This is the way it’s done: Noam Scheiber on the IRS scandal
You know, I feel I need to thank the left for one thing. For much of my life, I’ve studied history but wondered how it was that certain things happened. How could people be so stupid, so gullible, so shortsighted, so (fill in the blanks) to believe in or support or make excuses for or ignore all the various forms of tyranny that have taken over in the 20th century?
How could they not see what was coming? How could they collude in the takeover, or at least not fight it with all their might? How, in particular, did so many of the leaders and the intelligentsia, who supposedly should have known better, and the man in the street who should have had more common sense, collude in their own downfall?
Well, I wonder no more. Whether or not our own left has actually gone the way of Nazis or the Gulag, whether they haven’t yet but give them time and they will, or whether they’ll never get that far but merely go the European socialism route, it’s no mystery how it happens.
It’s actually been evident for quite some time. But lately it’s become even more clear, as the left deals with the latest scandals in the most creative of ways, working all possible variations on the themes of illogic, distortion, obfuscation, projection, omission of important facts in order to make a point, and outright lies (I’m sure I’ve left out a few, but those will do). And then it’s brought home even more clearly by reading commenters on the left, and watching how they jump on board.
Case in point: Noam Scheiber’s article about the IRS scandal that just appeared in The New Republic. Noam’s theory, in a nutshell, is that the IRS overreach was the fault of the Republicans for cutting resources to government agencies, and the poor beleaguered IRS agents were just overwhelmed.
But Scheiber is not unique in coming up with that little act of jujitsu (which, by the way, reminds me of nothing so much as how my older brother used to tease me in time-honored fashion by grabbing my hand, jabbing it against my face, and asking, “What are you hitting yourself for?”). Other writers on left have said much the same. No, Scheiber’s most creative riff was that this was a form of purposeful entrapment on the part of the right:
And yet, when you take a step back from the IRS scandal, there does appear to be something slightly sinister going on. Except that the scheming is on the right and not the left. Since the Republican House takeover in 2010, conservatives have laid the groundwork for a cynical two-step: First, squeeze funding for government programs, making it harder for civil servants to do their jobs. Then, when the inevitable screw-up comes, use it as further justification for cuts. Against this backdrop, the IRS scandal looks like only the latest step in the conservative long-game.
Wow! Would that the conservatives even had a long-game.
Scheiber’s article should be laughable Onion-style stuff. Except that it’s not.
When you’re in the eye of the storm you lose all perspective, aided by a weird politically fueled confirmation bias. That’s being charitable.
Denial is not just a river in Egypt.
Yes,yes,yes!I also wondered the same thing too.How could “they”let it happen.I also started figuring it out in 2008.The cult of personality was/is just chilling.
Ann Coulter’s 2011 book “Demonic” makes a convincing case that liberal politics – indeed, all strictly democratic movements – act like a mob. Rationality is surrendered to the mob’s aims. We may not know why it happens, but throughout the history of humanity the effect is clear to see, once you look. Our tribal politics is a perfect example, and the left circling the wagons to defend the indefensible is only a tiny bit of it.
Oh, no, Bre’er Fox, don’t throw me in the briar patch!
Hint: the Republicans aren’t that smart. They’re not even in the same area code of that sort of smart.
IMO, Schrieber and his ilk have not lost perspective nor are they in denial. They KNOW what happened. This is damage control.
Apologists simply value the left’s agenda over any other consideration. They are seditious traitors, not because they wish to fundamentally transform America but because they are willing to use any means necessary to accomplish that end.
Criminality is meaningless to them because morality is defined as whatever from moment to moment is in support of the advancement of the left’s agenda. When the very concept of objective truth is rejected, moral concepts like hypocrisy, integrity and consistency are meaningless.
