We often hear that people live in
bubbles. This is particularly true of the Left: the intelligentia, academia,
Hollywood, snowflakes, and a significant portion of the mainstream media. I
think it was Pauline Kael film critic of The
NewYorker who once said she couldn’t understand why Richard Nixon was
elected president, because she didn’t know a single soul who had voted for him.
She definitely lived in a bubble.
Here’s another example. The cover
story of the January-February issue of The
Atlantic was a 22-page mini biography of Barack Obama entitled, “My President
Was Black” by a fellow named Ta-Nehisi Coates. As one might imagine, the
article was totally one-sided in promoting Obama to nothing short of sainthood,
while beating up on whites, especially those who voted for Trump. “For eight
years Barack Obama walked on ice and never fell.” Nary a mention of the multiple
scandals of his administration nor of his catastrophic domestic and foreign
policies. The best word I can come up with to describe the piece is “emetic.”
I was interested in the responses to
this article in the following March issue of The Atlantic. Sure enough, the letter-writers were gushing in their
compliments for Coates’s work; one went so far as to describe Trump voters as “the
worst monsters that humans can conjure up.”
Speaking of monsters, what really caught
my eye was a boxed feature of the answers to a question asked of the magazine’s
readers, “Who is the worst leader of all time?” The top vote-getter, No. 1, was
Adolph Hitler. OK. It’s not hard to argue with that pick. Now I’ll skip to No.
3, Napoleon Bonaparte. Really? Napoleon was one of the greatest military
leaders in history and a marvelous administrator. Maybe I’m biased because of
my French ancestry. Incidentally, my grandfather was named Louis-Napoleon, and
his first-born son, my godfather, was christened Napoleon. Obviously, my
ancestors didn’t think Napoleon was that bad.
No. 4 on the list is Nicholas II of
Russia, a leader who was replaced by a Communist regime. But Joseph Stalin, a
monster who killed over 20 million of his people does not make the list, nor
does Mao, another famous Communist who exterminated untold millions. No. 5 is
Neville Chamberlin. What? The readers couldn’t find anyone else in the history
of the world that was worse than Neville Chamberlin? Incredible.
But what is even more incredible is the
man in the No. 2 spot. Yes, I did skip this slot for effect. Because it proves
my point about the people in the Left’s bubble. Are you ready for this? Sit
down. The readers’ pick for the second worst leader of all time is none other
than George W. Bush.
‘Nuf said.
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