Suppose you were going out to dinner with a couple of liberal friends this evening. How would you approach the delicate problem of the Obama scandals?
I've been thinking about this, as it's likely that I'll be dining with some liberal friends in the near future. These friends are good, honorable people, but seldom stray far from the latest liberal talking points. They are, of course, New York Times readers.
The first thing, obviously, is to forget the idea of scoring points. That would just make them defensive. But what should my line be?
I've decided that rather than get embarrassing confessions, I really want to know what they know.
Do they know about the Case of the Divorce Records? How the the sealed divorce records of his primary and general election opponents in his 2004 US Senate race somehow got publicized?
Do they know about the Case of the Disappearing Opponents? How the Obama campaign got all of his primary opponents for his first state senate race removed from the ballot?
What do they think of the Case of the Rogue IRS Agents? Do they think the conservative Tea Party groups had it coming? That the whole thing is a storm in a teacup over a couple of rogue agents in Cincinnati? Do they go so far as to embrace the loyal courtier argument, "who will rid my of this troublesome priest?"
And then there are the First Amendment issues, the bugging of the AP and the NSA data-mining. I'm just interested to see where a couple of good loyal liberals come down on this.
Then there is the whole delicious question of trust in government, from the president's speech where he worries where it will all end if people stop trusting the government. Where do they come down on trust? Should we trust government in general? The EPA? The Pentagon? Democratic administrations? Republican administrations? Inquiring minds would like to know.
Peter Berkowitz has a good piece that argues that we are getting what we paid for. Nice middle class kids have been going off to college for a couple of generations and learning the straight liberal line. The education has had measurable effects that we can see in the Obama scandals.
I've been thinking about this, as it's likely that I'll be dining with some liberal friends in the near future. These friends are good, honorable people, but seldom stray far from the latest liberal talking points. They are, of course, New York Times readers.
The first thing, obviously, is to forget the idea of scoring points. That would just make them defensive. But what should my line be?
I've decided that rather than get embarrassing confessions, I really want to know what they know.
Do they know about the Case of the Divorce Records? How the the sealed divorce records of his primary and general election opponents in his 2004 US Senate race somehow got publicized?
Do they know about the Case of the Disappearing Opponents? How the Obama campaign got all of his primary opponents for his first state senate race removed from the ballot?
What do they think of the Case of the Rogue IRS Agents? Do they think the conservative Tea Party groups had it coming? That the whole thing is a storm in a teacup over a couple of rogue agents in Cincinnati? Do they go so far as to embrace the loyal courtier argument, "who will rid my of this troublesome priest?"
And then there are the First Amendment issues, the bugging of the AP and the NSA data-mining. I'm just interested to see where a couple of good loyal liberals come down on this.
Then there is the whole delicious question of trust in government, from the president's speech where he worries where it will all end if people stop trusting the government. Where do they come down on trust? Should we trust government in general? The EPA? The Pentagon? Democratic administrations? Republican administrations? Inquiring minds would like to know.
Peter Berkowitz has a good piece that argues that we are getting what we paid for. Nice middle class kids have been going off to college for a couple of generations and learning the straight liberal line. The education has had measurable effects that we can see in the Obama scandals.
- Benghazi is explainable by the postmodern notion that "Knowledge is socially constructed, and therefore the narrative is all."
- In the IRS harassment scandal "the president was aided by the pervasive teaching on campuses that conservatism is wicked." You know the deal: racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-choice fascist. We can't let those people loose in the public square.
- The AP leak investigation is explained by the hate speech culture. "On campus, students learn that liberty of thought and discussion is a norm to which lip service must be paid but which must not be taken to heart because of the importance of stamping out disagreeable and dangerous speech."
The delicious thing about the Obama scandals is that, while partisan liberals like my aforementioned liberal friends won't be mutinying any time soon, the fabled moderates and independents are very likely going to be up for grabs in the next two election cycles.
Put it in liberal-speak. Those people that were open to the Bush-is-to-blame narrative are just as likely to believe an Obama-is-a-crook narrative. Particularly if they have $100,000 in student debt and no real prospects of a decent career.
All in all, the Obama administration is proving to be everything that conservatives could want.
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