When Failure Is Success in Obamaland

For Obama’s supporters, what matters is not what he does, but what he says and represents. 

Barack ObamaLosing a job is freedom from job lock. A budget deficit larger than in any previous administration is austerity. A mean right-wing video caused the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi. Al-Qaeda was long ago washed up. The Muslim Brotherhood is secular. Jihad is a personal journey. Shooting people while screaming Allahu akbar! is workplace violence. Unaffordable higher premiums and deductibles are the result of an Affordable Care Act. Losing your doctor and your health-insurance plan prove you will never lose your doctor and your health-insurance plan — period! Being a constitutional lawyer means you know how to turn the IRS and the FCC on your enemies. Failure is success; lies are truth.

President Obama’s polls are creeping back up again. They do that every time the latest in the series of scandals — the IRS, AP, NSA, Benghazi, and Obamacare messes — recedes into the media memory hole. The once-outrageous IRS scandal was rebranded as psychodramatic journalists being outraged. The monitoring of AP reporters and of James Rosen is mostly “Stuff happens.” The NSA octopus was Bush’s creation. You can keep your doctor and your health plan — period — begat liberation from “job lock” and the ability to write poetry because you don’t have to work.

There will be more momentary outrages on the horizon, as a president who would fundamentally transform America continues to circumvent the Constitution to do it. The latest are the failed efforts of acting FCC director Mignon Clyburn — daughter of a Democratic stalwart, Representative James Clyburn. She dreamed about monitoring news outlets to ensure that they prove themselves correct in matters of race/class/gender thinking.

 Yet after all the 24-hour outrages, and all the op-eds pointing out that a self-described constitutional-law professor has been the worst adversary of the Constitution since Richard Nixon, and after perhaps even a slide in the polls of a point or two, we will soon forget Ms. Clyburn and her idiotic attempts to diversify the news by seeking uniform expression in the media.

After all, we have forgotten EPA Director Lisa Jackson — former right-hand woman to former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine — who mysteriously disappeared from the EPA after creating a fake e-mail persona, “Richard Windsor.” The latter nonexistent crusader won an award from none other than Lisa Jackson’s EPA.

And we have forgotten Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who suddenly disappeared from the Cabinet after the FBI inquired into her Obama fundraising activities as secretary, and who is currently being sued over her mysterious freebie use of a union-owned luxury jet to hop between the coasts.

And we have forgotten Lois Lerner, who focused the IRS on tea-party groups, took the Fifth Amendment, retired, and is no longer “outrageous.”

And we have forgotten former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner — of failing-to-pay-his-taxes fame — who went back through the revolving door after threatening Standard & Poor’s for downgrading the U.S. credit rating.

All these activists spoke a little too candidly about their ideology, crossed the line a bit too much in the defense of progressivism, and then receded as if they had never existed — until the next anonymous progressive hoplite in the phalanx of the hard Left steps up over the corpse into the fray and for a moment or two appears on our television screens. In response, President Obama always seems to take the attitude, What does it matter, and who cares? And so he goes along blaming either President Bush or Fox News, when not citing the conspiracy of ATM machines, earthquakes, and tsunamis that combined to thwart his populist efforts.

Who cares that fiscal discipline is now defined as raising taxes so as to borrow only $600 billion rather than borrowing $1 trillion a year for six straight years? And who cares that millions will lose their doctor, their health-care coverage, and most likely their jobs because of Obamacare?

Ditto foreign policy. Who cares that Obama issued five deadlines to Iran to cease enrichment and, when rebuffed, unilaterally dropped sanctions in favor of negotiation? Who cares that he declared a red line in Syria, and when the regime crossed it and gassed its own people, he announced that he had never issued a red line in the first place? Who cares that he issued a step-over line to President Yanukovych of Ukraine, as if anyone would not step over anything because Obama warned him not to?

