by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n I\u00a0am meeting a few battered Americans these days. There are not many left, but those that are seem to sound alike. Yes, I think I am beginning to understand Mr. Battered American, and he sounds tired and a bit like this.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry Mr. President, but we are just not dictatorial in the Middle East. You said the Saudis, not America, showed courage over there. But, Mr. President, the Saudis, they live under sharia law! And my God! \u2014 they once engineered crippling oil boycotts against our nation. And wasn\u2019t it they who produced 15 of the 19 killers on 9\/11? So no, Mr. President, those Saudis \u2014 they simply are not courageous. Now Mr. Biden, there is no reason to set the reset button on foreign policy, as you promised all those Europeans. None at all. Tell that resetting stuff instead to Ahmadinejad, Chavez, that Korean nut, Putin, and all the other thugs who kill and cause misery, but not to our America that saves and feeds and helps. Mrs. Clinton, it\u2019s now your turn. We are not impulsive as you told the world. So you can stop apologizing for America\u2019s recent behavior \u2014 unless you think the world would be a better place with the Taliban, and Saddam and his two boys in power. Or maybe Europe should have Schroeder and Chirac back, or Libya with nuclear weapons, or Khalid Sheik Mohammed freed from Guantanamo. Or maybe America shouldn\u2019t have given that $15 billion for AIDs relief in Africa, or helped with earthquakes in Pakistan and tsunamis in Indonesia. Now all that was sorta impulsive.\u201d<\/p>\n As he thinks about this apology business, the battered American always gets a little angrier, \u201cAnd another thing. Mr. Holder, I\u2019ve never said or done a racist thing in my life, not one. Always supported equal opportunity, always will. So don\u2019t call me a \u201ccoward\u201d or my countrymen \u201ccowards,\u201d not when you\u2019re my Attorney General. You are The Attorney General of the United States of America, so please, no more playing Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson, leveling the latest shake-down charge on television. That\u2019s not really in your job description to call your own countrymen \u201ccowards.\u201d When I was in high school I was taught that name-calling like that might be what they said was \u201cprojection.\u201d So maybe, just maybe, you have been cowardly \u2014 and arrogant too \u2014 but not those whom you accused of all that. At least if someone asked me to help pardon a fugitive on the FBI\u2019s most wanted list, I would have said \u201cno.\u201d Always, no exceptions, period! Anything else? That would be cowardly.\u201d<\/p>\n Our battered American I noticed gets even more riled up and would say to our new energy secretary, \u201cAnd another thing Mr. Chu, California isn\u2019t going anywhere. What\u2019s this dry up and blow away nonsense? You\u2019re our Energy Secretary, not Jimmy Carter in his cardigan sweater or Al Gore doing interviews on that private jet. So Americans aren\u2019t going to \u201cvanish\u201d in rural California. We\u2019re proud that we created, by blood, and hard work, and suffering, the richest agricultural valleys in the world. They won\u2019t disappear soon \u2014 at least not if you allow us to have the water that our great-grandfathers tapped and brought down from the Sierra, instead of letting it run full blast into the sea so that Speaker Pelosi\u2019s mice can live more nicely in the bay than we do on our farms.\u201d<\/p>\n I think this battered American would also say, \u201cMr. President, I passed on buying that bigger house. When I wanted to refinance and put in that extra room, I also backed out, since I couldn\u2019t meet that additional $400 a month on the debt. I never flipped a house; I never missed a mortgage payment; and I never took out a second, third, or fourth mortgage either. I didn\u2019t even know there were such crazy things. So please don\u2019t tell me that the 93% of us that played by our grandfathers\u2019 rules are obligated to come to the rescue of the 7%, who did the exact opposite. At one of your town meetings, just one, instead of pandering to those who defaulted, ask one of us to stand up for paying our debts and then say to the crowd, \u201cGive a hand to Mrs. Battered American. She pays her mortgage, so the rest of us don\u2019t have to!\u201d Try that just once.\u201d<\/p>\n Mrs. Battered American would go on, \u201cI have two credit cards, and only use one, and it is not maxed out. And when I hear the radio blaring to renegotiate my mortgage, to renounce my credit card debt, or stick it to the IRS, I turn it off. I was raised to pay what I owe \u2014 or not to borrow the money in the first place. I never thought what I make today I would necessarily always make tomorrow, and so I did not go into debt on the chance that our government \u2014 other Americans \u2014 should pay off what I charged.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI tried to put away a little for college, Mr. President. Just a bit for tuition and such. But when I did, my kids no longer qualified for loans, and scholarships and federal help. So, yes, I want more education. But we are in debt for over a trillion dollars this year, and maybe, just once, you might advise us to pass on that big-screen television, that digital camera, and instead put a tiny bit away for our girls\u2019 tuition, or our boys\u2019 books, so others won\u2019t have to.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd Mr. President,\u201d the battered American would add, \u201cWhen I add up my federal income tax, my state income tax, my Medicare, and my Social Security taxes, I am paying half my income to the government. Wait \u2014 far more than half my income, when I figure in my sales and property and car taxes. My accountant, when I can afford one, tells me to pay, not dodge, what I owe. And, oh, Mr. President I am so tired of all those taxes, so tired, but I am so lawful as well. And so I pay the bill, all of it. Every dime. Unlike your Treasury Secretary, who runs the IRS, I never cheat. I don\u2019t write off my kid\u2019s camp as a business expense \u2014 hell, I don\u2019t even send him to camp in the first place. And unlike your cabinet nominee Mr. Daschle, I don\u2019t have a limousine. And if I got a free one, I would think someone had to pay for it. If I used it every day, why shouldn\u2019t I pay taxes on it? And unlike your Labor Secretary nominee, I have no liens on my property, Mr. President. But