100 Comments

1. eme:

Hmm. Some interesting stuff to think about here, it seems to me. Thank you.

Jul 4, 2009 - 2:39 pm 2. Dr. T:

Your pessimism almost matches my own. I believe that Obama sucks up to “elected” dictators because he sees himself in their positions in 2016. If his supporters don’t pass a new amendment to overturn the 22nd (presidential term limits), he may just go for an “extra-Constitutional” approach and stay in office regardless of term limits.

Your penultimate paragraph nicely sums up the difference between the government and the rest of the economy. Five years working at a VA Med Ctr proved to me that few government employees know how to create, build, think outside the box, or even lead. However, they’re great at spouting regulations, covering their butts, and moving up the GS ladder. Glad to see that people like this will be running more and more of our faltering economy.

Jul 4, 2009 - 3:26 pm 3. John Moore:

The explanation is Personality Disorder of Progressives. They can’t help themselves.

Jul 4, 2009 - 3:41 pm 4. David Thomson:

“There is room for only one to play Obama-and we are already Obama.”

Many Europeans are similar to teenagers who in their heart of hearts hope their parents don’t give in to their childish rants. They really want the adults in their lives to behave like adults. The United States has basically been an anchor of stability to the rest of the world. A very dangerous vacuum is created if we also opt to become childishly immature brats.

Jul 4, 2009 - 4:49 pm 5. RWE:

“We are being run now by film critics not directors, book reviewers not writers, music columnists, not musicians.”

Oh my heavens Prof Hanson, that is bluntly beautiful even by the standards that we have come to expect from you.

Jul 4, 2009 - 5:19 pm 6. Doug Wright:

Professor, great words but taken with Roger Simon’s posting today doubling depressing!

We still don’t know if No. Korea’s nutcase leader will go ahead with the launch of his Hawaii missile but there’s time. However, don’t know how much time our country has before it digs its hole too deep to climb out in my remaining lifetime.

Obama is trying his damned worst to tear this country down to the level of Zimbabwe. And that raises the question who will ship us grain, even GM corn, to live on?

Maybe the only thing to do is to praise the Lord and hope somewhere there’s a supply of ammunition or food.

Jul 4, 2009 - 5:21 pm 7. Rivka:

“We are being run now by film critics not directors, book reviewers not writers, music columnists, not musicians.”

–an excellent sentence in a highly perspicacious post, Professor. Also an excellent characterization of Obama in the ninth paragraph. If only I could proclaim, as liberals did during the Bush administration, that I was going to leave the country. But there appears to more or less be nowhere left to run to.

I should also note that, as I’m starting college this fall, having signed myself away to the classics department, I’m beginning to have a new respect for you that reaches beyond politics.

Jul 4, 2009 - 6:36 pm 8. 49erDweet:

Agreed. And it will not be “pretty”, either, when we finally emerg. More likely we will be destructive gypsy moths than stately monarch butterflies. Euro’s better watch out for their ‘woolies’.

Jul 4, 2009 - 7:46 pm 9. Ron Kean:

Obama sides with totalitarians because he’d like to be one. He knows how. His programs are creating giant slush funds and he’s bribing many people. It’s the old story. He’s getting as many people on his payroll as he can. He’s powerful because ‘greed is good’ in his followers.

He learned it from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. A kid with 50 mil. It’s all about money. He will give it, withhold it, or punish using lawfare, ACORN mercenaries,or the dreaded threatening call from ‘people’ high up.

Same with selling equipment to Iran or other totalitarians. What they believe is irrelevant. It’s all about money.

Jul 4, 2009 - 8:45 pm 10. Charles Gordon:

This transformative period of upheaval, setting the conditions for numerous ensuing miseries, now beginning with our involuntary submission to confiscatory government control over our lives at home and impotent acquiescence to dysfunctional third-world behavior in other countries abroad, could not have reached the tipping point that it has without the incessant campaigns of misinformation to persuade us that we, our country, are no longer exceptional.

The loss of our identity as an exceptionally high achieving society signals the real loss of our heritage, the dismal destiny of our taking for granted unprecedented prosperity, unrivaled security, and nearly limitless—yet soon to be erstwhile—freedom.

The paradox of this loss consists in the simple truth that the one who understands our exceptional character as deeply in his dark spirit as anyone can, who is as convinced of our position in an unlevel world as any bi-racial, peripatetic denizen could be, and who is the most obsessed in his pursuit of a singular design to corrupt what this exceptional nation has achieved, is our own historic first Islamic apostate president.

Jul 4, 2009 - 9:47 pm 11. wickerbasket:

Obama will have so much work to be done after he is done doing all this stuff that I think it will either set off a rush to figure out anything we can to see what went wrong or despair at the fact that even our biggest hopes leave so much to be desired.

There is nothing to worry about when we work on things ourselves and really set ourselves to it because our minds will be sharp and we will be much more likely to recognize a problem when it comes. The problem is when we give into all the things around us and believe that the only way to fix things is by giving into the pressure. I wonder how far all of this will take us. I pray that it does not give us too many troubles, but I do not know at all.

It seems to me that when we give ourselves to the moods of the age and think they are our savior it is all such an illusion because the only real thing that is guiding these moods is the fact that no one is really responding to the challenges in the way we are. When we give into the thought that nothing should be done and everything should be left to run itself in the world, (I’m not being all interventionist here), then we get the thought that we must be different for any good to come.

That’s the whole problem, people do not understand that the reason people do not like us is not because we are such a huge problem, but that we deal with problems where they can see no real answers. They then think we are a huge problem because the world is so bad that the only real problem is upsetting things and making people angry at you. They believe that surely if we left everything alone people would get along all by themselves because the only thing they really care about is being adored by people who have disregarded them by racism and colonialism. When we respect them we give them the opportunity to work with us and see that good comes from good behavior.

The problem is that people in other countries do not care so much about all this because they have not grown up being a part of all this world, but a part of a world that blames everyone for the faults in the region. That wants to keep its place in the name of peace and of revolutionarily changing the things that are all other people’s faults.

Obama’s changing America will not change the world because it is naive to think that by ignoring problems it will lead to reconciliation like we are a troubled family that needs and wants healing. The world is not a family, but grows up thinking that the things that make for peace are things that can be found in easy answers.

We pray for the Iranian protestors because they show that difficutlies bring out truth more than does a calm before a storm that just leads to ignorance and loses sight of what needs to be done.

All this stuff about easy answers in foreign policy and domestic issues is a pipedream. The only easy answer there is is that one day there will be consequences for whatever we do. How bad those consequences will be I have no idea.

I guess Victor’s right that it will be very different, but hopefully we can change it one day.

Jul 4, 2009 - 9:52 pm 12. Mike McDaniel:

Indeed our European cousins are beginning to wake up. They weren’t careful about their wishes, and their wishes have come true. They’ve always had a great time biting Uncle Sam’s ankles, all the time knowing that he wouldn’t crush them, and would, if their juvenile antics got them in too much trouble, bail them out. They could afford to play the irresponsible sophisticates knowing that the America, the ultimate adult, would make it all better if necessary. So they raised their noses highest and displayed their lofty condescension with particularly nuanced superiority when people like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush represented America, and muted their criticism somewhat when people like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were in power. And now America is more juvenile than they could have possibly imagined. Even the French–the French!–were muscular by comparison on Iran. The Europeans are scared. They should be.

In his support for Latin American dictators, we see Obama’s default operating system. No teleprompters to keep him on message, to keep him from saying what he really thinks. We saw a rapid, knee-jerk, from the bottom of the soul response. This is who Obama is. These are the people with whom he is comfortable, his kind of people, Ayers, Dorn, Wright times ten.