I think James Taranto has a good take on why the left is so unprincipled these days:
“Territorial animals fiercely defend their turf: “When a territory holder is challenged by a rival, the owner almost always wins the contest–usually within a matter of seconds,” observes biologist John Alcock in “Animal Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach.” We’d say the same instinct is at work when the great apes who call themselves Homo sapiens defend their authority. When it is challenged, they can become vicious, prone to risky and unscrupulous behavior.
That, it seems to us, is the central story of our time. The left-liberal elite that attained cultural dominance between the 1960s and the 1980s–and that since 2008 has seen itself as being on the cusp of political dominance as well–is undergoing a crisis of authority, and its defenses are increasingly ferocious and unprincipled. Journalists lie or ignore important but politically uncongenial stories. Scientists suppress alternative hypotheses. Political organizations bully apolitical charities. The Internal Revenue Service persecutes dissenters. And campus censorship goes on still.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324216004578479410300334682.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion
Like rugs, they lie. Unlike rugs, they make up their lies. Unlike rugs, they have megaphones, microphones, TV and “news”papers.
The Big Lie lives! It walks! It runs! And it’s coming for YOU!!!!!
To war my friends, to war.
Oh, hello, Matt’s drycleaner’s, yeah, I’ll be right there in one day to pick up my clothes!
Thanks!
More than defend, counter-attack – lemons into lemonade and eggs into omelets.
In a parody of Churchill’s comments with respect to the Battle of Britain, I might offer these less than memorable words: “Never in the annals of human misery has so much angst been created by such piddling budget cuts.”
If only Hitler had been give more time and money, you know?
The Left is truly fortunate to have such a perceptive, ingenious individual as Mr Scheiber on their side. With the likes of him on the watch, no insidiously diabolical Republican plot can go undetected.
And clearly this was an extremely subtle and intricate plan: After forcing some miniscule cuts in the IRS budget, the Republicans somehow engineered the “inevitable screw-ups” so that a) mostly conservative groups would be harmed, and thus b) King Barack’s administration would wind up as patsies, having to take the blame. Ha!
One cannot help but admire such a wiley, cunning scheme. But Scheiber is far too astute to be taken in by this kind of crafty and devious strategem.
So, the budget cuts, which did not exist, not even this year, which only saw decreases in the RATE OF INCREASE, caused the IRS to audit political opponents and deny or delay tax exempt status to Rightward leaning non-profits in 2010, when the Demagogue party still controlled all of Congress and the budget?
Further, with LESS money, they somehow found the resources to pick out the application of Right leaning groups? Only a Useful Idiot would believe that.
Yes, the Republicans are truly amazing. I bet even Albert Einstein would have lots of questions for them about how they managed to retake the House in late 2010 then retroactively cause the IRS all those problems in early 2010. It has to have something to do with the theory of General Relativity.
Officer, I’m manager here, and I think you need a search warrant because those dead bodies with cash flying all around them, well, that could happen anywhere.
Tea Party? Tea Party? Shuuuut.
Wool jus cus days has it in der applercaishun doan make it so? Slamm mer cer bor cucca baf.
Recorded laughter in the “MFS” (Made For Us) bar in Washington Circle, Washington
Sqaure, Washington, D.C., USA.
Advice from McCain:
Just stay here and don’t jump to any conclusions.
McCain’s heroic response:
You haven’t heard me scream yet.
Michael Adams: “Only a Useful Idiot would believe that.”
I like your retort and would like to see it pushed in the MSM, but will we see it from them, even from Fox News?
Scheiber is doing his job as a propagandist. If it works, it works. And worse stuff than that on the truth/BS axis has worked very profitably for them since 9/11. More, they know they won’t be penalized if it doesn’t work.
The game is the game.
They won’t be penalized!
Not at least how we would. If they are punished it is because they didn’t succeed, not because they were caught.
Time to start the same game: blame and name.
Oh wait, we’re human.
Neo
Noam’s theory, in a nutshell, is that the IRS overreach was the fault of the Republicans for cutting resources to government agencies, and the poor beleaguered IRS agents were just overwhelmed.
