by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n Truth is the lifeblood of democracy. Without honesty, the foundations of consensual government crumble.<\/p>\n If the Internal Revenue Service acts unlawfully, our system of citizens\u2019 computing their own taxes implodes.<\/p>\n Yet Lois Lerner, one of the IRS\u2019s top officials, would not answer simple questions about her agency\u2019s conduct during congressional testimony, instead pleading the Fifth Amendment. Any taxpayer who tried that with an IRS auditor would end up fined, if not in jail.<\/p>\n Almost everything that IRS officials have reported about the agency\u2019s unlawful targeting of conservative groups has proven false. IRS malfeasance was not limited only to the Cincinnati office, as alleged, but followed directives sent from higher-ups in Washington. Lois Lerner confessed to the scandal only through a rigged public query by a planted questioner, designed to preempt an upcoming critical inspector general\u2019s report. There is legitimate dispute over both the number and the purpose of former IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman\u2019s visits to the White House and nearby executive office buildings, but he did his credibility no good by snidely remarking to Congress that at least one of those visits was to take his kids to the White House Easter Egg Roll.<\/p>\n Attorney General Eric Holder \u2014 who had already been held in contempt by the House of Representatives for declining to turn over internal Justice Department documents in the earlier Fast and Furious scandal \u2014 swore to Congress that he had no knowledge of any effort to go after individual reporters. But according to an official Justice Department statement, Holder had in fact signed off on the search warrant to monitor the communications of Fox News reporter James Rosen. In other words, the attorney general of the United States under oath misled \u2014 or lied to \u2014 Congress.<\/p>\n Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was recently asked by Senator Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) whether the National Security Agency collected the phone and e-mail records of millions of ordinary Americans. Clapper said that it did not. That, too, was an untruth. Clapper\u2019s supporters argued that Wyden should not have asked in public a sensitive question that threatened the needed secrecy of the program. But Clapper did not demur or request a closed session. He instead found it easier to deceive, later dubbing his response the \u201cleast untruthful\u201d answer possible.<\/p>\n Washington reporters and spin doctors argue whether newly appointed national-security adviser Susan Rice knowingly lied when she wove a yarn about a single video maker\u2019s being responsible for spontaneous violence that led to the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi. Yet no one disputes that her televised accounts \u2014 as well as those of both President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton \u2014 were untrue, and demonstrably so at the time. Yet Rice was promoted, not censured, following her performance.<\/p>\n Last November, White House press secretary Jay Carney was asked point-blank whether the administration had altered CIA-produced intelligence memos to fit its narrative of a spontaneous riot in Benghazi. Carney answered unequivocally that the administration had made only one stylistic change. That, too, was not accurate. In fact, there were at least twelve different drafts that reflected substantial ongoing changes by the administration of the original CIA talking points.<\/p>\n Former EPA director Lisa Jackson created a fake e-mail identity \u2014 \u201cRichard Windsor\u201d \u2014 to conduct official business off the record. But Jackson did not stop with that ruse. She turned Richard Windsor into an entire mythical persona, who supposedly took online tests and was given awards by the EPA \u2014 a veritable Jackson doppelg\u00e4nger who was certified as \u201ca scholar of ethical behavior\u201d by no less than the agency that the unethical Jackson oversaw.<\/p>\n Deception is now institutionalized in the Obama administration. It infects almost every corner of the executive branch, eroding the trust necessary for the IRS, the Department of Justice, our security agencies, and the president\u2019s official spokesman \u2014 sabotaging the public trust required for democracy itself.<\/p>\n What went wrong with the Obama administration?<\/p>\n For one thing, there is no longer a traditional adversarial media in Washington. Spouses and siblings of executives at the major television networks are embedded within the administration. Unlike with Watergate, the media now hold back, believing that any hard-hitting reporting of ongoing scandals would only weaken Obama, whose vision of America the vast majority of reporters share. But that understood exemption only encourages greater lack of candor.<\/p>\n There is also utopian arrogance in Washington that justifies any means necessary to achieve exalted ends of supposed fairness and egalitarianism. If one has to tell a lie to stop the Tea Party or Fox News, then it is not seen by this administration as a lie.<\/p>\n Barack Obama swept up an entire nation in 2008 with his hope-and-change promises of a new honesty and transparency. That dream is now in shambles, destroyed by the most untruthful cast since Richard Nixon, H. R. Haldeman, Ron Ziegler, and John Dean left Washington in disgrace almost 40 years ago \u2014 after likewise subverting the very government they had pledged to serve.