by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n From Eliot Spitzer to Elizabeth Warren to Fareed Zakaria \u2014 what is wrong with our elites? Do they assume that because they are on record for the proverbial people, or because they have been branded with an Ivy League degree, or because they are habitu\u00e9s of the centers of power between New York and Washington, or because they write for the old (but now money-losing) blue-chip brands (Time\u00a0<\/em>magazine, theNew York Times<\/em>, etc.), or because we see them on public and cable TV, or because they rule us from the highest echelons of government that they are exempt from the sorts of common ethical constraints that the rest of us must adhere to \u2014 at least if a society as sophisticated as ours is to work?<\/p>\n I understand that there is a special genre of conservative Christian hypocrites \u2014 a Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, or Ted Haggard \u2014 who preach fire and brimstone about the very sins they indulge in. The Republican primary was in some ways a circus as the media had a field day pointing out the ethical inconsistencies of the candidates. But here I am talking about secular elites across the cultural spectrum who simply do not live by their own rules, and yet are often granted exemption for their transgressions because of their own liberal piety \u2014 and a more calibrated assumption that the world of blue America (i.e., the media, the government, the arts, the foundations, the legal profession, and Hollywood) will not hold them to account.<\/p>\n Take affirmative action. Over-the-top and crude Ward Churchill at least bought the buckskin and beads to play out his con as an American Indian activist with various other associated academic frauds. But Elizabeth Warren\u2019s \u201cCherokee\u201d-constructed pedigree was far more subtle \u2014 and the sort of lie that Harvard could handle. She more wisely kept to the fast lane of tasteful liberal one-percenters, as she parlayed\u00a0a false claim of Indian ancestry<\/a>\u00a0[1] into a Harvard professorship. So whereas Churchill is now a much-lampooned figure, Warren may be headed to the US Senate. To say that Elizabeth Warren is and was untruthful, and yet was a law professor who was supposed to inculcate respect for our jurisprudence, is to incur the charge of being a right-wing bigot. But reflect: how can someone who faked an entire identity \u2014 and one aimed at providing an edge in hiring to the disadvantage of others \u2014 not be completely ostracized? Again, Warren was successful precisely because she wore no beads or headband and did not affect a tribal name \u2014 the sort of hocus-pocus that makes faculty lounge liberals uncomfortable. It was precisely because she looked exactly like a blond, pink Harvard progressive that Warren\u2019s constructed minority fraud was so effective.<\/p>\n Why would a Fareed Zakaria lift the work of someone else? Time constraints? Carelessness? Amnesia over how and why he reached his present perch? Do such columnists\u00a0farm out their research<\/a>\u00a0[2] or outlines to assistants? Or do they think their liberal credentials outweigh reasonable audit of what they write? Steal from someone else and take a month off work? Even my copper wire thieves out here on the farm would have to pay a bit more if they were caught. Their last theft was about $70 worth of conduit, but I imagine\u00a0Time<\/em>\u00a0pays lots more per Zakaria column.<\/p>\n Or why did Maureen Dowd think\u00a0she could lift some sentences<\/a>\u00a0[3] from someone else and then claim she got them from a friend\u2019s email \u2014 especially given her hyper-criticism of less-liberal others? And did she not guess rightly that no one would really care? After all, do we remember the Pulitzer Prize winning\u00a0Team of Rivals<\/em><\/a>\u00a0[4] or the fact that far earlier Doris Kearns Goodwin\u00a0was a confessed plagiarist<\/a>\u00a0[5]? When I pick up the Selma Enterprise, I do not expect the cub reporter to steal her report of a DUI accident verbatim from the\u00a0Fresno Bee<\/em>. Should I?<\/p>\n Why did Barack Obama think, in Rigoberta Menchu or Greg Mortenson fashion, that\u00a0he could more or less make up<\/a>\u00a0[6] most of the key details in his own autobiography? Again, think of it: the current president of the United States fabricated much of the information about his own life, in ways designed to enhance his self-serving narrative of America\u2019s racial insensitivity. But then again, for over a decade the president allowed his literary biography to claim that\u00a0he was born in Kenya<\/a>\u00a0[7]. His political opponents who claimed just that were written off as unhinged; but are we to think of the president himself as a birther?