Ditto also leading from behind in Libya, the flip-flopping from the radical Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood to the junta in Egypt, the reset with Putin, the friendly initiatives to the late Hugo Chávez that ignored the near collapse of Venezuela, as Latin America goes back to the late 1970s in another failed round of coerced statism.

In short, Obama will always poll around 45 percent. That core support is his lasting legacy. In a mere five years, by the vast expansion of federal spending, by the demonizing rhetoric of his partisan bully pulpit, and by executive orders and bizarre appointments, Obama has so divided the nation that he has created a permanent constituency that will never care as much about what he does as it cares about what he says and represents.

For elite rich liberals, whose money and privilege exempt them from the consequences of Obama’s policies, and their own ideology, he will always be their totem. He is iconic of their own progressivism and proof of their racial liberalism, and thus allows them to go on enjoying their privilege, without guilt and without worrying too much about how they got it or whether they might lose it.

For the vast new millions on federal disability insurance, food stamps, and other entitlements, Obama is their lifeline to government support. Who would risk losing that by worrying that the world is becoming a very dangerous place? If the IRS has to become politicized, better that it become politicized by going after right-wing tea-party types who would cut government. And if the media are to be investigated, at least the target might be Fox News, which — as the president just complained again to Bill O’Reilly on Super Bowl Sunday — is a thorn in the side of the president’s progressive agenda. And if the country is going broke, at least those who will raise taxes are preferable to those who might cut government.

In short, there can be no scandals, or even good or bad news, just what Obama represents — an exemption from normal protocols of public and media scrutiny of his actual record. And so he has established two legacies. He will probably never win back a majority of inductive Americans again, and he will rarely lose his deductive base.

— NRO contributor Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author, most recently, of The Savior Generals.

February 27, 2014 | 34 Comments »

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34 Comments / 34 Comments

  2. honeybee Said:

    I live in a male dominated world love it like shoot fish in a barrel. Men do not scare me or else Yami82 would have run off a long time ago. @ AbbaGuutuu:

    Honey bees are not afraid, so do you. They know how to scare their enemies by acting together in unity. That is the way we should act. Better to be a female honey bee than a male as a female honey bee lives longer. 🙂

  3. dove Said:

    @ AbbaGuutuu:

    I am a male but not a male chauvinist.

    That is good to know. I am not a female chauvinist.

    That is good news, dove. Do not let male chauvinists/radicals force you to change your mind.:)

  4. I respect people’s beliefs and believe I have heard some strange beliefs. Strangest of “new ager” who think they are Hopi.

  6. I live in a male dominated world love it like shoot fish in a barrel. Men do not scare me or else Yami82 would have run off a long time ago. @ AbbaGuutuu:

  8. honeybee Said:

    @ dove

    Abu guutuu wheather you agree with him/her or not, has been nothing but courteous and polite.

    Many thanks for your kind words. It is not easy to be a Jew or a Jew/Israel supporter in any part of the world. I have fought against those who hate Israel/Jews on various websites over many years. We have to stand together and fight our enemies without spending time on trivial issues that could divide us. Whatever any person may see against me, I donot take personally. I like challenges on issues. I am a male but not a male chauvinist. 🙂

  9. @ AbbaGuutuu:

    When it comes to the misuse of Christianity against the Jews mainly by Catholics, the Jews and all honest individuals should not be blamed if they show hatred against christians/christianity (when they do not have a proper info about the past and the present). However, it is better for modern and educated Jews to differentiate between those who hurt them a long time ago/currently

    I somewhat agree with part of your comment. I disagree that it was mainly catholics (both share the burden) and I disagree that it was a long time ago. It is still happening

    The point I was making was an observation that you will have strong opposition from some people….period. The reasons are obvious. Jews generally don’t go on christian websites.

    Your more than welcome to be our friend, your more than welcome to be one of our supporters. Leave it at that.

  10. dove Said:

    You have to understand that this is a Jewish website out of Israel the Jewish homeland. Having respect for Christianity is not a requirement. If you look at the history of christians and Jews certainly you should understand our distaste for christianity.

