A good question
From Victor Davis Hanson, on how the precedents Obama has set could result in a changed America even after he leaves office:
So we are living in scary times. The nation has grown used to the idea that what the president says is probably either untrue or irrelevant ”” and yet it does not really any more care which.
The people also assume that it doesn’t matter if our pundits talk of the person in the White House as a “messiah” who prompts tingling legs, or if they take notice of perfect pant-leg creases, or, of course, if they declare that he is the smartest president ever.
The result, in the Age of Obama, is a deeply rooted cynicism that works out something like the following: The president of the United States is now an iconic figure and thus cannot be held to the minimal standards of veracity demanded of other Americans. The press is an advocate of his agenda and picks and chooses which scandals can be half-heartedly pursued without endangering their shared vision.
How could the media possibly repair its sullied reputation without appearing abjectly hypocritical or artificially zealous? How can the next president resist assuming the extra-constitutional prerogatives of the current one?
I’m not so sure that people have become quite as blasé as all that. Also, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if distrust of a president leads to less willingness in the future to turn power over to the central government. But what Hanson is saying is that the combination of this distrust, an acceptance of it, a president willing to abuse his power by extending it in extra-constitutional ways, and a press inclined to give him a pass on his abuses, bodes very ill for the republic.
I would like to reassure him on one score, though: if a Republican is elected president, we’ll see the press immediately snap back to its traditional role as critic and gadfly, and this will help shape many people’s perceptions of that president even though some may see it as a hypocritical double standard on the part of the press. It’s only with a Democrat (such as, for example, Hillary, who would also be the first woman president) that they’ll continue to go all woozy, although I don’t know if we’ll ever again see the extreme degree of worship they extended to Obama. For starters, there can be no second first African-American president. What’s more, Obama cast a spell over them in some additional ways—the power and basis for which I don’t completely understand although I’ve theorized and studied and written about them for six years—that even Democratic successors may have difficulty duplicating.
So the campaign slogan for the next Republican candidate for president could be: “Vote for me, and help the press start doing its job again!”
Aaahhhhhhhh, yes, Neo, the MSM-Twits & Microbe Minds will thoughtfully be our consciences once AGAIN if the WH occupant is a Republican–No matter the gender or the color.
I just wish our side would get real, REAL Dirty in fighting back. Ya know, like minimal PC-crap and maximal viciousness and (Gasp) Truth Telling.
So the campaign slogan for the next Republican candidate for president could be: “Vote for me, and help the press start doing its job again!”
😉 That is hilarious!
I too think VDH is being a bit too pessimistic, at least I hope so…… Obamacare is a gift IF a majority of the repubs really wish to shift away from big government lead by the imperial presidency that has been growing like a cancer over the last 100 years. (I see Wilson as the starting point in the ascendancy of big nanny with a gun.)
Speaking about cancers, just before Christmas my daughter reached the first (2 year) milestone and crosses the finish line cancer free. That was the entire family’s real gift of the season.
“For starters, there can be no second first African-American president. What’s more, Obama cast a spell over them in some additional ways…”
Right, but there can be–and sooner or later will be–a first second African-American president. And I’ll bet the farm they’ll go “all woozy” and prostrate themselves in worship, though perhaps not quite to the degree that they’ve done with King Barack, who I agree, has something else going for him (perhaps his good looks, cool Ivy-League demeanor combined with a fine, high-tech PR machine) that helps him “cast a spell” of the MSM.
The first “progressive” woman president (God help us, not Ms Clinton) will get similarly sycophantic coverage from the MSM.
Parker:
Congratulations on your daughter’s good news!
Thank you neo, its a huge weight lifted from all of our shoulders.
The chemo drug that targeted her specific cancer was developed only a few years before her diagnosis. The highly innovative American medical research and development industry that has been so effective in her treatment is threatened by the burdens imposed by Obamacare. May a biblical swarm of plague infested fleas suck their blood ceaselessly.
After 0bama = Reconstruction II.
My gut tells me we’re in for a generational rebuilding process.
It must not be trivialized.
