VDH - on the decline

Decline is in the Mind
It’s over? Really?

In the last two years, we have a heard a constant litany of “decline,” as in America is over as it once was. Fifth-century AD Rome is often evoked, as are the contemporary economic miracles in China and India to “prove” inevitable American waning. A few of the more imaginative declinists see us as Justinian’s Byzantium, a crumbling power vainly trying to hold on to a world long lost, with a Detroit no different from a half-populated failing Byzantine city in the Levant. This time around — remember our past serial crushing by the supposedly superior Soviet system of the 1950s, the Japanese, Inc. ascendancy of the 1970s, the EU soft power dominance of the 1980s, and the present Chinese supermen of the 21st century — we really, really, really are through, as if semi-literate suburban lounging American teens, with baggy pants, ears plugged with hip-hop, and sleeve tattoos will soon be slaving away to satisfy their new growling Tiger Mom People’s Republic bosses.


The gloomy prognoses come from both the anguished conservative who sees the culprit as the erosion of American individualism and self-reliance, and the new Obama coalition that thinks a sense of exceptionalism abroad is synonymous with arrogance and imperialism, and at home was symptomatic of an inherent unfairness, a downright mean country that, thank god, had to change. The one gags at the foul whiff of decline, the other sees it as an aroma of welcome reset. Both confess it is here, both unwelcomed and welcomed.

For the conservative, the depressing symptoms are staggering debt, as in the Obama administration plans to equal all the red ink of all prior administrations in nearly five or six years of planned governance (at $1.6 trillion a year that is not a hard thing to do). Surely, the president’s legacy for the next quarter-century will be ubiquitous line graphs and pie charts proving in an eye blink that the Obama administration was the mother of all borrowers. There is more, of course. We awoke one morning and suddenly General Motors was analogous to the Postal Service, its suspect, now politically incorrect competitors the far better run Fed-Ex-like Toyota or Ford. Abroad the bows, the apologies, the euphemisms for terrorism, the realignment to embrace enemies and snub friends, the deer-in-the-headlights, make-it-up-as-you-go-along diplomacy — all that was the unfortunate result of a larger desire to take the U.S. down a needed peg or two in a new multilateral fashion.

In this present age, no one in this administration in the abstract can explain why Israel is a more humane place than Syria — and why that fact deserves our preference. Or why Japan plays more by the rules than does China, or why Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic deserve our empathy and support in a way Russia does not. Or why a jail in Guantanamo is more humane than any outside the fence in Cuba. (In truth, the inmate at Gitmo has access to better food, health care, and freedom of religion than the “free” man in Castroland). In short, traditionalists are aghast at the last two years, and see it as a sort of gangrene that has spread from a long festering but heretofore treatable old wound.

I really didn't plan to copy this much of it, but there is more, much more. Go read it all.

Liberal, thy name is Irony.

One of my favorites, Richard Fernandez, writes his Belmont Club in Pajamas Media now. Today he takes on liberal irony.

Context Change
The Berkeley City Council, after passing a resolution calling for the resettlement of detainees released from Guantanamo in the United States, voted against inviting such persons to live in their fair city, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Earlier, an organization called “Move America Forward, proposed in a statement that Berkeley City Council members ‘go live in GITMO where they can hang out with hundreds of terrorists.’ The group said it would pay for their air fare.”

Meanwhile, Nir Rosen, who scoffed at Lara Logan’s assault in Tahrir Square, was fired from his position as fellow at the NYU’s Center on Law and Security. Jim Geraghty at the National Review says he never thought to see the day, but is glad the Center on Law and Security did it anyway. {read this part here]
.....
Why the outbreak of reason? A succession of recent events, from the financial crisis to the wave of unrest sweeping the Middle East, has created a new sense of mortality in everyone. Dick Morris, in an article titled “The Damage Obama Has Done,” presents a table, which while not entirely the best source for identifying the various factors which went into causing the change, nevertheless gets the point across: reality hurts. For all its shortcomings, Morris’ table best explains our new psychological world.

Be sure to read Morris' blog here.

Tea Party for Dummies, at last we are explained in a way even liberals can understand

From Politico

'Tea Party' for dummies
By CURT ANDERSON
I’m fed up with all the foolishness written about the tea party. Virtually all the analysis has been off base. Liberals don’t get it. Democratic political players mistakenly think they can use it against Republicans. And the Republican establishment is cowed and terrified.

