VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: IT WAS THE POWER, STUPID.
What is going on? Two things, really. One, the media believes that the noble ends justify the tawdry means. So if it is a choice between emphasizing the latest Obama embarrassment, digging into the scary Fast and Furious, the “millions of green jobs” Solyndra insider giveaways, the Secret Service decadence, the GSA buffoonery, the work while getting food stamps con in Washington, OR endangering Obamacare and by extension “the children,” or the war to eliminate autism, or the right to breath clean air, well, why would one ever wish to derail all that by weakening a landmark progressive and his enlightened agenda?
Or for you more cynical readers, why would you wish to enervate the present comfortable culture in Washington in which the press and politics are at last one? Or why undermine the first African-American president who is a constant reminder of our progressive advancement, or why weaken our only chance some day to have open borders or gay marriage?
Two, the Left has always operated on the theory of medieval penance. We surely must assume that Warren Buffett has never had problems with the ethics of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. or had a company he controls sued by the IRS for back taxes. Why? Because he has confessed his sins, and accepted the faith and paid his tithe to the Church. Ditto a Bill Gates or a multi-million-dollar a year celebrity like Sean Penn or Oprah. In the relativism of the left, if the one-percenters will simply confess that their class is greedy and needs to pay their fair share—even if they are entirely cynical in the manner of GE’s Jeffery Immelt and penance is written off as the cost of doing business—then they become exempt from the wages of them/us warfare, and the ‘you want to kill the children’ rhetoric.
Read the whole thing. But I can’t skip this part: “But at least 2012 won’t be a default campaign. In other words, to quote Obama, Romney will get in ‘their faces’ and ‘bring a gun to a knife fight’ in a way McCain more graciously and nobly lost by putting all sorts of concerns off the table. I would expect that should Obama keep harping about Romney’s tax returns, Romney will demand Obama’s transcripts and medical records at last to be released. If Obama’s surrogates keep writing about Mormonism, we will learn of new disclosures about Trinity Church. For every Mormon bishop who said something illiberal in 1976, we will hear of a Father Pfleger or Rev. Meeks trumping that in 2007. And so on.”
Absolutely.
UPDATE: A reader emails: “So, Charlie Brown no longer believes Lucy will hold the football…that’s what is really pissing the Dems off.”