“So the campaign slogan for the next Republican candidate for president could be: “Vote for me, and help the press start doing its job again!”” neo
If only. Assuming there is a next Republican President (ever) the press will not start doing its job of objective oversight but will, once again go into ‘mad dog’ attack and defame mode. Literally inventing negative stories. Remember Dan Rather?
About Obama casting a spell — I really don’t see a lot of difference between the Obama-love felt by many of his admirers, promoters, and defenders as being all that different from that felt by those who swoon over some of the more-swoonable movie stars.
I remember watching many years ago a Johnny Carson interview with Suzanne Pleshette on the Tonight Show, in which she related once meeting Sean Connery at a party. She said she’d gone weak in the knees and couldn’t even speak. And that was in a woman who worked in the business and was around glamour all the time and was also known as a pretty tough cookie.
That kind of charisma/magic is rare and powerful. Isn’t that why the Democrats dumped Hillary and rushed to Obama in 2008? If we’re lucky, they won’t find anyone with a comparable “gift” for a very long time.
Unfortunately, I think that the results so far indicate that much of the public is just tuned out from and has no real recognition of or clue about the radical changes that have taken place in the social and political fabric of our nation, especially culminating under Obama & Co., and just how dangerous they are (thanks John Dewey, Antonio Gramsci, Billy Ayers, teachers unions, and the Department of Education).
If any great numbers are aware, apparently they just don’t care, or Washington would right now be full of angry, protesting citizens, trying to get their country back.
They’re preoccupied either with just making a living and/or with a lot of time wasting crap* (whoever said that “idle hands (in the sense of doing things that do not produce anything of value, beauty, or utility, or truly educate or enlighten us) are the devil’s workshop” really knew that they were talking about.
So, as I see it, there will be no new “Great (Political) Awakening” from that quarter.
– Reading through a lot of prior U.S. history for background to help in my genealogical research, I have become extremely impressed by and in awe of the tireless, hard and exhausting work, the daily, usually 6 or 7 days a week, dawn to long past dusk industry of our ancestors–just the one process, from flax plant to colored fabric alone, involving perhaps a dozen distinct, careful, complicated, labor intensive steps that had to be spread out over a period of several weeks.
So, along comes a whole army of mechanical devices and improved techniques that lift the burden of all those countless hours of hard, exhausting, often dangerous, and complex, meticulous toil from the backs of our people, and what do they do?
Apparently a large number of them, perhaps even close to a majority of them, take that time and now devote it to mostly sitting in front of the tube or computer, watching sports and drinking beer, working on their video game skills, hitting the bars, vacationing, etc., etc., but not to becoming informed about and paying close attention to the vital citizen’s business of keeping our country functional and free.
I don’t personally see this as any different than the idolization of media stars. Young girls swooned over Frank Sinatra and the Beatles. If anyone here was invited to a White House state dinner how many of us would actually or easily decline despite our disagreements with any administration? I also suggest that this is no different than the uncritical attention that has been shown to saints and conquerors. The term “hagiographic” has been justifiably used to describe the media adulation of this administration and I offer that it is an outgrowth of the human condition. Don’t forget, they named the show “American Idol“!
“Vote for me, and help the press start doing its job again!” As a gentle reminder, last year I suggested precisely this as a bumper sticker for the 2012 election.
I know the answer. It’s called a new sensitivity to basic morality and a culture wide revulsion at and condemnation of the likes of Obama, Reid, Pelosi and all democrat voters and politicians.
There once was a Boss Tweed who acted as if he was king of the world, and a corrupt press and bureaucracy and entire p9litical system,.
They are now reviled in history books.
The same must happen to Obama and all Democrat voters, wjho must be held in the same esteem as all former Nazi voters. The two types are the same animal, slightly different breed is all.
” and what do they do?”
Teach your children and grandchildren (and yourself if neccessary) to garden, to preserve, to hunt, to fish, and to become more self-reliant in general. One day there may come a time when what are considered to be arcane skill sets will mean the difference between eating well or nibbling on the crumbs of moldy government bread.
Obama is immune from criticism because he is the historic first black president. Add in the fact that he is a liberal Ivy Leaguer and he can do whatever he wants.
