150 Comments

1. David Thomson:

“The high-income brackets favored Obama.”

There are two major reasons for this support:

1.) They are left-wing cultural warriors. Abortion is especially a key issue.
2.) The Progressive corporatism of the Obama White House tends to jack the system in their favor. It destroys their economic competitors and places a high value on their unearned liberal arts degrees. Ever heard of Goldman Sachs? Take your time to learn about this major investment firm—and you will learn why the “elites” favor Obama.

Nov 3, 2009 - 6:17 pm 2. Ron Kean:

Very interesting.

It might seem hypocritical too that people on the right would want or need unemployment compensation from the state or social security from the feds. These were very liberal programs by a president who was also wealthy and liberal.

And socialist leanings weren’t so bad when workers were working 14 hour days and were expected to work 7 days a week or be replaced or when Henry Ford kept speeding up the assembly line giving his workers ‘Ford stomach’. Community organizing and strikes against the man were OK.

But there’s a tipping point where garment workers asked for too much and lost their jobs to overseas workers and the UAW (almost) lost GM.

We Republicans can be viewed in some ways as hypocrites decrying liberal institutions as we use them. It’s all about extent, where the line is drawn and what is too much.

Nov 3, 2009 - 6:21 pm 3. Jack Marcotte:

Essential vdh.

To distill and believe in Algorism is to reject historical and current knowlege of Science and all that Science knows about the “chemistry of life” as it evolved. Even how the planet Earth evolved. It is all tied together! It could not be any other way. That includes life as we know it. Plants, animals, all organisms are carbon based. All living organisms are made from carbon chains of various categories.

A tree needs carbon dioxide to live, because as living beings they began and evolved in a carbon dioxide atmosphere. Life is A nucleic acid dance that has been going on for billions of years. Nothing is wasted, all is regenerated. Animals and Humans need oxygen because as living simple organisms and eventual beings they evolved in Air that was 21% oxygen that came from the plant organism on land and first in the oceans that used CO2 as food and gave off O2, oxygen. Of course the chemistry of life is complex.

It is a crime that this idiot and those AA and PC “victims” of every human fault conceived, who believe in his “deceit” do not even know how stupid and how low they have become as humans.

It puts America in the stone age. Algore is pathetic and represents a dead end street in human development. How can anyone build on total abject ignorance.

To believe in Algorism is not only to be a hypocrite but a stupid and ignorant one. Ignorance can be cured with knowledge but if you believe in what Algorism means you have to be either stupid or an enemy of America and Algorism is simply a way to try to bring America down. Algore demonstrates that he is a buffoon every time he opens his mouth.

For those who don’t understand or know about the CO2 life cycle, which essentially explains how the earth evolved to support life, how is was made, what plants need to live, what animals need to live you deserve the consequences.

If you call yourself an American, a human being with some knowledge and common sense you better start taking sides and get out and vote out of office the gangs that spell the end of America, the BHOs who will simply destroy America to get theirs. And it will be nothing–but they are stupid. Are you.

Nov 3, 2009 - 6:35 pm 4. OsoPardo:

Well said, unfortunately….

Nov 3, 2009 - 9:09 pm 5. Anonymous:

Hypocrisy and trust-fund guilt don’t explain it Mr. Hanson.

For the Sean Pean’s, it’s arrogance. The high school drop-outs who couldn’t make livings as restaurant managers, store owners, accountants or programmers see their ability to mimic others as evidence of unique intellect, and they are drawn to the bad boys of political thought because they see themselves as genius bad-boys.

And the Al Gore’s of the world? Greedy bastards with monstrous doses of contempt. Pure greed and contempt. Throw the toad in the pit with the Kennedy’s, the Pelosi’s and the vilest of the vile, John Kerry. Every moment they live the universe is shamed.

Nov 3, 2009 - 9:16 pm 6. Robert Winkler Burke:

Excellent post, Dr. Hanson. But by now we all should know we have government of, by and for: the oligarch rich progressives! To wit:

One Hundred Years of Progressive Rule!
By Robert Winkler Burke
Copyright 11/3/09

They cracked the code of liberty,
And made it a Rubik’s Cube,
Then wrapped it in a Gordian knot,
One hundred years of progressive rule!

They almost had victory in Depression,
Packing the Supreme Court with fools,
Hitler and Hito delayed half the plans of,
One hundred years of progressive rule!

Now seers see, but they see for naught,
Rulers are sold and bought as mere tools,
In the name of liberty, liberty belayed by,
One hundred years of progressive rule!

Would God we had a wise King George,
Who never burdened America’s unborn pool,
With abortion, poor house or deep angst of,
One hundred years of progressive rule!

Where is the dragon to slay, fire to quench,
Or central square statue to remove?
Our enemy: catch-less, invisible, dangerous to good,
One hundred years of progressive rule!

They’ve perfected political slavery unawares,
These knighted, empowered, barbaric ghouls,
Their fey wiles hidden from under-taught masses,
One hundred years of progressive rule!

My sons’ great, great grandfathers once lived,
Secure in liberty, America’s shining jewel,
My sons’ great, great grandsons can’t survive,
One hundred years of progressive rule!

Part of us has become enemy,
To our Founding Father’s good,
This cancer must be stopped, this,
One hundred years of progressive rule!

Shall it be violent? Shall it be peaceful?
It depends on truth abridged or pursued,
They’ve made down up so long, truth’s evil to,
One hundred years of progressive rule!

Shall it take a moment, movement or millennium,
To uncorrupt our three-legged government stool?
Or shall mystic tyrants kill liberty’s lovers with,
One hundred years of progressive rule!

Can love of liberty be kilt so quick,
In the breast of Americans long fooled?
Ignorance has beat intelligence, slavery: freedom with,
One hundred years of progressive rule!

As for me and my house, poor and impoverished as it be,
I cannot, cannot tolerate this long avoided duel,
Our Declaration of Independence shall beat the hell out of,
One hundred years of progressive rule!

Oh sons of America, daughters of freedom, lovers of liberty,
Rise up from stupor! If not us, then who will?
With the Declaration of Independence, beat the hell out of,
One hundred years of progressive rule!

Nov 3, 2009 - 10:36 pm 7. mattling:

Save the earth=sumptuary laws. God forbid the plebes start wanting getaway cottages and exotic meals meant for us.
I’m reminded of the South Park episode “Smug Alert!” which can be seen here. http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/1002
In the commentary for this episode Matt and Trey recall when they went to a super exclusive Hollywood dinner and sat at a table full of movie execs who had all flown in on private jets. They were busy congratulating each other on being environmentally conscious by buying Hybrids. When Matt and Trey pointed out that they all few G5s someone piped in: “Well we have to show the little people the way.”
Concerning men like Sean Penn and Gore, I suspect they truly do believe in their own pablum.
Commentary for the episode here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5rQM_HAcfA

Nov 3, 2009 - 11:50 pm 8. GGA - Dublin, Ohio:

Dr. Hanson -

Excellent post, as usual. I particularly enjoyed your recent exposition on being a cultural drop out. Amen and bravo to much of that! As to the above…

Yes, sadly, We The People, are starting to get the picture.

Far too many incumbent politicians (of both parties) fail to recognize the core issue of all of this: Liberty and Freedom. The rest is boring scenery…

If a politician cannot grasp the fact that his or her job is, fundamentally, to Secure the Blessings of Liberty to our Posterity, then that incumbent should be voted out. Period. After all, why do we have a federal government in the first place? This is a simple question worthy of profound reflection.

The time is ripe to unite behind the notion that our Constitution is the law of the land and not an impediment to greater government restrictions on our Liberty and Freedom. Benjamin’s Franklin’s admonition at the Constitutional Convention should be a call to action: this is Our Republic, and it is worth keeping.

Keep up your great work.

Best regards,
GGA – Dublin, Ohio

Nov 3, 2009 - 11:50 pm 9. Charles Gordon:

America confronts for the first time the existential threat to its middle class, from the collusion of the victims of welfare dependency and the archons of the collectivist state.

Nothing is more foreign to our history than the Old World’s vicarious esteem for the profligacy of prodigal heirs of inherited wealth and their equal disdain for the diamond rings on the hand of the uncouth wife of the bread-maker bought with his labor and the few pennies made on each loaf sold.

However, to the nomenclatura in our own land, it is in now the smell of fish on the hands of a Governor from Alaska that is a stink no second-generation salon in Georgetown would have the courage to bear.

The virtue of the American way of life has always been the example of the middling classes who contribute more than any other to the wealth, cohesion, and stability of a nation, this heritage of ours having originated in the first, first-world civilization of ancient Greece.

However, the anonymous heroes of our traditions will not fade away as the citizens of New Jersey have just shown in standing up to the divide and conquer designs of our historic first Islamic apostate president with their resounding “not under our watch!”

Nov 3, 2009 - 11:50 pm 10. Rob De Witt:

Well said, as usual, Dr. Hanson – but I think you’ve left out something essential. In my almost 65 years (lower middle-class, poor, real poor for a long time, middle-class for a while, Social Security disability) I’ve never met anybody who felt guilty about having money he made on his own.

This “white liberal guilt” syndrome we’re all familiar with is the province of people who had parents, and whose parents “helped them with the mortgage,” or “gave them a start in life after college.” Orphans don’t feel guilty about making money, I assure you, nor do Europeans who came here at some risk to their lives. Ask somebody who fled the Communists in the middle of the night whether he feels “guilty” about his Mercedes.

Does this sound class-based? You bet it is. I’ve spent my adult life listening to spoiled brats trying to destroy things that I could only dream about. During the relatively brief time that I had a nice car, a great apartment and nice clothes I went out of my way to annoy the children of privilege who were driving ironic old sports cars and wearing ironic thrift-store clothes.

And I loved every minute of it, too.

Nov 4, 2009 - 12:47 am 11. onthow:

I had an email exchange with a Leftist friend of mine a couple years back. It started when I sent her this essay by Mark Steyn:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/aug/13/when-its-not-its-not/

She responded:

“Sounds like another dude on his soapbox trying to get his “book” off the shelves and sold. However, the way this article was written (it’s all over the map), I doubt anyone could or want to labor thru his book. Thanks, though. At least this piece makes me feel like a better writer than this schmuck.”

I asked why she thinks Mr. Steyn is a schmuck?

She responded:

“I think he has an agenda – to sell his books. He’s annoyed that Al Gore was successful. Now he wants a piece of it.”

I then asked why isn’t Mr. Gore a schmuck for wanting to sell his books?

She responded:

“I think people who want to make a profit, not for the greater good, but for their own gains suck. And that’s why this dude is a scmuck.
[...]
He’s a hard-core conservative and usually, conservatives are all about the money. (Please, don’t argue that latter statement. That’s my opinion.)”

Nov 4, 2009 - 4:27 am 12. L.R.Davenia:

Good job Vic, right on the “money”, as usual!

Nov 4, 2009 - 6:14 am 13. Room 237:

How I wish I could write one half this well.

Nov 4, 2009 - 6:20 am 14. myna:

Fantastic writing! Al Gore is out just to make money and power. What has he done lately in the environment? Al Gore reminds me of Jim Jones and the People Temple.