In Obama, we have the perfect diplomatic storm. All liberals believe that the mere act of sitting down and “engaging” (talking to) our mortal enemies, particularly if our mortal enemies previously refused the sitting, is an incredibly significant diplomatic accomplishment in and of itself. It matters not that our enemy might do nothing but tell us–in very undiplomatic language–where to stick our good intentions, we are “engaged,” which demonstrates great superiority over those bumpkin republicans who refused to engage. Such engagement provides a virtually unlimited supply of nuance and, yes, hope and change. And if we sign a treaty–a treaty(!)– like the Agreed Framework, whereby we gave North Korea everything they asked for and more and they, in return, agreed to cheat, before the ink was dry, on the few vague and unverifiable promises they made, well, who couldn’t see that as a triumph, the very pinnacle of enlightened liberal diplomacy!

But now we have a president who doesn’t represent America. He doesn’t like America. He apologizes for America. He is doing all he can to turn American into a socialist, worker’s paradise. And best of all, he really likes, understands, sympathizes with and automatically aligns himself with America’s enemies. Of course, insulting and harming America’s allies goes without saying. Giving the Queen of England an iPod, loaded only with his speeches?! Diplomatic masterstroke.

To understand Obama there are essentially two possibilities. One: He really knows little or nothing about history, economics, well–just about everything–and through incredibly inept blundering, is trying to destroy American democracy as quickly as possible. He really doesn’t understand that by destroying capitalism, by destroying the producers, he destroys the nation, and the world. And considering that western civilization faces an existential threat, a threat that will grow in power and influence as America wanes, Obama can cause incredible damage in a very short time. So. Obama is incredibly stupid and doesn’t know any better.

Two: Obama knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s trying to turn so many Americans into wards of the state that Democrats will have a permanent majority, grateful for whatever meager table scraps their enlightened masters provide. He’ll even be able to suspend any pesky parts of the Constitution he doesn’t like. Obama! President for Life! So the greater harm he does to the economy, the great chaos he creates on the domestic and international stages, the more bureaucracies he can create, and more people he can put on the government dole, the more successful he’ll be in his ultimate goal.

There are two trip wires on the horizon. The 2010 congressional elections and the next presidential election. If Republicans don’t make significant gains in 2010 and take back the White House two years thereafter, we may, once and for all, be beyond hope. Imagine the horror for the rest of the world. There will no longer be a shining city on the hill, a place where one can go to experience freedom, equality, and the chance to make a better life. The world will be nothing more than a burning Paris suburb overrun by radical Muslims demanding, well, everything. And Obama will welcome them with the promise of hope, change, and with open arms. After all, immigrants, and the dead, tend to vote Democrat! Oh yes, and both pay no taxes.

Jul 4, 2009 - 10:28 pm 13. JWT:

It would take a Sarah Palin to rescue us from this national madness.

Jul 4, 2009 - 10:54 pm 14. I Toil Not, Neither Do I Spin:

Here’s a line for the ages: “We are being run now by film critics not film directors, book reviewers not writers, music columnists, not musicians.”

Jul 5, 2009 - 12:24 am 15. Joseph:

A scary scenario Victor and who knows maybe you are right, one question are you suggesting that Republican President Eisenhower “…objected (with Russia) against Anglo-French efforts to “recolonize” Suez.”? Because he was President in 1956 when we objected to that invasion of Egypt and Truman a democrat was president when we went to war against Russian aggression in Korea. Or was Eisenhower a RINO too. Republicans historically talk about confronting tyranny but it seems democrats are the ones who do something about it (Wilson, FDR, Truman) of course they also screw it up (Kennedy, LBJ, Carter, Clinton). Thank God for Bush the elder and younger for swinging that pendulum back. Bush the elder for not taking out Saddam the first time and Bush the younger for screwing the pooch the second time. I believe Bush the younger also said about Putin, “I looked the man in the eye. I was able to get a sense of his soul…” Not a good judge of people especially vice presidents. I know Iraq has a democracy now but let us see how long that house of cards holds once we aren’t doing all the heavy lifting.
Tyranny are like boils, sometimes you just got to let them go awhile before you squeeze them or you will just spread the infection.
Again Victor, Obama maybe worst than Stalin, I just think it is too soon to tell.

Jul 5, 2009 - 1:11 am 16. Lawrence Kohn:

The parasha (the weekly Torah reading) yesterday included the story of Balaam the prophet commissioned by King Balak to curse the Israelites. In the story Balaam’s ass keeps avoiding the road Balaam wants to follow and receives beatings as a result until the animal begins to talk and complain and Balaam is told to bless, not to curse the Israelites. Who in the present day version of this tale (compliments of Professor Hanson’s metaphor about the mule in this article) will get the mule to talk, who will play the angel blocking Balaam’s way and who will fill in for God who in the Torah story is the force behind Balaam’s changing from trying to curse Israel to blessing her? As our Declaration of Independence grounds sovereignty in the people we must wait for enough of us to cry “enough.” In the story, events happen in threes; perhaps each of the first 3 years of the administration will disillusion sufficient people to vote it out of office in the fourth.

Jul 5, 2009 - 5:48 am 17. Dave the Kapampangan:

Nanny Obananarama says:

“I shall birth a NEW world. A world in which we NEVER HAVE TO PAY the piper.

Our Statements shall document our moral superiority as our actions do nothing to support the defenseless against evil pillagers and overlords. The victims will save themselves because technology of course is inevitable.

Within the USA, someone ELSE shall pick up the slack of establishing justice, providing for the common defense, ensuring domestic tranquility, and protecting Constitutional rights to life, liberty while the government puts aside Constitutional mandates in order to appease growing entitlement classes who deserve our EMPATHY.

I promise you, the entitlement pie of government pensions shall grow– and we shall all become government. Officially, everyone shall be a manager, and no one a worker.

I promise to increase taxes, without calling them taxes. Overtaxed citizens must run their own park districts and swimming pools, provide their own defense against criminals and marauders, fix their own roads, educate their own children, provide their own medicine, and so on under the table. Government will still be taking the lion’s share of the TAX money– but without providing any services, or protecting any rights enshrined in the constitution.

Our post-racial society shall prove that groups of people indulging in corruption and autocracy are “equal” to groups that value hard work and fair play. If they don’t appear equal, we shall tax the hard working, and incur credit card debt and print up money to bolster any groups which “appear” to be unequal, for as long as we can.

Behold, with fierce moral urgency, I bring you Camelot, a fun free (free for some) ride on a $13 trillion credit card however long it might last.”

Jul 5, 2009 - 7:27 am 18. RJ:

Obama a metrosexual you say? I agree.

Palin…frontier Mom, happy wife, mother, etc.

Wal-Mart still has few if any bullets, not many guns for sale. Been that way for some months.

Does Obama and his brood know how to shoot?

Palin’s people sure do!

I know how to shoot, even knew how prior to my elite education, etc. I know what side I intend to line up with for this coming battle to define America.

Jul 5, 2009 - 9:07 am 19. Robert Winkler Burke:

Dr. Hanson,

Your well-written piece for some reason reminds me of the Sergio Leone Western film classic, “A Firstful of Dynamite.”

My immediate thought was of the beginning scene, where the “chicken-theif” Juan (played by Rod Steiger) hitches a ride in an over-eloquent stage coach in the Mexican desert. In it he finds a preist, a businessman and woman of “high class” who thoroughly abuse him, because he is beneath their priviledged position, breeding and intelligence.

