Not a nihilist, not incompetent.

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am a great admirer of historian Victor Davis Hanson. Any presidential candidate who promised to make VDH his chief advisor would have my enthusiastic support. therefore, it came as a surprise to me to read another person I admire, neo-neocon, pointing out that a recent column by VDH on Obama was off the mark. Some excerpts from her blog post:

I admire Victor Davis Hanson’s writing and thought, and very often I agree with him.

But this time? Not so much.

Hanson lists a host of ills that the Obama years have wrought, and then asks:

Was all this due to incompetence or nihilism?

My contribution to solving the Obama puzzle can be found on this blog many times over (including the post to which I just linked). The summary, simplified version is: he is an ideologue, a man of the left, to be exact. He is a narcissist with a supreme confidence in himself. He is ruthless and focused and knows the use of propaganda. In the interests of that propaganda, he has perfected his presentation of a certain persona, and he doesn’t care if non-supporters see through him; what’s important is that he reach enough other people to accomplish his goals. One main goal is to move America ever leftward, to change its demography so that he creates a permanent majority for the now-ever-more-leftist Democratic Party. Another is to burnish his own “legacy” by doing the first. Still another is to punish America for its supposed sins and bring it down a peg (or actually, as many pegs as possible) in terms of world influence and reputation.

Those are not the actions of a nihilist. And if you see them as his goals, he has not been incompetent in his attempts to reach them.

But it won’t matter, will it, if he’s changed the demographics enough that yellow dog Democrats will vote for them anyway.

He lost both houses of Congress.

And completely stymied them by either going over their heads or vetoing what they pass. So it also doesn’t matter.

The legislatures and governorships are overwhelmingly Republican.

That’s true, and I am pretty sure he doesn’t consider it a good thing. But again, what power do they have against an ever-growing, ever-stronger, federal government? And just one more liberal SCOTUS appointment would weaken them still further.

Read more here.