Nov 4, 2009 - 6:22 am 15. Boyd:

“In short, why the liberal fascination with money and privilege—and populism?”

My guess.

The fascination of Liberals with populism existed first. It has only been in the last couple decades that they discovered there is money to be made from it. They seem to have settled on a coalition with Big Business on one end and organizations like Acorn on the other to transfer first power and then money from the middle-class to the poor. Their wealth comes from the “fee” they charge the poor in return for the votes that give them the power to pull this all off.

In short, there is no contradiction here, just greed and a lack of integrity. Why is it I am reminded of the Pharisees?

Nov 4, 2009 - 6:28 am 16. Kerry:

Hmmm…this could be wrong, but isn’t the amount of money gained always, by default, one dollar short of that needed to save one’s soul? “IHS”

Nov 4, 2009 - 6:33 am 17. Dee G:

Also, those individuals for the most part made their money by dealmaking, not actually doing the hard work of genuinely making something new, doing the hiring, building the factory. Those entrepeneurs are lost to China and India…

Nov 4, 2009 - 6:35 am 18. Hyman Roth:

“…but to promote Gorism, one lives in a mansion, jets on private planes, and is chauffeured from airport to conference center…”

Actually, Gore has several mansions (the 10000-ft energy-hog in Nashville TN, 4000-ft in Arlington VA, and another home in Carthage TN), and a titanic 100-foot houseboat as well.

Nov 4, 2009 - 6:38 am 19. Boyd:

The fascination of the Liberals with the poor is quite calculated. Not because they perhaps didn’t start with good intentions (Ralph Nader) but because in a very real way there are no longer poor in America in the way they want to characterize them. A very detailed Heritage Foundation study of the financial status of the poor shows that the average “poor” person today, as defined by the government, has possessions that are equivalent to those of the average middle class person in the ‘70s. One may not like driving an old Ford Pinto (I didn’t even like it in the 70’s) but you really are not poor in any absolute sense. The single most sick and destructive thing Liberals have done is to convince these faux-poor that the middle class is their enemy and stealing from them is the solution. All for a modest cut of the take, of course.

Nov 4, 2009 - 6:53 am 20. Steve MacDonald:

Prof. Hanson,
Another in a long string of home runs. What is astounding to me is that so many people fail to see the hypocricy and are oblivious to its impact.
One wonders if it is even possible for our country to return to fiscal and moral responsability. We seem to be so mindlessly polarized that even civil discussion/debate between differing parties becomes a Hurculean task.

Nov 4, 2009 - 6:56 am 21. Larry Grant:

Victor, you’re a historian and ought to recognize the emergence (re-emergence, actually) of the new feudal system. You almost had it with the ‘knight’ reference. Remember the setup: the knight was caretaker of the peasants, had their interests at heart because it ensured he could do his job. But peasants had to be kept in place otherwise control was impossible. The confounding thing is the people who support this movement. The only thing I can think is that, like a little girl with a fairy-tale dream, they all believe they will end up as princesses and princes instead of the goatherd. Mankind has spent most of history in this sort of two-layer relationship. America was unique because of the shift to many layer and the opportunity to drift up and down. Now we’re returning to our roots. I do not want to be a serf and so will fight against it.

Nov 4, 2009 - 7:39 am 22. JFP:

I don’t know which of the three exegeses to choose from, but I will say that because of the Sixties, it is a lot easier for the wealthy to be liberal or leftist. Prior to the Sixties, the left had one issue they concentrated on: the poor. After the Sixties, there were a number of issues: blacks, women, homosexuals, and the environment. Of these, only the first has some relation to being poor. The others don’t. So it’s quite possible today for a young woman from a wealthy background to think of herself as a “victim” and to think that all males, even the poor ones, are her oppressors. And no one on the left will upbraid her by saying, “Wait a minute. You come from a privileged background.”

Then there are the wealthy people (like Gore) who have gotten involved in environmentalism. It’s very easy to look committed to the leftist cause today if you’re an environmentalist. I’ve occasionally gotten into conversations with liberals and leftists in which I pointed out how one environmental policy or another hurt the poor. The reactions are interesting. They wring their hands helplessly, but they won’t back down and say those policies need to be done differently or even abandoned.

Regarding Gore, I wonder how many on the left chastise him for his hypocrisy? I stopped reading the left quite a while ago, so I don’t know. I’m guessing that not many do.

Nov 4, 2009 - 7:45 am 23. stace:

Once again, the middle-class taxpayer is “The Forgotten Man”.

Nov 4, 2009 - 7:48 am 24. Buck O'Fama:

Home Run!

Nov 4, 2009 - 8:06 am 25. ahem:

Mao and Castro both came from wealth families, and Lenin came from the intellectual elite.

Nov 4, 2009 - 8:28 am 26. 438miler:

I think the key paragraph is here:
“The more Sean Penn praises Castro, the more the perks of Malibu become to his mind OK. Boat around New Orleans after Katrina and you can cruise around the Pacific Coast Highway with a good conscience. Being rich and left-wing is like a 16th-century sinner buying an indulgence through purchasing a few blocks for the dome at St. Peter’s. Moneyed liberalism allows one to feel good at very little personal expense—surely not having one’s child bussed to an inner-city school, or giving up your legacy slot at Princeton for someone more diverse, or waiting at the LA emergency room with a sick child.”

The elite Left NEVER put their money where there mouth is. I’m reminded of the book “Common Ground” that analyzes the 70’s Boston busing farce, where the Kerrys and Kennedys had no skin in the game, but where willing to perform laboratory social experiments with the proles in Boston – to the chagrin of the boor blacks and whites. It was of course trendy, even then, to paint the poor whites as racists, and everyone else got a pass. The blacks hated the program, and black moms wondered why they couldn’t walk their 5 yr old kindergarten daughters to school, as the picture of Kerry showed with his daughter in the lily white suburbs. It was of course OK for the black mother to place her 5 year old on a bus for an hour ride to a strange school – one she couldn’t reach if there were an emergency, but NEVER would a Kerry of Kennedy have to suffer with such worry, as they are superior to “the others”.

Theodore Dalrymple explains how much farther this has gone in England, and only now, after almost 20 years of Left Elitism, is there starting to be any blowback.

I like to think the Thermidorean shift is here. I guess facts will begin to trump ‘therapy’ as VDH so accurately labels the policies of the Left. I have some hope, but it entails that we hold the Republicans to the same standards, and many of the current Republicans have been found as lacking as the Left.

Nov 4, 2009 - 8:40 am 27. sol vason:

Certainly Al Gore cannot be the first of his kind in all of history. There must be some ancient prophet of doom who then became enormously rich and powerful as he profitted from his prophesy. Some how Sicily comes to mind. Perhaps in some future posts you might tell us about Al Gore’s antecedents and where he ranks.

Nov 4, 2009 - 8:54 am 28. Filthy Screw:

There is no disconnect between power and money. Doesn’t matter who, when, or where, if there is power money will flow to it like water to the ocean. It is as immutable as the Law of Gravity.

Of course liberalism is simply a fashion. If Monarchy became fashionable tomorrow, Al Gore would be busy inventing a pedigree that stretched back to Charlemagne.

Nov 4, 2009 - 8:56 am 29. Gylippus:

Now THAT’s speaking truth to power!

Nov 4, 2009 - 9:44 am 30. DZ Sokol:

VDH – You write fantastic commentaries! Your use of the English language exceeds the capabilities of George Will, and your editorial insights surpass the refreshing perspective of Mark Steyn.

Keep up the great work.

DZS

Nov 4, 2009 - 9:58 am 31. Wayne:

Dr. Hanson, you are exactly correct, Gore is the 21st century version of Johann Tetzel.

Nov 4, 2009 - 10:18 am 32. Mike K:

I’ve seen a touch of this even in my own children. The Bay Area chic is to support Gavin Newsome for Governor and to be far left politically yet makes jokes about the blacks in Richmond. I suspect that much of it is a pose but it is a pose so deeply assumed that the poseur is unaware of the dishonesty. It’s sad to see it in someone close but it is there.

Nov 4, 2009 - 10:39 am 33. Ronnie Schreiber:

Prof. Hanson,

While Gar Wood’s boats were indeed made of wood, Wood was also his last name. Garfield Wood was an entrepreneur and racer and marketed racing boats under his own Garwood brand. The Turcotte brothers started out restoring vintage Gar Woods and now make reproductions of Wood’s boats using the Gar Wood brand.
http://www.garwoodcustomboats.com/index.html

Nov 4, 2009 - 10:56 am 34. betheweb:

Uber Progressives love the poor. They just don’t like to smell them.

Nov 4, 2009 - 11:02 am 35. Oh, bother:

Dr. Hanson, I hold you in the highest regard, and hope to take one of your cruises someday. But I must tell you I believe the last authentic thing Ted Turner did was drink himself under the table at the press conference following his 1977 America’s Cup victory over Australia.

Nov 4, 2009 - 11:05 am 36. AD:

Perhaps it is time for the serfs to storm, loot, and burn the Manor House!
So many are in love with Marxist theory, let them experience an uprising of the proletariat.
It wasn’t pretty in Russia, and it will be less so here as there are so many more targets.

Nov 4, 2009 - 11:18 am 37. tehag:

I suppose it’s too late (or too early) to have a French-style revolution which will justly punish our self-appointed nobility.

Nov 4, 2009 - 1:42 pm 38. bill:

Had a good laugh this afternoon. Went to the mailbox just after reading this article to find my “Costco Connection” mag with Al Gore in a Mona Lisa like repose on the cover. Haven’t read AG’s “Rethinking Energy” article yet but I hope it means he has rethought some of his foolish idea’s particularly on nuclear power. We can be really hopeful and wonder if maybe Costco will be refitting their stores with LNG fueling stations and selling LNG vehicles to go along with it. I can’t wait to find out what AG’s populist message is.

Otherwise democrat/republican is analogous to Coke/Pepsi and Obama is no FDR.

Nov 4, 2009 - 3:08 pm 39. Tim Starr:

Allan Levite’s “Guilt, Blame, and Politics” is all about the liberal wealth guilt of those who have lots of money without breaking a sweat to get it.

Nov 4, 2009 - 3:48 pm 40. Ron Kean:

I used to be a liberal Democrat and I voted for Gore over Bush the first time around.

I remember the night when Clinton won his second term. He said the derogatory line of some previous president that the Vice President wasn’t worth a bucket of spit. Clinton said that on an exciting positive night, in front of Gore,his family, and the nation and I thought it was distasteful (no pun intended).

Gore wasn’t a good public speaker. He was stiff. I didn’t see the movie that won him the oscar. People used to joke about him – poke fun at him.

Deep down inside, I’m proud that we have a country (or had) that anybody who figures out how can make a billion dollars like Gates or Jobs or Walton and now maybe Gore.

If the police discover monkey business he’ll get busted but his new found fortune wasn’t like Madoff or the crooks at the UN who took money from Saddam. Gore pitched a concept, caught the public, didn’t get refuted by big enough people, fed it and nurtured it and won.

On some level, you’ve got to hand it to him after all these years.

