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Pas Plus, S’il Vous Plaît
Look, I don’t like ganging up on anybody. Seems like there has been a bit of group pummeling on David French.
I like David French, mostly; I often enjoy hearing his perspective whether I agree with him or not. He is gaining a bit of a reputation for scolding Trumpians over principles he lets slide with the progressive left. Fair? Unfair? I don’t care enough to delve into the matter.
But, he concluded a recent essay on NR thusly:
It’s time for everyone to grapple with reality. Obama wasn’t as wonderful (or terrible) as you remember, the Trump administration isn’t as terrible (or wonderful) as you think, and the true story is far, far more complicated than the facile narratives partisans would have us believe.
What? The Obama administration wasn’t as terrible as I remember? Would this be the Obama administration that:
- Slaughtered hundreds of innocent Mexicans (and more than some less-than-innocent, I’m sure) and an American Border Patrol agent through the auspices of Operation Fast and Furious?*
- Weaponized the IRS (and other nuggets in the interagency) to disrupt, denigrate, and deny Americans organizing to pursue a perfectly Constitutional political agenda. God bless those little American Davids that stood up against the imperious Obama Goliathon.
- Unleashed the Gruber mendacity upon the American health care system, propagating the biggest con ever committed against the American people. “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” Right. How’d that work out?
- Pulled us out of Iraq at the cusp of victory, and made every American life lost there a life lost in vain, and sowed the seeds of that irascible JV team ISIS to wreak mayhem on the peace and stability we had expended so much American blood and treasure to achieve.
And on. And on.
The Obama administration wasn’t as terrible as I thought? How dare you, sir. Pull your head out of your tweeter and look about.
* I know more than a little about introducing (up to and including lethal) materiel into an illicit network in order to illuminate and map it. Fast and Furious was an abomination. Period.
Published in General
Well, this is only natural. Who doesn’t remember those articles titled “Concerned by Obama, Some Democrats Quietly Align With Republicans”? They just did it really quietly.
The incompetence of Carter combined with the mendacity of Nixon.
Jonah Goldberg did a good thing when he wrote Liberal Fascism. I hope he reads it someday.
How do you decide which is worst – weaponizing the IRS is at the top of my list because it drives corruption the entire country. Tax compliance is largely voluntary. If the IRS is viewed as not just mean, incompetent bumblers but as political enemies by half the populace, watch tax law compliance plummet. Then the people who comply are chumps, ala Greece.
I quit reading him after his Ten Things I Hate About Trump (Number Seven Will Surprise You!) piece in the Spectator.
I’m getting an odd response to the above link. Anybody else?
Rick Roll’d. I hate it when that happens!
Sure, French thinks Obama wasn’t as terrible as you remember because French didn’t go from paying less than $500 a month for health insurance in 2011 to paying $1700 a month (plus $500 co-pays for medications) in 2018.
I loathe David French out of all the pundits for so many reasons but he isn’t worth the time or effort.
I’d completely forgotten about that. It’s still a thing?
Dagnambit!! Not mad I got rick roll’d, just that I couldn’t not watch the whole thing. Silver lining: The lovely and talented Mrs. Mongo jumped up and started dancing with me. Li’l DEMONSEED jumped in. Awesome family moment, so thanks, @TBA. I guess.
Just remember: Payback’s a MEDEVAC…
@matede darling (Please sound it out in your head with a NE Wasp, clench-jaw accent; “Matte de, dahling),
When I started to recount the number of truly scandalous operations, actions and activities of the Obama reign, I realized that I’d dilute the post into a list nigh unto the length of a CVS receipt, and that would become the import of the post. So I had to get in, get it, and get out.
But I concur.
Copy that, Nick. That’s why I’m willing to forgo rational conversation and focus on winning. It’s not that the other side of the aisle can’t get it, it’s that they won’t get it.
We need to focus on electoral victory, because engagement, bipartisanship and rational debate hold no sway, today. And that’s the dem/liberal/prog’s fault. They are the ones foaming at the mouth.
