\u201cWe are five days away from fundamentally transforming the\u00a0<\/em>United States of America<\/em>.\u201d \u2014 Barack<\/em><\/p>\n Obama,\u00a0<\/em>October 30, 2008<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe are going to have to change our conversation; we\u2019re going to have to change our traditions, our history; we\u2019re going to have to move into a different place as a nation.\u201d \u2014 Michelle Obama,\u00a0<\/em>May 14, 2008<\/em><\/p>\n There certainly is no question that Barack Obama wants to change the United States. And there clearly is no doubt that such fundamental transformation is difficult, given our tripartite system of government \u2014 even though Obama entered office with large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, an enthralled media, and a closely divided Supreme Court.<\/p>\n So to what degree, after nearly five years in office, has Obama succeeded in changing the United States?<\/p>\n Federal spending.<\/strong>\u00a0We are $6 trillion more deeply in debt. And there are record numbers of Americans on food stamps, unemployment insurance, and disability insurance, or simply disengaged from the work force. Obama has also fundamentally changed Americans\u2019 ideas about the redistributive state.<\/p>\n Whereas, under Clinton and Bush, the argument centered on whether federal subsidies eroded the work ethic, created dependency, and led to a permanent underclass, now the discussion is quite transformed beyond the safety net. Fairly or not, Obama is seen as expanding entitlements in part as a political tool, quite apart from the question of their efficacy in eliminating poverty.<\/p>\n The problem is not just that his critics accuse Obama of trying to create a permanent constituency, a loyal \u201c47 percent\u201d dependent on state money, but rather the way in which Obama himself envisions these programs as reminders of his them\/us faultlines. After 2009, the regulations governing food stamps and welfare were liberalized and politicized as never before. These payouts were judged not just on whether they hurt or helped people, but also, in the Greek and Roman sense, of increasing the number of recipients so as to change political realities.<\/p>\n Taxes and debt.<\/strong>\u00a0Democrats usually wish to raise them, Republicans to shrink them. Nothing new there. But under Obama, there is now a twist. Higher taxes are not a means to achieve a balanced budget, as under the Clinton-Gingrich deal of 1997. Indeed, the return of a 39 percent\u2013plus federal income-tax rate on higher incomes will result not in a balanced budget as before (even with congressionally imposed sequestration). We will still have huge annual deficits of two-thirds of a trillion dollars or more.<\/p>\n Because nearly half of Americans will continue to pay no federal income taxes, and the old Clinton rates were imposed only on the upper brackets, we have the worst of both worlds: high taxes on job creators, along with continuing huge deficits. That paradox raises the question of whether Obama sees deficits not just as necessary to prime the economy, or as a tolerable consequence of huge increases in federal spending, but also as a mechanism to serially raise taxes on the upper brackets, as a desirable redistributive end in and of itself. Taxes are seen now not just as a way to fund expenditures, but as a punitive tool \u2014 hence the new phraseology of 1 percent, fat cats, corporate-jet owners, you did not build that, no time to profit, at some point you\u2019ve made enough money, etc. A more equal but poorer America appears to be preferable to a more affluent but less equal nation.<\/p>\n Health care.\u00a0<\/strong>Little need be said about Obamacare, an orphan now disowned by most of its parents. The purpose of this vast new entitlement was not to ensure all Americans better health care (if it had been, then pro-Obama business owners, unions, and congressional staffers would have wanted in), but instead a sort of health-care\u00a0TSA\u00a0bureaucracy, with more dependents, more federal workers, and higher redistributive taxes \u2014 in short, larger government.<\/p>\n Interest rates.\u00a0<\/strong>Ostensibly, de facto zero interest rates are used as a stimulus for a moribund economy that so far seems oblivious to all the traditional liberal priming tools of massive borrowing, growth in federal spending, and more entitlements and public hiring. Yet almost nonexistent interest rates have sharpened the class divide. The very wealthy have benefited enormously as capital streamed into the stock market in desperate search of almost any return. The very poor do not depend on interest on savings as a hedge against inflation or as central to retirement.