But in short order his gang over-runs the coach, Juan robs the people, “services” the woman, and ditches the lot — now naked — on a pile of manure.

But this is just the movie’s introduction. A civil war is going on. Sean (played by Jasmes Coburn) arrives from Ireland as a dynamite expert (having worked for the IRA), willing to work for the Mexican government.

Sean criticizes Juan as a “chicken-thief”, and their ensuing time together is one where Sean teaches by example, and Juan learns.

Sean needs to redeem himself because he turned against a friend in Ireland who, after being tortured by the police, fingered him.

Juan needs to redeem himself because he has no virtues.

Sean stays loyal to Juan as a virtuous friend, even though Sean dies in a powerful dynamite explosion.

The movie seems to say that the virtues of God are eternal, whereas the chaotic self-interest shenanigans of a strife-torn life are — in the end — temporal.

Obama et al seem to be extreme experts in all things temporal and expedient done for reasons of quite questionable mores. God forbid any “chicken-thief” should hurt him and his ilk.

Let the explosive nature of this present world teach all of us the love of eternal virtues… though they be hard to establish.

Certainly our Founding Fathers established a virtuous plan for governance.

And just as certainly, Their Plan has been abandoned by the Obamanables for, well, a fistful of dynamite, and that BORROWED!

With so much explosive hope and change set with so many short fuses… maybe it’s time for us suckers to get ready to duck.

Jul 5, 2009 - 1:11 pm 20. Promethea:

So we now have a government run by the Anklebiters? Rule by columnists, music critics, and book reviewers? I love it.

The idiocracy.

Yes, we’re in good shape for the future.

Jul 5, 2009 - 2:30 pm 21. proreason:

“We are being run now by film critics not directors”

Spot on Mr.Hanson. You are on to something with this insight once again.

Obama, as the “leader”, hasn’t done a lick of work in his life, having been carried around on a pillow since birth by his facist overseers.

Little Timmie, Larry, Rahm the Impaler, the Hildabeast…..critics all. Not a callous or a real-world project among the lot of the them.

Wordsmiths, supercilious observors, “idea” people.

Hitler and Stalin knew more about the world in their teens than this crew will ever know.

But they sure have no lack of arrogance.

Let’s hope the mushroom clouds don’t assemble before we can get them back in their holes.

Jul 5, 2009 - 6:04 pm 22. Pajamas Media » The American Metamorphosis:

[...] Read the entire piece here. [...]

Jul 6, 2009 - 1:27 am 23. Bridget:

As usual – right on the mark – the second to last paragraph is so true – it is far easier to criticize than create…..one learns to be careful in how they criticize if they’ve created – otherwise, they criticize from a stance of ignorance.

Thanks for fighting the fight.

Jul 6, 2009 - 2:34 am 24. Tom:

For the last 49 years I have been governed by the “best and the brightest”, all graduates of the Ivy League puppy mills (I stole that last). All they have done is manage to ruin my country. And it’s all been so predictible. Sigh.

Jul 6, 2009 - 3:02 am 25. Snake Eater:

When this is over there are two things I know for sure. Obama will be the last black president for a long time and leftist economic theory will have discredited itself irreversibly.

Jul 6, 2009 - 3:10 am 26. Judy Breck:

Great piece! Your next to the last paragraph needs to be read and absorbed by all Americans. We are now a bridled mule for sure. That image is very helpful. Clarity is what we lack in dealing with the knave in the White House. I think Sarah Palin fully appreciates what you describe. She has stopped in her tracks, dumbfounding the MSM.

Please keep writing about the future: about how we can get the insight to stop The One’s rush into American disaster — and get him off our backs.

Jul 6, 2009 - 3:29 am 27. Formwiz:

Doc, you missed your calling. And maybe your century. I can see you writing something similar in Punch around 1777.

PS That last word is cocoon.

Jul 6, 2009 - 4:09 am 28. "progressive"watch:

Don’t say “‘we’ cared little” Victor Davis Hanson. Say Barack Obama cared little. Obamamao has to have a Moslim-Marxist cabal of natins to support him poliltically and militarily,if necsssary,when he declares himself the savior-dictator of the United States.

Obama has no particular unusal charisma. His charismatic effect is media-created illusion and propaganda.

What is Obama doing to America? He’s downsizing America,like from a Cadilac to a bicycle,decapitalizing it,and in place of individual liberties,creating an American gulag.

Jul 6, 2009 - 4:19 am 29. mishu:

We cared little that both the Honduran Supreme Court and Parliament had acted lawfully in ordering their President’s removal on grounds that he had acted unconstitutionally, in bold, unlawful efforts to obtain a third presidential term through a likely rigged plebiscite.

I was listening to NPR yesterday and some chin stroker justified Zelaya’s illegal referendum by waiving off the supreme court and congress as corrupt without explaining why. Of course, the interviewer gave an “uh-huh” to gloss over his ironic statement.

Jul 6, 2009 - 4:38 am 30. Jack’s Newswatch » Blog Archive » Hanson: Our Chrysalis Stage:

[...] [More] Web Logs You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. [...]

Jul 6, 2009 - 4:41 am 31. RandyChandler:

“We are being run now by film critics not directors, book reviewers not writers, music columnists, not musicians.”

This would explain the blurry picture of reality they present, as well as the ersatz Olympus from which Obama tosses his vocal lightning bolts.

But you can’t expect him to alienate the UN. He will depend on the UN to “handle” any and all international irritants.

Jul 6, 2009 - 4:45 am 32. Allston:

Another fine piece, Doctor Hanson.

“Obama has surrounded himself with legions of ‘fixers.’ Bright men and women who have Ivy League law degrees, business school credentials, PhDs in the social sciences, and academic pedigrees in science, humanities, and engineering.”

Recollect the last time this occurred in force? That was McNamara’s “clean kids,” who, theorizing from their ivory towers in DC, tried to run a ground war 10,000 miles away in S/E Asia. With predictably bad results.

Jul 6, 2009 - 5:18 am 33. Jeff:

Mr. Hanson,

I agree with much of what you say, but wish you’d either edit your essays more carefully or hire an editor. Start, for instance, with the last word in this essay–”cacoon?”–and work your way backwords, correcting the awkward syntax and poorly constructed sentences.

You’re better than this.

Jul 6, 2009 - 5:18 am 34. reader:

Excellent opinion piece! Very entertaining. I enjoyed the description of how Obama is outflanking the european socialists by going even more leftward. Unfortunately, the joke is ultimately on every one of us. . .

Jul 6, 2009 - 6:14 am 35. A.W. Murphy:

One thing for sure – George W. Bush is really starting to look good. Perhaps he didn’t do everything little thing exactly right, but he got the big items accomplished without a lot of fuss.

While it’s bad enough that Obama is utterly clueless, when we examine his Vice-President, his staff and his cabinet we find he stocked it with an entire legion of Mini Me’s. Self-absorbed, self-righteous twits who haven’t the slightest idea how or why America became the country it is today.

Back in the 70’s my generation made a foolish mistake (Carter) and learned that President’s do matter. Sadly, this generation had to make a similar mistake (Obama) to realize that starry-eyed idealism may look good on paper – but it’s a lousy way to run a nation.

Jul 6, 2009 - 6:21 am 36. Mongoose:

Joseph, That is a good one, Ike failed to confront tyranny. Hahaha…you are so funny..