Nov 4, 2009 - 3:52 pm 41. Class Clown:

Well, one can’t be a hypocrite unless one has principles.

These elite Leftists aren’t hypocrites.

Nov 4, 2009 - 4:08 pm 42. D. Jason Fleming (deejf) 's status on Thursday, 05-Nov-09 00:29:42 UTC - Identi.ca:

[...] http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/the-discreet-charm-of-the-left-wing-plutocracy/ a few seconds ago from IdentiFox [...]

Nov 4, 2009 - 5:29 pm 43. PaulU:

Dr. H, great post as usual!Only problem is that you left out the most important reason why Gore’s fortune is illegitimate. Not only did he use scare tactics, but his claims are based fraudulent, phony, completely fake science. Science is never “decided”, its never over; new data are continually collected. The last three years worldwide temperatures have dropped precipitously. In other words, CO2 has increased over the last three years, while temperatures have decreased. That is an inverse relation! Surely that can’t be, the liberals scream: the science has been decided! Don’t try to debate, we know the truth!
Sounds like the inquisition to me.
Just give big Al a mitered hat and call him the New Pope!

Nov 4, 2009 - 6:19 pm 44. TLM:

VDH:

Medieval indulgences…

Escaping the stench of the hoi polloi…

Smart business practice…

One other possible reason for liberal elites’ disconnect between rhetoric and reality is, uh, because they no longer make a distinction between the two. I mean, “Words Matter”, so they’re kinda like their own reality, right? That’s what they teach at Harvard.

Long past are the days when actions spoke louder than words.

Nov 4, 2009 - 6:22 pm 45. Pajamas Media » The Discreet Charm of the Left-Wing Plutocracy:

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

Nov 5, 2009 - 1:06 am 46. Eddie:

It is because the liberal variety of capitalism is based upon cheating. The new paradigm is to devise a scheme, then use your connections in Washington to enact laws which guarantee your scheme’s success.

Perhaps some of the permanent corporate lobbies began as defensive measures to prevent destructive legislation, but these days they seem to be there to urge actions which favor one firm or market segment over another.

Nov 5, 2009 - 1:12 am 47. digitalis:

You forgot to mention their hero Castro who was named as one of the richest men in the world. Not bad for a man who made a fortune telling everyone how virtuous it was to be poor. You have described what is known as the “pincer theory”. The rich use their elevated status to advocate for the poor. The poor demand more and more. And the middle class is the victim. Squeeze from above and below. All good communists want to do away with the middle class. This is just one of the many ways they can accomplish this. Culturally it is to advocate for the disappearance of fathers and men in the lives of their children so they become wards of the state. Familes and a middle class status of its citizenry are considered threats to their social order and must be weakened and destroyed for them to triumph.

Nov 5, 2009 - 1:20 am 48. Stepan:

The reason has already been covered here: it is Munchausen’s by Proxy Syndrome.

In other words, these otherwise normal, anal retentive control freaks (AKA “liberals”) derive pleasure from making other people sick, and, not so coincidentally, in need of their care.

Next diagnosis.

Nov 5, 2009 - 1:24 am 49. Stepan:

The reason has already been covered here: it is Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome.

In other words, these otherwise normal, anal retentive control freaks (AKA “liberals”) derive pleasure from making other people sick, and, not so coincidentally, in need of their care.

Next diagnosis.

Nov 5, 2009 - 1:27 am 50. Blackwater:

Act like leftists do. Don’t do business with people you disagree with politically. Deny them jobs and promotions. Harass and ridicule them until they quit their job. Boycott their businesses. Demonize them publicly. Ruin their reputations. Try to get them imprisoned for some kind of make believe hate crime. Etc. Time to play tough ball. If we won’t play dirty, they will.

Nov 5, 2009 - 2:08 am 51. Mr. X:

There’s another issue with guys like Soros that VDH and other mainline conservatives don’t seem to want to talk about. It’s all well and good for NRO and the Weekly Standard to talk about how much Soros gives to Media Matters, MoveOn and the Center for American Progress and how much he spent to defeat Bush in 2004. But under no circumstances have I ever seen any mag other than the American Conservative ask what Soros wanted in return for all his spending in Eastern Europe, specifically the Rose and Orange Revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine that he did not deny funding. If you ask, if you point out that Soros has been engaged in “NGOism” since way back in 1984 (look up the Wiki entry for “Ru-net”) and then wonder why he was able to make such a spectacular bet against the Pound, then you are a conspiracy nut.

Just saying…Washington conservatives, at least, know when to keep their mouths shut on certain topics.

Nov 5, 2009 - 3:17 am 52. LeighB:

The trend of big money lining up with the left-wing makes sense, they view a privileged lifestyle as a just reward for their specialness. In their minds, there is no contradiction.

Nov 5, 2009 - 4:10 am 53. Hope:

Great article.

I got the measure of these people many years ago when a guy who was living off a friend was spouting about “having possessions was theft”. He had a lovely leather jacket, quite expensive at the time. I said “I love your jacket, will you give it to me?” No reply. When hey talk about redistribution, they don’t mean their money, they mean yours.

Nov 5, 2009 - 4:23 am 54. TLM:

Wayne:

“Dr. Hanson, you are exactly correct, Gore is the 21st century version of Johann Tetzel.”

Or, Trophim Lysenko. Ignore the science. Exterminate the deniers/kulaks. Enslave the peasants in a losing battle with Mother nature.

Nov 5, 2009 - 4:56 am 55. Global Warming Alarmists Enriching Themselves at Patriots for Freedom:

[...] Victor Davis Hanson writes about Gore and his ilk at Pajamas Media, [...]

Nov 5, 2009 - 5:12 am 56. Silence Dogood:

The Al Gores, Sean Penns, Soros, Kerry, the Hollywood elites who drive hybrids while flying in private jets, etc. — the whole bunch of them depend on those who are just below on the ladder to maintain their influence. That being the striving upper middle class who are making the most of good educations and opportunities and modest inheritances to be very well-to-do but not quite mindlessly rich. Stepping up out of the heart of the middle class through top tier educations that prosperous America was able to offer them, they live the good life and lose no opportunity to flaunt their cultured and expensive tastes. To be part of this group requires demonstrating that one does, in fact, belong. And this is done through rigid conformance to the progressive agenda. It has become the litmus test, the identifier. It says, “see, I’m one of you” and it pretends to the uber rich that “I’m just like you.”

Those on the right wonder how progressives are able to rationalize Gore’s self-enriching misinformation and high flying life style or the paradox of, say, Michael Moore growing rich by trashing capitalism. It is group identification — questioning the dogma that flows from the top is the quickest way to demonstrate one doesn’t belong. As long as the striving upper middle class wants to show it belongs with the upper class, the Gores, Penns, Soros, Kennedys, et. al will call the tune.

Nov 5, 2009 - 5:39 am 57. pelaut:

Well said. All true.
But the die is cast, and it’s weighted for us to lose.
Where was everyone the last 50 years?
I’ll bet they were out sliming the Birchers, Objectivists and Conservatives who hollered it from the rooftops while they indulged in sex, drugs, rock’n'roll.
Has it let up any? Turn on any AM non-talk station.

Nov 5, 2009 - 5:45 am 58. Joseph:

Blackwater

“Try to get them imprisoned for some kind of make believe hate crime.”

Are you seriously suggesting we should get our political enemies imprisoned on trumped up charges? Kind of extreme of you don’t you think? If we behave as you describe our enemies behave doesn’t that make us one of them?

Nov 5, 2009 - 5:55 am 59. RWE:

Prof Hanson’s typcially excellent piece brings to mind the observations in Prof Myron Magnet’s “The Dream and the Nightmare.”

Prof Magnet poinst out that in those anything goes days of the 60’s it was all very well fine and good for children of the rich, or even of the comfortably middle class, to experiment with illegal drugs, the unlimited coinage of sexual intercourse, and various alternative lifestyles – they had staid, straightlaced and utterly reliable families to fall back on. But for the poor, tossing caution to the winds inevitably meant tossing their lives away.

Similarly, Buffet and Soros are so rich they can’t be harmed. Buffet himself said last year that people should not get upset at loss of much of their investment portfolios – “they are just numbers on paper, after all.” And losing a few billion hurts less when you still have several billion of those numbers on paper. He won’t be selling his interest in the business he founded just to pay the taxes on money that has in fact disappeared.

And besides, runaway inflation is great for the investor class. I myself recall wistfully buying T-bills at 16.1%. They can buy up real, solid property when no one has any money and watch their holdings inflate hugely when everyone has too much.

Nov 5, 2009 - 6:08 am 60. biblio44:

“Still, I’m not so interested in how Gore made his fortune” as I am in slandering the man. Because, after all, I do write for PJM.

Nov 5, 2009 - 6:17 am 61. vivo:

According to this article, Al Gore is acting like the typical conservative capitalist.

Why the fuss?

Nov 5, 2009 - 6:33 am 62. Thomas_L......:

Mr. Hanson hits another out of the park. Liberalism is merely the chicest accessorie these days. Indulgences. Exactly. Holding certain views on the environment allows you a clear conscience. You must be a corporate shill or a holocaust-like denier if you question the green movement. A racist if you oppose Obama’s policies. How square to be pro-life! How greedy to wonder where your taxes go! How evil to support Israel and oppose the jihad of the oppressed Palistinians!

Nov 5, 2009 - 6:40 am 63. CU:

So there are rich people who are spending their own money in ways you disapprove of?

How very Karl Marx of you, Dr. Hanson.

Nov 5, 2009 - 6:44 am 64. michaelhoskins:

So, here’s the question. Who will be enslaved to replace the energy? It can be easily demonstrated that the practical steam engine in the middle of the 18t century provided the technical back drop to allow the formation of the anti slavery society in London’s coffee houses in less than 25 years.

The replacement of muscle power, and the explosion of production, especially agricultural is what finally broke the back of slavery. To restate, the Civil War and British anti slavery actions required the ability to continue the then current life without the muscle work.

Trivia note. Horsepower is the unit of measure used for machine work. It was developed by having plow horses pull a sled weighing about 500 pounds a given distance in a given time. The average of these horses muscles is one horse power.

Nov 5, 2009 - 6:49 am 65. Wayne:

TLM:

I had forgotten about Dr. Lysenko. Yes, I can see Gore has certainly followed a large part of his lead, as well. Interesting mix, Lysenko and Tetzel.

Nov 5, 2009 - 7:04 am 66. Joan:

Very good article, Dr. Hanson. All who are interested in the phenomenon of rich/liberal thinking should read Jamie Glazov’s well-researched and excellent book, “United in Hate.” He takes apart the liberal psyche and shows just how dangerous these influential, left-wing people are. Read it. You will be astounded.

Nov 5, 2009 - 7:25 am 67. Stevemmn:

Selfish jerks like Warren Buffet, George Soros and co. can afford to pay any tax increase, so they want to raise taxes on everyone else who pays the bills in this country too. Even people for whom a tax increase really would hurt financially.

Nov 5, 2009 - 7:28 am 68. steveg:

What I want to see is wealthy liberals being shamed into giving up all their wealth to the poor.