<\/p>\n That leaves the middle class, who so far have not felt the upside of zero interest rates \u2014 the interest on their credit-card debt remains sky-high, their student loans are steep, and their mortgage interest for the most part is not all that low. The banks loan at high interest and pay almost nothing on deposits; Wall Street welcomes in cash without much worry about competition to produce returns; and the poor are the beneficiaries of the vast federal borrowing that goes some way toward explaining why interest rates cannot climb, given that servicing the ever-rising federal debt would become almost unsustainable.<\/p>\n The presidency.\u00a0<\/strong>An imperial presidency is not new. But rule by executive fiat that escapes audit from the media is. We live in an age when a president can arbitrarily nullify a law, like Obamacare\u2019s employer mandate; ignore it, like the Defense of Marriage Act; or simply create it, as with partial blanket amnesties. Various wars \u2014 on coal, guns, non-union businesses, and political opponents \u2014 are waged by executive action. For now, the logic is that the president\u2019s means are justified by the exalted ends that he professes. Obama has set the precedent of a president creating, ignoring, or defying laws as he sees fit to forward a progressive agenda.<\/p>\n Scandal.\u00a0<\/strong>Bill Clinton gave us plenty of scandals; but, as in the case of the Nixon administration, the media galvanized public attention to the danger of a sometimes lawless administration. But whether it is the Benghazi deception, the\u00a0IRS\u00a0scandal, the NSA disclosures, the AP monitoring, or Fast and Furious, a new precedent has been established that the public is supposed to weigh two considerations in assessing scandal: the truth versus the damage that the truth can do to a progressive vision of a fairer America. So far the truth has lost.<\/p>\n Politics.\u00a0<\/strong>In his political style, Obama seems to operate on the medieval concept of exemption. Through lofty spoken abstractions, he excuses low behavior. Praising \u201ccivility\u201d allows you to call your opponents veritable terrorists; talk of unity means energizing supporters to get in their opponents\u2019 face; advocacy of a campaign of principles reduces Romney to a veritable ogre. Plenty of presidents have proved vicious, but few so adept in attributing their own base behavior to others. Damning fat cats and corporate-jet owners allows a president to hold serial $50,000-a-head fundraisers. Ridiculing Romney\u2019s elevator seems to make vacationing in Aspen, Costa del Sol, Vail, and Martha\u2019s Vineyard perfectly natural.<\/p>\n Energy.\u00a0<\/strong>Before Obama, natural gas and nuclear power were seen as preferable alternatives to oil and coal. If new restrictions on reactors and a de facto end to the new federal leasing of land for oil and gas exploration are any indication, neither energy source is now acceptable. Had Obama opened up federal lands for fracking and horizontal drilling, built the Keystone Pipeline, and encouraged natural gas as a transportation tool, power bills would not have climbed and gasoline prices would not have doubled. The U.S. would have enjoyed an even brighter energy future than what private enterprise alone has provided.<\/p>\n Obama\u2019s view of energy \u2014 whether we cite former energy secretary Steven Chu\u2019s lunacy on the desirability of raising U.S. gasoline prices to European levels, or candidate Obama\u2019s own promises to bankrupt coal companies \u2014 is elitist to the core. His signature energy achievement is to change the terms of the debate: The chief energy issues for the Obama administration are not national security, not energy independence, not greater competitiveness for American business, not savings for the American consumer, and not jobs. Instead, whether a fuel might heat the atmosphere seems the sole concern.<\/p>\n Race.<\/strong>\u00a0Had Condoleezza Rice or Colin Powell been elected president, race would have been incidental rather than essential to their governance. Nothing in Barack Obama\u2019s past suggests that such a statement could ever have been true of his presidency.<\/p>\n From the beer summit to \u201cpunish our enemies\u201d to the two occasions of pop editorializing about Trayvon Martin, and from Eric Holder\u2019s \u201cmy people\u201d to \u201cnation of cowards,\u201d the Obama administration has sought at opportune times to emphasize racial differences, mostly to secure the base for Obama\u2019s own reelection and for midterm elections.<\/p>\n The result is that race relations have become more polarized than at any other time in the last 30 years. Under Obama\u2019s leadership, celebrities, political analysts, and politicians traffic more in racial animus than at any other time in our recent history. Obama has had an uncanny ability to energize the Black Caucus to voice unusually inflammatory charges. How did it happen that suddenly Chris Rock and Jamie Foxx sound racially biased? When did the post-election commentary of pundits (e.g., \u201ctoo old, too white, too male\u201d) become so race-based?