It would be racist to complain.
It will be nearly the same thing with HRC as the historic first woman President. To say anything critical would be anti-woman and disrespectful.
The spell? It’s just basic mind control methods.
Parker, I’m so glad to hear your good news. Happy New Year to you and your family!
Parker…WONDERFUL!! Bless your heart and your daughter’s health.
I think most people are rationally ignorant of politics because they don’t see it as affecting them.
That will all change when the employer mandate kicks in. As I’ve said before, come January 1, 2015 it may be that there is literally nobody in the US that either hasn’t had their insurance cancelled or knows someone that has.
People will be violently jerked out of their comfort zones…and people don’t like that.
“People will be violently jerked out of their comfort zones…and people don’t like that.”
This is a good thing. Pain is feedback, feedback that 90% of the time big government does far more harm than good when it is allowed to intervene in our daily lives. The ever shrinking middle class is going to discover they are not one of the messiah’s protected and pampered subjects. Pain is a good thing.
BTW, a big thank to several of you for warm words about our daughter. I’m sure there are many of you who have been through the emotional turmoil of a loved one fighting to defeat the big C. When she was diagnosed I told her that it was not acceptable for a child of mine to die before me and I expected her, a long with her brothers, to scatter my ashes to the wind several decades in the future. That brought a big smile to her face back when her survival was in doubt. With the wonderful assistance of advanced medical care and her own strong spirit, she’s on her way to a long and fulfilling life. Long may we all run until our time has run out.
Parker,
A survivor myself I, too, am pleased for your daughter and happy for you and your family.
“That brought a big smile to her face back when her survival was in doubt.” A great story! For her that will be a memory which bonds her to you beyond time. And as I’m sure you know, her strong (indomitable) spirit is every bit as important as the medical care she received.
Ann Says:
December 26th, 2013 at 5:25 pm
Off topic, but that’s exactly what happened to me when I met Natalie Merchant around 1992 or so, after a concert. I was all set be real cool and say, “Hi, Natalie, nice to meet you. I really like your music.”
That went right out the window the moment our eyes met.
She had the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen. I felt like I had been punched in the solar plexus. I believe I literally recoiled. I’m pretty sure I came across as a gibbering idiot.
Analysis? Revisit the now still blog of drsanity.
“[W]hat Hanson is saying is that the combination of this distrust, an acceptance of it, a president willing to abuse his power by extending it in extra-constitutional ways, and a press inclined to give him a pass on his abuses, bodes very ill for the republic.”
Indeed it does.
But for every Roman problem there is a also a Roman solution.
The Pax Romano and the Pax America are not so different after all. We both have had insane emperors leading us to ruin.
Don’t members of the press at least have silent moments when they consider the oddity of themselves being so at odds with a true cross section of America?
I mean, just the shear odds of that happening without the likelihood of some level of indoctrination occurring during their time spent in “higher” education is virtually nil.
Parker – congrats! May she continue in good health.
This is one of my biggest fears of Obamacare. While there are many parts of the American healthcare system that need to be changed; I do believe that it is not “broken.”
The research that goes into new drugs amd new treatments is working great. Your daughter’s course of treatment shows that.
Obamacare, in the long run, could change the way companies do their research. And, as a result, we could end up with less new drugs and treatments being found.
I say in the long run because it can take anywhere from 7 to 20 years for a pharmaceutical company to develop a new drug. That’s a lot of time and, of course, money, that goes into developing a new drug. With Obamacare regulating healthcare in terms of what healthcare providers will be reimbursed the profit motive might go away. Will we be left with only government grants as the way for new drugs to be discovered? That idea just sends a shiver down my spine.
I suspect that we don’t hear much from the news media about these “long term effects” of Obamacare because the news media doesn’t want to dis Obama and because the news media really doesn’t know how the pharmaceutical industry works – all they seem to do is call Big Parma “greedy.”
From the story: ” For starters, there can be no second first African-American president.
I’m sure the graphics are already prepared and the text written for the inevitable “Hillary is the first black woman president” puff pieces. See: Bill Clinton as the first black president and Barack Obama as the first gay president memes.