Do you think that we fought WW2 or WW1 without the help of the GOP?
And it also characterizes the New Dealers intent in WW2; they were fighting in part for “Mother Russia”. And what did they encourage, in a way introduce, in the aftermath? Why the Socialist State that they could not manage to introduce here.

You are standing reality on its head: It is completely specious to compare the Democrat Party in the Era of Truman through LBJ with what came either before it, or the Pre-McGovern/New Left Democrat Party which was to come later.

Standing up to tyrants? I will remind you that the Democrats have been apologost for such regimes as those of Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, the Sandinistas, Castro, Allende, the list goes on and on, and the deciding factor seems to me just how far those tyrants are to the Left.

You are fabricating a cartoon history here, either that, or you are ignorant of of the times of wich you speak.

Either way, you are engaging in rhetorical parlor tricks, and it is profoundly intellectually dishonest. How Democat of you.

Jul 6, 2009 - 7:17 am 37. Mongoose:

Joseph, about Ike.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenhower_Doctrine

Jul 6, 2009 - 7:21 am 38. John O'Neill:

to continue professor Hansen’s excellent analogy: our industries are not being run by workers but by union/community organizers; our children are not being taught be teachers but by union/community organizers; our culture is not being influenced by creative artists but by union/community organizers; our religions are not being led by clergy but by union/community organizers and so on.

Jul 6, 2009 - 7:21 am 39. Theo Goodwin:

The Democrats have been fed up with democracy for some time now. They want to govern in a top-down style.

Top-down government is the chief weapon that the Democrats use in the culture war. Soon, Rednecks and many others will be illegal.

Obama is making manifest the results of top-down government. In so doing, he is creating a lot of new small-d democrats. Maybe there will be enough of our democratic institutions remaining for the new democrats to install Republican office holders.

Jul 6, 2009 - 7:56 am 40. AThinkingPerson:

What a timely article as I spent my Fourth of July in heated conversation with my much loved, PhD’ed, Connecticut bred, uber-liberal sister-in-law who gets her “news” from what she described as the “paper of record”, the NYT. She typifies the liberal academic who has never worked outside of an Ivy wall and has no idea how jobs are created outside of the covers of a book but yet “knows” that the country is on the right track because the NYT and CNN tell her so. What a tragedy.

“We are being run now by film critics not directors, book reviewers not writers, music columnists, not musicians.” – - – Truer words were never written. Bravo!

Jul 6, 2009 - 8:12 am 41. Thomas L......:

Another good question is who, after this sleek machine is in place, gets to drive it next? And in which direction? Is President Obama merely the benevolent Lenin character in this drama?

Jul 6, 2009 - 8:12 am 42. Mike Murray:

Excellent analysis.

To be sure, “change” is omnipresent, here in the U.S. and around the globe. And Barack Obama stands at the intersection of much of it.

Far too much power is being granted this one man, it seems to me. To be sure, the President is the focal point of U.S. foreign policy. But more than one mind — and certainly more than one viewpoint — should be involved in shaping the collective international position of hundreds of millions of Americans.

Moreover, constitutional constraints — intended to limit federal powers — are everyday being ignored in America, and are reshaping domestic policies and procedures in drastic ways.

None of this would be possible if The Fourth Estate were properly doing its job. “Sunshine,” as Justice L. Brandeis noted, “is the best disinfectant.” Were members of the mainstream media properly shining a light on events (instead of cheer-leading them), things would be very different.

Many bristle at what they term a “blame the media” mantra. But the criticism seems well-placed. There will always be power-hungry ideologues among politicians. But, absent a complicit press, they pose less threat.

Jul 6, 2009 - 8:18 am 43. steve macdonald:

One very uncharacterstic error. You say: “The problem with all this is that Obama’s sleek Boeing jet, his neat helicopters, his Chicago mansion, his children’s’ upscale prep schools, the flying in of chefs or flying in for a night in New York, are all predicated on a bountiful, profit-minded capitalist system of production, in which entrepreneurs take enormous risks in search of sizable personal profits, and are left alone to profit within government’s wide parameters of fair play.”

The model being developed is crony capitalism as is “efficiently” practiced in most despotic regimes and banana republics. A bountiful, profit minded capitalist system does not depend on Govt. largess and thus is counter to the program/system being constructed.

I do not believe that I am being cynical here – it is the only reading of events and actions that makes sense to me, given what I see, read and hear.

Jul 6, 2009 - 8:34 am 44. Strawman:

As a transracial, transnational Gandhi-like figure, Obama believes that he alone understands and empathizes with the previously demonized Third-World revolutionary leaders.

Until they find out he drinks his own urine.

Jul 6, 2009 - 8:35 am 45. WhyamInotsurprised?:

#25 Snake Eater – I disagree with both of your conclusions.

I for one will still be open to leadership by a smart, courageous Black man as President of these United States. Obama should not rub off and ruin those who are qualified and worthy of leadership.

Secondly, if you follow history, for some strange reason, it keeps repeating itself usually on a timetable of every couple of generations when those who endured has passed, and a new generation is left to the poisoned utopian dream.

Ayn Rand, just like the good Dr. Hansen had it right. The course of events is leading in the same direction where the mules simply refuse the yoke of extreme abuse. However, I think the key difference with America is that unlike past civilizations, we have had a good dose of freedom and have both the means and the will to fight back.

Jul 6, 2009 - 8:38 am 46. Strawman:

The problem with all this is that Obama’s sleek Boeing jet, his neat helicopters, his Chicago mansion, his childrens’ upscale prep schools, the flying in of chefs or flying in for a night in New York, are all predicated on a bountiful, profit-minded capitalist system of production, in which entrepreneurs take enormous risks in search of sizable personal profits, and are left alone to profit within government’s wide parameters of fair play.

He’ll always have enough euros for an A-380. As Mel Brooks said, “it’s good to be the king”.

Jul 6, 2009 - 8:38 am 47. scott:

Dr. T,

No problem. He’ll just run his wife for prez.

Jul 6, 2009 - 9:21 am 48. scott:

This is going to get interesting.

The path the obamunists are on is a dead end. Totalitarianism and pie in the sky free lunch economics will implode within two years. The only way for a command and control system to exist is by force. A police state.

Problem is America cannot be taken or controlled by force. The military will not serve a fascist dictator. There aren’t enough goons to overpower and cow an armed citizenry. I wish they’d try. We need a good culling.

So crash we will. Are. But the only system than can possibly order America is free market capitalism. Getting back to reality could get ugly though.

Jul 6, 2009 - 9:42 am 49. Scott:

So what are we willing to do about it?

Are we all going to sit here and piss and moan about it or are we going to get off our butts and take the tools our Founding Fathers made sure we had access to and get this nation back on track?

Jul 6, 2009 - 9:51 am 50. Pete:

Dudes and dudeses it’s over. You will see that in the not too distant future, amo will be the only thing we have to keep our freedom!

Jul 6, 2009 - 10:13 am 51. Eric:

Maybe white Americans should all move to Europe and send the Muslim immigrants packing and thus leave the US to the Liberals and minorities. The nation that was the US would collapse.

Jul 6, 2009 - 10:38 am 52. licca:

Norman thomas…

“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”

As Americans we have been “given” much just by being here…we need to work to keep it, instead we are allowing people in Washington to take it all away in the name of “progress”..it is our own fault.

the mess with Franken is a samll example of what we allow to happen. The bailouts etc..it’s disgusting. We are captiolism at its best and we are allowing BO to destroy it.

Europe will always hate us, unless we are saving them…there will be trouble ahead and it’s sad for such a great nation to have the people that we do in Washington.