<\/p>\n I think that I should have boasted that I was born in Lund, Sweden, and dated the insensitive daughter of an agribusiness magnate, to make my past account of small farm life more effective. But then again, Vice President Joe Biden is likewise a plagiarist \u2014 who lifted an entire section of a speech\u00a0from British Laborite Neil Kinnock<\/a>\u00a0[8], a \u201clapse\u201d that recalled\u00a0Biden\u2019s earlier plagiarism<\/a>\u00a0[9] in law school.<\/p>\n I thought Trent Lott should have stepped down for praising 100-year-old Strom Thurmond at his birthday fest in ways\u00a0that could have suggested support<\/a>\u00a0[10] for Thurmond\u2019s earlier creed of racial segregation. But what does it take for his liberal counterpart \u2014 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid \u2014 to quit? Declare\u00a0the Iraq war lost<\/a>\u00a0[11] in the midst of a surge to save it? Claim that Barack Obama is a light-skinned black who can turn on and off\u00a0his black accent<\/a>\u00a0[12]? Defame an African-American member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission\u00a0a \u201csh-t stirrer\u201d?<\/a>\u00a0[13] Or in McCarthy-esque style fantasize that \u201csomeone\u201d heard a rumor<\/a>\u00a0[14] that Romney did not pay taxes, and hence Romney must release a decade of returns to \u201cprove\u201d that he is not a tax cheat \u2014 and this from a man who became a millionaire while in public office and has not released a single year of his own returns? The treatment of Lott versus the treatment of Reid reminds one of the quite different fates of Alberto Gonzales and Eric Holder; the former was grilled by Congress to the point of being forced out, while the latter simply called his accusers racists and ignored what followed.<\/p>\n Liberal penance explains why Timothy Geithner apparently thought that he need not pay his full income tax obligations \u2014 in a way a CEO of Chick-fil-A or Amway might never dare. If there is a problem with white redneck crime, will a mayor call in the racist Klan in the way Rahm Emanuel welcomed to Chicago\u00a0Louis Farrakhan<\/a>[15]? Why worry whether Hilda Solis\u00a0had a lien on the family business<\/a>\u00a0[16], when she issues a video invitation to illegal aliens to report their unfair employers to the Labor Department? And why did television host Eliot Spitzer, the white-collar crime fighter, think he could employ prostitutes with impunity while governor \u2014 and, if caught, expect to end up as a cable TV news host? Or why did John Edwards, of \u201ctwo Americas\u201d fame, preach populism while enjoying the one-percent lifestyle (well aside from the lies about his campaign-subsidized girlfriend)? Or why did John Kerry both advocate higher taxes and yet seek to avoid them by docking his luxury yacht in a different state?<\/p>\n Or why, more recently, did Obama campaign guru Stephanie Cutter assume that she could simply\u00a0lie on national television<\/a>\u00a0[17] by stating that she did not know the circumstances behind the Joe Soptic \u201cRomney-cancer\u201d ad? She knew that earlier she was on tape outlining the Soptic narrative, so did she think she could claim ignorance on TV, blast her critics in the days to come, and then go back on as usual, given her efforts to extend the Obama agenda? Stranger still, she is probably right about all of those assumptions. I expect her in a week to be on television accusing her opponents of lying, with a press aiding and abetting her. Why does wealthy Andrea Mitchell yell at us for being illiberal, when she could instead yell at her husband, who was far more embedded in Wall Street than any Tea-Party pizza store owner?<\/p>\n Did David Plouffe really think his mediocre speaking skills or so-so knowledge of communications would win $100,000 a pop on the international lecture circuit \u2014 on the eve of his assuming a key role in the White House? Hope and change? No revolving door? What sort of ad would Plouffe have run, had a top Romney aide been hired to speak by a company doing business with Iran? And isn\u2019t $100,000 in an afternoon sort of one-percent-ish \u2014 the sort of unfair, Costa del Sol-like privilege that Obama is trying to rectify?<\/p>\n In most of these cases, the above are servants of the progressive cause. They operate on assumption that they are our self-appointed censors, vigilant to spot class, race, or gender bias and unfairness among those less well-branded. But as our morals police, they do not fear any policing of themselves. Never is there any assumption that John Edwards\u2019s attacks on the wealthy mean that he should not live in a ridiculous, self-indulgent mansion or hire on a groupie with other people\u2019s money. It made perfect sense that the green moralist Al Gore should have enjoyed one of the most energy-guzzling homes in Tennessee, or from time to time played boorish \u201ccrazed sex poodle\u201d with his call-up masseuse. Elizabeth Warren is knee-deep in the world of the one-percent, in part because she knows how to work the system of exemption that assumes loud liberal credentials allow one to live a life quite differently from the one professed.