The IRS shut-down of granting 501 c 4 exemptions to Tea Party-like organizations began in March 2010, at a time when the Democrats had control of both chambers of Congress.
Were they OVERWHELMED in 2010?The WaPo points out that there was no surge in 501(c)(4) applications in 2010.
The decision to target Tea Party affiliated groups began in March 2010, when neither was there a surge in applications nor were Republicans in control of Congress.
My contempt for Democrats grows and grows. My decision to stop supporting Democrat Party candidates looks better and better.
Sometimes in Civilization, the arguments are over what variation of this sound and good civilization we shall have. This is the concept of politics and loyal oppositions.
Sometimes in Civilization is is either us or them and not both. This is one of those times. It is “us or them and not both”. That is certainly the worst thing said about America since the last time it was “us or them and not both”. We know what happened then and how freedom won.
I always thought victory for the good and decent, victory for America, was inevitable. I now realize it is not and that the odds are against us.
Hey you see that witch? Let’s kill her.
What. Are you crazy?
I mean tea party?
yeah?
yeah.
Okay.
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/oleg-atbashian/inside-every-liberal-is-a-totalitarian-screaming-to-get-out-2-1/
Only in accepting hate can one ever comprehend the Left, or one’s own duty.
The first step is the soul or spinal instinct. When people feel in their gut and spine that the Left is…. somehow unnatural or wrong. The second step is to love the beautiful and good, while hating the evil and ugly. The third step is to use one’s brain to connect truth to truth, and figure out what is beautiful vs what is not, what is good vs what is not.
In that simple yet horribly difficult process, humans align either to the Light of Creation or the Darkness of Chaos.
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The first step is to feel the instinctual power of the spinal bifada of the power porcupine who eats at the bottom of the tree.
Shit.
Give me a break.
Does it take any more than a non moron to understand basic survivial? To reject nonsense?
One step. Two step. Three step.
Are you kidding me?
If you need that many steps, you’re an idiot.
Hi.
Yeah, hi.
I’m a Muslim.
I’ll be hacking you to death pretty soon.
What’s that. Oh yeah, I’ll take extra sauce.
“which, by the way, reminds me of nothing so much as how my older brother used to tease me in time-honored fashion by grabbing my hand, jabbing it against my face, and asking, “What are you hitting yourself for?”
Yes, that is very juvenile. And maybe that’s what the real problem is? Many on the left are still trapped in a juvenile mind set.
And not so very different from wife-beaters who claimed “she made me do it!” So, those damn tea baggers made the Republicans cut the budget so the IRS had no choice but to go after them! See!? juvenile logic still works.
sharpie Says:
May 25th, 2013 at 10:02 pm
If you’re saying that about either Ymarsakar or Oleg Atbashian, you need to dial it down a notch.
You’re increasingly starting to sound like a troll.
sharpie,
The bar for success is low.
Even if he doesn’t succeed in turning it around on the Republicans, if he can just muddle the issues enough for the public so that the controversy neither causes any lasting political harm to the Dems and gives the GOP any lasting political benefit, that’s good enough for damage control.
*nor gives the GOP
The “Republican budget cuts caused this” meme is also prevalent in the Benghazi debacle. It was the evil Republicans who wouldn’t provide adequate money for embassy security, you know….
On the one hand, Republicans are the party of dumb; on the other, masterminds of an ingenious plot that Schreiber describes. Really? IF you recall they vacillated about George W. Bush in the same way: he was the village idiot; he was the genius behind 9/11.
Is he saying that the IRS was so overworked and understaffed that they made MORE work for themselves by expanding and intensifying their investigations of dozens if not hundreds of truly insignificant political organizations? Then they are more stupid that we could have ever dreamed.
That’s all they got: EVIL REPUBLICAN BUDGET CUTS caused everything from Benghazi to the IRS. I’m waiting to see how they blame budget cuts for the DOJ spying on reporters.
