Comments on: The Limits of Soft Power

By: Bill the Shoe

Bill the Shoe — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:10:20 +0000

We have indeed seen it before, in the three cases mentioned and others (most notably Abraham Lincoln–Bensel’s _Yankee Leviathan_ is well-researched although a tedious read). However, there is always hysteresis–the reaction never returns the system to its starting point, and some of the changes will withstand the “rollback.”

By: MaxDamage

MaxDamage — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:48:52 +0000

The nice thing about progress is it implies an advancement towards a goal.

Obama promised us change. That merely means movement, for or against a particular goal is not even suggested. He never promised progress or a goal.

Which should not come as a suprise to anybody capable of parsing language and a knowledge of his record of merely voting present.

I like change as much as the next guy, I’d just prefer it be in a direction is all.

– Max

By: MaxDamage

MaxDamage — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:41:22 +0000

Now, OldT6, what makes you think the media believes it has any blame here? They trumpeted his intelligence, his achievements, his qualification. When he screws up, obviously it will be the fault of the opposition. Probably Glenn Beck. Or Rush Limbaugh. Or they’ll find somebody.

Asking the MSM to back down on a claim is kind of like asking a dog to quit bringing you that slobber-encrusted fossil chew-toy he adores so much — maybe it smells bad and perhaps it will kill you to touch it, but to the dog it’s a gift he’d like to offer.

With the MSM, Obama is a gift they’ve no interest in going against.

– Max

By: Blacksmith

Blacksmith — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:28:05 +0000

Virgil, I hate to disagree, but we have seen precisely all of this at least once before. Woodrow Wilson seized every power you describe and more during the Great War, and we managed to beat nearly all of it back after he shuffled off the stage. Roosevelt tried to add plenty (he went so far as to actually call his czars, dictators!). A lot of that was pruned back after WW2. Johnson added some while the nation was otherwise distracted, and it too was eventually rolled back. Men come, men go. So too with their “legacies.” It won’t be easy, and I can guarantee that rolling back this broad-front overreach will definitely suck (in the wallet if nowhere else), but we’ve beaten back worse. If nothing else, recall and take heart from Sun-Tzu: “If the opponent is strong everywhere, then everywhere he is weak.” This broad front isn’t very deep, which is why they tried it as a fly-by-night operation. They failed.

By: claudio

claudio — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:45:06 +0000

Looking at how much “progress” we’ve made since Jan, I’m really afraid of where we will be in another 3 years. Really am.

By: Dust

Dust — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:38:40 +0000

#$#%#$*&! amateur empty suit. VX, I fear your accessment is dead nuts on. BTW, that tingle in Whiffleball Matthews’s leg was sciatica.