Nov 5, 2009 - 7:31 am 69. misanthropicus:

And topping Hanson’s list of mysterious inner drives that make liberals so intellectually dishonest is the Nobel Prize committee themselves:

What unseemply and coward sense of guilt of those Norwegiens the award of the Peace Prize to a grossly, obviously unqualified person responded to? (Obama, if you still don’t know that he received an anticipative Nobel Prize).
What sense of helplessness and inadequacy did the grandstanding of the imposition of that award upon the world responded to?

compensationWhat

Nov 5, 2009 - 7:35 am 70. Nash:

Like I have said before, I will read anything by Victor Davis Hanson. Sure wish he had been my professor in college.

Nov 5, 2009 - 7:41 am 71. Trainwreck:

I believe there is a third reason for the preponderence of super wealthy elites in the far left wing that has to do less with guilt but more with self-preservation.

The population of this country has become more lazy and complacent than at any time in our history. Our schools are churning out ever more dumbed-down, brainwashed narcissistic young adults who expect everything to be handed to them and a life free of struggle, lest it harm their fragile self-esteem. There is a mood of endless entitlement: even if I have done nothing to earn it, I deserve it. Our emphasis is less on the individual than on a collective of aggrieved minorities that want their “fair share” and economic/social justice.

The rich elites feel that if they wrap themselves up with the left wingers and curry favor with the marxist government, their wealth will not be confiscated. The middle class can then be looted, leaving a two-tier society of peasants and elites.

Think how the hollywood liberals, safe in their mansions, waxed poetic about civil rights and social justice during the rodney king riots while the lower classes of south central LA turned their anger on the middle class shopkeepers and commuters in their neighborhood.

Ultimately, these elites do not read history. Just like kapos ended up in the ovens, wealthy communist revolutionaries in the gulags, and elite upper class French revolutionaries under the guillotine, the Marxist revolution they are creating will devour them and their wealth.

Nov 5, 2009 - 7:46 am 72. Now and Then:

“the Kennedys discussing health care from their beach compound, John Kerry from one of his numerous homes”

have you seen Sean Hannity’s house? Bill O’Reilly’s house Have you seen Carrie Prejean’s sex tape? (Another champion of family values gets dragged out of the closet.)

Nov 5, 2009 - 7:47 am 73. Samson:

great piece VDH

I also expect that there is a bit of the human defect from a genetic standpoint at play.

what a society wants and what an individual wants can not always be mutually beneficial. hence the hypocrisy.

I think that conservative thinkers don’t try to square the circle, liberals do …and they usually try to do it with your (not their) money.

Nov 5, 2009 - 7:47 am 74. Now and Then:

69. misanthropicus:

When you gonna pay up on that Jennings bet? Never mind, I’m used to conservatives welching.

Nov 5, 2009 - 7:48 am 75. glenn:

it’s really pretty simple. All those rich guys who are supporting Obama think it’s going to buy them a seat on the comittee.
Lots of rich Jews thought the same thing in France and even Germany. Note that I said rich, not smart.

Nov 5, 2009 - 7:52 am 76. Thomas_L.....:

CU: @63: Reading comprehension has never your strong point, has it?

Nov 5, 2009 - 7:52 am 77. David S:

After all, truly trying to help others is a sign of mental illness in the wealthy…

Is VDH drowning in the Kool Aid yet?

Why should the rich automatically act only in their own personal self interest? Is it not possible that they some actually take account of others, and work to use their privilege for the betterment of all?

There is a very rational basis for promoting a more egalitarian and progressive society. It makes life better for everyone. It’s not a mistake – it’s on purpose.

Peace.

DS

Nov 5, 2009 - 8:00 am 78. genghis:

Algore is a special case. A classic huckster. If you will recall, his family fortune and birthright was based upon taobacco. That did not prevent the inventor of the internet from decrying the evil taobacco companies while kneeling at his sisters deathbed. Good theater.

Sean Penn carries a grudge because his very pinko daddy was balcklisted during the 50’s Red scare. How could the child with such a pedigree not be smitten with Chavez, Castro et al? Penn is a funny little twerp. During his much publicized mission of mercy to New Orleans he spent time floating around in a dinghy brandishing a shotagun. Duck season???

Hypocrite does not begin to describe the denizens Hanson descibes. Unfortunately, money talks. Money buys access, favors, forgiveness, and power. The disgusting and virulent treatment afforded Sarah Palin was in part a reaction to the affrontery of her daring to challenge the moneyed elites. Ditto the response to the Tea Parties. The common folk are not supposed to speak out.

Nov 5, 2009 - 8:00 am 79. David W. Lincoln:

The financial legacy of the left wing plutocracy
is this: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2009/11/04/eric-sprott-and-david-franklin-u-s-risks-default.aspx

Need I say more?

Nov 5, 2009 - 8:17 am 80. Saltherring:

The old-money and filthy rich types already have theirs…along with the power that goes with it. Now their purpose, as they see it, is to make sure no one else enters the club. After all, entrepreneurs and high-achievers suffer the highest rates of taxation…old money types pay little or nothing. Just ask the dirt-bag Kennedys.

Nov 5, 2009 - 8:36 am 81. misanthropicus:

RE #74/Now and Then:

[...] 69. misanthropicus: When you gonna pay up on that Jennings bet? Never mind, I’m used to conservatives welching. [...]

Sure the Maine vote hasn’t solidified Jennings’ position in the WH – don’t forget, they’re already backpedaling on Obama’s “don’t ask-don’t tell” promise.
So, back to Jennings – just some ice on the road, and he’s go under Obama’s tires.

And considering Obama’s trajectory, the rest of his presidency is just icy roads – fortunately, he has a lot of trash around him for dumping -

Nov 5, 2009 - 8:37 am 82. CU:

I don’t understand why everyone’s so impressed by this article.

Arianna Huffington, Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, John Edwards, Sean Penn, Oliver Stone, Rev. Wright, Nancy Pelosi, Chris Dodd, George Soroses, Warren Buffett, Valerie Jarrett, Rahm Emanuel, Timothy Geithner, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, etc. can do whatever they want with the money they’ve earned and they can say whatever they want.

It’s their G-d given right as Americans.

You don’t like that they’re using their 1st amendment rights to say things you don’t like and spend their own money for causes and policies you don’t like?

Welcome to Free Speech and Capitalist Country!

Nov 5, 2009 - 8:42 am 83. tanstaafl:

What are we to make of the George Soroses and Warren Buffetts and the club of the mega wealthy preferring the populist rhetoric of Barack Obama?

In my view, George Soros is genuinely (not to mention pathologically) intent on injecting his socialist oriented will onto the administration whose election he, largely, financed. His name appears relatively often on that recently released list of visitors to the White House.

While destabilizing currencies is still in play for George (most recently, the dollar), he has upped the ante to destabilizing the Constitutional Republic.

(About 10 years ago, Soros bragged that he’d escaped his family history of “paranoia”. Maybe not.)

The Cass Sunsteins, Mark Lloyds, Anita Dunns, John Holdrens, Valerie Jarretts, Harold Kohs…who else?…surrounding Obama are pikers compared to the deep socialist pathology of Ole George.

Buffet seems a more lighthearted guy, more into financial ideas than political ideas, but forced through relationship (notably people like Bill Gates) to sing the fashionable “redistributive” song.

(there is a syndrome that seems to develop in individuals who accumulate vast, and I mean vast, personal wealth, a desire to control the planet that I’ve named the Goldfinger Syndrome)

When Buffet uttered his oft repeated plaint that his secretary paid proportionately more taxes than he, I always thought he should just write a check to the national government and be done with it.

AlGore’s Tennessee manse uses more energy in a day than a typical Memphis household uses in a year (something like that). He’s a total hypocrite who should be a national joke. BTW, he “still” loves cheeseburgers, even tho’ PETA (and the IPCC !) blames meat production far more than planes, boats, trains, cars, etc. for greenhouse gases.

AlGore is a greenhouse gas, noxious beyond belief.

Nov 5, 2009 - 8:44 am 84. CU:

“78. genghis:
Hypocrite does not begin to describe the denizens Hanson descibes. Unfortunately, money talks. Money buys access, favors, forgiveness, and power. The disgusting and virulent treatment afforded Sarah Palin was in part a reaction to the affrontery of her daring to challenge the moneyed elites. Ditto the response to the Tea Parties. The common folk are not supposed to speak out.”

You think that money talks is a bad thing?

Pajamasmedia is all about free speech and capitalism, two things more American than apple pie.

Nov 5, 2009 - 8:47 am 85. CU:

“75. glenn:
it’s really pretty simple. All those rich guys who are supporting Obama think it’s going to buy them a seat on the comittee.
Lots of rich Jews thought the same thing in France and even Germany. Note that I said rich, not smart.”

It’s not up to us to tell others how to spend their own money.
Remember that Marx fellow who liked to tell others how to spend their money?
We’re not like that here.

Nov 5, 2009 - 8:50 am 86. CU:

“76. Thomas_L…..:
CU: @63: Reading comprehension has never your strong point, has it?”

Isn’t that the article is complaining about?

That these horrible people are spending their own money on whatever they want and say whatever they want and that’s bad?

They should do what they say instead of telling other what to do?

You are allowed to be a hypocrite and a liar under the 1st Amendment and to use your money to spread whatever lies and propaganda you want.

Nobody’s forcing you to read Al Gore’s recycled bovine feces books or watch the violations of human decency that are Michael Moore movies.

Nov 5, 2009 - 8:55 am 87. M. Report:

why the liberal fascination with money
and privilege—and populism?

They need to Lord it over someone.

Buffett buying Burlington is odd;
Why start off the 21st century by
buying a 20th, or 19th, century
transportation system, unless he
sees the US heading back in time
to the good old days, when a
Robber Baron could look out the
window of his private train at the
Kulaks toiling in the fields ?

Nov 5, 2009 - 8:59 am 88. Tomp:

How would the left respond to a one time wealth tax of, say 40% on personal wealth over 10 million?

After all, aren’t they the benevolent ones?

Nov 5, 2009 - 9:00 am 89. Thomas_L......:

CU@86: Um, no. Care to try again or does my first comment stand? Create all the straw men you like, though. As you say, it is a free country. Still.

Nov 5, 2009 - 9:07 am 90. CU:

“88. Tomp:
How would the left respond to a one time wealth tax of, say 40% on personal wealth over 10 million?

After all, aren’t they the benevolent ones?”

Class envy and hatred of the rich are not virtues.

Nov 5, 2009 - 9:14 am 91. westerncanadian:

Three choices Dr. Hanson but isn’t there a fourth? Don’t you think there is a “Warm Room Effect”. Most people don’t like being outside in the cold peering through the window into a warm cosy room where comfortable people are securely established. They want to be inside that room.

I think that all these people really want to be part of “the Establishment”. Currently the Establishment believes in democratic socialism, so they are eager to fall in with the ideology. Dollars to doughnuts, if the Establishment believed in free enterprise then so would the plutocrats. I don’t think it’s the ideology that’s important; I think it’s the social zing (apparently manifested as a tingling lower limb) that comes with acceptance in that warm cosy establishment room.