Evil Republicans are their enemy. They are the source of all the world’s ill. Which is why they have been motivated so strongly to never, ever, listen to those people. They are the enemy.
Meanwhile, those supposedly on our side were talking about bipartisan deals, giving Democrats what they want, and compromising with the Left. That sounds strategically viable all right. How many Diversity Based Ft. Hoods do we need again for compromise?
I’ve just been rereading Shirer’s Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and remembering the great patience with which the Fuehrer endured the endless provocations of the Poles, the Czechs and the Jews. I don’t know how these Democrats manage to tolerate Republicans, who when the get elected, seem to do pretty much what the Democrats do.
The Democrats have more control over Republicans than the Left has over Jews and the IRS.
An important premise of the spin on the IRS scandal(s) is going without note or challenge, even by those on our side. It goes like this: “There was no political animus behind the fact that an over-representative sample of conservative groups was subjected to extra scrutiny and delay. This is because the IRS was under pressure and therefore just using an arguably-defensible short-cut.”
The discussion then centers around whether there was actually a need for the short-cut—was there truly a flood of applications/shortage of agents/funding shortfall?
The underlying premise is just skipped right over; that is: that groups who identify themselves as Tea Party (and the assorted variations of conservative groups just get lumped in along with the Tea Party as another unspoken assumption) are MORE LIKELY TO BE TAX CHEATS. So of course if you have to use some profiling shortcuts, you are going to look at groups who can be logically assumed to be more prone to cheating and to the filing of fraudulent documents.
How do you go from identifying a group as being for limited government/the Constitution/lessening the tax burden/rights of the unborn/patriotism et al, to an ipso-facto assertion that of COURSE these types of groups are riddled with criminal fraud?? To the extent that one might resort to profiling and stereotype, those who identify as Tea Party and Conservative and Patriot are likely to be MORE law-abiding than not.
This post is just a comment on a (fantastic) blog, but it’s my little push-back at this calumny.
In ordinary times, a president in Obama’s position would, if dumping Holder, appoint an apolitical, hard-charging replacement, probably a careerist.
Obama does not see the need, nor does he see any mechanism forcing him to appoint an honest man.
Richard Aubrey:
Unless I missed something, Obama has not even criticized him, much less asked for his resignation. He praised him and expressed solidarity with him, even after this broke.
As I said way way back, Holder is his proxy, his alter ego. I see no evidence this has changed. He trusts Holder to do his bidding about as much as he trusts anyone. Holder is second only to Jarrett in his estimation, IMHO. I suppose it’s possible he might someday dump him, but I sure don’t see it happening so far. Holder does his bidding; doesn’t even need to hear his bidding because Holder knows his bidding. And Holder can be trusted to take the fall and be loyal, even afterward. At least, that’s my hunch about it.
neo.
Obama is different, different from our worst presidents, some of whom may have actually wanted the best for the country along with whatever corruption or incompetence they brought with them.
If, and I say if, Holder goes, the usual American president would feel impelled to appoint a straight arrow.
Obama isn’t going to dump Holder absent considerably more pressure. My point is that, if Holder goes, Obama will appoint somebody equally partisan and corrupt, knowing that we know it and knowing there isn’t anything we can do about it.
” Noam’s theory, in a nutshell, is that the IRS overreach was the fault of the Republicans for cutting resources to government agencies, and the poor beleaguered IRS agents were just overwhelmed.”
So because they were understaffed and overworked they created more work for themselves through endless inquiries to conservative groups? You’re right, this is Onion material.
Richard Aubrey: I certainly don’t disagree with you. I’ve written a lot of pieces on the criteria Obama uses for making appointments, and they’re certainly not the usual ones.
But I was just making the point that I actually don’t think he’ll nudge Holder out, unless Holder were found with a literal smoking gun, standing over a dead body.
Maybe not even then.