While I work on some longer articles on the significance of Sunday's health care vote and where we go from here, today's TIA Daily is given over to three short articles put together from comments sent to me in the past day by Tom Minchin, Jack Wakeland, and my old friend Gene Barth.
Gene in particular captures what I think is the right perspective on the coming years. We had hoped that the tea party rebellion would lead to a quick rejection of the far left and its policies, largely ending President Obama's ability to do mischief after the first six months of his administration.
Instead, we now have to adjust our perspective and realize that this is just the beginning of a Long War Against the Left.—RWT
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Feature Article
Hope Is Dead—Long Live Optimism, by Tom Minchin
The Long War Against the Left, by Jack Wakeland and Gene Barth
N-Word-Gate, by Jack Wakeland and Robert Tracinski
TIA Daily Feature Articles
1. Hope Is Dead—Long Live Optimism
by Tom Minchin
Whereas it is true people need intellectual ammunition—arguments they can use to fight for freedom—there is a more fundamental need: a code of virtues that will enable them to keep fighting.
The hardest thing to overcome is disgust and despair. You can have all the arguments—the right ammunition—but if you don't think you can win, you will still succumb. You need a way to maintain your morale—to counter the effects of dispiriting circumstances. In short you need a solid basis to expect a better future.
What can provide it when the news headlines fill you with revulsion?
The virtue of optimism.
The virtue of what? Optimism. But this is a very particular type of optimism. It is not wishful thinking, and it is not mere hopefulness or even assuredness based on favorable circumstances—an assuredness that vanishes with the first real adversity. It is confidence in one's own potency, and it has to be maintained and fought for like any virtue.
Just as courage must be exercised like a muscle to stay real, so must confidence about the future. You must keep proving to yourself you have it by overcoming obstacles and continuing to win.
Holding optimism as a virtue begins with understanding what it is and is not. Optimism in its most basic sense is "confidence in the future." And that kind of confidence is only possible to a rational man. As Ayn Rand wrote in "Epitaph for a Culture," the Apollo space program was the supreme demonstration, for it "has shown us the precondition of self-confidence, optimism, and progress, like skywriting left in the wake of those rockets: rationality." That bears repeating: the pre-condition of optimism is not faith, good fortune or wishful thinking. It is rationality.
What kind of optimism? The kind that can get a man to the moon and back against all the arguments that it is impossible, too dangerous, costs too much, and isn't worth it—the same arguments that will be used to say America cannot be restored to freedom after the passage of Obamacare. But it can.
I will have a lot more to say about optimism. It is a virtue worth getting to know.
Editor's Note: This last line is a teaser for upcoming articles in TIA's print edition—about which I will have more to announce soon.—RWT
2. The Long War Against the Left
by Jack Wakeland and Gene Barth
Editor's Note: After passage of the health care bill in the House, the next step is the Senate's passage of the House's amendments to the bill, by way of "budget reconciliation." In the first segment below, Jack Wakeland discusses how "budget reconciliation" is being turned into an unlimited excuse to bypass the filibuster, a key safeguard against bare majority rule in the Senate.—RWT
The Senate will now stretch the definition of the "budget reconciliation process" to include the re-writing of major new legislation. There will be no debate in the Senate—the "cooling saucer" of the federal legislature—over House markups of the health care control bill that Barack Obama is about to sign into law. There will be no cloture vote [to override a filibuster] because the debate over the health care control bill will be considered to be over by the fiat of Senate Leader Harry Reid, the Senate Rules Committee, and the Senate Parliamentarian.
As the House and Senate enter the Byzantine world of the "budget reconciliation process," our fate will be in the hands of Alan Frumin, the Senate Parliamentarian, an unelected bureaucrat appointed by the Senate Majority Leader to keep the Senate in order.
Rules that were set up to rapidly settle final disagreements between the House and the Senate regarding dollar estimates of government programs are now going to be applied to a sweeping new law, an enabling act for the federal regulation of every aspect of health care.
The rules are a legislative equivalent of "sudden death overtime" in football. Under the "budget reconciliation" rules, only 20 hours of floor time for debate in the Senate are allowed. Given the scope of the new federal powers in the health care control bill, this means that there will be no time for close examination, debate, or constituent feedback on changes to the 2700-page document. All there will be time for are dozens of side-deals within the Democratic caucus and dozens of temporary pacts of eternal non-aggression between different factions of the Democratic caucus.