if I did, I\u2019d pay them off before you nominated me \u2014 or bow out if I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n This battered American would remember all that \u2014 I\u2019ve seen it happen \u2014 and get angrier, \u201cMr. President, I have never been nominated for much, but when I did serve someone or something, I never bowed out like Mr. Richardson, because the government was never investigating whether or not I was a crook. Sorry, never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, Mr. Battered American would snap back to Mr. President: \u201cI played by the rules, and put a little away in my 401(k). I knew the risks, not because the broker, the bank, or the firm told me all the risks, but because I never shook hands with any of them or even knew those who took my money and promised it was safe \u2014 and so I was never sure it really was. And I lost 30% of it. I will live by that too. But please, don\u2019t tell me I must pay for AIG, and the state of California, and all those who charged too much on their VISAs. Just take more of my money in taxes to do all that \u2014 but, again, please, no more lectures that I have to, that I must, that I am obligated to. And no more of your team\u2019s lecturing me about being patriotic in paying my taxes, and unpatriotic in not wanting to borrow more trillions that my kids\u2019 kids will have to pay back.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a92009 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media I\u00a0am meeting a few battered Americans these days. There are not many left, but those that are seem to sound alike. Yes, I think I am beginning to understand Mr. Battered American, and he sounds tired and a bit like this.<\/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":[724],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-Ly","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11857,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/tired-boring-and-dangerous-celebrity-death-wishing\/","url_meta":{"origin":2948,"position":0},"title":"Tired, Boring\u2014and Dangerous\u2014Celebrity Death Wishing","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 6, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"V\u00edctor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness Recently, New York writer\u00a0Fran Lebowitz\u00a0told Bill Maher on his HBO program that the U.S. government should turn President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0\u201cover to the Saudis, his buddies\u2014the same Saudis who got rid of that reporter.\u201d Lebowitz thought it was cool to imagine on live television that the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4165,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/tweaking-the-united-states\/","url_meta":{"origin":2948,"position":1},"title":"Tweaking the United States","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 9, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services As the Iranian nuclear threat continues to grow, neither the United States nor Israel are eager to be damned by the global community for sending in bombers to take out Tehran's dispersed and hard-to-find subterranean nuclear factories. Meanwhile, European diplomats will fail in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "January 2006"","block_context":{"text":"January 2006","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2006\/january-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5038,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-enemies-the-saudis\/","url_meta":{"origin":2948,"position":2},"title":"Our Enemies, the Saudis","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 1, 2002","format":false,"excerpt":"United States relations with Saudi Arabia by Victor Davis Hanson American Jewish Committee Even if we were not attempting to prosecute a war against terror, the time would have long since arrived to reconsider our relations with Saudi Arabia.That the Saudis, of all people, should now be regarded as a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2002"","block_context":{"text":"July 2002","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2002\/july-2002\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5031,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-royal-pain\/","url_meta":{"origin":2948,"position":3},"title":"A Royal Pain","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 9, 2002","format":false,"excerpt":"With friends like the Saudia, who needs enemies? by Victor Davis Hanson WSJ Opinion Journal Online Even if we were not attempting to prosecute a war against terror, the time would have long since arrived to reconsider our relations with Saudi Arabia. That the Saudis, of all people, should now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2002"","block_context":{"text":"July 2002","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2002\/july-2002\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4771,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/do-we-want-to-go-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":2948,"position":4},"title":"Do We Want to Go Back?","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 5, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"What to remember come November. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The great accomplishment of the Truman administration was containment \u2014 especially the creation of a policy to ensure that Soviet Communism did not enter Western Europe. Critics on the right once argued over \"Who lost China and Eastern\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "March 2004"","block_context":{"text":"March 2004","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2004\/march-2004\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":887,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-gasoline-nightmare\/","url_meta":{"origin":2948,"position":5},"title":"A Gasoline Nightmare","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Obama is barnstorming the west \u2014 blasting oil companies, trying to convince voters that he supports an \u201call of the above\u201d policy, and reminding them that drilling has increased since his tenure. But that won\u2019t work for five reasons. 1) No one believes\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948"}],"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=2948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2949,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948\/revisions\/2949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}