<\/p>\n Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His new book,<\/em>\u00a0The Savior Generals<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0is just out from Bloomsbury Press. You can reach him by e-mailing\u00a0author@victorhanson.com<\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a92013 Tribune Media Services, Inc.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Obama and his team have subverted the government they pledged to serve. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Truth is the lifeblood of democracy. Without honesty, the foundations of consensual government crumble.<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[117],"tags":[1045,1034,321,357,186,710,110],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1Ac","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6374,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/democracys-dog-days\/","url_meta":{"origin":6088,"position":0},"title":"Democracy’s Dog Days","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0PJ Media We all want democracy to thrive and flourish, but can it? The Obama administration was quite pleased that the anti-democratic Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood had come to power through a single plebiscite. That confidence required a great deal of moral blindness, both\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Democracy"","block_context":{"text":"Democracy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/politics\/democracy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5957,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-the-obama-scandals-reveal-about-progressive-ideology\/","url_meta":{"origin":6088,"position":1},"title":"What the Obama Scandals Reveal About Progressive Ideology","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPageMag.com The three scandals dominating the news this week all reveal the moral and intellectual corruption at the heart of progressive ideology. Whether or not these revelations gain enough traction to halt the country\u2019s downward spiral is the more important question. Benghazi The moment it came\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":8610,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/as-the-epa-and-irs-have-shown-with-big-government-comes-little-accountability\/","url_meta":{"origin":6088,"position":2},"title":"As the EPA and IRS Have Shown, with Big Government Comes Little Accountability","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online Social observers from Aristotle and Juvenal to James Madison and George Orwell have all warned of the dangers of out-of-control government. Lately, we have seen plenty of proof that they were frighteningly correct. The Environmental Protection Agency spilled 3 million gallons of toxic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Political Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Political Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/political-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"EPA chief Gina McCarthy on Capitol Hill. (Alex Wong\/Getty)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/government-officials-are-not-held-accountable-gina-mccarthy-b-500x292.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10005,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/law-takes-a-holiday\/","url_meta":{"origin":6088,"position":3},"title":"Law Takes a Holiday","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"And anarchy follows. by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/National Review In the 1934 romantic movie Death Takes a Holiday, Death assumes human form for three days, and the world turns chaotic. The same thing happens when the law goes on a vacation. Rules are unenforced or politicized. Citizens quickly lose faith in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7601,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-federal-octopus\/","url_meta":{"origin":6088,"position":4},"title":"The Federal Octopus","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Federal agencies now exist not for the public good but for their employees\u2019 benefit and Obama\u2019s agenda. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online When IRS Commissioner John\u00a0Koskinen\u00a0arrogantly told Congress that he had no apologies for an agency that has targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny, had a top-ranking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5942,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/there-is-no-there-there\/","url_meta":{"origin":6088,"position":5},"title":"There Is No There There?","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner Senator Harry Reid may be right that we should wait for the full sordid details before demanding resignations from an increasingly politicized and now apparently confessional IRS (yet the proof of the pudding is that groups such as\u00a0Media Matters, Think Progress,\u00a0Moveon.org, and Organizing for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Benghazi"","block_context":{"text":"Benghazi","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/benghazi\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6088"}],"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=6088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6089,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6088\/revisions\/6089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}