The Wall Street Journal--still written by jerkwads
A friend of mine decided to rile me up some more this AM by sending me a link to one of the latest WSJ opinion pieces. In it, author Bret Stephens purports to pre-examine the first year of the Obama Presidency, claiming that now that there's a "real" liberal in the White House, liberal policies will now be implemented and they will finally be judged in the marketplace of ideas. What the article really contains, though, is a wealth of meaningless drivel. Apparently, the left has been living in a world of "what-ifs?" for more than 60 years, and Stephens spends fully 1/2 of his column describing these--and of course, no space whatsoever proving his assertion. (Shocker!) Some of his statements border on the absurd: according to Stephens, "liberal pundits now bemoan the passing of those great conservative ideas men" (who they might be Stephens does not tell us), "In Mr. Obama, liberals have a president who seems to have stepped out of the last episodes of the West Wing," "He has the Congress in his left pocket, the news media in his right pocket," and in referring to Obama's first year, "[a]fter that, it will become increasingly difficult to attribute whatever mistakes he makes to the legacy of his predecessor."
Let's take these in order. I don't know about who Bret Stephens hangs out with, but I have never heard anyone on the left cry out for the return of "conservative ideas men." I assume Stephens is referring to the notion that some of us on the left possess, wherein we wish the Republicans weren't completely insane. As it stands now, the Republican Party is entirely bereft of worth as an ideological opponent, so some Democrats think it likely that the Democratic Party might be left standing on its own in the halls of power with no external checks on its behavior. Personally, I think that fear is hogwash; we have enough trouble remonstrating our own recalcitrants (see Lieberman, Joe) to run roughshod over the remnants of the morons outside the party. The fact is, Stephens shows no effort to either define his terms or give any credit for his assertions, so who knows what he's talking about, really.
Only neophytes, fools, and right wingers (hmm, I guess I don't need that last descriptor, do I?) think Obama is an actual lefty--anyone with any brains saw that of the final three standing in the primaries, Edwards was the real leftist, and on most issues, Clinton's were more "liberal" than Obama's. We're all hoping that Obama belies his reputation, positions, and rhetoric to give us some truly liberal leadership, but I think a lot of us are holding our breath waiting. He is hardly the Jed Bartlet or Matt Santos we've been looking for.
Anyone who thinks Obama has either Congress or "the media" in his pockets is trying to fool you, if not himself. On one, herding cats called, they want to sue Congress for trademark infringement. On the other, "the media" is still owned and run by the same right wing felons and louts that savaged Clinton, Gore, Dean, Kerry, Edwards, Clinton, etc., and gave Smirky, Dick, and the entire gang of thugs passes on their multitudinous crimes every single time over the last 8 years. Raise your hands if you think that's going to change. Fools!
Let's see, Obama is only allowed a single year to fix the collapse of our entire system of economy and governance that has been in the works for at least 8, and in reality, 28 years before he can no longer blame his predecessors? Sounds fair. If you're a complete jackass, that is. It's going to take many years, if not decades, to undo the unbelievable amount of damage the Republicans (and the Republican-lite of Bill Clinton) have done to our country, and that's assuming the adults get to stay in power the whole time. It took Clinton 8 years to get to where he had budget surpluses, and he didn't even address the systemic rot began in the government by deregulation and in the press by consolidation and co-optation in the previous 12. And now there's been 8 more years, and far more drastic ones, of it. If Stephens really thinks this ship of state can be turned around in a single span of 1 year, he's a toolbag without any hammers. (It's far more likely that he's simply a disingenuous tool.)
The Wall Street Journal Op-ed page: it's not just for amoral moneymen anymore!
Let's take these in order. I don't know about who Bret Stephens hangs out with, but I have never heard anyone on the left cry out for the return of "conservative ideas men." I assume Stephens is referring to the notion that some of us on the left possess, wherein we wish the Republicans weren't completely insane. As it stands now, the Republican Party is entirely bereft of worth as an ideological opponent, so some Democrats think it likely that the Democratic Party might be left standing on its own in the halls of power with no external checks on its behavior. Personally, I think that fear is hogwash; we have enough trouble remonstrating our own recalcitrants (see Lieberman, Joe) to run roughshod over the remnants of the morons outside the party. The fact is, Stephens shows no effort to either define his terms or give any credit for his assertions, so who knows what he's talking about, really.
Only neophytes, fools, and right wingers (hmm, I guess I don't need that last descriptor, do I?) think Obama is an actual lefty--anyone with any brains saw that of the final three standing in the primaries, Edwards was the real leftist, and on most issues, Clinton's were more "liberal" than Obama's. We're all hoping that Obama belies his reputation, positions, and rhetoric to give us some truly liberal leadership, but I think a lot of us are holding our breath waiting. He is hardly the Jed Bartlet or Matt Santos we've been looking for.
Anyone who thinks Obama has either Congress or "the media" in his pockets is trying to fool you, if not himself. On one, herding cats called, they want to sue Congress for trademark infringement. On the other, "the media" is still owned and run by the same right wing felons and louts that savaged Clinton, Gore, Dean, Kerry, Edwards, Clinton, etc., and gave Smirky, Dick, and the entire gang of thugs passes on their multitudinous crimes every single time over the last 8 years. Raise your hands if you think that's going to change. Fools!
Let's see, Obama is only allowed a single year to fix the collapse of our entire system of economy and governance that has been in the works for at least 8, and in reality, 28 years before he can no longer blame his predecessors? Sounds fair. If you're a complete jackass, that is. It's going to take many years, if not decades, to undo the unbelievable amount of damage the Republicans (and the Republican-lite of Bill Clinton) have done to our country, and that's assuming the adults get to stay in power the whole time. It took Clinton 8 years to get to where he had budget surpluses, and he didn't even address the systemic rot began in the government by deregulation and in the press by consolidation and co-optation in the previous 12. And now there's been 8 more years, and far more drastic ones, of it. If Stephens really thinks this ship of state can be turned around in a single span of 1 year, he's a toolbag without any hammers. (It's far more likely that he's simply a disingenuous tool.)
The Wall Street Journal Op-ed page: it's not just for amoral moneymen anymore!
Labels: Barack Obama, Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal
posted by bryduck at 10:19 AM
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