Gross generalities - but true

In The Politics of Rich and Poor, his 1991 examination of the extreme wealth disparities in American society that came in the wake of the Reagan years, Kevin Phillips speculates that long-term Republican rule is inevitably undermined by economic elitism while long-term Democratic rule is undermined by intellectual elitism. It's a generalization, but there's truth in it. When in power over an extended period (say, two presidential terms), Republicans push free-market capitalism and Democrats push activist government to such extremes that the pendulum swings too far and the electorate corrects the imbalance by voting for the other party.

We now see in full bloom the second half of the equation - Democratic intellectual overreach - in the matter of the IRS using its power to suppress President Obama's political opposition. George Will rolls it out this morning, discussing presidential IRS appointee Lois Lerner ("bureaucratic bully and slithering partisan) as well as the always contemptible Sen. Dick Durbin, who of course likened U. S. military personnel in 2005 to Nazi SS, Stalin's NKVD, and Pol Pot's Cambodian mass murderers.

Here's the heart of Will's piece:

Government requires trust. Government by progressives, however, demands such inordinate amounts of trust that the demand itself should provoke distrust. Progressivism can be distilled into two words: “Trust us.”

Distilling Progressivism into two words? A generalization, a simplification - but kinda true in this case. And regarding the IRS's self-acknowledged malfeasance under the Obama Administration, the results of that trust have indeed been gross.

Thanks to Edward Snowden, this will just be a little harder to stop

http://news.yahoo.com/mali-manual-suggests-al-qaida-feared-weapon-145958976.html

And these are the good guys

http://news.yahoo.com/teenager-15-executed-islamist-rebels-syria-154751521--abc-news-topstories.html

One out of three ain't good

Today Michael Tomasky may finally have grabbed the crown of Predictable Obama Boosterism from Martin Bashir and Touré with his Daily Beast column, Obama's Economic Triumph. 

What, you weren't aware how good things are out there? No worries. Tomasky will set you straight and relieve you of the need to consider two other columns published today by actual economic analysts. And really, who wants to read dreary pieces like  Manufacturing Falls to a Four Year Low and More Evidence the U. S. Economy is Failing when instead we can find "triumph" in malaise.

The wheel Is turning - and you can't slow it down

One in ten Britons under 25 is now Muslim. 

The factoid comes courtesy of a bracing Mark Steyn column about the murder of British artilleryman Lee Rigby. As to what it signifies, that will be determined by the British Muslim community as a whole, no one else. 

Which brings me to Ayaan Hirsi Ali's piece in today's Wall Street Journal about the chronic reticence of moderate Muslim leaders to condemn and ostracize the fanatical elements within their fold. In secular terms, religion is a social culture. And history has shown that when great cultures decline it happens from the inside out. 

Benghazi - Fog and Smoke

For whatever it's worth, I'm very forgiving of decisions made under stress of war by persons in the arena.

The moment-by-moment actions of American diplomatic and security personnel on the night of the Islamist murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and his aides in Libya last September interest me as a matter of enlightenment rather than partisan exposure of supposed "failures" of action or foresight. People did the best they could under difficult circumstances. Let's understand the facts and learn from them.

But I condemn the subsequent manipulation of information by the Obama Re-Election Campaign - which, let's remember, was operationally superior to the Obama Administration at the time (and still seems so, odd as that sounds). It's an insult to the American people that we were told calculated lies and those lies were abetted by mainstream media outlets whose supreme priority was the re-election of Barack Obama and the protection of Hillary Clinton's political future.

Rather than anger, however, I felt nothing but sad when earlier this week many journalists (not counting Fox News, which I rarely watch) couldn't contain their snarky glee that Congress's Benghazi hearings were overshadowed by the jury verdict on the Jodi Arias murder case. It's not merely that those journalists don't care about Benghazi and its after-spin. They are part of the propaganda machine.

Above is a feisty discussion on the subject between Robert Wright and Ann Althouse on today's Bloggingheads. Hardly a Right Wing shill, Althouse has it right: The night of Benghazi was about the fog of war. Actions since by the Obama Team and its lockstep MSM minions are about the smokescreen of BS.

Iraq - Ten Years

On today's tenth anniversary of our war in Iraq, I'm moved to post this photo and also articulate my belief that history will judge Iraq the "right" war and Afghanistan the "wrong" one.

Invading Afghanistan was "right" insofar as its Taliban government provided safe haven for al Qaida. Once that government was toppled and al Qaida dispersed, America's continued involvement was, pragmatically speaking, needless. It became a crusade more emotional than military, more humanitarian than strategic. (Killing Osama bin Laden falls into the same category. It was gratifying for us and instructive for his supporters, but his leadership was neutered years before.)

Iraq was an oil-rich power ruled by a meddlesome despot whose two sons threatened to perpetuate Iraq's international criminality for decades to come. America is safer without them. Regarding our continued involvement there, as a matter of realpolitik it was appropriate because on the world stage Iraq matters in ways that Afghanistan does not. Freeing its people and helping them put in place mechanisms of security and democracy changed the course of history in the region. That course had been trending inexorably downward from our perspective. Now there's at least the possibility of something better.

Fouad Ajami has a piece on the Iraq War's tenth anniversary in today's Wall Street Journal. Sobering and sad, it still notes that the ultimate verdict on America's "war of choice" remains unknown:

There is no way of writing a convincing alternative history of the region without this war. That kind of effort is inherently speculative, subject to whim and preference. Perhaps we could have let Saddam be, could have tolerated the misery he inflicted on his people, convinced ourselves that the sanctions imposed on his regime were sufficient to keep him quarantined. But a different history played out. It delivered the Iraqis from a tyranny that they would have never been able to overthrow on their own.

And then there's the photo above, whose meaning must be acknowledged and grappled with in any armchair commentary such as Ajami's - or mine.