<\/p>\n In short, our top pundits, our political elites, our very president all believe that they can blast the unfairness of high capitalism while doing everything in their power to enjoy its dividends \u2014 and demand an ethical standard from others that they habitually do not meet themselves. It is as if the more left-wing one sounds, the more anti-left-wing his tastes; the more the ethicist lectures on morality, the more he is likely to be unethical; the more green an advocate, the less likely the 800-square foot cottage replete with recycled water, a solar toilet, and 70-degree hot water. The only mystery here is whether there is some sort of logical connection. Does the profession of cosmic morality by design allow one to enjoy without guilt quite earthly sins? Why do super-rich liberals not like the Tea-Party upper-middle-class entrepreneurs? Are the latter in no need of liberal condescension? Do they not have quite enough money to show exquisite taste? Or are they grubby, too close to the struggle for a buck?<\/p>\n Two final notes on why all this matters. First, when the left-wing media ceases to scrutinize public figures, the latter are emboldened to fabricate, cheat, plagiarize, and flat out lie. It is not that there are not conservative hypocrites, just that the present system makes it far harder for them to get away with these failings. (Imagine the press reaction to a Romney autobiography full of untruths; a Paul Ryan with a yacht docked in a no-tax harbor; a Charles Krauthammer lifting entire paragraphs from the work of others).<\/p>\n Second, all of the above are part of an elite establishment that is supposed to set standards for emulation, but instead only coarsens civilization. Why tell the truth,\u00a0hoi polloi<\/em>, when everyone from Bill Clinton to Stephanie Cutter will not? Can we determine what is true and false, when we have no idea in\u00a0Time<\/em>\u00a0magazine or in a presidential memoir whether the sentence is copied from someone else or simply made up? If the governor frequents prostitutes, how can there be a law against prostitution? After Elizabeth Warren, how can there exist such a thing as affirmative action? Cannot every white male in America assert that he has high cheek bones and so deserves a leg up on any other white male stupid enough not to claim his great-great-grandmother was a Cherokee?<\/p>\n Our civilization is under assault. Those who have taken upon themselves to direct it are instead doing their own part to destroy it. The MSM Reports: Candidates of Death!<\/a>\u00a0[18]<\/p>\n URLs in this post: \u00a92012 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media From Eliot Spitzer to Elizabeth Warren to Fareed Zakaria \u2014 what is wrong with our elites?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[11],"tags":[132,12,192,1058,183],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-8i","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2512,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-i-read-the-new-york-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":514,"position":0},"title":"Why I Read the New York Times","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FronpageMagazine.com I\u00a0get a lot of ragging from my fellow conservatives for reading\u00a0The New York Times\u00a0every day. But as I tell them, you have to know how the other side thinks. Progressive ideology reflects a narrative founded on unexamined ideas long exposed as unworkable, incoherent, or just\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":12428,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-nyt-and-the-cotton-op-ed-opinion-or-party-line\/","url_meta":{"origin":514,"position":1},"title":"The NYT and the Cotton op-ed: Opinion or party line?","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The following article is from my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory in The Hill Sometimes it takes an outsider to see things clearly. The Neue Zurcher Zeitung (NZZ) ranks as a fiercely independent newspaper, much like the Swiss people themselves. The high-quality Zurich newspaper is no fan of\u00a0Donald Trump. It is,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4103,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-destiny-of-cities\/","url_meta":{"origin":514,"position":2},"title":"The