Jul 6, 2009 - 10:43 am 53. Genghis Kohn:

So much for the bad news.
Now for the good news:
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Jul 6, 2009 - 10:44 am 54. tomllewis - A very descriptive quote from Victor Davis Hanson:

[...] one of the most insightful quotes I’ve read in some time, from his latest Pajamas “Work and Days” column. We are being run now by film critics, not directors, [...]

Jul 6, 2009 - 10:47 am 55. J.E. Dyer:

“We are being run now by film critics not directors, book reviewers not writers, music columnists, not musicians.”

Joining the chorus of those who love this line.

Think how recently in man’s history we have become able to employ “critics” to a level that allows them to feed and house themselves. MAYBE a couple of centuries, if we stretch it. Maybe. I’d call it more like 70-80 years.

Now we’re letting the “critic” class, which does absolutely nothing productive, call itself “community activists” and draw a paycheck on that basis.

We’ve actually put it in charge, this class of people that doesn’t know how to do anything useful or accountable, like put out a fire, defend us against our enemies, keep someone’s books, grow a crop, manage a herd of livestock, remove an appendix, unstop a toilet, teach kids to read.

It’s quite remarkable, isn’t it, that this class invariably adopts the attitude of criticism? It’s almost like there might be a correlation there, of not knowing how to perform in any accountable profession — one where you can actually get things wrong, fail, screw up, lose your job, hurt people — and having an a priori critical attitude about everything.

Seems like the sort of thing our parents used to warn us about when we were 14. Something about learning what it was like to be responsible first, before criticizing everyone else’s performance.

Our new political leadership. It toils not, neither does it spin — but Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these.

Jul 6, 2009 - 11:15 am 56. ic:

We dream in our chrysalis stage to emerge as butterflies, but now seems we are moths dazzled and disoriented by a stream of artificial light and would be singed.

Jul 6, 2009 - 11:34 am 57. john from cinncinatti:

eric shut up. its collapsing without white America leaving. snake eater, the lefts narrative will be a revisionist history of what really happened, and the blame will be placed on GWB. right now i hear that “what do you expect Obama has only been in office 6 months let the guy get some work done.” quality work takes time doncha know, expecting a fiat we get a yugo and we can’t complain… thats right its not looking like a hotrod its looking like a hoopdee. quality control says it ain’t gonna pass muster.

Jul 6, 2009 - 11:40 am 58. Meryl:

“We cared little that both the Honduran Supreme Court and Parliament had acted lawfully in ordering their President’s removal on grounds that he had acted unconstitutionally, in bold, unlawful efforts to obtain a third presidential term through a likely rigged plebiscite” Ok. I truly want to know who you mean by “we” here as in “we cared little..” I’ve been practically sick to my stomach over this charlatan’s posturing with re to Honduras in the last severals.

Your “we” does NOT include me.

Jul 6, 2009 - 11:45 am 59. Meryl:

“I for one will still be open to leadership by a smart, courageous Black man as President of these United States. Obama should not rub off and ruin those who are qualified and worthy of leadership.”

Oh, good grief. Can we please FOREVER DROP THE COLOR OF A CANDIDATE AS A QUALIFIER OR DIS-QUALIFIER?

IT. IS. IRRELEVANT. AND. IF. IT. IS. NOT. IT. SHOULD. BE.

If this crap is still going to be acceptable, then I am going to start campaigning for whites only. I want to see a good, courageous white man run. I think a white man should have his turn, now that a black man has had his turn. Of course, the liar in chief is only half black….so I suppose he might try to run again as the half white candidate.

Good grief. When will people have had enough?

Since we’ve had a Chicago thug, now can we have a New Jersey gangster?

Jul 6, 2009 - 11:51 am 60. NC Mountain Girl:

Re: Nos. 25 & 45. It depends on how you define ‘long time’.

I keep thinking about Obama in terms of the late Harold Washington. I lived in Chicago when Harold Washington was elected mayor and the city political scene soon became known as “Beirut by the lake”, an ongoing, low level civil war between the corrupt white machine, a would be black machine and the lefty ‘progressives’ of all races.

Like Obama, Washington was praised for his rhetorical skills but completely lacked executive experience and administratove skills. He had even failed to file income tax returns for several years because he claims he simply forgot – an interesting excuse for one born on April 15. A lot of the progressives who urged Washington to run for mayor in 1983 mentored the young Obama when he moved to Chicago later that same year. Obama very much mimics Washington’s trademark cool, easy going, non confrontational demeanor that so appealed to anti-Daley white liberals. Obama also mimics some of Washington’s flaws. A persistent criticism was that Washington was vastly more interested in grand theories and the ceremonial aspects the office but often negelcted managing the city council and minding the mundane details of the self proclaimed “city that works”.

Chicago hasn’t elected a black man mayor since Washington died in 1987, largely because for his many faults and less than soaring rhetorical skills, Mayor Daley the younger does indeed mind the endless administrative details.

I love the bit about the mules. Has there ever been a masochistic or self destructive mule?

Jul 6, 2009 - 12:13 pm 61. Noesis Noeseos:

If, as some comments suggest, Obama should indeed trample on the Constitution and grab imperially onto a third term, he will need a very loyal and competent praetorian guard; and he will never, never dare to set foot in Texas.

Jul 6, 2009 - 12:18 pm 62. Mike:

“In other words, there is now no real reason why an Iran or Venezuela should have any reason to be angry with the United States.”

It is time to analyze Obama’s foreign policy in more basic terms, instead of assuming an intellectual or nuanced approach. Obama has avoided international “conflict” when feels he might become entangled. Instead of responding in context to real international events (Korea, Iran, etc…), he prefers to let his rhetoric deliver results (e.g. the Cairo speech.)

Then, after being vague on the issues, he pretends that he was following a plan all along. He used this approach to explain how his criticism of Iran was consistent from the end of the Iranian elections until his press conference a week later, even though his tone had clearly changed.

Obama’s foreign policy lacks conviction, because he is unable to specify to the World what are the consequences of US actions. As a result, the conviction behind his foreign policy is to be self-serving. His policies emphasize his superior intent, instead of superior results. Simply, his foreign policy is now politically motivated.

Idealogy has something to do with Obama’s decisions as well, but when push comes to shove, idealogy will be trumped by politics. He has not defined his idealogy well enough for the World to know if he is behaving consistently with his idealogy (e.g. an “Obama doctrine”). For political reasons he believes that he can lead without a doctrine, because he does not want to be compared to Bush. But in the end, the lack of any doctrine will make it very difficult to prevent political forces from shaping his policies. He does not seem to care about that possibility, and the potentially dire consequences.

Jul 6, 2009 - 12:41 pm 63. michiganruth:

“film directors” yes…excellent line. and a thoughtful article, as always.

but Professor: “copy-write law”? really? I know there are no proofreaders on the internet, but I expect more precision from you.

Jul 6, 2009 - 12:49 pm 64. Marc Malone:

“No-holes-barred”? “Copy-write”? Dr. Hanson waxes eloquent with classical referents, but trips over his tongue with the contemporary. Here’s another contemporary banality for ya, Doc: D’Oh!

Jul 6, 2009 - 12:54 pm 65. William:

As usual, a superb summation by Dr. Hanson. This coming August, it will have been 40 years since the famous Woodstock rock concert. I’m afraid many of the baby-boomer degenerates at the concert have become the “film critics”, “book reviewers” and “music columnists” to which VDH is referring, unable to coordinate brain and hand to accomplish a task with a tangible result.