First, there should be a rule that no one can write about the tea party without attending events outside the Beltway. Here is what you would find: a mishmash of Americans who are a bit unusual yet oddly refreshing. There would be housewives with strollers, young people with edgy signs, old-timers with walkers, bikers with flags and Republican workers handing out literature that no one wants.
Like any political event, there would be smart people and dumb, well-intentioned folks and troublemakers, folks with their lives together and folks who need medication. There are clever signs and stupid signs.

Sometimes emotions run high. I saw a confrontation last year at a tea party event in Madison, Wis., between an obnoxious young “protester,” wearing a “Feingold for Senate” T-shirt, and a grizzled Vietnam veteran. The protester was filling the air with expletives, so the vet came over and said he was going to shove his cane down the protester’s throat. Sadly, the protester immediately stopped exercising his First Amendment rights.

I love it when enlightened pundits observe that there are “crazy people” at these events. No kidding. Ever been to a Democratic or Republican convention? Plenty of attendees would not pass a CT scan. Ever been to a PTA meeting? There are crazy people in America, on your TV and in your neighborhood. You may even be one of them. Deal with it.

Republican leaders are grappling with the tea party phenomenon as we speak. While publicly genuflecting to the tea party, many are privately scared and embarrassed. What do its members want? Are they trying to take over? How do we deal with them? It’s the cause of much consternation on the D.C. cocktail circuit.

A little history: My first job in politics began in 1984. There was a different, yet in many ways similar, dynamic afoot. This thing, which the media pejoratively labeled “the religious right,” had emerged as a political force and was threatening to upset the seating chart in the Republican universe.

Hand-wringing was everywhere. The late Jerry Falwell’s moral majority and Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition were the proverbial Huns at the gate — threatening to crash the party.

The religious right had a beef with the GOP: The party was not conservative enough, particularly on cultural issues. President Ronald Reagan was the exception, not the rule. Rep. Bob Michel and Sen. Howard Baker were the moderate rulers on Capitol Hill — and were suspect.

There is a lot more in here comparing the Tea Party to the Christian Right showing the differences............

Today, the tea party movement presents the GOP with a similar challenge — albeit with its own unique wrinkles. If it was sometimes difficult to figure out who was in charge of the religious right, it’s impossible to do so with the tea party. For one thing, tea partiers are suspect of anyone who wants to be in charge or any party that wants to harness them.
.......
The tea party remains a movement. As such, it is darn near impossible to contain, organize or control. Don’t waste your time trying. Call it rugged individualism.

You can either appeal to its concerns by voicing the issues it cares about, or you can try to organize and control it. If you choose the latter approach, good luck.

In the tea party world, structure is bad, political parties are corrupt, politicians are liars and authority is suspect. In other words, members are just like my kids and American voters — but a little more so.

Many Republican elites fret about the downsides of the tea party. They point to the disastrous failure to beat Sen. Harry Reid in Nevada or to the absurd TV ad that began with the genius phrase, “I’m not a witch.”

Yep. You have some of that. Democracy is messy. But you also have some benefits — like control of the House. Let’s face it, at the end of 2008, the Republican Party was almost out of gas, having been routed in two consecutive elections.

The energy of the tea party movement, in concert with tremendous help from President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), created the potential for the Republican landslide of 2010. This is not an arguable point.

So enough hand-wringing already.

Curt Anderson is a Republican strategist and a partner at OnMessage Inc., a GOP media and polling firm. He co-wrote Gov. Bobby Jindal’s book “Leadership in Crisis.”

Read it all here.  You might want to print it out and have it handy to hand to your liberal friends who don't get it.

We are all feeling alienated from our government

There are good reasons why. Here are some links:

The House Divided (Andrew McCarthy in National Review)
How long can a people remain a People when its leaders side with its foes?

Getting Lectured on Human Rights by Mexico (Mona Charen, National Review)

Krauthammer's Take (the Corner from National Review)

The Privileged Call for Limited Dictatorships (The Anchoress, First Things Magazine)
be sure you read this one if you don't read any of the others.

The New International Order (Richard Fernandez from Belmont Club, Pajama media)
another one of the "must reads."

Links for a busy Wednesday

From Human Events:
All the President's Goldman Sachs Men
by Michelle Malkin
From Human Events
Democrats and Liberal Media Smear Tea Parties
by Lynn Woolley
Democrats haunted by corporate ties
From American Thinker
Leaving Liberalism
By Chuck Rogér
From CNSNews.com
Supreme Court Splits Sharply on Campus Christian Argument
By Jesse J. Holland, Associated Press
From American Spectator Blog
Big Implications for Wind Energy
By Paul Chesser
links via Lucianne.com