Nov 5, 2009 - 9:19 am 92. Michael:

It took a while but the usual suspects did show up to try and derail the discussion without debating the points made.

Conservatives work hard and make money.

Liberals work the system and try to suppress everyone else’s ability to do well to keep a servant class dependant upon them. They want to build and maintain their oligarchy.

Gore can’t be slandered. He is already worse than anything anyone has said about him.

Nov 5, 2009 - 9:23 am 93. Poor Citizen:

Let me see. Private citizens that believe in renewable energy and capitalism invest their money and earn money by doing that. …hmmmmmm

There should not be any problem with how people choose to invest their capital…..unless you do not believe in freedom and capitalism. I do not recall anyone complaining when oil and banking executives earn a million a week…just in bonus checkes…or did they?

Nov 5, 2009 - 9:24 am 94. csd:

Would things be different if we had a vigiant media – besides Fox? The fact that so many people are now tuning into Fox, I believe, made a difference in this election. Prior, people didn’t want to know. They were caught up in the “Hope and Change” “historic” election of an “intellegent, clean black man”.

This would be a wonderful, propsperous, free Republic if the news was doing its job. Energy indepence, jobs, representatives really of and by the people, no climate hoax bills, real healthcare reform, etc. Fox just can’t get it all out there alone. Larry Elder had a piece in Town Hall today. Fox really has been more “fair and balanced” in their news reporting. What if everyone was?

Of course, there wold still be those radical “progressives” and the extreme right, but life would be more rational. I have many friends and family quoting NY Times, CNN (believe it or not) and ABC, NBC. Listening to them is difficult.

Nov 5, 2009 - 9:31 am 95. scott:

Got Im Himmel!

The master pens a new acme!

This piece reinforces a thought train I have been riding more and more of late: I understand now the French Revolution. I really understand.

Nov 5, 2009 - 9:32 am 96. PAthena:

The very rich Hanson describes desire POWER over others. George Soros is a good example.

Nov 5, 2009 - 9:38 am 97. CU:

“92. Michael:
It took a while but the usual suspects did show up to try and derail the discussion without debating the points made.

Conservatives work hard and make money.

Liberals work the system and try to suppress everyone else’s ability to do well to keep a servant class dependant upon them. They want to build and maintain their oligarchy.”

You want the government to step in and change the system so that it works to your benefit?

Bootstraps and elbow grease is all you need.
Bootstraps and elbow grease.

You can’t keep a good man down.
Unless he wants to, of course.

Nov 5, 2009 - 9:46 am 98. cfbleachers:

VDH, try this response on for size:

It is my homespun belief that the super-elite wish to give off the APPEARANCE of being “champions” of the populists…because when they pet the dogs on their walk in the park, they don’t wish to be bitten.
(they will step around the “mess”, so they don’t soil their Jimmy Choo’s and Bruno Magli’s)

Leftism, being an inexorable march toward totalitarianism…has at its base an omnipresent need to create “strawmen villains”. The breeding ground for the sociological petri dish of race, gender, class, sexual preference, religion, creed, age, ….whatever, is always in the cultural meeting places where public opinion is shared/formed/molded.

Leftists made a hard grab for totalitarian dominance over those pop culture places. Hollywood, newspapers, magazines, wire services, universities, …even NPR.

In this way, they could float a trial balloon on the latest “strawman villain”…put the new strain in the petri dish…and wait to see if it grew…and how virulently. Planting of these strains is a constant, not a variable. The only variable is which genus (age, race, religion, etc) would be tried.

In this constant, inexorable, unrelenting warfare…the creation of “strawman villains” came upon “global warming”. If you watch the leftists write the playbook for a new strain in the petri dish…it is really fascinating to witness them putting down the Fred Astaire footprints on the dance floor for their useful idiots (see, ie., all the trolls here) follow the footsteps and move their lips, counting out the steps.

Al Gore is “NOT a hypocrite” about global warming, Bill Clinton is “NOT a hypocrite” about sexual harassment, Franklin Raines, Jim Johnson, Herb Moses are NOT ….etc., etc., etc.

How does this work, you ask? Because leftists own the mass information stream, and therefore, there will NEVER be an investigation into the very hypocrisy they seek to create.

Limousine liberals are simply cowards who want the anti-biotic injection against the petri dish villain virus…ahead of time.

John Kerry is the poster child for this brand of cowardice. He has virtually no shame. (or conscience)

He simply bows, cowers, grovels at the feet of leftist totalitarianism…so they will leave him to amass his trust fund fortune, fame and power. He wants his ketchup at his picnic in the park and when he pets the totalitarian dogs, he doesn’t want to be bitten.

If you don’t get in line…you become a target for the “strawman villain” strain coming to a political theater near you. And…if you are either a rich…or a vocal…opponent of totalitarian leftism…whether you are conservative or moderate, Republican or Independent, Fox News or Joe the Plumber, Sarah Palin or Joe Lieberman, Roger Ailes or Roger Simon…step out of line…and the man comes and gonna shoot you away…

Leftism is the inexorable march toward totalitarianism. Get in line…or get bitten.

Nov 5, 2009 - 9:58 am 99. deguello:

MR.HANSON: Finally,a PJM article about the vicious human filth eating out the heart of the American Republic.Unlike their hired lumpen scribblers,like Now and Then, David S, Vivo,and similar Stalinist trash who are actually stupid enough to believe that these men are about “helping the poor”.This is all about power,greed and profit for a few,just as it was for the Stalinist nomenklatura. There is no difference in personality between a Communist,and a Plutocrat:they’re both ruthless,egomaniacal,and psychotic.The existence of SOROS, is the best argument yet for Socialism.A man that rich,and that psychotic poses a greater danger to the nation than militant Islam. I’ve using the phrase;”Left-Wing plutocracy” ever since I began bloggging.These are power mad criminals who have discovered that co-opting the Left’s agenda,simulating compassion,and promoting the left wing cultural agenda, increases and consolidates their wealth and power,while repressing the opposition. How does this con game work? 1.Cultural relativism enables the marketing of harmful garbage,previously out of bounds due to standards of esthetics,and morality.Eliminate these,and you can sell Madona’s,and EMINEM’s poison,prematurely sexualize children, make money,and ultimately,create welfare dependency.2.Multiculturalism&Globalism. Destroy national sovreignty,and the common language and culture that sustains it,and you make speculation in foreign currency,to the detriment of your own countries’(SOROS)respectable. .Globalism also makes Outsourcing,of middle-class jobs, and the importation of exploitable cheap labor,through legal-illegal immigration immigration,that much easier,which is why most corporate elites support it.3.Affirmative action(anti-white racism) A priceless oppoortunity to create invidious racial divisions,and limit opportunity for high achieving(read politically active) whites,as you simulate it for minorities.They do it while using their wealth to exempttheir own progeny from the consequences of their own policies.(Can anyone imagine a retard like Caroline Kennedy or Al Gore getting into Harvard if they weren’t rich?).NOTA BENE Hypocrisy is one of the hallmarks of the liberal plutocrat..4.Supporting “progressive” education(BLOOMBERG).This creates mass ignorance,while legalizing drugs,5.
(AGAIN SOROS) renders the exploited population much more ignorant,unreflective and easier to control. The goal is to have every American behaving like the welfare dependent inmates in the inner cities,ignorant,poor,and democrat;DOCILE,think of the process as panem et circensen for the digital age. The goal is to emulate Mexico’s kleptocratic social structure where an oligarchy rules over a mass of illiterate, ignorant peasants,but with drugs sex,rock&roll and rap substituting for the federales.These folks would prefer a drug addict to the violent criminal,they are libtards,and can’t bear seeing the spectacle of the squalor,which empowers them. that might (Stalin never actually SAW a Gulag ). These plutocrats WANT to believe that they are compassionate,kind, bemevolent,just like Stalin and Kim il Sung.Ultimately,however,like them, they will resort to brutality. As their Stooges,Obama,the Bushes,McCain,are exposed by a free people,and their shibboleths,as pious frauds, they resort to more drastic means of control.This is why SOROS,BLOOMBERG,BUFFET,GATES,and the rest all support the destruction of the first and second amendments,(Media Matters,BRADY BILL McCAIN-FEINGOLD);they want a disarmed ,docile,ignorant,passive helpless third world population . These people are all riding a tiger a tiger that their arrogant greed has stupidly provoked.They will NEVER dominate this country!

Nov 5, 2009 - 10:04 am 100. blotto:

No CU (or DS or whoever you are) Tomp has it right. I suggest a yearly wealth tax on the uber wealthy, say: 20% for assets above 500 million and 10% from 100-500 million. And finally 5% for assets from 25-100 million. The only exclusions are if you run a business and employ Americans.

These are the wealthy and the majority are progresives. And as we often hear them bemoan that the government needs more money, well here is a vast resource-themselves. But a wealth tax is never talked about. Why? Because that would mean the left would have to put their money where their mouths are instead of looking compassionate with other people’s money, it would be their own.

Nov 5, 2009 - 10:05 am 101. billc:

This is an awesome article. You have boiled down the great question of why the uber rich, gates, soros, Ben and Jerry, Buffet, are always super libs. I also think they get used to telling people what to do and having them do it.

Nov 5, 2009 - 10:05 am 102. CU:

“98. cfbleachers:
VDH, try this response on for size:

It is my homespun belief that the super-elite wish to give off the APPEARANCE of being “champions” of the populists…because when they pet the dogs on their walk in the park, they don’t wish to be bitten.
(they will step around the “mess”, so they don’t soil their Jimmy Choo’s and Bruno Magli’s)

Leftism, being an inexorable march toward totalitarianism…has at its base an omnipresent need to create “strawmen villains”. The breeding ground for the sociological petri dish of race, gender, class, sexual preference, religion, creed, age, ….whatever, is always in the cultural meeting places where public opinion is shared/formed/molded.

Leftists made a hard grab for totalitarian dominance over those pop culture places. Hollywood, newspapers, magazines, wire services, universities, …even NPR.

In this way, they could float a trial balloon on the latest “strawman villain”…put the new strain in the petri dish…and wait to see if it grew…and how virulently. Planting of these strains is a constant, not a variable. The only variable is which genus (age, race, religion, etc) would be tried.”

If we’re losing on the free marketplace of ideas, then we need to work harder and not whine about it.

The point of pajamasmedia, Fox News, etc. is to provide a “counter culture” to the existing one.

After all, the logic of the free market is sound:

If you lose the battle for the hearts and minds, then you weren’t the best to begin with.

Nov 5, 2009 - 10:13 am 103. George:

“It might seem hypocritical too that people on the right would want or need unemployment compensation from the state or social security from the feds”

I thought I paid taxes for unemployment compensation. I also thought “social security” was my own money that I paid into the system. Weird, didn’t even realize I was taking entitlements.

Nov 5, 2009 - 10:19 am 104. Dwight:

The implication is growing in the responses here here that most of the super rich are libs. That may or may not be true, but I would like to see some evidence. The question may be why do SOME super-rich folks support liberal causes. I’ll venture a guess that there are least as many of the super rich who are not libs, but they are less vocal and probably for obvious reasons.

