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Ben Stein's Diary
Now There Is No Hope
And by the way, where is the Change?
Labor Day
I flew to Dallas today to give a
speech. The flight was uneventful except for a woman seated in
front of me who started talking at about 2 PM PDT and did not stop
talking at all — not once — for the whole flight. How can she do
that? She talked for four solid hours.
I checked into my wonderful hotel, the Gaylord Texan, and watched a show on Nat Geo about a man from America put into prison in the Soviet in 1976 for trafficking in heroin. Scary, but what a dope he was.
Then, a show on MSNBC hosted by my old pal, Chris Matthews, about Barack Obama. It was an extremely laudatory show, about how Mr. Obama tapped into all of young America’s wish to have Hope and Change rule the land.
Mr. Obama’s shining desire to have Hope and Change guide our politics was — supposedly — what got him elected.
Now, I know Chris Matthews. He is a very pleasant, smart, articulate man. Can he really say that Mr. Obama has brought about Hope and Change? What has he changed? We are far poorer than when he took office. Our national debt is far higher. We are still in a hopeless war in Afghanistan. Black people are still very much less well off than white people. What has Mr. Obama done that’s good?
Yes, he did get a universal health care law passed. But Mr. Nixon proposed a much more comprehensive, much more comprehensible plan in 1973! FORTY YEARS AGO!!!! Is Mr. Obama bragging that he finished something Nixon started four decades ago? I wrote that message to Congress for RN. The Democrats killed the bill. BAM! Dead on Arrival on Capitol Hill. Killed by Teddy’s spite.
So, where is the Hope and the Change? If you are a poor black woman with two kids and no man, where is the Hope? If you are a white woman abandoned with two kids, where is the Change?
For President Obama to promise Hope and Change was cynicism on a big scale. What was he going to do for the poor? For the illiterate? For the two million prisoners in our prisons? What was he going to do? All he could do was give black voters someone to believe in — and then do NOTHING for them, and (as Shelby Steele points out) make white people feel they are expiating their sins (their imaginary sins) of racism by casting a vote for him.
Mr. Obama’s insight — shaped by a lifetime of experience — that white voters would vote for him out of shame over the past and maybe even out of a wish to be cool and hip, was historic. But the result for Americans has been a disaster: a national debt approaching the point of no return and a far deeper cynicism than before. The change that has happened, as my brilliant pal John Coyne puts it, is that “….now there is no hope.” They are all scoundrels and the more they say they aren’t, the darker the tunnel and the light grows fainter.
God help us. I want to be back on Lake Pendoreille.
About the Author
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.
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Jack in Wi| 9.4.12 @ 7:07AM
Does this mean you are not voting for Obama in this election Ben? If you like Chris Mathews and thought Nixon's plan was a good idea I guess we don't agree on much. We do agree Obama has been a failure. I think that is a probably good. You also think we should be out of Afganistan now, another good idea. Have a nice day.
mzk| 9.5.12 @ 3:49AM
"I guess we don't agree on much".
No greater compliment has ever been paid to anyone, anywhere.
Gary B| 9.4.12 @ 8:16AM
Previous Obama voters are waking up in droves. When you've got nothing left but reality the path is clear - at least to most of us.
Question: Other than lemmings and liberals, what other species are genetically predisposed to mass suicide?
Cobalt| 9.4.12 @ 8:39AM
Obama's election to the presidency in 2008 was an example of style over substance.
Many of the people who voted for Obama were fools.
Buyer's remorse must be a real bitch.
Gretchen| 9.4.12 @ 4:22PM
Obama meant that we'd better HOPE he'd allow us to keep the CHANGE in our pockets!
Blauglas| 9.4.12 @ 4:40PM
Ben: Your comment one day during the 2008 event called an [so-called] "election"...was that many "liberals" would vote for bama because they were ashamed of slavery imposed by whites from the South. You hit the nail on the head, but were ominously silent forever more after your comment that one night on Fox News.