Which is why I am so disappointed in Msr. French. Sometimes, it is just one side’s fault.
Nice!
What to you want to bet their emails have the “please consider the environment before printing this email” footer?
I wish. Insiders feathering their nests is a feature of the human condition. The trick, so to speak, is to restrict the power and influence of the state as to limit the opportunity. And as anyone familiar with the politics of Chicago knows, a little bit of honest graft gets the trash picked up and the pot holes filled.
The greater risk is government by true believers. Even more so, true believers impatient with the process of change characteristic of a democratic republic.
You guys are so cute.
I think there are too many who are u willing to accept that the left (and all totalitarians all ilks, secular and religious these days) mean what they say about control and power. They want it. Don’t care about the rest. The only benefit of the doubt which is understandable and forgivable is how hard it is to accept the reality of the terribleness coming at you. And how hard it is to do what is necessary. That’s the power of the temptation of fear. It’s pretty hard to force rank the terriblenesses Obama wrought. Debating with adversaries doesn’t work. They don’t care about changing your mind- they want to win. So should we if our principles are really worth anything.
That’s not generally true but with the left and those who are using debates as trolling exercises and as diversions then I agree. You might enjoy this post I did on intellectual debates with the left:
http://ricochet.com/archives/are-we-having-an-intellectual-debate-with-the-left-is-that-what-this-is/
I used to do some work with a guy whose footer said – “Please feel free to print this email. I own timber interests.”
I don’t listen to her so I don’t know if she still does it but Laura Ingraham used to call those “…but” statements “being a ‘but monkey.'”
I have a similar view. Obama wanted to upscale city machine politics to the national level. His tactics would be very familiar to anyone who grew up around a major city during the last century. I think that makes him objectively Fascist, which I agree with Goldberg is objectively Leftist.
Obama managed to politicize or corrupt vast swaths of the US government. Even agencies that had solid reputations went off the rails. He managed to politicize the Park Rangers as enforcers of a presidential temper tantrum.
His EPA created a National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for CO2, a gas emitted by all life on Earth. Given Obama’s love of speeches, perhaps he should have had to get an emissions permit? I’ve seen the documentation for the other standards – they are rigorous, very in-depth, and mostly driven by direct risk to human health. (SO2 also has a standard for protecting buildings from acid rain) The NAAQS for CO2 was based on the discredited hockey stick and the potential for global warming, which should be familiar to Ricochetti. This also obligated the use of nationwide monitoring stations and more.
There are plenty of hazardous chemicals which we know will kill people easily that never got a NAAQS, but CO2 was the first one to get a standard in many years.
Then there is the corruption of the Chemical Safety Board. They make fascinating videos on refinery accident and such. Raphael Moure-Eraso came into control of the CSB, and had an agenda that focused on one specific safety system used in Europe, along with siding strongly with unions. (Think of the NTSB sending former Air Traffic Controller union members on investigations) It got so bad that both the chair and the ranking democrat of the House oversight committee asked to him to resign. He did not, made no changes, and eventually it took a bipartisan letter from the committee highlighting Moure-Eraso’s dictatorial behavior and corruption before Obama canned him. In the meantime, the CSB was stuck on invesitgating the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, which was out of their expertise and ate up their budget.
Obama was a disgrace to the office of the President. He was an Illinois Politician in the tradition of Blagojevich – corrupt and incompetent except at elections.
The elections were handled by the other major branch of the Democratic Party – the MSM. It’s easy to look good when the media is licking your boots, bent over on their presidential kneepads.
I quit reading the NRO crew back when Bush was pushing TARP and all they could muster against it were soft “this probably isn’t a very good idea” and “maybe we kinda have to do this” pieces. It was pretty clear they had no stomach for standing against their friends.
Now it’s becoming increasing clear that they are friends with large swaths of the left and can only muster similarly lackluster opposition to them. Yet the NRO crew can usually find some fire and brimstone (ok, maybe snark and disdain) when confronting the Trump factions over lesser disagreements.