…and that’s the point:
Do you hear yourselves? You’re Americans, not Europeans. You are the fruit of a nation constituted in liberty and based on the idea that the people can govern themselves. You should not wait for the king who sleeps beneath the hill.
Oh, I realize — I see — you look at 1980 and now, and you see the similarities and then you cry out “Romney is no Reagan.”
This is good, because Obama is no Carter. And our situation is in many ways far worse than it was.
But it is good, most of all, because Obama was bad enough that he woke the force that protects this country. It had been asleep for seventy years, sleeping beneath the dark hill of statism. It is now up, and roused and active. It is moving. The tea parties are proof of that, as is the massive swatting the Lords of Political Correctness got over the Chick-fil-A business.
Romney is a decent business manager. He’s a decent man. He likes America. He wants America to like him. He’s not going to actively dismantle our way of life, as will the one now in power. There will be no attacks on freedom of religion, no wild power grabs for the Internet, no executive orders that violate the laws of the land. He will not hanker for more “flexibility” so he can give more to Putin. And — this is petty but important for how the world sees us — he will neither apologize nor bow to foreign leaders.
Is he perfect? Oh, goodness, no. Is he exactly what we need? Probably not. Who is? Do you know the trouble we’ve got ourselves into by trusting presidents for this long? It’s a big hole. No one man can get us out of it. Only we can. And it will take time.
But that’s fine. He won’t be anointed by any gods. There will be no halos and no Greek columns. Instead, he’ll be the elected by the people and the people — the sovereign people of this free land — who are now awake will stand ready to make sure he knows it.
The Founders didn’t envision the president as a messiah, and neither should we. That kind of thinking was one of the reasons that our ancestors left Europe.
[Update]
Link is fixed, sorry!
Incorrect link that goes to the Obama Jobs Fraud article.
http://pjmedia.com/blog/romney-is-no-savior-and-thats-the-point/
Yesterday’s events struck me enough like 1979 in Tehran that I’ve reversed myself.
God help us.
The theory was, let the democrat screw up rather than some RINO, so the public can see them for what they are. The problem is the media is in such cover up mode that the blame will never be put where it should.
These are disgusting times.
Link used in this post is the same as the Obama-Job-Act post?
“That kind of thinking was one of the reasons that our ancestors left Europe.”
There must be a way to express this sentiment that is equally poetic and yet is inclusive of all patriotic americans, and not just the ones with European ancestry. “Political ancestry” seems clunky.
Hey Bob, you wouldn’t be trying to derail the conversation by being pedantic in an PC kind of way, would you?
I think Rand likes to think about language. I’m not criticizing his sentiment. But improving how the sentiment is worded seems like a challenge, and the reward is that you can avoid sounding like an inadvertent racist.
An inadvertent racist? Is that anything like being an inadvertent idiot?
How about this:
“These are tired and old big government ideas. Ideas that people come to America to get away from. Ideas that threaten to make America more like the rest of the world, instead of helping the world become more like America.”
Yes, I think that’s quite good.
Bob,
Normally I am a bit more sympathetic to you than many here. I don’t usually agree with you, but I get the impression that you are trying to make intelligent and respectful points.
This time, however, you are simply being silly. Nitpicking at a comment witha clear meaning in the interest of improving the sentiment is expressed is almost the very definition of trollish nonsense. It puts you in the unworthy company of pea-brains like Jim, and I don’t believe that you truly belong there. Some here are too harsh in their interactions with you (though I will leave that to them to judge), but it is times like this that I am less sympathetic to you, and more to them.
I believe that you can do better.
Imagine you’re a rising star in the libertarian blogosphere, and you asked to fly to another state to give a speech at a Tea Party get-out-the-vote rally. You write your speech, and it concludes with rousing words “That kind of thinking was one of the reasons that our ancestors left Europe!”
Sounds great, right?
Now, you’re at the rally. You’ve been ushered backstage. You’re about to go on. The crowd sounds enthusiastic. You peek out from behind the curtains at the audience. Surprise! Due to the demographics of the local area, they’re all Chinese-Americans.
Do you give any thought to changing the words of the speech?