And for those fools who voted for the obummer, perhaps they have "seen the light" of the right. Sure sounds like it, but many of those fools must still be among the mezmerized walking dead following the bama pulpit sermons (gee, when did he ever work in "the job"?)...to strangely keep obummer no worse than neck-and-neck in the bogus polls, with the next POTUS, Mitt Romney.
Ben, there IS hope, and I hope you realize that the vote "for our Country" is for Mitt.
TeaPartyNow| 9.5.12 @ 4:23PM
Why? Mitt Romney hasn't given me any reason to believe that America will improve under him. Tell me, Blauglas, why is Mitt Romney better than obama? And please don't talk about how bad obama is, America clearly knows how bad obama is. We need better, and Romney is NOT IT!
stressman| 9.4.12 @ 5:35PM
Our dear friend (and obviously still, comedian) Ben Stein, appears to believe that there was no "before," as in "where the hell did Bush leave us before Obama?" He apparently also believes Rome was built in a day (I thought that was dispelled years ago) and that no hard work (aside from the ability to say "no") is needed to bring this country back from the brink. I encourage him to consider putting some thought into his derision of this government and help rather than hinder its progress. Other than that, may he live long and prosper.
chuck| 9.4.12 @ 8:15PM
The only way to "help" this government, is by changing it.
If you are old enough to remember Carter, when Reagan took over, he never blamed Carter for the 20% interest rates, double digit inflation, or the sorry standing we had in the world. He just fixed the problems, and we had 25 years of growth, which ended Nasty-assed Pelosi took over the House, and that shrimp punk-ass Reid took over the Senate.
Time for the empty chair to man up! Oops, he don't have the balls to, like the rest of you pansy liberals.
MTB| 9.4.12 @ 5:57PM
"Chris Matthews . . . is a very pleasant, smart, articulate man."
Uh, Ben, no he isn't.
Gary B| 9.4.12 @ 6:25PM
I'm sure Hitler was popular in his social circle, to0. Matthews is a screaming, venom-spewing, ideologue whom I'm sure gets high fives in DC salons. Increasingly, his ilk are essentially ranting at each other. His pay must be calculated according to sort of insult index because his legitimate audience is shrinking by the day.
mzk| 9.5.12 @ 3:46AM
Actually, as Paul Johnson pointed out, one reason for Hitler's popularity was his sense of humor. Karl Marx also.
mzk| 9.5.12 @ 3:46AM
Actually, as Paul Johnson pointed out, one reason for Hitler's popularity was his sense of humor. Karl Marx also.
mzk| 9.5.12 @ 3:46AM
Actually, as Paul Johnson pointed out, one reason for Hitler's popularity was his sense of humor. Karl Marx also.
mzk| 9.5.12 @ 3:53AM
Sorry, hit the button too many times, I guess. Yesterday it wouldn't post at all.
solidground| 9.5.12 @ 8:21AM
Right. And he proves it every time he opens his yap.
BobSmith223| 9.4.12 @ 6:12PM
Wow! You sound like a disgruntled Democrat! "Black people are still very much less well off than white people." As if a President or politics determines the economic status of a particular group or person! You, and your liberal-minded friends, need to realize that we are almost 50 years, and at least two generations, past civil rights legislation. There is no excuse for anyone not achieving some minimal level of education and economic status in our country. Sure, some people have it easier than others, but nobody is denied! Racism is just one of many excuses people use to justify their situation.
Gary B| 9.4.12 @ 6:30PM
Bob, I believe the culture in black communities holds back talented blacks more than any racism in our greater society. I've read terrible things about young black kids who have what it takes, but are literally targeted by their peers who sabotage them or otherwise hold them back. It's sad as hell. A cure for that must come from within. A local preacher is far better positioned to help out than any program cooked up in DC.
RNixon| 9.4.12 @ 7:52PM
Absolutely correct!
The required cultural changes must come from within.
Imposed change from the outside will never be accepted or work!!
Jean Francoir| 9.5.12 @ 2:39PM
And what is so unfortunate about the situation with the black communities is that they have the likes of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson constantly harping about the plight of young blacks. At the end of the day, Al and Jesse go back home to their mansions in the nicest part of town - they don't really care either. They make their money by keeping their own in poverty.