    This website to my understanding is for a discussion about politics and related stuff that may help/has a potential to endanger Israel/Jews.
    I have been on various websites to defend Israel/Jews based on my own free will without expecting any personal benefit. Nobody encouraged/forced me to do so. When it comes to the misuse of Christianity against the Jews mainly by Catholics, the Jews and all honest individuals should not be blamed if they show hatred against christians/christianity (when they do not have a proper info about the past and the present). However, it is better for modern and educated Jews to differentiate between those who hurt them a long time ago/currently by acting against the principle of Biblical Christianity out of ignorance or for their selfish benefits and those who now mobilize millions around the world to assist Israel/Jews in every way possible. Love begets love. In politics, a good strategy is to have an ability to divide/neutralize your enemies and increase the support of your friends and potential allies.

  11. @ yamit82:

    Loki II is now misbehaving. Sorry you are not well let me now the results of your chest x-ray . You need a nanny to feed correctly and see that you kept appropriate hours. You may not have bashed me but you have spanked me severly,zev . I hung up my predators paintings the wolf and the hawk. How do you say hawk in Hebrew. Didn’t your kibbutz have an outdoor shower my girlfriend recalls a time she was in the outdoor shower when she realized she was sharing the shower with a rattlesnake. called for help and her then fiancé [ now husband] came running only to stand there and ogle her. Do you have a humidifier that helps. Dust and smoke are all full. When the mesa burned I hid in my studio for days never go near bbq pit. Yes you are lovable and I always tell the truth {when it to my advantage] now go to bed and rest!!!!

  13. honeybee Said:

    @ yamit82 Dallas got wacked by a “howling blue norther” again. It is cold here too. Green chili night. How are you feeling, better I hope.

    Thanks for asking. Up’s and down in the morning I feel pretty good towards eve. like shit. Going for a chest X-Ray on Tues.

    We are experiencing 85 degree weather with desert sand storms here. Lousy for asthmatics

  14. honeybee Said:

    Y amit 82 bashes every one, even a sweet lovable honeybee, don’t take it personally. He is really quite lovable!

    I never bashed you or even Dove???

    I am loveable.

    Jews who don’t live among gentiles unlike those who do, can say freely what they like. We don’t need to be PC nor worry what some non-Jews might think or take offense from.

  15. @ yamit82 Dallas got wacked by a “howling blue norther” again. It is cold here too. Green chili night. How are you feeling, better I hope.

  17. AbbaGuutuu Said:

    Genuine Christians believe in Yahweh.

    Not really you believe in a lot more which negates such a belief.

    Isaiah 10:20 “And it shall come to pass on that day (in the days of Moshiach) that the remnant of Israel and those of the House of Jacob that escape shall no more rely upon the one that smote them.”

    This would teach the nation to rely on Him alone instead of turning for succor and support to the very nation that He used to strike them. Likewise we hope that Israel will soon be cured of the malady of placing its hopes on an ally (the USA) that constantly pursues policies which have the effect of undermining the nation’s security.

    Instead of worrying of present-day Persia will harm Israel, we should repent with all our hearts and trust in G-d (Daniel 12:1, Jeremiah 30:7-11, Zech. 12:9).

    “The frightened Jewish nation was warned by Assyria, that no other nation had stood up to an Assyrian siege. Hezekiah’s trust in God prevailed, however, and the Jewish king persuaded his people not to lose trust in the Almighty. Because of this national spiritual affirmation, God zealously saved the Jewish people from Sennacherib’s powerful army in a miraculous fashion. In one night an angel killed 185,000 soldiers, in the military camp of the Assyrians”

    Christendom is the 4th Beast in Daniel:

    “Request of Me, and I will make nations your inheritance, and the ends of the earth your possession” (Psalms 2:8, Zech. 9:9-10, Psalms 89:1-30).

