Category Archives: Political Commentary

Political Commentary

“New Deal Narcissism”

5 Comments

Amity Shlaes, on Barack Obama:

The New Deal exists principally on an emotional plane for Obama. To him the New Deal is something you play like a song, to make you or your constituents feel better. Let me be clear: It’s too early to judge Obama on economics. But he does seem unaware of the economic consequences of government expansion that happens under the New Deal name.

Politicians generally act as if there is no cost to reconnecting with voters by building new New Deals. But the whole exercise of writing law out of New Deal nostalgia is a form of national narcissism. Call it New Deal narcissism.

We could afford to burnish our social contracts if there were no competition from abroad. But there is.

Which is one reason why the so-called progressives hate globalization. And ironically, one of the primary reasons for the Great Depression, and certainly for its length and depth, was economic isolationism in the form of Smoot-Hawley. The New Deal was a flawed, fascist attempt to make up for our economic disengagement from the world. The war ended the depression. Unfortunately, much of the New Deal, and the mentality that led to it, remains in place. Obama is simply the latest Great Man, a man of Change, and Action, to want to preserve and expand it.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Resume Padding?

2 Comments

In Obama’s campaign ad:

Even under the most generous reading imaginable could any of that count as passing legislation that extended health care for wounded troops? The Chicago Tribune noted the problem on its blog last week but defended Obama by pointing out that John McCain didn’t vote for the bill either. That would be an interesting piece of information if John McCain had cited this bill as among his chief legislative accomplishments.

The Obama team’s desire to pad the resume is understandable — it’s awfully slim after all. But this kind of dishonesty will catch up with them…or at least it should.

Yes, it should, but maybe it won’t. Bill Clinton’s supporters didn’t seem to mind that he was an inveterate liar. But Obama’s supporters (which includes much of the media) not only don’t mind, but actually hope he is.

[Afternoon update]

Is he finally losing his teflon?

Political Commentary, War Commentary

Hate Crime

2 Comments

I’m sure that Ian McEwan will be arrested presently:

‘As soon as a writer expresses an opinion against Islamism, immediately someone on the left leaps to his feet and claims that because the majority of Muslims are dark-skinned, he who criticises it is racist.

“This is logically absurd and morally unacceptable. Martin is not a racist.

‘And I myself despise Islamism, because it wants to create a society that I detest, based on religious belief, on a text, on lack of freedom for women, intolerance towards homosexuality and so on – we know it well.

It will be interesting to see if the authorities come after him for this bit of politically incorrect truth telling. He’s lucky he doesn’t live in the police state of Canada.

Speaking of which, Professor Reynolds has a pithy comment:

When the stormtroopers wear clown shoes instead of jackboots, it’s easy to forget that they’re still stormtroopers.

And so far, the circus up there continues.

History, Political Commentary

Not Ready For Prime Time

2 Comments

More historical ignorance from Senator Obama:

Obama’s unfavorable comparison of the legal treatment at Gitmo with that at Nuremberg suggests either that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about – or that he feels free to exploit the ignorance of audiences that don’t know the truth of the matter.

Hey, it’s all about fooling the rubes. The sad thing is that the press never questions him on this kind of thing.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Media-Induced Malaise

Lileks has more thoughts on the subject:

It is amusing, really – after sticking people’s heads in the muck every day for years, promoting every faddish scare, fluffing the pillow beneath every yuppie worry, swapping the straight-forward adult approach to news with presenters who emote the copy with the sad face of a day-care worker telling the children that Barney is dead – in short, after decades of presenting the world through the peculiar prism that finds in every day more evidence of our rot and our failures, they wonder why people are depressed. Hang the banner, guys: Mission Accomplished.

Of course, not everyone feels this way; I’d guess that people who watch television news are more inclined to pessimism. But there’s another side to this: the pessimism among some may not stem from some impotent feeling that one is a cork toss’d in a sea of cruel destiny, that you can’t do anything, that nothing will get better – no, the pessimism may arise from the suspicion that there’s something abroad in the land that’s had a good hardy larf about “Horatio Alger” and all the other manifestations of individual initiative for 30 years. The cool kids and the clever set have always smirked at that sort of stuff. You can get them going if you make a speech about our ability to solve things, but you’d better phrase it in the form of a government initiative, or brows furrow: well, then, how do you propose to do it?

Political Commentary

Why Wait For The Election?

Mickey Kaus:

If you wanted to emphasize to voters that the Democrats’ nominee is a bit stuck up, it would be hard to do better. I suppose he could start requiring reporters to stand when he enters the room. … The seal probably started out as a bit of fun. But unless David Axelrod is insane, the thing will never be seen again.

Let us ponder the possibility that Axelrod is insane. After all, he let this thing happen in the first place…

Anyway, the next step to me would be to have a band strike up “Hail the Messiah” (only a slight variation on “Hail to the Chief”) and project a holographic halo over his head whenever he enters the room.

Political Commentary

Post Election Selection Trauma

3 Comments

I’m with “Demosophist“:

Obama is formidable, ruthless, smart, charming and probably unbeatable. I see a landslide brewing. If it happens, we will see a first 100 days comparable only to Reagan’s, when the country made a 180 degree turn.

I just want to make clear that I don’t think the US taxpayer should be liable for the massive psychotherapy costs should things not work out this way.

Hey, as that compassionate “conservative” George W. Bush once said, when someone is hurting, the government’s gotta move!

More seriously, on the general theme of the post, I think that AL has far too much faith in Obama.

[Evening update]

For those who don’t understand the reference of the post title, here it is, from three and a half years ago. I remember it well, because south Palm Beach County seemed to be one of the epicenters of the phenomenon.

Political Commentary

The Chicago Way

…with handguns:

Politicians are not violent by disposition. They live in some of the safest neighborhoods, with wrought iron fences, automatic garage doors, cameras on light poles and armed police bodyguards.

Meanwhile, the taxpayers, who live without bodyguards, are told that if they want to protect themselves with a handgun just like the politicians, they themselves will be criminalized.

It is all about power in the end.

The founding fathers understood this, and crafted the Constitution accordingly. They understood Chicago before it was.

Hey, gun laws are for the little people.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

Being All Judgmental

10 Comments

That’s what Rachel Lucas is doing. Well, someone has to do it, since society at large seems to have abdicated its role.

Like her, I was struck by the stupidity of this, reported apparently completely unironically, as though it made, you know, sense:

The Gloucester baby boom is forcing this city of 30,000 to grapple with the question of providing easier access to birth control…

Well, hey folks. It’s hard to see what that would do for this particular little baby boomlet.

There may be some problems that are solved by easier access to birth control, but brainless young women going out of their way to get knocked up isn’t one of them. I think, for that, there will have to be some other solution (unless by “easier access,” they mean tubal ligation).