TeaPartyNow| 9.5.12 @ 4:18PM
Absolutely Jean. Poor blacks keep voting in the policy that holds them down. Liberalism belittles us all, so that its own size and power may grow.
Hugh Manatee| 9.4.12 @ 7:32PM
Mrs. Romney said "This man will not fail" - and I believe her. He'll win the election. He'll fix the massive damage done by the socialists.
Cheer up Ben!
TeaPartyNow| 9.5.12 @ 4:14PM
Sure Ben, stick your head up your donkey like Huge Manatee here, that'll make you feel better. Paint a socialist nation with pretty colors and spray flowery perfume on it, then we can all die looking smelling feeling like a million bucks. Good luck with all that.
Occam's Tool| 9.4.12 @ 8:20PM
RN proposed many stupid things domestically.
Like price controls and other idiotic things proposed by Ben's idiot for a father.
Occam's Tool| 9.4.12 @ 8:33PM
I think Romney will do VERY well.
Predictions: National Debt shrinking by the end of the 1st 4 years, employment back under 7 percent and falling. The trifecta would be Iran's oil taken over by the USA with the Mullahs' being cornholed daily, but I'll settle for NO NUCLEAR IRAN, whatever it takes.
Finally, Islam starting to go on its long and well deserved, retreat.
Kingofthenet| 9.4.12 @ 9:51PM
I can't wait for President Obama's second term, and what he say's to Bibi...
Bibi: We have this saying 'Never Again'
President Obama: I am going to make it my personal Mantra.
Bibi: Your idea of it isn't the same as mine, is it?
President Obama: Nope
Israel is on her OWN!
mzk| 9.5.12 @ 3:48AM
I wish we were on our own. But there is a lot of damage that Obama can still do to us, heaven forbid.
TeaPartyNow| 9.5.12 @ 4:11PM
So, you are saying that Romney is going to help America by doing as Hitler did. Slaughter a nation and take its belongings. Oil in Iran, in your mind. Ok., but who will pay for this war? And how can you guarantee that America will win?
Your predictions are fanatical nonsense. Oh, you are a Mitt Romney fan, that explains it.
megapotamus | 9.4.12 @ 9:04PM
Wow, not much content in that one. I can almost feel sorry for Obama, staring into the teeth of such vapid objections from yesterday's supporters. What was Obama supposed to do for the illiterate? I missed that one. As far as racial antagonisms, I don't really care in the least. How much more can whitey give the black citizenry? How long must we support a black underclass? Well, moral or political answers to these questions are immaterial. We are no longer fiscally capable of doing those things; minorities hardest hit. Too bad. We are nostalgic for Nixon? Only you, Benji. Only you. It is tough for the Lefties or Righties to get their head around the simple fact that Nixon was an ideological socialist, at least at the end of his career. Our current predicament is as much the fault of Nixonism as it is of The Great Society or The New Deal. This was his great disgrace and it is truly nauseating to hear an iconic figure at TAS champion not just the man or fault his foes but to denounce Obama as a weak socialist sister! And yet it is true. Yep. Reagan was also a socialist, just as Bloomberg put it recently. You can't have just a little bit of socialism. Not in America. Not anywhere. Jeez.
AhiaBoy| 9.4.12 @ 9:05PM
Write this prediction down: once the media help get Obama reelected, they will savage him with all the criticisms they held off during the past four years, and will continue over the remainder of his term, since, just like the President, they will "have more flexibility" then.
2blumutts| 9.4.12 @ 9:47PM
Please make it clearer to us how easy it is for you to remind us of Chris "Tingles" Mathews' wonderfulness, when night after night he is all so willing to display for yet the few who listen to him (possibly for the entertainment value), his liberalness gone looney?