I thought Bill Clinton was “the first Black president”.
What’s more, Obama cast a spell over them in some additional ways–the power and basis for which I don’t completely understand although I’ve theorized and studied and written about them for six years–that even Democratic successors may have difficulty duplicating.
No, he didn’t cast a spell on them. The mesmerized press are simply a collection of fantasizing, gullible idiots.
“How could the media possibly repair its sullied reputation …”
.
It’s not possible. Because of the last five years, I will never, ever allow NBC/ABC/CBS/CNN in my household.
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The Roman Empire continued its downhill slide after leaders like ours.
Son comes home from college. He stands in front of his dad, shoulders stooped, looking at the floor, scared and ashamed. “Dad”, he says, “I have something to tell you.” The dad takes a deep breath and thinks “Oh, no, here it comes: my worst nightmare.” The son pauses, then presses on: “Dad, I’m gay.” The Dad lets out a sigh of relief. “Oh thank god! For a moment I thought you were going to say that you became a member of the WH Press Corps!”
What’s more, Obama cast a spell over them in some additional ways–the power and basis for which I don’t completely understand although I’ve theorized and studied and written about them for six years–
I’d suggest delving deeper into the misty twisty little paths of Chicago politics. What might Obama withhold from the ‘reporters’ that they’re most greedy for?
Don’t members of the press at least have silent moments when they consider the oddity of themselves being so at odds with a true cross section of America?
No. They have voluble moments when they discuss why so many of the American population are so clueless.
Don’t bet on it. Clinton could adopt the mantle of “first black president” on the basis of playing saxophone and hustling women then have it rescinded on the basis of having no actual negroid genetic code. Obama could adopt the mantle on the basis of having 50% of the requisite genetic code. In the future, it may be rescinded on the basis of having 50% caucasoid code, never having lived in a black neighborhood, never having been parented or grandparented by his black side, and his black side never having been “African-American”.
Next time around, if the politics are right, count on being introduced to the first “true African-American.”
Parker–Well, I’ve got quite an extensive library of books. The problem is that I’m way over the hill.
There is a reason that in survivalist fiction the old and the ill are the first to go. They just don’t have the absolutely essential strength, stamina, sharp perceptions, quick instinctual reactions, and quick wits that are vital if one wants to survive in such dangerous and primitive conditions.
If it all were to collapse, I’m afraid it would be–barring a lot of luck and particular circumstances–a young man’s game.
“…Obama cast a spell over them in some additional ways–the power and basis for which I don’t completely understand….”
Obama merely spoke in the most amorphous of non-specific platitudes and left them to conjure their own spells. This is some powerful magic for self-identified intellectuals and denizens of the creative class. Give them a couple of decades distance from events, and I have no doubt they will have revised history to reflect their highest expectations of their “messiah”. Don’t doubt me.
The left wing media will go woozy over any and all lefty Democrats always. We have NO real media anymore.
the watchdog media died a long time ago and their love affair with clinton sealed their fate. the hatred of Bush and the worship of obama shows the press is corrupt, televison has long been corrupt, and fair and balanced is a venue for racism and smears from the left.
in many ways i’m glad the history of barry and shrillary and many more will be written long after i am dead. the presnt is hard enough to stomach.
The first Faustian President. Not puzzling at all.
Surveying the vastly “transformed” (“transmogrified” might be a better description) and sometimes almost unrecognizable wreckage, perhaps it is a little too much self-importance and the “myth of the Golden Age” and such, but I can’t help thinking that when my–born just at the end of WWII–generation dies out, a whole, much simpler, rougher, yet more benign America, one with more heart and spine, and the memory of our mental and (much more stable) physical landscape, and world view will all have died out with us–the far superior sum and product of the experience, hard work, and values of past generations.
It was, from today’s perspective, an almost “antique” America that will never even remotely be seen again or likely even imagined, understood, or much appreciated by an almost entirely “transformed,” and–did they realize it–a less “civilized” and cultured, Pagan, and largely clueless citizenry, and mores the pity.
Any bets that if a repub woman was ever elected as the first woman president, the MSM would not consider it to be a very big deal.