I was chipping away.)<\/p>\n Postmortem<\/strong><\/p>\n He died about a month later. I still miss him, and grew to, if not trust him, in a strange way like him.<\/p>\n Obama will come to his senses with his \u2018Bush did it\u2019, reset button, moral equivalency, soaring hope and change, with these apologies to Europeans, his Arab world Sermons on the Mount to\u00a0Al Arabiya<\/em>, in Turkey, in Cairo, etc., his touchy-feely videos to Iran, his \u201cwe are all victims of racism\u201d sops to Ortega, Chavez, and Morales. It is only a matter of when, under what conditions, how high the price we must pay, and whether we lose the farm before he gains wisdom about the tragic universe in which we live.<\/p>\n A sojourn at an elite university, you see, can sometimes become a very dangerous thing indeed.<\/p>\n \u00a92009 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media Obama Versus the Way of the Universe I wish the President well, but he is butting up against human nature. And that is a fight one cannot win.<\/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":[715],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-H6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2530,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/st-obama-and-the-debt-dragon\/","url_meta":{"origin":2672,"position":0},"title":"St. Obama and the Debt Dragon","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media \u201cReckless Fiscal Policies\u201d Why did Obama only enumerate George W. Bush\u2019s big spending as responsible for the out-of-control $14 trillion-plus debt, while not mentioning his own contribution of $5 trillion? Why is there a debt limit standoff now, rather than, say, in 2009 or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economic Policy"","block_context":{"text":"Economic Policy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/economic-policy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8667,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-utterly-hypocritical-response-to-trumps-criticisms-of-his-record\/","url_meta":{"origin":2672,"position":1},"title":"Obama\u2019s Utterly Hypocritical Response to Trump\u2019s Criticisms of His Record","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ NRO - The Corner President Obama just said this about Donald Trump\u2019s disparagement of the last seven years: \u201cIn the echo chamber that is presidential politics, everything is dark and everything is terrible.\u201d Presidential candidates \u201cdon\u2019t seem to offer many solutions for the disasters that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "NRO The Corner"","block_context":{"text":"NRO The Corner","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/nro-the-corner\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Obama-Budget-Plan-jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Obama-Budget-Plan-jpg-500x281.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":113,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/dr-barack-and-mr-obama-on-the-debt-ceiling\/","url_meta":{"origin":2672,"position":2},"title":"Dr. Barack and Mr. Obama on the Debt Ceiling","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner Barack Obama once had a lot of insightful things to say about the debt ceiling that transcended the usual political game of voting for debt-ceiling increases when your guy was president and against when he was not \u2014 and even some things that were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/politics\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2433,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-paradoxes\/","url_meta":{"origin":2672,"position":3},"title":"Obama’s Paradoxes","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Consider the myriad paradoxes of the Obama age. Unprecedented government borrowing is out of control, unsustainable, and finally causing financial markets to panic. Yet we are told that the necessary cutting ahead will further stall the stalled economy. We went from $9 trillion\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/commentary-obama-administration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":115,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/when-big-deficits-became-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":2672,"position":4},"title":"When Big Deficits Became Good","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services As a senator and presidential candidate, Barack Obama said that he detested budget deficits. In 2006, when the aggregate national debt was almost $8 trillion less than today, he blasted George W. Bush's chronic borrowing and refused to vote for upping the debt\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Debt and Deficits"","block_context":{"text":"Debt and Deficits","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/politics\/debt-and-deficits\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2442,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-if-the-president-liked-businesspeople\/","url_meta":{"origin":2672,"position":5},"title":"What If the President Liked Businesspeople?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The US stock market has nose-dived. Congress just approved the highest debt ceiling in American history, allowing the government to carry over $16 trillion in national debt, and prompting the credit-rating agency Standard & Poor\u2019s to downgrade America\u2019s multitrillion-dollar debt for the first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Debt and Deficits"","block_context":{"text":"Debt and Deficits","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/politics\/debt-and-deficits\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2672"}],"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=2672"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2674,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2672\/revisions\/2674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}