by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n The Obama Doctrine is simple: Proclaim a utopian policy, and then pray that most of the people who hear it are Neanderthals who will ignore it. Having said one thing, doing quite another is not only thereby okay, but also absolutely essential. Keep that paradox in mind, and almost everything the president does makes sense.<\/p>\n In foreign policy, the president demands, in hated George Bush fashion, that Qaddafi leave, soars rhetorically about human rights, seeks an exalted United Nations resolution to protect Libyans, and institutes a no-fly zone \u2014 and then hopes that someone goes beyond the U.N. sanction and removes the man President Reagan called the \u201cmad dog of the Middle East\u201d by doing the messy things that we would not. We damn violations of constitutional protections such as renditions, tribunals, Predator assassinations, Guantanamo, and preventive detention \u2014 and assume that some rather nasty folk will keep them all going while we look the other way. Iraq is an awful example and we should have gotten out in 2008; but apparently someone did not hear that principled message and stayed on to ensure a successful consensual government \u2014 and now a new Iraq is soon to be \u201cour greatest achievement.\u201d Khalid Sheik Mohammed was tried in a civilian court in New York in accordance with the rarefied jurisprudence of Eric Holder, Harold Koh, and Barack Obama \u2014 but only virtually so, as he still sits in his cell in Guantanamo, guarded by retrograde military types.<\/p>\n The Obama administration spends billions of dollars subsidizing green solar and wind power, subsidizing mass transit, subsidizing new hybrid cars like the Chevy Volt, pushing through cap-and-trade legislation in the House, and warning that the cost of electricity will skyrocket, that coal-fired energy plants will be bankrupt, that the Brazilians are to be lauded for developing offshore oil that we can now borrow more billions to purchase \u2014 and then ends up with gasoline over $4 a gallon in much of America. So the president quietly brags that we are producing more fossil-fuel power than ever before \u2014 omitting the disturbing fact that this was despite, rather than because of, his policies, since current leases were approved by his predecessors and are just the sort that Obama would now refuse to sanction. Bottom line: Obama talks up about green power, and hopes instead that those less progressive will develop (or, in the words of Energy Secretary Chu, \u201ccook\u201d) traditional energy over his objections. Yes, we prefer green power, but we also pray that some sinner ignores that gospel and instead produces non-green energy that we would not.<\/p>\n On health care, the president unleashes his community-organizing rhetoric about the huddled masses without care, the greedy insurance companies, the fat-cat Cadillac health plans \u2014 and so rams through a federal equality-of-result health-care takeover. He soon learns that millions of Americans believe it is both too costly and unworkable, and so the administration starts granting exemptions from it \u2014 now both over 1,000 in number and to many of those very groups and organizations that were the strongest advocates for Obamacare. The message? There shall be both a utopian new health-care plan in theory, and in fact plenty of ways for millions to get around it.<\/p>\n On the budget, Obama has run up in under three years almost $5 trillion in new debt \u2014 a figure that even he acknowledges is unsustainable. That\u2019s why he trumpeted a new bipartisan debt commission, whose findings were as sensible as they were ignored. So this year the president still talks in Great Society tropes about a big government that can do ever more for the exploited, even as quietly he assumes that someone less liberal, at some reactionary moment, will have to deal with the consequences of his messy new $1.6 trillion budget deficit \u2014 and will either ignore or undo almost everything Obama has borrowed to accomplish since 2009.<\/p>\n The Obama Doctrine is a child of two worlds. Born in the rarefied upper air of utopian idealism and soaring verbiage, it must nevertheless descend to live on the polluted ground below. Obama accepts that tragedy, and so no sooner has he proclaimed a new vision for America and the world than he walks away from it \u2014 as rueful that his pure dream cannot come true as he is relieved that less pure others ensure that it cannot.<\/p>\n \u00a92011 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The Obama Doctrine is simple: Proclaim a utopian policy, and then pray that most of the people who hear it are Neanderthals who will ignore it. Having said one thing, doing quite another is not only thereby okay, but also absolutely essential. Keep that paradox in mind, and […]<\/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":[271],"tags":[12,1055,405,1064,88,219,1016,67],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-SO","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3351,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/foreign-policy-charity-should-start-at-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":3398,"position":0},"title":"Foreign Policy Charity Should Start at Home","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society The outbreak of protests and rebellion throughout the Middle East have quickly generated an orthodox narrative: When people suffering under brutal autocrats and dictators have finally risen up to satisfy the innate human longing for freedom and democracy, we should support these aspirations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8693,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-hope-and-change-foreign-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":3398,"position":1},"title":"Obama\u2019s Hope-and-Change Foreign Policy","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"President Obama applies the same principles abroad that he does at home. by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online At home President Obama is well known for his preference for perceived parity over liberty. Most of his domestic agenda \u2014Obamacare, executive-order amnesties, open borders, near-zero interest rates, quantitative easing, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Obama Administration"","block_context":{"text":"Obama Administration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/whats-the-three-headed-monster-challenging-obamas-foreign-policy.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":969,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/iran-1-0-2-0-3-0-4-0\/","url_meta":{"origin":3398,"position":2},"title":"Iran 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services On the campaign trail, presidential candidate Barack Obama once called for a \u201creset\u201d policy with Iran. Supposedly, the unpopularity of the Texan provocateur George W. Bush and his administration\u2019s inability to finesse \u201csoft power\u201d had needlessly alienated the Iranian theocracy. After all, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Iran"","block_context":{"text":"Iran","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/iran\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6925,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-recessional\/","url_meta":{"origin":3398,"position":3},"title":"Obama’s Recessional","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"There is nothing accidental about the president's apparent foreign-policy blunders. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online\u00a0 Does Barack Obama have a strategy? He is often criticized for being adrift. Nonetheless, while Obama has never articulated strategic aims in the manner of Ronald Reagan or the two Bushes, it is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Punditry"","block_context":{"text":"Punditry","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/punditry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7117,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-new-obama-doctrine\/","url_meta":{"origin":3398,"position":4},"title":"A New Obama Doctrine?","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"With his presidency in tailspin, Carter radically changed course. Will Obama do the same? by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online\u00a0 By the beginning of 1980, Jimmy Carter was in big trouble. Almost everything he had said or done in foreign policy over the prior three years had failed \u2014\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "History"","block_context":{"text":"History","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6631,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-failure-of-american-leadership\/","url_meta":{"origin":3398,"position":5},"title":"The Failure of American Leadership","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Obama's foreign policy of appeasement has created a dangerous void in the international order. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0Defining Ideas\u00a0 The standard critique of President Obama\u2019s foreign policy is now generally well-known\u2014mercurial, paradoxical, and passive. \u201cLeading from behind\u201d seems at odds with the traditional American commitment to ensure\u2014preferably with allies\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Foreign Policy"","block_context":{"text":"Foreign Policy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/foreign-policy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/6517253983_7f75b1906b-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3398"}],"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=3398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3399,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3398\/revisions\/3399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}