{"id":6301,"date":"2013-08-02T14:53:51","date_gmt":"2013-08-02T21:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=6301"},"modified":"2013-08-02T14:53:51","modified_gmt":"2013-08-02T21:53:51","slug":"our-lost-howard-beale-moments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-lost-howard-beale-moments\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Lost Howard Beale Moments"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Remember Howard Beale, the deranged anchorman from\u00a0Network<\/i>? During one broadcast he tells the viewers to turn off their televisions, go to the window, and yell, \u201cI\u2019m mad as hell, and I\u2019m not going to take it anymore!\u201d In one of the iconic scenes from American movies, thousands of New Yorkers stick their heads out into the rain and scream their frustration over a corrupt political culture of lies, incompetence, and hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

We need that moment today in America, but we\u2019ve let too many opportunities pass by. On every front our political leaders demonstrate a shameless disregard for principle, truth, and the greater good that would have made an Athenian demagogue blush.<\/p>\n

The preposterous Anthony Weiner, for example, a creepy, out-of-control exhibitionist, continues to run for mayor of New York, trusting in his phony apologies and mawkish meae culpae to deflect attention away from his pathetic neurosis, no doubt thinking that if it worked for Bill Clinton\u2019s much worse sexual offenses, it should work for him. But the real outrage worthy of Howard Beale is his wife, Huma Abedin, a Muslim Brotherhood\u00a0princess<\/a>\u00a0who as a close aid to Hillary Clinton enjoyed national security clearance. When five House conservatives sought to vet Abedin last year, Senator John McCain and House Speaker John Boehner rode to the\u00a0rescue<\/a>, squawking about \u201cMcCarthyism\u201d and \u201csmears.\u201d Did we learn nothing from the Cold War, when communist spies and fellow travelers infiltrated the highest levels of the government, helping the Soviet Union acquire nuclear weapons? Wouldn\u2019t that experience suggest some prudence in allowing people access to the nation\u2019s secrets?<\/p>\n

So we have a high-level State Department functionary with demonstrated ties to the Muslim Brotherhood \u2014 an anti-American, anti-Semitic, genocidal, terrorist-nurturing organization preaching eliminationist violence against the enemies of Islam \u2014 and Republican congressmen attack their colleagues just for seeking clarification of this relationship. There\u2019s a Howard Beale moment.<\/p>\n

But of course, indifference to Abedin\u2019s unsavory connections is small beer compared to the indifference to Obama\u2019s courtship of the Brotherhood, just one dimension of his criminally incompetent foreign policy. Let\u2019s recap his Egyptian disaster: we collude in the overthrow of the vicious but reliable Hosni Mubarak, replace him with the Muslim Brotherhood, give them international legitimacy and taxpayer cash, then when their overreaching and bungling rouse up the people against them, we stand by dazed and confused as another military strongman takes over. Meanwhile, as Syria burns, Russia flexes its geopolitical muscles, the Libya we \u201cliberated\u201d provides weapons to jihadists, Iran keeps the centrifuges spinning, Lebanon and Jordan descend into chaos, Iraq explodes into sectarian violence as its leadership snuggles ever deeper into Iran\u2019s embrace \u2014 while all this is going on, our Inspector Clouseau of a Secretary of State wastes time and American prestige getting the Palestinians to\u00a0talk<\/i>\u00a0about holding \u201cpeace talks,\u201d and bullying our closest ally in the region, Israel, into releasing the murderers of women and children. There\u2019s another Howard Beale moment.<\/p>\n

Back home, the president continues the endless campaign, touring the country to preach old ideas and political smears to preselected choirs. His only solution for an anemic economy limping along because of his failed policies is to demand more failed policies \u2013 pork-barrel spending disguised as \u201cstimulus\u201d and \u201cinvestment,\u201d all to be funded by soak-the-rich tax hikes that for a\u00a0century<\/a>\u00a0have been shown to strangle economic growth. More shameless still, he dismisses the IRS\u2019s hounding of political enemies, the DOJ\u2019s harassment of journalists, and worst of all, the questions over the murder of 4 Americans in Benghazi as \u201cphony scandals,\u201d even as his administration obstructs, misdirects, and stonewalls the Congressmen trying to get at the truth.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing \u201cphony\u201d about dead Americans, about the administration\u2019s nakedly political spin of the attacks as a \u201cspontaneous\u201d reaction to an obscure video, about the continuing stonewalling of those seeking the truth, about the perpetrators, whose names we know, walking around Libya with impunity. This fecklessness and indifference to our nation\u2019s prestige is a genuine scandal and a stain on this country\u2019s honor. We should have had to dig the bodies of those American heroes out of a vast mound of enemy dead. Right now we should have Navy Seals rounding up the terrorists in Libya and sending them to Allah on the Paradise Express. And don\u2019t tell me the most powerful and lethal military in the history of the planet somehow \u201ccan\u2019t.\u201d They can, it\u2019s our politicians who sacrifice this country\u2019s honor to political expediency and comfort. There\u2019s a great big Howard Beale moment.<\/p>\n