Nov 5, 2009 - 10:21 am 105. jodetoad:

Cap and trade will create a new world-wide market for futures of “energy indulgences” worth trillions, if enough nations can be forced into it. In Britain, belief in global warming has been legally characterized as a religion which can be persecuted, for an upcoming legal action.

I think the left is selling self-concepts, and the price is right.

To those on lower rungs of the ladder: ‘Blame society and the rich. It’s not your fault, you have been kept down and have a right to be angry. You are entitled.’ Price: free; consequence: perpetuity on low rungs.

To middle rungs: ‘Sacrifice. Be compassionate. Save the world. Trust us, you are a hero.’ Price: low (at present), spread amongst everyone willy-nilly; consequence: remain manipulable, reduced wealth.

To high rungs: ‘You have no guilt, because you care. And you are so cool.’ Price: fairly high, until you count in kickbacks and support from the network; consequence: use as tools for publicity, financing, organization.

Top rungers can either buy the ‘no-guilt’ mantra, or ignore the whole thing, and manipulate the system if they are smart enough.

As a middle-runger, I have come to be nauseated by people initiating conversations about compassion, the purpose of which is usually to demonstrate their own moral superiority. When I toss in a question like “what do you do about it?” the conversation devolves into why it’s more important to force society to do bla-bla-bla.

Funny how regular people who volunteer and give to charity don’t talk much about it. If libs really cared so much about the uninsured, they could do as we do, join together and contribute money and time to buy policies for the uninsured, or start factories in poor areas to provide jobs, or create free private schools to provide truly good education to the underprivileged. Or…

But no, it’s all about self-concept, image, looking cool, and being used as tools by the top-rungers to control more and more of us.

Nov 5, 2009 - 10:28 am 106. CU:

“96. PAthena:
The very rich Hanson describes desire POWER over others. George Soros is a good example.”

In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women.

Nov 5, 2009 - 10:33 am 107. Boyd:

34. betheweb: “Uber Progressives love the poor. They just don’t like to smell them.”

Christopher Lasch wrote the book (The Revolt of the Elites: And the Betrayal of Democracy) on it. His premise was that the Elites in this Country (and by elites he means anyone in the moneyed classes – Liberal or Conservative) abandoned charity sometime back (the 60’s?) and have since pushed for the government to take on all the duties formerly done by private benevolence – all so they don’t have to get their hands dirty by dealing with the “lower” classes. It’s a matter of abandoning traditional ethics more than anything else and the big money class has done just that, leaving the middle class to do all the charity. Proof? Look at the absolutely pathetic level of charitable giving as a percent of income of the moneyed elites compared to the middle class. Indeed, look at the level of proportional charitable giving by Liberals compared to Conservatives. The Conservative middle class gives. The Liberal wealthy don’t.

Nov 5, 2009 - 10:42 am 108. tanstaafl:

I think the current crowd, despite money and notoriety, has, in fact, power over very little & that the pursuit of wealth and fame and constantly being in the public eye are efforts of the immensely insecure.

For them, certain death is being shut out, like Ruth Madoff has been shut out of NY society on the heels of Bernie’s débacle.

Currently the Establishment believes in democratic socialism, so they are eager to fall in with the ideology. Dollars to doughnuts, if the Establishment believed in free enterprise then so would the plutocrats.

The impulse to be part of the “in” crowd, or, at least the putative in crowd, is a huge factor.

I attributed Colin Powell’s 11th hour switch to Obama as an aspect of that impulse.

And one aspect of Media’s loss of objectivity is its collective urge to be part of what passes for the fashionable these days.

From the co-dependent Sean Penn to the excreable Al Gore, these people are beneath contempt.

Even more contemptible than PJM’s Useful Idiots, our trolls, who are so brain dead as to consistently defend the self-glorifying antics of their Handlers.

Nov 5, 2009 - 10:54 am 109. CU:

“103. George:
“It might seem hypocritical too that people on the right would want or need unemployment compensation from the state or social security from the feds”

I thought I paid taxes for unemployment compensation. I also thought “social security” was my own money that I paid into the system. Weird, didn’t even realize I was taking entitlements.”

In many ways, we’re both Peter and Paul,
robbing from ourselves to pay ourselves.

Nov 5, 2009 - 10:57 am 110. Boyd:

104. Dwight: “The implication is growing in the responses here here that most of the super rich are libs.”

I did a study of the data at Tray.com on who were the highest private individual givers in the 2000 election and who did they give to. The top ten largest donors at that time gave 100% of their donations to the Democrats. All ten. All their money. I think that might answer your question.

Nov 5, 2009 - 11:04 am 111. CU:

“100. blotto:
No CU (or DS or whoever you are) Tomp has it right. I suggest a yearly wealth tax on the uber wealthy, say: 20% for assets above 500 million and 10% from 100-500 million. And finally 5% for assets from 25-100 million. The only exclusions are if you run a business and employ Americans.

These are the wealthy and the majority are progresives. And as we often hear them bemoan that the government needs more money, well here is a vast resource-themselves. But a wealth tax is never talked about. Why? Because that would mean the left would have to put their money where their mouths are instead of looking compassionate with other people’s money, it would be their own.”

Oh, this is just brilliant.

Yes, let’s tax the rich so that they can flee the country with their money.

After all, when I need a job, poor people will always hire me.

Aren’t you sure you’d rather go back to DailyKos?
They hate the rich and capitalism over there.
I’m sure you’ll get a hero’s welcome.

Nov 5, 2009 - 11:05 am 112. Mike G:

Just a terrific piece of writing Mr. Hanson. It illuminates something that I have felt (but couldn’t articulate nearly as well) ever since wandering by mistake onto the huge and opulent Kennedy compound in Hyannis back in the 70’s and being immediately and sternly confronted by local police.

But as mentioned elsewhere in these comments, it is not really a left-right issue – although the wealthy left deserve extra contempt for their evil hypocrisy. In the end everyone wants to “escape” into a position of wealth where no taxation, regulation or social policies can really hurt you – especially if you are connected politically and can arrange for exceptions, loop holes or find ways to grow richer from government programs and regulations.

Once you have launched yourself into that rarified class, then it is all about keeping the serfs from storming the castles – hence all of the entitlements and populist rhetoric.

Unfortunately those in the (potentially) upwardly mobile, hard working middle class are the unfortunate victims in this relentless push to the left. It is interesting to re-work the tax roll percentages by income level after eliminating the taxes paid by the very wealthy (as we said, those amounts are unimportant to them). What this reveals is that only one in four returns actually pay any tax. This implies that that the system is broken and democracy has failed. The only thing that prevents democratic landslides is the apathy that developes in those whose entire life is supported by entitlements. The only answer I can see is to limit government to its absolutely minimum functions and then these inherent abuses will also be limited and easily covered over by the productivity of a free society.

Nov 5, 2009 - 11:09 am 113. Ding:

A lot of wealthy liberals are born into their largess. Gore, Kennedy, Roosevelt, the list is endless. A guy like Gore makes money off the environmental movement because he has the cash to invest in it in the first place. Super unfair! Nepotism!

Nov 5, 2009 - 11:21 am 114. Paul M Hupf:

The English Music Hall ballad (of the 1890’s) has it right: “It’s the same the ‘ole world over; ain’t it a bloomin’ shame; it’s the rich what gets the pleasure; it’s the poor what gets the blame.”

Nov 5, 2009 - 11:26 am 115. carla:

CU (clueless and uneducated??)

This is not a discussion about freedom of speech. It concerns a small group of very wealthy individuals, who use their wealth, influence and connections to promote their personal agendas while remaining immune to the effects of their dithering; what is good for me is not good for thee. Algore would have us degrade our standard of living to ’save the planet’, while he himself enjoys a carbon footprint as big as the Al Franken’s butt because he can afford to purchase conscience soothing carbon offsets. Isn’t that curious? The rich and fatuous (er famous) are exempt by virtue of being rich and famous? Sean Pencilhead can suck up to Chavez and rant about the loss of ‘freedom of the press under Bush’, while all independent opposition media outlets are closed by government fiat in Venezuela. Because Penn lives in the USA. Soros has dreams of world empire. I don’t beleive tht he was partilarly concerned about the devastating social impact of his currency manipulation that almost destroyed the British monetary system.

Nov 5, 2009 - 11:27 am 116. Noesis Noeseos:

There are two more reasons why most of the super-rich espouse left-liberalism: they were “educated” to it in schools, where conservative arguments, if they ever surfaced, were ridiculed; secondly, the power nexus is presently woven around the socialist ideology, and once a person becomes very rich, acquisition now longer holds the allure, for there becomes no aphrodisiac as seductive as power and no society as prestigious as that of the optimates who wield it.

Nov 5, 2009 - 11:31 am 117. David B:

Not arrogance but “hubris” which we know from VDH is “gratuitous arrogance.” This explains everything.

Nov 5, 2009 - 11:34 am 118. CU:

“113. Ding:
A lot of wealthy liberals are born into their largess. Gore, Kennedy, Roosevelt, the list is endless. A guy like Gore makes money off the environmental movement because he has the cash to invest in it in the first place. Super unfair! Nepotism!”

Yes, their parents and grand-parents made wise investment choices so that their children and grand-children would have a better life and financial security !

And that’s why they have to be punished by having their property confiscated and death-taxed back into poverty!

Is this “pajamasmedia.com” or “pajaMarxmedia.com?”

Nov 5, 2009 - 11:36 am 119. james:

Everyone is stupid about something, but Buffett and Soros are hardly the same. Buffett is an old-school useful idiot. Soros knows what Buffett is and uses him to help destroy the West and build a one-world government. Soros hates Buffett and Buffett has no clue.

Nov 5, 2009 - 11:45 am 120. CU:

“110. Boyd:
I did a study of the data at Tray.com on who were the highest private individual givers in the 2000 election and who did they give to. The top ten largest donors at that time gave 100% of their donations to the Democrats. All ten. All their money. I think that might answer your question.”

And what’s your solution for stopping this “outrage?”

Campaign reform?

“Spreading the wealth” to other candidates who were unable to fend for themselves?

Nov 5, 2009 - 11:45 am 121. mingus:

Mike G:

Predicted by de Tocquiville in the 18th century.
The tyranny of the mob.

Nov 5, 2009 - 11:47 am 122. CU:

I give up on this thread.

The fact I have to defend freedom of speech, capitalism, the free market, hard work, and low taxation on a pajamasmedia.com thread proves that the trolls have taken over.

Just like there’s nothing but turtles all the way down,
there’s nothing but trolls all the way down here.

Nov 5, 2009 - 11:48 am 123. Thomas_L....:

It appears we have a new “clever” troll who believes arguing out of both sides of his mouth will throw us all into a tizzy. Keep posting CU, we’ll see your true colors, soon enough, I guess.

Nov 5, 2009 - 12:02 pm 124. Real Deal:

Selfish jerks like Warren Buffet, George Soros and co. can afford to pay any tax increase, so they want to raise taxes on everyone else who pays the bills in this country too. Even people for whom a tax increase really would hurt financially.

