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Home Front: Culture Wars
Obama and the Burden of Exceptionalism
2011-09-04
Post-'60s liberals, with the president as their standard bearer, seek to make a virtue of decline.
By SHELBY STEELE

If I've heard it once, I've heard it a hundred times: President Obama is destroying the country. Some say this destructiveness is intended; most say it is inadvertent, an outgrowth of inexperience, ideological wrong-headedness and an oddly undefined character. Indeed, on the matter of Mr. Obama's character, today's left now sounds like the right of three years ago. They have begun to see through the man and are surprised at how little is there.

Yet there is something more than inexperience or lack of character that defines this presidency: Mr. Obama came of age in a bubble of post-'60s liberalism that conditioned him to be an adversary of American exceptionalism. In this liberalism America's exceptional status in the world follows from a bargain with the devil—an indulgence in militarism, racism, sexism, corporate greed, and environmental disregard as the means to a broad economic, military, and even cultural supremacy in the world. And therefore America's greatness is as much the fruit of evil as of a devotion to freedom.

Mr. Obama did not explicitly run on an anti-exceptionalism platform. Yet once he was elected it became clear that his idea of how and where to apply presidential power was shaped precisely by this brand of liberalism. There was his devotion to big government, his passion for redistribution, and his scolding and scapegoating of Wall Street—as if his mandate was somehow to overcome, or at least subdue, American capitalism itself.
Posted by:Eohippus Phater7165

#6  Ay-yup, Frank. Didn't have to psychic to figure that one out.
Posted by: Barbara   2011-09-04 22:15  

#5  saw that coming...
Posted by: Frank G   2011-09-04 21:05  

#4  The previous citation was from Sacha Guitry:
"Les cons, ça ose tout ! C'est même à çà qu'on les reconnaît"

And Ulsterman's terrible look at Obama:
http://newsflavor.com/politics/world-politics/white-house-insider-the-obama-plan/#ixzz1WlWO9aTd
Posted by: hotspur666   2011-09-04 20:32  

#3  Ulsterman's White House Insider:(Demon-Rat himself)

Insider: (Leans back – folds arms across chest) You and too many godd**n Americans don’t see it so don’t feel so bad. You know, other world leaders see it. Putin. Sarkozy. Merkel. Harper…Barack Obama is incapable of anything remotely resembling leadership, but he is also quite capable of the kind of dangerous arrogance that the very worst leaders in history possessed. (Pauses) Look, let me try and paint a picture for you – a clearer picture of what Obama really is. If you were to step into the White House and see the man at work, or whatever the hell it is he calls it. It’s not the same as what some of his own people are calling it – I know that for certain. The jokes, the sneers that go on behind the president’s back. You want to see that picture? The real Barack Obama? Maybe then you might understand what the man is capable of – really capable of.



"On reconnait les cons par ce qu'ils sont capable de tout"

"You recognize the cretins by that they are capable of anything"
Posted by: hotspur666   2011-09-04 20:26  

#2  The great thing about America is that *anybody* can grow up to be President. The tragedy is that sometimes happens.
Posted by: SteveS   2011-09-04 18:18  

#1  Barry Dunham is a lazy little shit who conned his way through life. And now simply unable to change.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2011-09-04 16:05  

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