And how about those Republicans? In the Senate, they\u2019re wasting time over a \u201ccomprehensive\u201d immigration bill, which is nothing more than amnesty for law-breakers and a cheap-worker employment agency. Apparently the unfolding disaster of \u201ccomprehensive\u201d health-care \u201creform,\u201d aka Obamacare, has taught them nothing. If they\u2019re serious about fixing immigration, they should start by showing they have a credible plan for securing the border. But no, addled by fantasies of legions of \u201cHispanic\u201d voters flocking to the Republican standard out of gratitude, they help the President craft a 2014 campaign-narrative of Republican intransigence and racist xenophobia, just because some House Republicans quaintly consider prudence and principle before signing off on bloated legislation that promises to reprise the failures of the 1986 \u201cimmigration reform.\u201d<\/p>\n

And now these same Republicans are tut-tutting over House Republicans who are trying to exercise their constitutional authority over the budget and defund Obamacare. Listen for a moment to James Madison, in\u00a0Federalist<\/i>\u00a058: \u201cThe power over the purse, may in fact be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people, for obtaining a redress of every grievance, and for carrying into effect every just and salutary measure.\u201d The low level of support for Obamacare, rammed into law without a single Republican vote and lubricated with outrageous pork and payoffs, is pretty much a \u201cgrievance\u201d of the sort the Founders intended the House to address and correct. The failure of many Republican congressmen to legislate according to the principles they profess is another Howard Beale moment.<\/p>\n

Most infuriating of all is the Republican political establishment\u2019s abandonment of the principles and philosophy of the Constitution and its core doctrine of limited government. Too many have bought into the Progressive myth that our founding document is a relic from the past unsuited to our brave new world of high technology and mass communication. Too many act as though human nature, contrary to the beliefs of the Founders, has somehow stopped being motivated by colliding \u201cpassions and interests,\u201d as Madison called them, and can be perfected if only the right government policies managed by technocrats can be forced upon the citizenry. For too many the fear of concentrated power and its inevitable corruption that undergirds every page of the Constitution has dissipated, and even so-called \u201cconservatives\u201d speak of the need for the federal government to \u201csolve problems\u201d \u2014 see No Child Left Behind \u2014 when it\u2019s the responsibility of people to solve problems, not unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats and functionaries hired by perpetual incumbents greased by lupine lobbyists. In short, rather than shrinking the federal Leviathan, they just want to manage it better, so we go broke and erode our remaining freedoms in 100 years instead of 50.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the biggest Howard Beale moment that should have us all screaming out our windows. Instead all we hear are crickets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine Remember Howard Beale, the deranged anchorman from\u00a0Network? During one broadcast he tells the viewers to turn off their televisions, go to the window, and yell, \u201cI\u2019m mad as hell, and I\u2019m not going to take it anymore!\u201d In one of the iconic scenes from American movies, thousands of New […]<\/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":[22,11],"tags":[1025,12,1045,94,1043,88,67],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1DD","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":763,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/americas-problem-of-assimilation\/","url_meta":{"origin":6301,"position":0},"title":"America’s Problem of Assimilation","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Defining Ideas The current Supreme Court term has been dominated by the Constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act, the healthcare legislation better known as Obamacare. But the Court has recently heard another case, this one concerning the controversial Arizona immigration law passed in 2010. Though\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Immigration"","block_context":{"text":"Immigration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/immigration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3300,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-race-card\/","url_meta":{"origin":6301,"position":1},"title":"Obama’s Race Card","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The liberal media are in full Captain Renault mode, \u201cshocked, shocked\u201d to find race injected into the presidential campaign by a \u201cSwift-boating\u201d John McCain. How shameless can you get? The Obama campaign\u2013\u2013indeed, the whole of Obama\u2019s public existence\u2013\u2013is about nothing other than his perceived\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":4096,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/slouching-toward-geezerhood\/","url_meta":{"origin":6301,"position":2},"title":"Slouching Toward Geezerhood","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton RightNetwork.com This year the oldest Baby Boomer cohort turns 65, the first of 79 million people who promise to be the whiniest and most annoying crop of geezers in history. Not all of them, of course. Just as many in the Greatest Generation weren\u2019t so great,\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":2228,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-lefts-selective-outrage\/","url_meta":{"origin":6301,"position":3},"title":"The Left’s Selective Outrage","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine You know liberals are edging toward a full Jonestown-style meltdown when someone as smart as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman starts losing it. Last week Friedman worked himself up into a paranoiac frenzy over the tone of some of the criticism Obama and\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":7589,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/immigration-and-americas-failure-of-nerve\/","url_meta":{"origin":6301,"position":4},"title":"Immigration and America\u2019s Failure of Nerve","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by\u00a0Bruce Thornton\u00a0\/\/ FrontPage Magazine The number of unaccompanied children from Central America into the U.S. has reached 47,000 since October, and may hit 90,000 by the end of this year. The official story is that they are fleeing drug-gang mayhem and political violence in their home countries, and so are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mexico"","block_context":{"text":"Mexico","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/mexico\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/br-450x288.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":835,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/derbyshire-learns-what-we-cannot-talk-about\/","url_meta":{"origin":6301,"position":5},"title":"Derbyshire Learns What We Cannot Talk About","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine Wittgenstein once wrote, \u201cWhat we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence.\u201d Ex-National Review writer John Derbyshire has just learned the modern American version of this truth.\u00a0What we Americans cannot talk about is race (except, of course, in the anodyne terms established\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. 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