This is where the tax paying middle class deludes themselves. They don’t pay the taxes, the middle class does. The truly wealthy can afford to take advantage of the loop holes that are deliberately crafted by the wealthy politicians, the middle class cannot.

Another factor of the Liberal Left is that during the 60s many of them were well to do kids whose parents could afford to send them to college and give them trust funds, just look at Bill Ayers for one very good example.

Nov 5, 2009 - 12:03 pm 125. DavidN:

So I’ve read the article, and I have one refinement/addition. I think a lot of what’s going on is related to the fact that those who have already accumulated wealth, either through inheritance (Soros, Kerry, Jay Rockefeller, various Kennedys) or through some form of commerce (Buffet, Gates, Edwards, Gore mostly) feel guilty at some level because they have money the don’t feel they deserve. The interesting thing is their reaction to this: they don’t want to give away their money, or become middle-class, yet alone poor, themselves. So they decide to prevent anyone from following in their footsteps: they accumulated wealth because of greed, greed is bad, so it should be stopped. Those who already *have* wealth use it for good (provided they contribute to the right causes, back the right candidates, etc.) but who knows what the next set of nouveau riche will do with their money?

One other comment: please ignore Now and Then and his ilk. They deliberately ignore the main gist of whichever article they’re commenting on, and pick out some detail which, if twisted properly, shows hypocrisy on the part of the writer or commenters. There being wealthy Republicans who haven’t paid their taxes (and to my mind there are relatively few) essentially has nothing to do with the point of the article (which is trying to explain why wealthy people would become liberal Democrats and support tax increases) and then jump on it, making a big point of the contradiction. So, Now and Then, this is similar to Republicans getting caught cheating on their wives, with the added accusation of hypocrisy because they’re “Family Values” Republicans. Democrats aren’t supposed to have morals in the first place, stay faithful to wives, etc., so they get a pass when they cheat, but of course Republicans get no mercy. Conversely, we Republicans want to accumulate wealth. No one conceals it. Democrats are supposed to be above that, altruistic and high-minded. When it turns out that all the altruism is just a cover for greed, well, that makes your guy a hypocrite. Pointing out that a Republican didn’t pay his taxes is meaningless: we don’t like the taxes in the first place. Your guys are supposed to embrace them, because the money goes to a good cause.

Nov 5, 2009 - 12:09 pm 126. cfbleachers:

CU,

If we’re losing on the free marketplace of ideas, then we need to work harder and not whine about it.

And if Goebbels, Stalin, Mao, and Che say…the “free” marketplace of “ideas” got us into our position…quit whining about your voice being strangled out of existence, you would say….?

Look, I completely understand the “nose to the grindstone” response…but it misses the point. There was an UNDERGROUND grab of our information stream…not a fair competition. It was based upon subterfuge, distortion and lies.

If you are ok with that, then your argument stands as is.

If, on the other hand, you agree that a large portion of the American public has been DUPED for 40 years…consuming from our MASS media outlets…a prism-based filter of leftist propaganda…then your argument is a non-sequitor.

In order to self-govern this land of ours…we DEPEND upon an independent battalion of information warriors…we need the REAL facts, and if those warriors have become double agents against the truth and cultivate a stranglehold on our information stream on top of it…working “harder”…as Steven Covey puts it…is being given a map of Kansas City and being placed in Memphis…and being told to “read the map harder”.

It is NOT “ok” to just give “alternate” facts…and try to expose every lie and distortion we can “find”…in the mountain of lies and distortions we are being fed every day. It is imperative that we expose the GAME…the whole rigged, fixed, rotten deal.

It is NOT “ok” that we have been lied to for forty years or more. And working “harder” to get non-leftists tenure at major universities where there is a stranglehold echo chamber mentality, or into major metropolitan newspapers, or into EVERY news outlet except Fox, …is NOT going to solve the problem at hand.

There are good and decent people in this country who do not know they are being lied to each and every day. They don’t have the time to dig for news, they are busy working very long hours. They don’t believe that the information stream is poisoned…because they believe the counter-propaganda when one raises the issue with them, that it’s a “crackpot conspiracy theory”.

The New Big Lie…is the leftists saying with a straight face…that they haven’t stolen the information stream and put a stranglehold on ANYONE who dares to have a differing opinion.

Leftism is a disease. You can’t treat it with a band-aid and trying “harder” to “get better”.

The point of pajamasmedia, Fox News, etc. is to provide a “counter culture” to the existing one.

And, each and every American ought to get down on their knees each and every night and give thanks to the gift to this country that is Roger Simon, Glenn Reynolds, Victor Davis Hanson, NRO, et al.

We owe them a debt of gratitude that we may never be able to repay. But that is one fraction of what is needed to fight this war, in which there is a four decade head start on the other side.

In my opinion, this is why the BEST OF THE BEST warriors for the truth, are folks who once camped in the other tent. They woke up one day and had a epiphany of conscience. They could no longer camp on the side of distortion, lies and treason.

After all, the logic of the free market is sound:

If you lose the battle for the hearts and minds, then you weren’t the best to begin with.

No offense, but what a load of pap. Tyrants, bullies, totalitarian thugs can steal the truth. If you aren’t willing to fight against that…then all the “working harder” arguments will be taken to the graveyard by people who weren’t awake enough to pick up a sword.

Nov 5, 2009 - 12:15 pm 127. Distraught:

Insightful assesment. Thanks.

Im wondering just this mornin if a possible formulation could be… that the underlying goal may be simply to ’shift’ as much wealth as possible where ever and how ever.

Hence the focus only on big ticket items and the disregard for their actual efficacy. If they really view business and the free market as the source of ‘power’ for the opponent, then in a long term strategy, they might see any enactable erosion of it as progress in and of itself.

Nov 5, 2009 - 12:39 pm 128. Arius:

What we are seeing today in the US has already happened everywhere else in the West where the process is further developed. Do we see even the beginnings of a reversal outside the US? No we don’t. Even the conservative parties outside the US have accommodated themselves to the liberal/socialist/communist state. Their only ambition is to get power to rule the roost and tap the money flow.

I am in sympathy with the tea parties and Middle America’s resistance to our side into National Socialism, but I am very pessimistic. The liberal/socialist/communist cabal that rules America, the MSM, government, academia, Hollywood, etc., now rules with an iron fist, and intend to this time (unlike what happened in the 1990’s) to completely neutralize or destroy the conservative opposition. They will literally destroy the US to gain total power.

This is what we are up against. It is possible that the 2010 election will be like the 1992 election and throw a large number of demoncrats out of office but the momentum of soon to be passed so-called health care and cap and tax and other legislation will not be derailed, legislation that will put the brakes on expansion of the economy and fuel our descent into a greater depression. And as we fight more violently over a rapidly diminishing economic pie these same elites will ‘save us again’, gaining more control over us and lining their pockets in the process. They are more than willing to sell out America to foreign interests, foreign ideologies, and foreign religions, and to enslave their own people. They are the walking dead, trying to suffocate our spirit. But the joke of history will be on them, they can destroy us but they will certainly destroy themselves.

Nov 5, 2009 - 1:28 pm 129. Lolwhat:

“adults who expect everything to be handed to them and a life free of struggle, lest it harm their fragile self-esteem. There is a mood of endless entitlement: even if I have done nothing to earn it, I deserve it.”

Who are we talking about here, the Boomers?

Nov 5, 2009 - 1:49 pm 130. ReConUSMC:

To President Obama and all 535 voting members of the Legislature and the Obama ankle grabbing media ,

OUR GOVT. ARE THE WORST BUSINESS PEOPLE ON EARTH …. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES IS SOCIALIST ARE GOVT. FIXES EVERYTHING WHILE NEVER FIXING ANYTHING ,
CONSERVATISM KNOWS THAT CAPITALISM FIXING MOST EVERYTHING OR BAD GUYS GET KICKED OUT .
CALLED COMPLETION SOCIALIST KNOW NOT SINCE MOST HAVE NEVER WORKED IN THE PRIVATE MARKET PLACE OF BETTER IDEA’S ALWAYS WIN IN THE END .
China was broke for 3000 years now look at them last 15 years !

It is now official that you are ALL corrupt morons:

The U.S. Post Service was established in 1775 You have had 234 years to get it right and it is broken.

Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is broken and 31 Trillion dollars in debt ..

Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right and it is broken. 21 Trillion dollars

War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to “the poor” and they only want more and they are worse in all quality things in life .

Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 44 years to get it right and they are broken.
Dan is dead on the money as usual .

AMTRAC cost us a billion dollars beyond it budget Monthly

Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 39 years to get it right and it is broken 23 Trillion dollars .

The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before.

Our cost on Interest only daily is a Whopping 570 Million dollars after 24 hours and growing like wild fire by 2012-13 being 1 Billion a day .
You had 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure. yet you now want to run 1/6 of our Economy ? Dumber than Dumb .

You have FAILED in every “government service” you have shoved down our throats while overspending our tax dollars AND YOU WANT AMERICANS TO BELIEVE YOU CAN BE TRUSTED WITH A GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM??

Nov 5, 2009 - 1:53 pm 131. Knotacommie:

The Biggest problem with Gore,Edwards, Soros and the rest of the far left american haters is this. We dont have problems with money honestly earned. The market sets the price one will pay for a good or service. The problems with the likes of Soros, Gore, Edwards and the rest of the communist far left is they want to DENY that right to anyone EXCEPT THEMSELVES. The Sean Pinheads of the world are plain stupid, they make there fortunes in the world of make beleive and live there lives in that same fantasy world. Same with Barak Obama, too lazy and too arrogant to beleive in hard work, willing only to be like Jeremiah Wright and take the shortcut of communist theory. Problem is ,what happens when the productive no longer are willing to support there commie theories? Anyone ever hear of the AMERICAN REVOLUTION?

Nov 5, 2009 - 2:11 pm 132. Marc Malone:

Beautiful article. The commenters were eloquent, too, like Charles Gordon and Burke. It was nice to see how, not only the author could wax eloquent and erudite, but so could the readers.

I was really enjoying it, until the poo-flingers got involved. Then, the conversation just went downhill. What a letdown. When are the mods gonna start banning certain of the trolls who are really just here to disrupt the conversation, not add to it?

Opposition voices are great, but those who, like biblio, as just one example, just run into the room to fart and run away laughing, they have to go.

As to the article, I don’t think it’s any specific one of the three exegeses offered. It’s a menu. Any excuse will do. I think one of the posters had it right. It’s really about wearing the uniform. They “belong”. It’s their shibboleth. You wear the right clothes, eat at the trendy restaurants, go to the right parties, have the right politics, then you fit in. You are officially one of the “cool kids”.

The price is to sell your soul. You must subordinate, even subjugate, your beliefs to those of the collective. Never speak out. Never rock the boat. It’s not merely venality, however. There is real economic benefit. There is ACCESS. Now, the guys at the top of this pyramid could opt out at any time, but why would they? They’re at the top, and the system of access works even more greatly to their benefit.