<\/p>\n From the trivial \u2014 dropping his g\u2019s and clumsily transforming his cadences \u2014 to the fundamental \u2014 weighing in\u00a0in mediis rebus<\/em>\u00a0on pending court cases \u2014 the president\u2019s goal has often been division, not unity. We have reached a surreal situation of reading daily accounts of black-on-white crime in the media, reported by politically correct journalists who dare not mention the perpetrator\u2019s race, followed by enraged readers\u2019 comments that are the most patently racist in modern memory.<\/p>\n Illegal immigration.\u00a0<\/strong>Before Obama, the debate over illegal immigration was mostly an argument between two schools that transcended politics and ideology: literalists who believed the law had to be enforced to its full extent, postfacto as well as preventatively, and realists who agreed in theory but felt that many of the 11 million who resided illegally in the U.S. could be given a pathway to citizenship, so long as they have no criminal record, have avoided public assistance, and could claim long residence \u2014 contingent on closing the border.<\/p>\n Not now. Under Obama, illegal immigration has become a political if not a racially charged issue. Supporters of blanket amnesty saw an evolving demographic process of fundamentally transforming the electorate of the American Southwest, resonating with Obama\u2019s own unfortunate lead, as in his advice to Latinos to \u201cpunish our enemies.\u201d Perhaps this vision was best summarized by ACORN\u2019s former CEO, Bertha Lewis. She recently urged African-Americans to support increased immigration on the following rationale: \u201cWe got some Latino cousins, we got some Asian cousins, we got some Native-American cousins, we got all kind of cousins. . . . Cousins need to get together, because if we\u2019re going to be [part of the non-white] majority, it makes sense for black people in this country to get down with immigration reform. . . . Everyone, even all white folks in this country, acknowledge that in a minute, [the] United States of America will be a new majority, will be majority minority, a brand-new thing. . . . For the first time ever in history, African-Americans outvoted white Americans. Pooh. That\u2019s the fear of the white man. That could change everything. That\u2019s why [immigration] should matter to us.\u201d<\/p>\n Foreign policy.\u00a0<\/strong>What is the common theme to the euphemisms about terrorism and radical Islam, the failed reset with Russia, withdrawal from Iraq, confusion in Afghanistan, lead-from-behind in Libya, pink lines and pseudo\u2013\u201cgame changers\u201d in Syria, the faux deadlines with Iran, mesmerization with Turkey, peace feelers to Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela, as well as the rhetorical tropes found in the Cairo speech, the U.N. addresses, and the Al-Arabiya interview?<\/p>\n Just as, in Obama\u2019s worldview, the 1 percent exercise undue influence in the United States, so too abroad America has exercised exceptional power and influence that either are not warranted by its traditions and history, or do not contribute to stability and social justice in the world at large. Fundamentally transforming the role of the U.S. means tilting toward countries that are suspicious of the Western tradition, and favoring groups and countries like Turkey, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Palestinians that have supposedly legitimate grievances against the United States. The goal? Probably, the transformation of the U.S. into something like the EU, whose democratic socialism is manifested abroad with soft-power lectures.<\/p>\n Guns.<\/strong>\u00a0There is no new restrictive legislation on firearms; and yet never has the ability to buy reasonably priced ammunition and firearms in quantity been more curtailed. In loudly threatening to enact more gun control after each publicized tragic shooting, the Obama administration has created a climate of fear, which has prompted hoarding, shortages, panic buying, and paranoia, which have accomplished what the federal government could not.<\/p>\n To what degree these changes will be reversed or institutionalized depends on the 2014 and 2016 elections. For now, Obama\u2019s transformations are not to be found only\u00a0in his legislative record, but far more in his use of the presidency to change the way we envision and talk about America.<\/p>\n NRO\u00a0contributor<\/em>\u00a0Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the\u00a0Hoover Institution<\/a>. His latest book is\u00a0<\/em>The Savior Generals<\/a><\/span>, published this spring by\u00a0<\/em>Bloomsbury<\/em>\u00a0Books.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From energy to foreign policy to the presidency itself, Obama’s agenda rolls along. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online\u00a0 \u201cWe are five days away from fundamentally transforming the\u00a0United States of America.\u201d \u2014 Barack Obama,\u00a0October 30, 2008 \u201cWe are going to have to change our conversation; we\u2019re going to have to change our traditions, our […]<\/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":[11,383,136],"tags":[12,42,1057,1055,35,63,88,40,1042,1020],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1I1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1067,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-racial-politics\/","url_meta":{"origin":6573,"position":0},"title":"Obama’s Racial Politics","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Never has America been more assimilated, integrated, and intermarried \u2014 as is evident in everything from politics to popular culture, from statistics to anecdotes. Yet from late 2007 to 2012, Barack Obama has been establishing new rules of racial referencing. In general, his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Identity Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Identity Politics","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/identity-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":885,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-virtual-rose-garden\/","url_meta":{"origin":6573,"position":1},"title":"Obama’s Virtual Rose Garden","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online When Barack Obama went into hibernation in December and vacationed in Hawaii, we noted that his poll numbers edged back up some. His advisers probably noticed the anomaly too: that the less the people hear and see of Obama, the more they seem\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campaign 2012"","block_context":{"text":"Campaign 2012","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/campaign-2012\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9450,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-legacies-of-barack-obama\/","url_meta":{"origin":6573,"position":2},"title":"The Legacies of Barack Obama","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Without policy achievements to hang his hat on, Obama\u2019s rhetoric will be how he\u2019s remembered \u2013 and the results have been ugly. By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online On his recent Asian tour, President Obama characterized his fellow Americans (the most productive workers in the world) as \u201clazy.\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campaign 2016"","block_context":{"text":"Campaign 2016","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/campaign-2016\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":371,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-uncool-president\/","url_meta":{"origin":6573,"position":3},"title":"The Uncool President","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services In 2008, Barack \"No Drama\" Obama was the coolest presidential candidate America had ever seen \u2014 young, hip, Ivy League, mellifluous and black, with a melodic and exotic name. Rock stars vied to perform at his massive rallies, where Obama often began his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election 2012"","block_context":{"text":"Election 2012","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/election-2012\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1355,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-101\/","url_meta":{"origin":6573,"position":4},"title":"Obama 101","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online In the last three years, the president has taught us a great deal about America, the world, and himself. Before Obama, many Americans still believed in massive deficit spending, whether as an article of fairness, a means to economic growth, or just a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/commentary-obama-administration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":752,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-gay-marriage-evolution-deception\/","url_meta":{"origin":6573,"position":5},"title":"Obama’s Gay Marriage ‘Evolution’ Deception","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine In yet another act of election-year cynicism, Barack Obama has announced, \u201cI think same-sex couples should be able to get married.\u201d This statement follows similar pronouncements by Joe Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. To hear Obama tell it, this change reflects his \u201cevolution\u201d\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6573"}],"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=6573"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6577,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6573\/revisions\/6577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/2998011305_41bddf53db.jpg?resize=300%2C172&ssl=1\" "\\"http:\/\/www.michaelbshane.com\/\\"")