Jul 6, 2009 - 12:58 pm 66. Mike W.:

61. Noesis Noeseos: “If, as some comments suggest, Obama should indeed trample on the Constitution and grab imperially onto a third term, he will need a very loyal and competent praetorian guard; and he will never, never dare to set foot in Texas.”

You people are all literally bat**** insane. Trample on the Constitution and grab imperially onto a third term? Ludicrous. It would be one thing if Noesis were the only one believing this crap, but it seems like very other post on this message board is a ridiculous, mindless conspiracy theory about the president declaring himself dictator for life and putting rednecks in concentration camps.

Honestly, where do you folks get this crap from? And why do you honestly believe it? And if you would seriously beieve this crap, then what won’t you believe? Are you truly that gullible that you’ll believe any ridiculous e-mail you get in your inbox? And when it inevitably becomes clear that this crap is not based on any truth and is just extremist fantasy, will any of you reflect on how easy it was for you to be hoodwinked by crackpots, or are your attention spans so short that you will have completely forgotten about this particular ridiculous crackpot conspiracy and have already moved on to the next one?

Jul 6, 2009 - 1:06 pm 67. Banned by Huffpo:

The bus has already gone over the cliff; it just hasn’t hit bottom yet.

And when it does . . . . Obama’s approval rating will be in the single digit range.

Jul 6, 2009 - 1:11 pm 68. Leatherneck:

As more illegal aliens invade these United States along with the Muslim brotherhood, we should be a great third world nation by spring.

Jul 6, 2009 - 1:21 pm 69. Marc Malone:

Bravo to the many respondents demonstrating such erudition. It is nice to see bloggers occasionally use some adult words.

I, too, echo the cheers for that soon-to-be-timeless line. Captured it in a nutshell.

Jul 6, 2009 - 1:25 pm 70. Daily Edition 7/6/09 « The Quantum Conservative:

[...] *Our Chrysalis Stage, by Victor Davis Hanson. [...]

Jul 6, 2009 - 1:30 pm 71. dwall:

Among the threats to our future is Ayers/SDS/ACORN penetration throughout our media and foundations and now the govt plus Soros OSI and friends.

Obama is a temp but those bozos will be around for years.

The Obama/DEMS stimulus money is paying for “neighborhood stabilization” BILLIONS in many states. Most of that money will be captured by acorn and la raza or similar.

The political enemy is not just Obama but the Dem traitors enabling him. I could see a charismatic figure like Ogabe happening for a few years but who would have thought the Dems in the House and Senate would push this agenda.

They need to be further disclosed nationally. Maybe by Sarah and others. McCain had a chance in the debates but passed on it. I will never forget McCain being asked, “Is Obama a socialist” and he said no. Guess he had never heard of the Chicago New Party or ACORN – a shame

Jul 6, 2009 - 2:17 pm 72. Noesis Noeseos:

Mike W(66), may I offer a simple lesson in grammar? A clause beginning with “if” signifies a hypothetical, not a conviction–at least not one of my own personally. I rather imagine the such conjecturing is not confined to the right side of the political blogosphere.

Just as an exercise in thought, however, you might ask yourself what your reaction would be if Obama did try to grab onto a third term. While you ponder, you might consider it rather interesting that in Honduras just recently a leftist tried to change the constitution so that he could extend the term of his presidency. When the supreme court of that country ordered his ouster, Obama rallied to his defense.

Jul 6, 2009 - 2:30 pm 73. jonsey:

we’re in the mess we’re in …because all people saw was color…not the man

Jul 6, 2009 - 3:49 pm 74. shau-jan:

48 scott.”I wish they’d try. We need a good culling”

unfortunately,it would likly result in mostly useful people comprising those who where killed.

Jul 6, 2009 - 3:56 pm 75. Roderick Reilly:

“”"”"Your pessimism almost matches my own. I believe that Obama sucks up to “elected” dictators because he sees himself in their positions in 2016. If his supporters don’t pass a new amendment to overturn the 22nd (presidential term limits), he may just go for an “extra-Constitutional” approach and stay in office regardless of term limits.”"”"”

Nah. Michelle will run for the “third and fourth” terms if things stay on track for the Obamas. No need for her husband to “pull a Zelaya,” when she can do what Hillary couldn’t.

Jul 6, 2009 - 4:16 pm 76. Marie Claude:

“Europeans–”shocked”
uh, say Brits, and that is the objective truth

“(The Europeans used to despise sanctimonious, moralistic and non-interventionist Jimmy Carter; but they can’t really get mad at Obama.”

again, who ? say Germans…

“No more European internationalists will be taking cheap shots at U.S. ‘hegemony’ as we protect them.”

again who ? say the sames, except us !

No, they will be more worried that (1) America has out-lefted them (much more so than in the 1930s when we did not wish to join “British imperialism” in its efforts to stop Hitler, or during the 1950s when we objected (with Russia) against Anglo-French efforts to “recolonialize” Suez.).

OK, then why Israel was with us if it was a temptation to recolonise Suez?

“We are no longer the “bad cop”, but the divine one, who has separated ourselves from the colonial European tradition. Oh yes, Europe wanted Obama, but he is not a creature of the Sorbonne salon, but rather sees himself and his paternal family more a victim of past colonialism (cf. the fate of the Churchill bust).”

you should have said Oxford instead of Sorbonne, cuz he speak french as well as austrian, beside Kenya was a Brit colony

“I think after Afghanistan, NATO will be analogous to the International Criminal Court–a Hague-like institution that will let the Euros deal with the Russians or the Islamists on their own, while issuing all sorts of moral “grave concern” and “extremely troubled” communiqués.”

I didn’t hear moral concern from our side lately, just that the islamo-fashist states must be pressured, what about Chesney ? he can get out of the woods when he wants to influence the opinion (he’s done it lately for big money that he’ll loose)

cé marrant ça, when the Brits, or the Germans are expressing their enthousiam for your new president, you say the European do, but suggesting by touches that the French would be the instigators, that Obama is copying our attitude, what’s that ? a disguished bitterness at us, or a light bashing ? we, who should have such a leader, of course, or we shoud be in the merdia…

YOU put yourself in the merdia, and don’t to acknolege it ! we had no influence, he we were outside the club from such a long time ago LMAO

Jul 6, 2009 - 4:26 pm 77. Marie Claude:

EVEN (not THOUGH ! LMAO) the French–the French!–were muscular by comparison

Jul 6, 2009 - 4:39 pm 78. seansarto:

“Obama has surrounded himself with legions of ‘fixers.’ Bright men and women who have Ivy League law degrees, business school credentials, PhDs in the social sciences, and academic pedigrees in science, humanities, and engineering. Quite impressive, these Platonic Guardians of the soon to be perfect state. But most of their careers in finance, government, business, and academia have been well-paid jobs critiquing, administering, regulating, nuancing, writing about, and hectoring those who create things–builders, developers, industrialists, farmers, truckers, transportation execs, retailers, lenders and investors.
We are being run now by film critics, not directors, book reviewers not writers, music columnists, not musicians. And it is far easier to fault than to birth, nuance rather than build. The irony is that the muscular classes carry the regulating and talking classes on their backs. They don’t mind being whipped occasionally and even bridled, but like any good mule will suddenly stop and no longer move when they feel the rider either does not know where he is going, or is going to kill the mule with his switch, spurs, and yanking on the bit.”

Consumerism doesn’t work when the toilet’s clogged…It loses it’s aesthetic.