Ken Puck | 9.4.12 @ 10:08PM
I have the highest regard for you, Mr. Stein, as I had for your father. But you should choose your friends more wisely. Don Quixote: "Tell me thy company, and I will tell thee what thou art."
effinayright| 9.4.12 @ 10:11PM
I've been reading Stein for years. I can't help but think that, like Bullwinkle of years ago, he is "so conFUUUZED!"
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Is this a form letter you use to sell your dog parts? Copy and paste it in the comments sections you find on the net?
Sonderegger | 9.5.12 @ 3:29AM
Mr. Obama's insight -- shaped by a lifetime of experience -- that white voters would vote for him out of shame over the past and maybe even out of a wish to be cool and hip, was historic. But the result for Americans has been a disaster: a national debt approaching the point of no return and a far deeper cynicism than before. The change that has happened, as my brilliant pal John http://www.chaussuresfree.com/ Coyne puts it, is that "....now there is no hope." They are all scoundrels and the more they say they aren't, the darker the tunnel and the light grows fainter.
mzk| 9.5.12 @ 3:52AM
I think Ben may be right. Chris may be highly intelligent, which makes his racism that much more serious.
More to the point, having grown up in the ethnic rivalry of the Ney York area, it is very likely that Chris is used to people, mostly urban Democrats, who really do think "Black" whenever they hear "welfare" or "food stamps". His mistake is in thinking that Republicans are as racist as the Democrats he's familiar with.
OregonBuzz| 9.5.12 @ 8:03AM
Mr. Stein, I have no idea how you could ever consider Chris Matthews "smart". He is a shill for the DemocRATS, and not a very good one at that. Your assessment of the Liar in Chief however, is right on the mark. You could have also mentioned that the LIC is a socialist at the minimum and an avowed Communist at the worst.
PHILLIPBERNAL| 9.5.12 @ 11:16AM
Use the words "hope" and "change" in a sentence.
1) I hope we change presidents.
2) I hope I receive some change from this de-valued dollar.
3) I hope my tax rates do not change next year.
4) I hope the weather does not change for my weekend BBQ.
Maybe there is something to this hopeychangey thing.
Nightwinger| 9.5.12 @ 11:55AM
So Ben - You think Willard & Co will somehow bring a magic transformation that will address all the woes you mention?
I seriously doubt that in Willard's stratified social atmosphere they REALLY care much about the fate of blacks in prison.
TeaPartyNow| 9.5.12 @ 4:00PM
Romney/Ryan is insane to put forth such a radical platform, while at the same time holding to Romneys all out refusal to fight for conservative values.
I agree with you too, on the fact that Romney/Ryan cares about $$$ and never any living breathing, real thing. Blacks in prison, a nation out of work, schools hell holes where children suffer and cry. Media lies, all of these things Romney/Ryan ignores. While only talking $$$. The right has got itself the worst ever award this year. Romney/Ryan is abysmal failure.
TeaPartyNow| 9.5.12 @ 3:54PM
There is even less hope in Romney/Ryan Ben. You just spoke about real problems that real Americans face every day. Something that Romney/Ryan can never do. Mitt Romney and the right are trying to be better than obama by being silent about America. The right is trying (with Romney/Ryan) to win by never fighting for anything. Today, I bet there are more people on the left willing to speak out about what is wrong with America in an honest way because they are sick of the same old failed ideas of liberals. But the answer is not silence on everything, which is the Romney/Ryan plan. The answer is to talk about what ails us, win the argument, win the fight, win the freedom, and win America.
Romney/Ryan are the worst that the right has ever put forward. They are always playing under liberals, and always playing to lose.
Perhaps we are missing the whole truth about the right. Perhaps the right prefers failure because it wants to exploit honest hard working Americans more than the left does. Perhaps there in no hope in either party.
There is only one path to recovery for America that is real. And it is in the American People.
If we continue to look to our despotic governments, as if they'd not bite our hand that feeds them, we will continue to draw back a bloody stump.
