Harry Reid, Herman van Rompuy and REALLY Big Government

Harry Reid has been in the news lately, as he tries to push through his massive version of the health care bill before people find out what it says.

Mark Steyn looks at the bigger picture concerning growing statism, weaving several trains of thought into a coherent piece comparing Barak Obama, Herman van Rompuy and Harry Reid. A short work of art which is interesting just for its structure, whether or not you agree with him. Read the whole thing. Excerpts:

Rich Lowry, my boss at National Review, writes that Obama has become a "crashingly banal" bore. The good news is that he "is not nearly as dull as, say, Herman van Rompuy."

Who?

Oh, come on. Herman van Rompuy. He's some Belgian cove who was recently appointed "president" of "Europe," whatever that means. . .

Steyn then writes about how van Rompuy was chosen to head up the EU, in part, because he was not charismatic. "By contrast, the point of Barack Obama is to dazzle. . . . As Evan Thomas of Newsweek drooled a mere six months ago, Obama was 'standing above the country ... above the world. He's sort of God.'" Plus, Steyn makes an excursion into satire concerning the repetitive rhetorical patterns which have emerged in President Obama's speeches. Not to be missed if you want to understand the way the President's speeches now affect various audiences.* Then:

To return to what's-his-name, the Belgian bloke, van Rumpoy, just because he's a nonentity doesn't mean he's not effective. In his acceptance speech the other week, he declared: "2009 is the first year of global governance."

Did you get that memo?

Me, neither. But he has a point. The upgrading of the G20, Gordon Brown's plans for planetary financial regulation, and the Copenhagen climate summit (whose inauguration of a transnational bureaucracy to facilitate the multitrillion-dollar shakedown of functioning economies would be the biggest exercise in punitive liberalism the developed world has ever been subjected to) are all pillars of "global governance." Right now, if you don't like the local grade school, you move to the next town. If you're sick of Massachusetts taxes, you move to New Hampshire. Where do you move to if you don't like "global governance"? What polling station do you go to to vote it out?

America has its Herman van Rumpoys, too. Harry Reid is really the Harry van Reidpoy of Congress. Very few people know who he is or what he does. But, while Obama continues on his stately progress . . . Reid's beavering away, advancing the cause of van Rumpoy-scale statism.

The news this week that the well-connected Democrat pollster, Mark Penn, received $6 million of "stimulus" money to "preserve" three jobs in his public relations firm to work on a promotional campaign for the switch from analog to digital TV is a perfect snapshot of Big Government. . .

Because of the disconnect between rhetoric and reality in many of the President's speeches, many conservatives noted their surprise and relief at the realism and humility in President Obama's acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize. But Steyn found one piece of characteristic "dazzle" that the speechwriters left in:

. . . Can you believe this line made it into the speech?

"I do not bring with me today a definitive solution to the problems of war."

Well, there's a surprise. When you consider all the White House eyeballs that approve a presidential speech, it's truly remarkable that there's no one to scribble on the first draft: "Scrub this, Fred. It makes POTUS sound like a self-aggrandizing buffoon." It's not even merely the content, but the stylistic tics: "I do not bring with me" – as if I, God of Evan Thomas' Newsweek, am briefly descending to this obscure Scandinavian backwater bearing wisdom from beyond the stars.

Obama's sagging numbers are less a regular presidential "approval rating" than a measure of the ever-widening gulf between the messianic ballyhoo and his actual performance. . .

Maybe President Obama can pull out of his recent pattern of over-the-top, repetitive rhetoric. The speech in Oslo was a hopeful sign. Time will tell. Meamwhile we need to watch people like Harry Reid and Herman van Rompuy, working away steadily and usually quietly to increase the power of people like them over our lives.

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* Historical note: When Mark Steyn was blogging about Barak Obama's speech at the Democratic Convention which put his career on fast-forward, Steyn's reaction was something to the effect that "The Republicans are in trouble." He was looking toward the future career of Obama. Steyn's assessment of Obama's effectiveness in speaking, especially in light of his over-exposure, has changed some in the article linked above. Several factors probably contributed to his markedly different reviews.

If you're interested in the President's speeches, you might also see if you can still detect evidence of The Obama Code, "a moral vision and a view of unity" in President Obama's recent speeches. The "code" was not expounded by Obama - it was "discovered" by Professor George Lakoff, one of the Left's leading teachers of techniques for deceptive and influential rhetoric. The ends justify the means, you know.

The "Seven Crucial Intellectual Moves" of the Obama Code are:

1. Values Over Programs
2. Progressive Values Are American Values
3. Biconceptualism and the New Bipartisanship
4. Protection and Empowerment
5. Morality and Economics Fit Together
6. Systemic Causation and Systemic Risk
7. Contested Concepts and Patriotic Language