Victor Davis Hanson sounds like the perfect operative for any government agency interested in baiting out its “potential ideological threats”.
Something like this:
Obama to the PLATONIC GUARDIANS, “Boys, Victor’s one of our guys …he’ll smoke ‘em out…Attack from within and without…Keep an eye on that blog an’ trace them URL’s…God Bless the Patriot Act. ”
Wasn’t Hanson’s last article about “Hypocrisy”? How exactly is his “dissent” from being a “Platonic Guardian” anything less then those he accuses? There’s no irony here…That’s the new PC term for treason…So the law can’t shoot ‘em.

Jul 6, 2009 - 5:30 pm 79. seansarto:

The technology of today makes keeping track of any of the “opinions” and “expressions of concern” here very easy to do too…
If I was paranoid I wouldn’t use my real name here….I welcome the fight as much as any cop who wears the uniform I endow them with. Same thing.
The Internet makes a new kind of dissemination possible…It’s just who gets to use it and to what potential…(Eventually you start lettin’ criminals run their business so you can extort them for the continuation of yer legitimacy.) In fifteen minutes, probably, you can have a print-out of any URL’s activities on the web. Don’t kid yerself about yer privacy here people…People like Hanson, an’ Obama an’ their pundits of pleasures don’t even have to know the extent of how easy it is to get the job done…They jest have to keep believin’ an’ mulin’ along the ole primacy of more “intelligent” or “enlightened” or “exceptional” then the rest of you and THAT is why they are in their positions of authority…But they’ve all been compromised an they know it. This is a core belief, I believe, that enabled the “Struggle Sessions” of the Cultural Revolution in China…”You’re no better then I am!” …but it is also the attitude of the colonized Africans or any other minority who is prevailed by another…It is the core belief of the United States…The thing is, it’s a very tired formula an’ the very provocation can be managed and exploited. All that is being evolved is the finesse ….WWII was a nice little test run in terms of capital…But you keep people like Hanson on the wheel.
In the end, though I think, personally from my experiences, African’s have egos that scare the poop out of Chinese Folks as much as White folks these days…an’ jest because Islam has an attitude towards the female sex that echoes the dominant male of Victorian and Puritanical ethics which founded the US nation, it is achieving acclaim and potency in said “conquer me” psyches….They see how they can exploit themselves as the original “alpha” species, as much as the females can exert their own dominance by creating a friction, a capital, in the aesthetics…There’s a nice attack from within and without dynamic, a liberality, that is accessible in bicameral “democratic” societies…Especially the in the fields of communication.…Where jest a few can appear like a lot…an you can throw yer voice at others in many different ways. The benevolent pimps who understand how to “bust a nag”…”Black Cowboys”…That’s precisely why the 60’s culture was so pivotal in destroying those restraints…So they could be re-cast in a new precedent, perhaps, (”perhaps”, is the key word) of Islam.
It’s the collectivism of ants. It’s pathetic. Like the 50 year old, upper middle-class Anglo dudes, I saw in Saratoga, NY who felt like they needed to bust out their “Eminem” moves ta be seen as more “sexy” in college girl’s eyes. Fools to the whims of little girls.

Jul 6, 2009 - 6:56 pm 80. ITF:

Hey – cut the French a little slack, y’all. They’ve been very nearly assimilated by the Borg, but they’ll be back, you can count on it. Doesn’t anybody remember the story of Hammer Charlie?

Jul 6, 2009 - 7:10 pm 81. M. Report:

Interesting political/economic analysis…
I thought it was just the military who were
always planning how to win the last war.

No discussion of our worn-out infrastructure,
or the shortage of replacement personnel, or
the effect failures will have on what is left
of our manufacturing economy.

It is called decivilization, and it may well
take the US back to 1950 in terms of population
and productivity, but not power, by 2012, if not
sooner.

Please do not believe a word I say; Ask someone
who knows someone who works in a major city,
supplying it with power, water, transport,
police and fire protection.
Ask them what will happen if any one of those
fails for as little as a couple of weeks.

Jul 6, 2009 - 7:13 pm 82. ITF:

“Honestly, where do you folks get this crap from? ”

We read the crap folks like you post, komrade.

Jul 6, 2009 - 7:13 pm 83. seansarto:

Midnight Cowboys.

Jul 6, 2009 - 7:14 pm 84. kenny komodo:

I can say that there is at least one good thing about Barack Obama as President. He is helping to bring out the best writing from the best thinkers we have that I’ve seen or read in a long time. Thanks Obambi. And thank you Dr. Hanson for your continued brilliant analysis.

Jul 6, 2009 - 7:55 pm 85. WhyamInotsurprised?:

#59 Meryl – Why are you so dense? I was replying to #25 who said that because of Obambi, that no black man would ever again be a serious candidate for the Top Job.

I agree with you. Color should not matter. It is “character” that matters. And as for the long term effects, it does not matter to me if a candidate were black, it is the ideas that are important. And hopefully, although I am not very optimistic, many liberals will see the light as the MAC truck bears down on them.

Jul 6, 2009 - 8:15 pm 86. Rangelo:

“A state-of-the-art military protects the global capitalist order, ensuring both free sea lanes and communications, but also plays the theoretically ultimate enforcer of fair play on things as diverse as copyright laws to patent protection.”

What is so ‘capitalist’ about copyright laws and patent protection? State-granted monopolies in anything only serve to limit innovation and growth.

Jul 6, 2009 - 9:30 pm 87. Uriel:

I have been thinking for a long time that America’s problems and maybe even Western Civilizations problems may be a case of overspecialization. At the founding and up til the early post industrial revolution phase of society most people at least appeared to have some notion of how things functioned, Perhaps not intimate knowledge but a vague understanding of the overall system by which goods and services are produced, shipped, etc. I think too many of use have become end users and consumers, unaware of the details of areas outside our own specialization. This has been very efficient for our society in terms of output; however, it has meant that too many are willing to take the “Expert’s Opinion” rather than develop their own. This has elevated the Music Critic, Film Critic, and Academic to new heights and ones that are probably not only undeserved but somewhat dangerous. Most critics could not do what they claim to be an expert on so when you rely on them to develop “solutions” is it any wonder that they fail, sometimes spectacularly. Yet the more “sophisticated” one thinks of themselves as the more they crave the validation of the agreement of the experts. This is why the elites don’t necessarily have a problem with the statist agenda they can’t imagine that they would ever want to do something that the “Expert’s disagree with”.

Jul 6, 2009 - 9:31 pm 88. Cnation’s Picks for 7/7/2009 : Conservative Nation:

[...] Davis Hanson: Only Room for One Obama? I got a lot of flak the last year for writing two or three columns suggesting the Europeans and [...]

Jul 6, 2009 - 9:41 pm 89. Ned:

#7 Rivka

Thank you for going on to the “Classics”. I wish I would have had as much sense forty years ago, and may you be the Doc Hanson for the next generation.

Ned

Jul 6, 2009 - 9:53 pm 90. californiataxslave:

I’m not ashamed of my pro-Constitution point of view and if any DEA snoops or federales would like my name and address I’m happy to give it.

Jul 6, 2009 - 10:29 pm 91. californiataxslave:

Good luck trying to grab a third term when unemployment hits 25%, the dollar is collapsing, and the great one’s approval ratings are in the low double digits.

Jul 6, 2009 - 10:32 pm 92. Joseph:

Mr. Mongoose
“Ike failed to confront tyranny. Hahaha…you are so funny..”
I like Ike, especially for that speech he gave at the end of his two terms as President.
“…we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex… Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
What I was referencing was the fact that Ike was President when Victor was criticizing America’s reaction to the Suez Crisis and wasn’t he President in 1956 when we left the people of Hungry to the gentle mercies of the Soviet Union?
Neither party is all good or all bad, so to believe otherwise is naive in the extreme.
Mike W.
Most of these folks are Looney Tunes and scary as hell. I like some of Victor’s books on military history but otherwise he and his disciples make the black helicopter folks look sane and moderate.

