Truth is not the point, nor is the purpose of Obama’s “permission structure” analysis merely to explain why his legislative program has stalled. Instead, it is to define the president’s conservative opposition as out of the mainstream of American society. Obama’s opponents, so the logic goes, are so out to lunch that their opinions should not be taken seriously.

◼ Define and Conquer: Obama's mobilization of bias - Jay Cost/Weekly Standard

Social scientists call this the mobilization of bias. Marxists refer to it as the establishment of cultural hegemony. More plainly, it is a common trick pulled by Team Obama any time they are in a jam: Define your opponents in such a way that their views are not really taken seriously.

...His disclaimers lauding sensible centrism aside, Barack Obama is the most partisan president since at least Richard Nixon, and maybe even since Harry Truman. He seems to have a visceral dislike of his opponents, deep in his bones, and his political strategy since the spring of 2008 has been to win by disqualifying them altogether.

This suggests no grand bargain to deal with our looming problems will be forthcoming. There will be no Obama version of Ronald Reagan’s 1986 tax reform or Bill Clinton’s 1996 welfare reforms. Team Obama is so committed to partisan warfare that such a breakthrough seems improbable. Conservative reformers who desperately want to fix the nation’s broken public policy will just have to wait this hyper-partisan president out.