In 2004, the media’s “jobless recovery” was the description of George W. Bush’s 5.4% unemployment rate. “It’s the economy, stupid” referred to George H.W. Bush’s 1992 annual 3.3-4% GDP growth rate. “Unpatriotic” was W’s $4 trillion in borrowing in eight years, not $5 trillion in three. If Obama right now had 5.4% unemployment, 3.4% economic growth, and a budget deficit of about $400 billion, what would the media call it...?
They'd be screeching and swooning like adolescent girls over a pimply pop star; in short, nothing much would change at all. And it gets worse, much worse, because that same tendency for uncritical, even callow, admiration for a manufactured fantasy is behind the admiration for things European that leads the average progressive to gush "why can't we be more like the Europeans" in the same tone we usually hear marriage proposals to the likes of Justin Bieber.
We can't, because it would be a particularly stupid thing to do. And the level of stubborn denial of this that exists in the academic fools 0bama has placed in some of the highest offices of the land is a testament to nothing more than their refusal to grow up politically and ideologically.
In short, liberalism does not work, contrary as it is to human nature...statist redistribution and intrusion are an insidious process, no longer specific just to Democrats, but bound up in the growing affluence and leisure of the West—both serving its various needs of alleviating guilt to the masses, subsidizing half the nation, and providing much envied power and lucre to a highly educated and technocratic elite who have little talent for acquiring either in the private sector. That it is not sustainable does not mean that it will not cause havoc as it totters and collapses.
It would be a rather satisfying thing to watch except for the inconvenient fact that we won't be viewing from afar but underneath the rubble. Which is, actually, not a bad working description of our current position with the media desperately piping "Happy days are here again" loudly enough to swoozle the poor bastards who have been buried. "It's not so bad," we hear, "a ton of rock is nothing compared to the layer of dust we endured under Bush." Yeah, right.
But the ridiculous pretension of the 0bama administration are, as VDH points out, a symptom rather than the systemic problem, although this is like saying that an exploding abdomen is a symptom of a deeper medical problem. At some point it doesn't matter. The Van Jones, Elizabeth Warren types are polyps in the festering colon of modern progressive politics but enough of them can kill you.
That said, I do look forward to the shrieking that will ensue when this pack of degreed illiterates is finally shown the door, to assume the dignity of a former functionary who is safe in the knowledge that his media co-conspirators will cover for him, even regale him with an occasional Nobel Peace Prize. These will rejoin their respective well-remunerated faculties to produce yet another wave of intellectual weeds should the American people be fortunate enough to take VDH's booster shot against idiot liberalism. I just hope it takes.
Thanks, Bill. That is so beautiful, it almost makes me cry.
The perfect analogy for this colon-clogging clan. (sniff)
The media co-conspirators also need to be shown the door.
Amazing how just stating the obvious sounds so brilliant.
Enjoyed even more by your succinct and apt discription of the usual suspects. . .
"pack of degreed illiterates" and "intellectual weeds. enjoyed/agree your comments