Jul 6, 2009 - 11:13 pm 93. VivaLaRaza:

RJ to answer your question can Obama’s Brood shoot? the answer is Yes We Can! Too many of us armed to the teeth put the news on while your out shooting deer and stuff that won’t shoot back we are out everyday shooting people. You got guns we got more. You gotta get worked up to shoot we’ll shoot for fun. Too many of us in the Army, Too many of us in the Navy Too Many in the Marines, The military IS NOT what you think it is it is also a bunch of out of work folks looking for a check and can’t stand people like you. Too much money to make the feds and the d.e.a. can’t stop us neither can YOU! Too many of us here already when that borders drops because you tried to start something you can’t finish see how many more of us heavily armed ready to shoot will be right at your doorstep. Wal Mart sold out of guns? So what I don’t get mine from Wal Mart Palin’s people really don’t want it. Stop acting gay. Your not losing anything you are as free as you were when you were born you idiot.Go and get laid or something stupid.

Jul 6, 2009 - 11:53 pm 94. Sagittarius:

Brilliant and impeccable. Wise,clear, powerful prose. The most indispensible
post-9/11 voice.

Jul 7, 2009 - 1:36 am 95. Delia:

The strange thing, Sir Hanson…

Is women like me, who fought the ’system’ by ‘home birthing’ and ‘home-schooling’ long before it was in ‘fashion’.

Now I’m seeing the end result of people who didn’t do as *I* did. I’m not saying I’m any sort of ‘Mother Superior’ though. I’m just regaling my experience as a home-schooling mother when everyone thought I was ‘nuts’ for doing so.

When do we become ‘one’ again as a country? I have Liberal friends whom I adore regardless of their ‘buffalo stance’ and I don’t shove my beliefs down their throat but, that being said, I do voice my concerns and they nod their heads now rather than ‘argue’ with me over how great dohbama is. It’s almost spooky to be in a room full of Lefties and make ‘DohBama’ jokes and they all laugh and pitch in MORE JOKES.

The sad thing is…I can appreciate the sorrow of some voters who gave us 0bama, but still, seething and simmering within, I have a lot of intense hatred and disgust for the idiots who put DohBama in power.

Sometimes, I just want to slap a bitch.

Jul 7, 2009 - 2:41 am 96. Jack Marcotte:

Essential vdh.

Good article! Beginning to get some teeth. Why can’t Americans follow Honduras’s lead and begin the process of impeachment of BHO. Everything his administration has done to date is unconstitutional.

Americans can no longer sit and talk but must bring to bear at least some of the true American way while it is still legally in place. We no longer will be America and American if not.

The “self appointed leaders” as outlined by vdh must be pushed aside for being the demonstrated idiots they are and Americans who build and maintain America must now do their duty. Say the Pledge of Allegiance to get your marching orders. Read the constitution to know what you are trying to achieve, what the objective is.

The “red” states could take the lead within their legislatures if they still can.

Is America going to go quietly into the fog of Marxist BS lead by a semi-literate indoctrinated, affirmative action communist shell fermented in the US due to PC and the demonstrated idiocy of the current PC politicians over the last 45 years.

Massive destruction of human values since the “Great Society” in less than 50 years a whole culture of family growth and improvement has been destroyed now by a generational destruction of what Humans need to develop as all should.

Read and listen to Sowell and Williams. Their thoughts can rebuild America as it was and meant to be.

America, under BHO is now like a whale on the beach being cannibalized by scavengers and parasites. It will not live long in this condition.

Our founding fathers knew Some things may be worse than death. Lack of freedom was at its core. The freedom to succeed or fail.

The argument of Marx and Lenin was speed of the “revolution” that pitted one against the other. Then it was decided it could be a bloody revolution and would still work much faster in a country like Russia. Communism not just Stalin destroyed millions of Russian farmers and land owners. They could not wait for the utopia that was to come. That was the excuse and murderous deceit used.

The same ideas now spouted brainlessly and being executed by BHO and the idiot followers. The old Utopian language of deceit and ignorance of the human condition, or understanding of it, depending on your leadership position within the communist revolution.

Now BHO has simply brought into currency the perfumed scorpion of communism and its veil of Utopian language being lapped up by the ignorant human debris created over the last 50 years. By the illegals who vote courtesy of the Acorns. By the ballots stuffed.

If the above is true, why not start putting it into the courts?. Why not start at the State level? Do Americans have a choice now? If not is this America? and to any one thinking about it the question must be asked “Am I an American under the America of BHO?” I think not.

GOP politicians on the national stage are worthless, McCain is worth less, and his off spring is simply a court jester to the MSM and a chip off the old block seeking for a place and means to pontificate and protect a non legacy. The one good one, Sara, decided she had enough for the time being.

Bush is on the “farm” and needs to stay there along with any other relatives who have aspirations.

America does not need any “compassionate conservatism” it needs a poke with a sharp stick to wake up.

Honduras’s actions leads the way. That is why BHO is siding with the other despots. He knows that it is the corrective script for his administration. It would be a peaceful lever until is becomes corrupted.

“Sodemyer” has already demonstrated by her career and her actions she should not be on the Supreme Court and should not have even been nominated. The PC politicians will confirm her. It will tip the scales and allow the destruction of the constitution.

The MSM and the business’s that support them eventually will be economically shut down just as they have supported BHO’s take over agenda and the economic shut down of America that has occurred within the last 6 months. Unionizing is going to have to be stopped.

Giving assets funded by American lenders who worked hard for their money and that provide capital to business to the Unions is government theft. It also destroys capitalism without a shot.

Does the picture become clearer now as to what is happening to America. Eventually we will all have to be on the same page and the same time and place for America to survive.

Jul 7, 2009 - 4:38 am 97. jackie:

96…good thoughts!! agree 100%

America is going quietly into the fog. We were told we would be taken over from “within”..and that’s what BO is up to.

Wake up America. Not that many are listening. We have so many handouts, so many people that don’t care as long a they get theirs..apathy needs to be addressed before it sucks us all down.

Jul 7, 2009 - 7:11 am 98. Ron Kean:

To those who have a need to criticize the professor over typos, lighten up.

Many of us make grammatical errors here and beat our selves up enough as it is for that.

And how about more real names here? We only use an alias if we think somebody might think we’re crazy or bad. As if anybody who knows us personally reads this anyway.

Jul 7, 2009 - 8:53 am 99. M. Report:

98. Ron Kean:
And how about more real names here? We only use an alias if we think somebody might think we’re crazy or bad. As if anybody who knows us personally reads this anyway.

This is the Web, Ron; The slightest tremor may
alert the spider.

It is not a frequent occurrence, yet, but
people regularly get into serious trouble for
identifying themselves when criticizing TPTB
at school, work, or in government.

Recent expansions of the definition of “Terrorist”, for example, are enough
to keep me from signing my real name.

Hell, in California, a citizen who writes a
letter to their Congresscritter, suggesting
it might get voted out of office if it
votes for a tax increase, is a “Terrorist”.

Jul 7, 2009 - 10:14 pm 100. Arius:

12. Mike McDaniel, excellent post. Well said. I think the most likely possibility is number two. There are simply too many public statements by Obama. Dark days are ahead. Prepare.

Jul 8, 2009 - 2:21 pm

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