Destiny of Cities","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson City Journal (Autumn 2010) As the world steadily grows more urbanized, with 50 percent of its population no longer rural, it is more important than ever to ask how cities either perish or manage to survive. The question can be hard to answer. Why, following centuries\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Civilization"","block_context":{"text":"Civilization","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/civilization\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12559,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-thin-veneer-of-american-civilization\/","url_meta":{"origin":514,"position":3},"title":"The Thin Veneer of American Civilization","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 11, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Nine months ago, New York was a thriving, though poorly governed, metropolis. It was coasting on the more or less good governance of its prior two mayors and on its ancestral role as the global nexus of finance and capital. The city is now\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8345,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/is-race-following-gender-in-becoming-a-fluid-identity-construct\/","url_meta":{"origin":514,"position":4},"title":"Is Race Following Gender in Becoming a \u2018Fluid\u2019 Identity Construct?","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Among many careerists and politicians, tweaking one\u2019s ethnic identity is becoming increasingly widespread. by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online Not long ago, the New York Times uncovered the artifact that Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush had once listed himself as \u201cHispanic\u201d on a Florida voter-registration form. 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\nAlso read:<\/p>\n
\n[1] a false claim of Indian ancestry:\u00a0http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/Big-Government\/2012\/05\/14\/her-heritage-claims-utterly-disproven-elizabeth-warren-doubles-down<\/a>
\n[2] farm out their research:\u00a0http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/eddriscoll\/2012\/08\/10\/fareed-zakarias-future-now-assured\/<\/a>
\n[3] she could lift some sentences:http:\/\/blogs.chicagotribune.com\/news_columnists_ezorn\/2009\/05\/more-reflections-on-maureen-dowds-plagiarism.html<\/a>
\n[4]\u00a0Team of Rivals<\/a>
\n[5] was a confessed plagiarist:http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/2002\/02\/27\/0227goodwin.html<\/a>
\n[6] he could more or less make up:\u00a0http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/eddriscoll\/2012\/06\/10\/a-man-is-whatever-autobiography-he-is-in\/<\/a>
\n[7] he was born in Kenya:\u00a0http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/Big-Government\/2012\/05\/17\/The-Vetting-Barack-Obama-Literary-Agent-1991-Born-in-Kenya-Raised-Indonesia-Hawaii<\/a>
\n[8] from British Laborite Neil Kinnock:http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/worldnews\/barackobama\/2607505\/Joe-Biden-plagiarised-Neil-Kinnock-speech.html<\/a>
\n[9] Biden\u2019s earlier plagiarism:\u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1987\/09\/18\/us\/biden-admits-plagiarism-in-school-but-says-it-was-not-malevolent.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm<\/a>
\n[10] that could have suggested support:\u00a0http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/instapundit\/36272\/<\/a>
\n[11] the Iraq war lost:\u00a0http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/18227928\/ns\/politics\/t\/reid-iraq-war-lost-us-cant-win\/<\/a>
\n[12] his black accent:\u00a0http:\/\/hotair.com\/archives\/2010\/01\/09\/reid-apologizes-for-questioning-obamas-racial-authenticity\/<\/a>
\n[13] a \u201csh-t stirrer\u201d?:\u00a0http:\/\/patdollard.com\/2012\/07\/harry-reid-rips-dem-nuclear-official-first-class-rat-incompetent-shit-stirrer\/<\/a>
\n[14] someone\u201d heard a rumor:\u00a0http:\/\/moelane.com\/2012\/08\/05\/harry-reid-pederasty-and-the-sudden-defense-of-rick-santorum\/<\/a>
\n[15] Louis Farrakhan:\u00a0http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/articles\/313121\/louis-farrakhan-guardian-chicago-betsy-woodruff<\/a>
\n[16] had a lien on the family business:http:\/\/voices.washingtonpost.com\/44\/2009\/02\/05\/solis_senate_session_canceled.html<\/a>
\n[17] lie on national television:\u00a0http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/article\/obama-campaign-caught-lie-over-joe-soptic-possible-violation-of-law<\/a>
\n[18] The MSM Reports: Candidates of Death!:http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/andrewklavan\/2012\/08\/12\/the-msm-reports-candidates-of-death\/<\/a><\/p>\n