—
Where I’m coming from: I was the only Jewish kid in my whole town. There was an assumption that everyone did certain things that, no, actually, not everyone did. It was off-putting, especially when the assumption was made when it really didn’t have to be made. If you’re doing math problems at school, the teacher doesn’t have to questions that start by asking you to list the number of Christmas presents you received last Christmas and then divide by 3. Yes, a request to divide by zero is a learning opportunity, but it was an unnecessarily off-putting assumption on the part of a math teacher who I was pre-disposed to like.
So, I don’t know exactly what it is like to not have ancestors who came from Europe; mine did. But I do know what it is like have everyone assume you’re in a group when you’re not.
You can say I was “concern trolling”, but my comments do come from the heart here. When I read what Rand wrote, my first thought was “well, no, not every American comes from Europe”. Since I’m a liberal, people here don’t care what I think. And if you care what libertarians think, well, I’m sure you can find a non-white libertarian who says he or she is fine with what Rand wrote. But I bet I could find plenty of libertarians who aren’t fine with it, because it makes an unnecessarily off-putting assumption.
Finally, I think Jim is smarter than me. And he tries hard to be civil, and he enriches the commentariat, and you’re foolish if you don’t value his contributions.
I mixed up my description of the math problem. It was “divide by the number of Christmas presents you received”. You get the idea.
This country was founded on values established by people whose ancestors had left Europe. That is not racism (like most things that the left claims are racism), it is a cultural and historical reality. If people came from other parts of the world came here to share that tradition, all the better
I know you think that, and I know that’s what you wanted to say. And I agree with you.
And similarly, my math teacher was a nice guy who meant no offense whatsoever.
I think my math teacher could have tried harder to not give offense (to a kid, about childish issues), and I think you could have picked better words to not give offense (to likeminded Americans, about American issues.)
Bob,
To be honest, I believe that when comes to America, and becomes an American, one inherits the tradition and background of our founders. Hence when we talk about our ‘ancestors coming from Europe’, we are talking about America’s ancestors, not our personal ones. America is unique in that sense…people come here to be a part of it, and we should treat it that way. So no, if I were talking to a bunch of Americans who came here from China (or Africa, or Britain or Poland or ….) I would give the same speech. Americans who came here from China deserve the same inheritance that all the others get, I would not deny them that.
As to your background, I too was the only Jewish (Ok, 1/3 Jewish, 1/3 Arab, 1/3 Irish-Catholic – it is a very strange family) kid in my town in the South. Trust me, I know what it is like to be an outsider (we moved around a LOT as well, which was just soooooo much fun), but one thing I learned from my experiences was that one doesn’t sweat the small stuff. We all bring something new to the party, and rather than worry about what I didn’t share with my fellow children, I found new things to share with them. That is the essense of what America is…we all bring something new to the country, and it makes us stronger, better, etc. for the sharing. The whole PC version of engineered sensitivity walls us off into separate worlds, and weakens us by destroying that sharing dynamic.
As for nobody caring what you think because you are a liberal, you do us a disservice. Some here aren’t as gracious as they might be (it isn’t as if you are like Jim or Chris, who quite frankly in my eys forfeited any presumption of civility a long time ago), but the fact that you are engaged on the level of ideas by many here suggests taht you are indeed taken seriously. I don’t agree with Rand on all topics, but that is no reason not to respect him, and the same goes for the rest of the people I find here. By and large, you tend to present arguments that are thoughtful and substantive, and while we don’t agree all (or even much) of the time, you are not someone to be dismissed. That is precisely why i found the whole comment (not concern trolling) regardiing ‘our ancestors from Europe’ so off-putting…you typically are better than that.
“Finally, I think Jim is smarter than me. And he tries hard to be civil, and he enriches the commentariat, and you’re foolish if you don’t value his contributions.”
Whoah, don’t sell yourself short there Bob-1.
I do value Jim’s comments as well as yours and Chris’. You guys are good sports and I hope that all of you stick around. I don’t agree with everything you guys say but perhaps more than I admit to because shut up.
I think both you and Rand (below) made good points.
to a kid, about childish issues
Maybe he was a better teacher than you realize. Perhaps if you hadn’t been so intent on being offended you might have realized that.
This country was founded by offspring of the Enlightenment, which the Left is now trying to reverse.