If ever a moment caught Obamaism mid-flight and pinned its wings back for viewing, it is the present one. In domestic affairs, the country has been forced down the first stretch of the road toward untenable Euro-statism. At the same time, the U.S. secretary of state defends the new American policy of rejecting domestic Israeli construction. Had the so-called lunatics of the 2008 McCain-Palin rallies been caught saying that, in the course of one day, an Obama presidency would seize one-sixth of the private sector and describe East Jerusalem housing as "undermin[ing] mutual trust” and “expose[ing] daylight between Israel and the United States,” we’d have choked to death on headlines about “playing with fire” and “the politics of fear.”
Yet, little more than a year later, we’re living in one of those clever political columns written as an over-the-top straight story from a frightening future. “After seizing the American automobile industry almost a year ago, the Obama administration has used a parliamentary procedure to take control of one-sixth of the private sector ... in other news, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended the administration’s stand against housing construction in Jerusalem ...”
But no one “respectable” made such extreme prognostications. For one thing, no one among the intelligentsia could have predicted the speed with which the country would be transformed. Additionally, for the media at large and for certain self-consciously moderate political analysts, some things are most dangerous when speculated upon. Once they are actually achieved, they are merely “historic.”
The Democrats are doing a lot of talking about history these days. “It is with great humility and great pride that tonight we will make history for this country,” said Nancy Pelosi, before the House passed the Senate’s tax and entitlement bill. “Tonight we answered the call of history,” said Barack Obama, after the deed was done. Not only does this crew refuse to be constrained by the false choice between great humility and great pride; they also reject the false choice between embracing history and ignoring it. For amid the symbolic fanfare of giant gavels and the tactical gravitas of deployed Lincoln quotes, one important fact is being swept aside: the state’s co-opting of the private sector never ends well. Every learned lesson about free markets and central planning, incentives, the allocation of scarce resources under competing systems, government incompetence, overall quality of life and freedom in socialist vs. capitalist states — in short, the reality of the Cold War — has been unlearned. Sunday night brought us the most ahistoric bit of history-making we’re likely to see in our lifetimes.
Middle East history has also gone out the window. Whenever Israel has acceded to Palestinian demands, the result has been increased Arab violence. The Palestinians, for their part, have yet to do what Israel and America ask: crack down on terrorism and recognize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
But Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi can outsmart history. They also know best what’s good for the public, which is opposed to their campus-hatched schemes. Never mind what the people themselves want. The Democrats dismiss, along with history and majority opinion, the very system used to enact policy. The president told Bret Baier, “I don't spend a lot of time worrying about what the procedural rules are in the House or the Senate.” Of course not, too much history to make.
Both the health-care takeover and the Israel pivot are farcical and dangerous. Both were undertaken without regard for procedural or historic obligations. (In the case of Obama’s Israel policy, the president broke earlier binding agreements that stated the U.S. would not ask Israel to return to 1967 borders.) Both typify modern liberal thinking. Both policies bring us more closely in line with today’s Europe, where anti-Israel sentiment and lifetime entitlements are fashionable lifestyle choices. Europeans court anti-Semitism despite their history, socialism despite their future.
Watching the U.S. follow Europe put me in mind of a passage from the novel Catch-22. The reluctant soldier Yossarian is in a military infirmary and takes to copying all the actions of a fellow patient who seems to get out of every burdensome and dangerous obligation of war:
The soldier who saw everything twice nodded weakly and sank back on his bed. Yossarian nodded weakly too, eyeing his talented roommate with great humility and admiration. He knew he was in the presence of a master. His talented roommate was obviously a person to be studied and emulated. During the night, his talented roommate died, and Yossarian decided that he had followed him far enough.
When does the U.S. decide that it has followed Euro-statism far enough into its last night? In retrospect, history’s worst decisions all look obviously flawed. This can sometimes make the past look unreal. Did Chamberlain really think he could cut a deal with Hitler? Did JFK really expect to overthrow Castro with the Bay of Pigs invasion? Yes and yes. Tomorrow’s questions are obvious: ObamaCare and bullying Israel? Yes and yes.
The Democrats can make countless speeches about their own place in history. For all their immodesty, they are correct. They’ve done something unprecedented in America. But the history to which they constantly refer is the history of governors, lawmakers, and procedural attempts. As for the larger history that they ignore — the history of bad ideas, deadly trends, and waning republics — time alone will assess their contributions.