Under the Senate rules, this fast-track process only applies to disagreements over dollar amounts. Under the "reconciliation" process's "Byrd Rule," Senators can make a motion—a "point of order"—against any part of the reconciliation bill that does not address budgetary issues, against every extraneous add-on.
Under the sudden-death overtime rules, who is the final arbiter of what is or is not germane to the budget and what is or is not an extraneous add-on? The Senate Parliamentarian.
The health care control law "budget" changes will include a major expansion of the student aid entitlement in order to buy the votes of college students and new graduates whose habit of leftist thinking has not yet been deprogrammed by contact with the real world.
But this is not all that will be added during the illegal "budget reconciliation" push. Since this big push will probably be the last time that Obama, Pelosi, and Reid can supposedly get away with declaring anything they want to be a "budget" change, I predict that the 2700-page health care control bill to become a massive 4000-5000-page Christmas tree.
The leadership of the House and Senate are going to try to load up the "budget" change amendment to the health care control law with things like: an amnesty program for illegal aliens that targets poor, pro-Chavez Mexicans and central Americans, but excludes ambitious Pakistani small business owners and urban professionals with post-graduate degrees; "card check" that will eliminate secret ballots in union elections so union goons can "persuade" anti-union voters on a one-on-one basis; some kind of CO2 reduction control (via an authorization for the EPA, some kind of a mandatory national "renewable energy" mandate, or some kind of a CO2 cap-and-trade policy that applies only to the electrical power industry).
Expect total lawlessness—no 60-vote requirement to end debate and no debate of any kind—in the Senate "budget reconciliation process."
The left is charged up with their conquest of America's private health insurance companies. They have the taste of a nationwide power grab on their lips, and they're going to want, expect, and feel entitled to more, a lot more—and they're going to feel entitled to grab it in a hurry, before anyone can stop them.
Under this rule, the Senate Parliamentarian, Alan Frumin—a man that the American people did not elect—will be the final judge of whether a vast expansion of the Pell Grant student aid program can bypass the Senate's rules on ending debate. Alan Frumin will decide if "card check" can bypass the Senate rules on ending debate. Alan Frumin will decide if an amnesty program for illegal aliens can bypass the Senate rules on ending debate. Alan Frumin will decide if EPA funding to develop CO2 cap-and-trade regulations for the electrical power industry can bypass the Senate rules on ending debate.
All hail our new ruler, Alan Frumin!
Editor's Note: To this, Gene Barth provided the following response.
If it comes to pass, this spectacular orgy of enslavement will fully commit Americans to a Long War against the Left in this country. I think that we are already at that point. I know that I am.
Americans don't like to go to war. We would rather pursue normal lives in a thriving, free world. At the time of 9/11, Jack pointed out that knocking down iconic skyscrapers in the heart of Manhattan is what was needed to focus America's attention on the Islamist militants. Now, we will not take our eyes off of them until they are attenuated to the level of background noise.
In a similar way, Barack Obama and the Democrats' push for socialization of the economy represents a domestic cataclysm that will cause normal, freedom-loving Americans to commit to a Long Cultural War against the Left. We now understand that keeping the left off of our throats and then gradually pushing them down into the cultural noise will occupy a much bigger chunk of our lives in coming years than we would normally devote to politics.
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3. N-Word-Gate
by Jack Wakeland and Robert Tracinski
Editor's Note: The article below makes repeated reference to an old racial epithet as "the n-word." Now, we all know what that word is, so my first response was simply to reprint it as a full word, on the grounds that you are not children and do not need to be shielded from the ugly realities of life. But the "n-word" has acquired the status of a borderline obscenity, largely for a good reason: the now deeply ingrained cultural prohibition against racism. In fact, you can get in more trouble for using the "n-word" than you would for using a fully fledged obscenity like the "f-word." For that reason, I expect that spelling out the whole word could cause us problems with filters designed to block unsolicited message—e-mails known by another word we can't use; let's call is the "s-word." And in this hypersensitive era, even having the word printed out—no matter what the context—could potentially cause problems for subscribers who read TIA Daily at work. Hence the clumsy use of the politically correct placeholder, and this apology for using it.—RWT
The nationwide headline: tea party protesters in DC spit at members of the Congressional Black Caucus and called them [the n-word]. This story will be the only headline that the establishment press will carry about the tea party protest.