Russ| 9.5.12 @ 10:13PM
Must be two Chris Mathews on MSNBC. The one I've seen is rude, inconsiderate and acts more like an escapee from the looney bin! Ben, I think you've lost it!
hook| 9.6.12 @ 2:24PM
Ben,
I usually agree with you but not about Chris Matthews. He interrupts, he insults, and is intellectually dishonest--or ill informed. He does not have the smarts to have strong conservatives oppose him and his fawning over a totally incompetent and misguided president borders on some mental disorder.
If anyone ever proved we must protect freedom of speech it is Chrissy. My all time favorite is his saying REAPEATEDLY that he never said "tingle up my leg," when in point of fact he used the word "thrill." SORRY Chris. I think I could beat him in a normal debate and I am only a well educated political junkie who had the "luck" to be in school with Bernie Sanders and B. Dohrn.
I also do not think anyone who thinks highly of Jimmy Carter has all his marbles either and Chrissy does.
Hook
Allen Johnson| 9.7.12 @ 12:10AM
Obama's 2008 campaign of "hope and change" was largely fueled by the frustration of 8 years of President Bush's downward spiral into endless war and deep national deficit spending. After all, President Clinton for all his faults had gotten the economy and annual deficit spending under fairly good condition, something that Bush nose-dived with his wars, huge tax breaks, and give-away to big pharma. And Bush seemed to be the puppet of the energy industry and other big corporate meisters. McCain, on the other hand, did not seem to offer enough change, and his choice of Sarah Palin, whatever her charisma and beauty, did not resonate presidential wisdom.
So many of us, even those of us who are cynical and reserved, decided to go along with the dream, knowing we might pinch ourselves awake later.
Well, later has come. Yes, the Republicans have been vicious and stubborn in opposition, and yes, Obama's party has been tepid in support. And yes, the financial collapse did not start on his watch. Yes, plenty of excuses. But the upshot is that even before he took office, Obama was setting up his team in betrayal of many of the Americans who had placed their hopes and dreams on him. Rahm Emmanuel? The same bunch of bumpkins to lead us to financial recovery who had led us into ruin? The same old winless wars? A health bill that does not reform health or make it affordable but only salves the insurance industry at great expense?
Allen Johnson| 9.7.12 @ 12:11AM
--Continued---
Obama will not get my vote this time. Once fooled, shame on you. Twice fooled, shame on me. Not that I went in voting blind, but the electorate in 2008 was dreaming for a renewed America, and indeed we all should be dreaming of a renewed, moral, vigorous, generous-hearrted America. Obama failed from the get-go, as soon as his campaign rhetoric echoes had died down.
But not Romney, either. His pandering to reactionary forces within the Republican Party has exposed his character. If elected, Romney, too, will be tossed about by the special moneyed interests. The nation will continue to decline. And, sad to say, my cynicism will continue its unhappy course.
In The Way| 9.7.12 @ 10:41PM
Ben, If you want Hope, you can always drive down the road from Sandpoint!
PM Stanton| 9.12.12 @ 3:55PM
Sent this last week:
Thank you Mr. Stein for providing me support for my decision to vote for Obama this time.
By acknowledging Nixon's health plan was more comprehensive, you supported the statements I have heard that Obamacare is actually very moderate and (created by Heritage, & paralleling GHW Bush's & Romney's plans) in keeping with conservative doctrines. You also confirmed that Obama is a centrist/able to accomplish what Nixon, Clinton, & GHW Bush could not--certainly both a Change and grounds for Hope on other
fronts.
Further, I was enlightened by YOUR playing the race card--implying that switching from GW Bush to Obama was purely out of White guilt, accusing his campaign of being scoundrels apparently because of...what? White guilt that little White me never felt? Jumping to race with no discussions of race is the equivalent of my saying the only reason Romney is even close in this campaign is because of the racists preferring a White man.
As for Afghanistan? Into two wars vs. out of one and exiting the other, seems like Hope & Change.
Debt? I listened to conservative economist just today discussing the explosion of national debt as a result of the Bush years, discussing Obama's cutting government by 500k jobs, and Romney's plan as having no realistic chance of reducing debt as presented. As a mathematician, when numbers are getting worse but at a decreasing pace, I know that means the second derivative is positive and so is the outlook.