This is the problem of those who rely on numbers to make up for their mediocrity. Gore is a mediocrity, a C-student and a drop-out. Obama is a mediocrity, a C+-student (2.6gpa in HS and 2.7 @ Columbia), an affirmative action beneficiary throughout his life. They never actually accomplished anything. They rely on populism to build their wealth and position, but such creates no real wealth for society. It is literally just redistribution of the wealth.

At #72, Now and Then offered up Hannity and O’Reilly as counter-arguments. He fails to understand that these guys worked their way up. Hannity used to do construction. O’Reilly was a Hig School teacher.

They now are pundits. They have a mass audience which they entertain while informing. In the process, businesses get to market their products, which creates more wealth for society. They provide a useful service to society, for which they are rewarded handsomely, as long as they continue to provide this worthy product.

What does Gore provide? He is a celebrated huckster, but he creates no real wealth, but the few sales of his books to the gullible. Obama, likewise, produces nothing. He has accomplished nothing as President. Nothing. Any improvement has been despite him and his co-parasites in Congress. They have merely produced greater debt for the country. People are now having to spend precious dollars fighting against further damage.

The Collective creates no wealth. It merely redistributes it… then consumes it. They are Borg. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

Nov 5, 2009 - 2:42 pm 133. Bear:

Been a while since I’ve seen the movie referrenced in the fitting title.

An old French film no less.

Nov 5, 2009 - 2:53 pm 134. Michael:

Hard work, free speech and spend your own money as you wish. That is basic. Taking larger and larger amounts of everyone else’s money to redistribute to others for political benefit was wrong, is wrong and will always be wrong. However this is the basic premise of the would be oligarchs in charge now.

Putting more and more money into the government and out of the individual citizen’s pocket is the first step towards economic collapse. Spending it faster than you can take it is the second step to economic collapse. The government taking over private companies is the next step. We are running towards the edge of the cliff now. There are only rocks at the bottom of that long fall.

Nov 5, 2009 - 3:32 pm 135. deguello:

#72 NOW AND THEN’s mouth frothed: “Have you seen Sean Hannity’s house?”No, but I’m sure that while it’s nice,it wasn’t bought with a crooked mortage brokered by Tony Rezsko,like Obama’s.How are YOUR digs N&T,I hear that Soros gave you a new dumpster as a reward for slinging trash at PJM.I gotta hand it to him,he definitely knows where you would feel most at home.

Nov 5, 2009 - 3:49 pm 136. deguello:

CU#122 :No one objects to left wingplutocrats bloviating ;the first amendment aplies to them too.What we object to is THEIR attempt to deny us OUR constitutional rights.See #99 .You won’t really give up this thread,you have to pay the rent on your dumpster home,and will return under a new moniker.Let me suggest one how about ” Cul”,just one more letter, not too taxing given your slender intellect,and very relevant to the kind of material you spew here.

Nov 5, 2009 - 4:00 pm 137. George Best:

Sometimes a simple response is enough..

“Simply Brilliant”

thanks vdh

Nov 5, 2009 - 4:01 pm 138. Saltherring:

CU @ 122:

Just ignore the trolls. Laugh at their foolishness or simply treat them as if they don’t exist. The intent of most is to distract readers/posters, derail the discussion and attack the poster, rather than the content of a specific comment. They infer or make direct accusations of racism, lack of education, cultural deficiency or they may tell a serious, informed commenter to “grow up”. What often results is an exchange of insults. Other trolls, it seems, are merely trying to gain attention by making outlandish statements and claims. In either case, I am learning it is best to just ignore their lunacy. If they fail, regardless of motive, they will go away.

And yes, oh foolish ones, you know who you are.

Nov 5, 2009 - 5:08 pm 139. DrD:

It seems the theme running through this article and the comments, without it being explicitly stated, is an attempt by a wealthy elite to destroy democracy/republicanism and recreate a feudal society. Whereas the feudal societies of old were established by force of arms and maintained by wealth married to armed force, the modern liberal plutocrats eschew the way of the warrior for it is physically hard and often very spartan. Rather than fight and risk personal injury and death, the modern would be feudal lord would rather purchase and con his way into the manor and then pervert the powers of the democratic state to lock in the status quo.
The elements essential to sustaining this feudal lord vs peasant/serf relationship are a very powerful centralized state apparatus; the suppression of economic freedom for the masses by the imposition of increasing burdens of taxation upon the “strikers” (middle class) and a quasi religious justification for the imposition and sustenance of the power/economic imbalance and weakness of the peasants i.e. environmentalism and “social justice” communicated by a caste of priests (the mainstream media). The plutocrats know that the sine qua non for the new feudalism is the suppression of individual liberty and better yet, an acceptance by the serfs of this state of serfdom as being, somehow, “natural”. Thus it is not surprising that the plutocrats would embrace modern liberalism/socialism for there is no better readily available mechanism to impose and sustain a modern feudal system.

Nov 5, 2009 - 9:36 pm 140. westerncanadian:

Trolls add a special charm to Pajamas Media. It’s a free country and PJM, bless their cotton socks, lets anyone who wants to (including foreigners like me) comment on their posts. Reading a troll post? Is there a point, or a coherent argument? If so and you feel like it, respond with a grown-up counter point or argument. If not, then ignore it.

I recommend a visit to the Kos site to compare the comments of the Kossacks in their threads with the (non troll)comments here. You will smile. The KOS comments are full of insults to commentary from their own side and they are barely literate or coherent. The language is foul. Wild statements replace reasoned points or arguments and the general atmosphere is, er, juvenile and philistinic. It’s not a good space for them to be in.

I think the trolls should be free to have their say at PJM. How boring things would be if everyone had the same take on life. I’m pleased that their opinion is different from most expressed here. In contrast, I notice that trolls are extremely miffed that their opinions are different from conservatives. Well, vive la difference!

Nov 5, 2009 - 10:45 pm 141. Tristan:

Don’t forget that for most of the 20th century members of the communist party in half of the world would say, do, or believe anything to hold on to or expand their power and influence and ideals were only the first of many casualties. Ultimately people act in their own self-interest, but those interests and incentives may not be obvious to outsiders.

I would assume that the liberal wealthy benefit in a number of ways via their expressed beliefs. They may gain access to the state resources, advance their social status, acquire some political protection, make valuable business connections, obtain inside information, gain more defenders in the community (think Al Capone’s charity work), and lastly, just believe that they are doing the right thing for society and giving back some of the fortune granted to them.

Like any belief system it will be self-supporting even in the face of negative evidence. Many people thought well into the 20th century that Communism was good for the working people, even though Lenin crippled the economy and murdered millions in just a few years and Uncle Joe went on to enslave and kill more people than Hitler, with Anita’s mentor Mao running a close second.

Nov 6, 2009 - 1:25 am 142. Lawrence Kohn:

Stalin actually was a close second to Mao in the murder department but Tristan’s point still stands. In any case, to understand Al Gore one must go to his father’s bio. Edward Jay Epstein’s book on Armand Hammer, the superrich Soviet agent of influence,. details how Al Gore senior was a Hammer supporter in Congress in Hammer’s efforts to get access to US Presidents for himself and for the Soviet Union’s desire for trade credits. Following Gore senior’s defeat he went on Hammer’s payroll and that change gave Al Gore Jr. his first economic boost and chance to mingle with the higher classes. Note also the “post” Soviet interest in Gore Jr’s endeavors through such environmentalist institutions such as the Gorbachev foundation. Ecological and environmental concerns I think are legitimate to a degree but the scare tactics reflect, I think, in part, an effort to undermine US economic power and therefore eventually its military power which remains the bulk of defense against the imperial ambitions of Russia and China and their Latin American, North Korean, and Middle Eastern (Iran, Syria, and their terrorist proxies) clients.

Nov 6, 2009 - 5:56 am 143. Danny Lemieux:

There is another factor at work as well, Dr. Hanson. A number of years a ago, a Chinese friend once hosted a delegation of Chinese officials to the U.S. He thought that they would be greatly impressed by how many Americans owned cars. Instead, they were appalled, maintaining that such as state of affairs should never be allowed to happen in China. The reason? If all Chinese owned cars, one of these officials’ most important perks (black limos) would have lost its meaning.

Wealth is closely intermingled with social status and all is relative. There are two ways for people to get “rich”: one is to gain more wealth, the other is to deprive others of their wealth, thereby protecting the preferred perch of the wealthy in society.

It must really gall these aristocrat wannabees (Gore, Pelosi, Soros, Edwards, etc.) to see people in the middle class enjoy so many aspects of lifestyles that used to be the exclusive domain of the super-wealthy. Their embrace of Leftwing “redistributionism” is really a way for them to put the rest of us riff-raff back in our place, knowing that (like Soros’ currencies), our loss is their social gain.

Nov 6, 2009 - 5:58 am 144. Banned by Huffpo:

This is one of the best summaries of what drives the leftist elite I’ve ever read.

I think they believe by virtue of their birth into wealthy families and a youth of pampered indulgence, this gives them the right to rule the lives of the lumpen proletariat.

Since they are obviously favored by God, they are destined to heights of power and leadership, and are entitled to take from others whatever they feel is necessary to maintain their royal lifestyle.

And through income redistribution, they ensure that the masses have just enough to live on to get by, yet are still miserable in their daily existence by having to endure endless waits in medical offices, food lines, government offices, etc, ad nauseam. Which is, of course, their goal (see “The Great Society” results for a perfect example.)

Of course, the rules don’t apply to them, so they are free to consume resources at a rate that would make Jabba the Hut blush.

Ignore the trolls and their fallacies of extension . . . it’s a waste of eyeball movement to read their juvenile posts.

Nov 6, 2009 - 6:44 am 145. deguello:

#140 WESTERN CANADIAN: I think you are totally right,besides,insulting them is sooo much fun!A contradicted Stalinist is an unhinged Stalinist and an unhinged Stalinist exposes his criminal psychosis in outrageously,funny ways,reinforcing our principles,and validating our hatred of them.

Nov 6, 2009 - 6:45 am 146. jimmydale:

Great insights. I need guidance if possible. I can’t stand phony ultra liberal Democrats or staunch ultra conservative Republicans or put another way, arrogant elitists. Is there another group my views could fit with?

Nov 6, 2009 - 10:01 am 147. pelaut:

#99 deguello:
You seem to understand Marx/Lenin/Stalin-ism.
Can you please use common punctuation, sentencing and paragraphing so YOU can be understood.
No one reads streaming words since the idiot professors told them Ulysses was good literature.

Nov 7, 2009 - 5:51 am 148. Marianne7:

Warren Buffet is a bit of a conundrum, but Soros is an easy call. He puts money into places he feels will tip the US dollar into thae tank, and makes billions off of shorting currency. No big puzzle there.

Nov 7, 2009 - 8:10 pm 149. The Ring… » The Dialectical Playa - Laying the smackdown on politics, art, and culture with a strong pimp hand…:

[...] link to article here [...]

Nov 8, 2009 - 8:20 pm 150. deguello:

#146 Pelaut: You seem to have done pretty well with my”streaming words”,however,sometimes I am forced into less-than perfect formats due to time constraints. Will try to do better.

Nov 9, 2009 - 7:26 pm

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