The central part of the story is an account by Congressional Black Caucus members John Lewis and Andre Carson that they were repeatedly called [the n-word] by members of the crowd as they walked by the Tea Party protesters. House Majority Whip James Clyburn, also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, who was some distance behind the two, says he heard the epithet, too. Based on initial reports, it appears that the statements that two of the congressmen made to the press were spontaneous and unrehearsed.
But these claims may be a fabrication, a deliberately coordinated act by the four Congressional Black Caucus members who made the accusation: Representatives John Lewis, Andre Carson, Emanuel Cleaver, and James Clyburn (the House Majority Whip).
In this video, the four men can be seen walking together in a group of eight, including some of their staffers.
The fact that they all walked so closely together through the tea party group in front of the Capitol Steps casts a different light on the men's stories about the supposed incident. The incident was supposed to have happened in front of the Capitol Steps during a one minute and 30-second period, the middle half of which is recorded on the above video.
In the video, there is no audio record of a group of Tea Party protesters chanting [the n-word] together 15 times. There is no audio or video record of any altercation with someone spitting at Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. There is no audio or video record of a DC policeman momentarily detaining the attacker, talking it over with Rep. Cleaver, and then letting him go.
Given these physical circumstances, we must conclude that there is no corroborating evidence that anything these four men accused the crowd of doing actually happened.
Given the history of the past 20 or 30 years of repeated instances of entirely fabricated claims of "racist acts" made by black leftists, we must infer that four of these Congressional Black Caucus members—leftists—could very well have made an entirely fraudulent accusation. It is entirely possible and reasonable to ask: did the four slander the tea party marchers on the DC Mall? Did they slander them in a deliberately coordinated act?
On the FOX Financial Network cable TV show, "America's Nightly Scoreboard" tonight, Andrew Breitbart observed that not one single video or audio of the shocking racist words or the assault have been posted at YouTube. He challenged some one to come forward with cell phone or camcorder video that shows the epithets and spit being hurled at the four black Congressmen. Mr. Breitbart challenged some one to come forward with video that shows heads turning with shock at [the n-word] being yelled. Are there videos showing the DC police detaining a protester and talking with Rep. Cleaver?
If a group of leftists had planted themselves among the tea party protesters to hurl the racist insults, Mr. Breitbart noted, they surely would have recorded the event and it would be posted on YouTube.
Andrew Brietbart noted that the entire body of the establishment press took the word of the four Congressional Black Caucus members as fact, as if no source independent of this four-man, self-corroborating team was necessary to establish the truth of the claims.
Editor's Note: Now here is my addition to Jack's note.
When I saw this story, I was immediately suspicious of it, because it does not fit with my experience of the tea party movement, where racism has been totally absent. But it does fit perfectly—too perfectly—with the Democratic Party's line of attack against the tea parties.
It is now becoming clear what this frame-up of the tea parties was meant to accomplish. Representative Lewis and his fellow conspirators were trying to stage a re-creation of the Selma civil rights march, in which blacks demanding their civil rights walked through a gauntlet of violent attacks. Forty-five years later, the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are still trying to cast themselves in the role of brave martyrs facing down ignorant rednecks.
Here are the passages, from the Washington Post report linked at the top of this article, that give the game away:
Democratic leaders and their aides said they were outraged by the day's behavior. "I have heard things today that I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to get off the back of the bus," said House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the highest-ranking black official in Congress.
And Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said in a statement, "On the one hand, I am saddened that America's debate on health care—which could have been a national conversation of substance and respect—has degenerated to the point of such anger and incivility. But on the other, I know that every step toward a more just America has aroused similar hate in its own time; and I know that John Lewis, a hero of the civil rights movement, has learned to wear the worst slurs as a badge of honor."
"This is not the first time the congressman has been called the 'n' word and certainly not the worst assault he has endured in his years fighting for equal rights for all Americans," said Rotert, Cleaver's spokesman.
This is how desperate the Democrats have become. The last really good thing the liberal Democrats did was their early backing for the civil rights movement (which was opposed, not by Republicans, but by Southern Democrats). So they have to keep re-living the one historical moment that gives them an aura of moral authority.
In this case, it may well turn out to have the opposite effect. If it is confirmed that this was a hoax perpetrated by the leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus, then it should be a major scandal. Let's call it "N-Word-Gate." It is an incident that removes every last vestige of President Obama's promise of "post-racial" politics, and it will further inflame public outrage against the Democrats—and give further credibility to the tea party movement.
Robert Tracinski writes daily commentary at TIADaily.com. He is the editor of "The Intellectual Activist (TIA)" and contributor to "The Freedom Fighter's Journal."