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBUJztI884M

  19. AbbaGuutuu Said:

    “Edom (Christendom) is there, her kings and all her princes, who for all their might are laid with those who are killed by the sword; they lie with the uncircumcised, with those who go down to the pit.”

    Edomites were decedents of Esau. After the death of Herod the Great, Edomites disappeared from history. The religion of the Edomites was similar to that of other pagan societies who worshiped fertility gods. Genuine Christians believe in Yahweh.


    EDOM AS ROME

    The identification of Edom with Rome is never found in the literature of the Second Temple period. It appears for the first time close to the Bar Kokhba revolt (cf. Margolioth, p. 610/2). R. Meir even connects it with the verse (Isa. 21:11), “The vision of Dumah” = the vision of Dome (???? = ????, Rome, TJ, Ta’an. 1:1, 64a see ed. princ.); also “The re’emim [wild-oxen] shall come down with them” (Isa. 34:7) is read as “The Romans shall come down with them” (PdRK 7, 11, ed. Mandelbaum, p. 134). The previous verses (5–6) speak of Edom (cf. also Targ. Jon. ed. Sperber, Isa. 9, “The streams thereof shall be turned into pitch”: “The streams of Rome shall be turned into pitch”). Many scholars are of the opinion that the source of this identification lies in the connection between *Herod, a descendant of Edomite proselytes, whose evil rule over Judea left a harsh impression and the intensification of Roman rule in Judea, especially as Herod was virtually a vassal of Rome. However these conjectures cannot be accepted. Not only are substantial proofs lacking, but the identification appears only in the second quarter of the second century C.E., more than four generations after the death of Herod. It seems, therefore, that its source is to be sought elsewhere.

    In the Bible Edom is described as the eternal enemy of Israel (and Judah, Amos 1:11; Ezek. 35:5) who not only always oppressed Israel, but at the time of the destruction of the First Temple took advantage of the situation and seized control of parts of Judah (Ezek. 25:12; 35:5, 10, 2; Obad. 11–16), and it is hinted that Edom also took part in the destruction of Jerusalem (Ps. 137:7; Obad. 11) and even in that of the Temple itself (Obad. 16). In consequence, during the Second Temple period there spread a belief that it was actually the Edomites who burned the First Temple (I Esdras 4:45; Ethiopian Enoch 89:66), and also interfered with the building of the Second Temple (ibid., 72). Hence the intense enmity toward Edom which grew stronger in the course of time (Ecclus. 50:25–26), until the conquest of Edom and its conversion to Judaism in the time of John Hyrcanus – a conquest which is the background to the descriptions of the wars of Jacob and his sons with Esau and his sons in the Book of Jubilees (37–38) and in the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs (Judah 9). Edom is even compared to a black boar (I En. 89:12, 42–43, 49, 66; Jub. 37:20, 24). The intense hatred of Rome after the cruel crushing of the revolt of the Diaspora in the time of Trajan and still more after the harsh suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt and the decrees of persecution in Hadrian’s days; the fact that Rome, like Edom, had destroyed the Temple; the similarity of Edom, compared to a pig, with Rome, for whom the pig (or, more correctly, the sow) was a most important symbol; the allusions to Edom dwelling on high like an eagle and the fact that the eagle, too, was an important Roman symbol; and perhaps finally even the similarity to the name Rome and Romans in several verses that speak of Edom, Seir, and Esau – all these apparently combined to cause the application to Rome of the biblical references to Edom, the eternal enemy of Israel.

    At the end of the tannaitic period, and still more in the amoraic, the identification became very widespread, and the overwhelming majority of homilies about Edom speak explicitly of Rome. Thus it was stated that Rome was founded by the children of Esau, and Rome was identified as one of the cities of the chiefs of Esau enumerated at the end of Genesis 36 (these identifications occur not only in the Midrashim and the Talmuds but also in the Palestinian *Targums of the Torah and in the Targums to Lamentations and Esther). At a still later period the term became a synonym for Christian Rome and thence for Christianity in general, and allusions were even found to *Constantinople among the cities of Edom (and see *Caesarea).

  21. @dove Judaism is not a religion to be practiced; it is a religion that is to be lived by every thought word and deed. I shall leave anger vengeance and judgments to the Almighty’s discretion.

  22. @ dove

    Abu guutuu wheather you agree with him/her or not, has been nothing but courteous and polite.

  23. @ dove You know nothing about me, sweetie, except what I write which may or may not be the truth. Yamit82 get aggravated with every one ,its his shtick.

  24. @ honeybee:

    Speak for yourself Dove I have no dislike for Christians [per se]

    per se? I said having respect for christianity (the religion) is not a requirement. I already know how you feel. You are not a practising Jew – which is your perogative. You know full well that Yamit sometimes gets quite aggravated with christians because of the history of christians killing jews and them not having respect for Judaism just to name of couple or reasons.

  26. @ dove:

    Speak for yourself Dove I have no dislike for Christians [per se] I take people as they come. I can disagree with someone without anger.

  27. @ AbbaGuutuu:

    I do not understand why you like to bash Christians so often on this website

    You have to understand that this is a Jewish website out of Israel the Jewish homeland. Having respect for Christianity is not a requirement. If you look at the history of christians and Jews certainly you should understand our distaste for christianity.

  28. yamit82 Said:

    “Edom (Christendom) is there, her kings and all her princes, who for all their might are laid with those who are killed by the sword; they lie with the uncircumcised, with those who go down to the pit.”

    Edomites were decedents of Esau. After the death of Herod the Great, Edomites disappeared from history. The religion of the Edomites was similar to that of other pagan societies who worshiped fertility gods. Genuine Christians believe in Yahweh.
    In the Bible, “Seir” (Joshua 24:4), “Bozrah” (Isaiah 63:1) and “Sela” (2 Kings 14:7) are references to Edom’s land and capital. Sela is better known today as Petra.
    I like what you do as a Jew activist. I do not understand why you like to bash Christians so often on this website.
    Please check your facts before posting. Christians are not from/like Edomites. There are many Christians (from Jews and gentiles) within and outside of Israel, who love Israel and Jews like you if not more.
    Please do not bash enemies and friends alike.

  30. AbbaGuutuu Said:

    Nothing is absolute, according to progressives/liberals. Based on moral relativism, good is ‘bad’ and bad is ‘good’. Esaias 5:20 says, “Woe to those who say good is bad and bad is good.”

    It is sad to find a wonderful country (USA) in its current situation. I hope the voters might have learned from their past mistakes in voting individuals with almost no experience to the highest office of the land.

    Why is the King of Tyre a covering cherib?

    “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within, and you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones.” “Ezekiel 28:14-16”

    “Edom (Christendom) is there, her kings and all her princes, who for all their might are laid with those who are killed by the sword; they lie with the uncircumcised, with those who go down to the pit.”

    America and Tyre is discussed from the 18:30 min mark below.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf8AKSnyljY

  31. rfelsted Said:

    “Being a constitutional lawyer means you know how to turn the IRS and the FCC on your enemies. Failure is success; lies are truth.”

    Nothing is absolute, according to progressives/liberals. Based on moral relativism, good is ‘bad’ and bad is ‘good’. Esaias 5:20 says, “Woe to those who say good is bad and bad is good.”

    It is sad to find a wonderful country (USA) in its current situation. I hope the voters might have learned from their past mistakes in voting individuals with almost no experience to the highest office of the land.

  33. It’s not so much about what he says, since some of what he says has been captured on video as convoluted verbiage. It’s more about what he represents.

  34. “Being a constitutional lawyer means you know how to turn the IRS and the FCC on your enemies. Failure is success; lies are truth.”

    I don’t know whose problems are worse, or whose future is bleaker–America’s or Israel’s.