Friday, March 26, 2010

Angry America

Here's someone not holding back. Too good not to paste in its entirety;

American Exceptionalism, RIP

By Monica Crowley

Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.

-Jean-Jacques Rousseau

After Sunday night's health care spectacle dressed up as a "vote" in the House of Representatives, the American people have been shackled by a new set of chains. The United States of America - once great, grand and free - is on the path to becoming just another country. We were once the beacon of liberty, a nation that didn't just represent individual freedom but celebrated and protected it. The improbable defeat of the British that led to our dazzling founding made us exceptional from the outset. Our Constitution was quickly recognized, admired and loathed as an exceptional document of freedom. We survived intact a brutal Civil War that would have destroyed another country. And then, during two world wars, we crushed tyrannical enemies that wanted to snuff out our special liberty. We emerged stronger and, in turn, strengthened our exceptional status.

We have been the "shining city on a hill" that achieved superpower pre-eminence in a very short period of time because we were unique: The American people had a fierce passion for liberty, and our political system - based on limited government and individual freedom - was great because it was good. It allowed us to thrive, prosper and set ourselves apart from every run-of-the-mill nation.

No longer.

What the Democrats did last weekend was not just pass a horrendously expensive, corrupt and destructive health care bill.

They took a big chunk out of our exceptionalism.

They are turning us rather quickly into France. Or Great Britain. Or any other Western European nation that was once great but no longer enjoys that status.

And that's the point. President Obama said last year that he believed in "American exceptionalism, the way the British believe in British exceptionalism and the way the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism." Meaning: he doesn't believe in American exceptionalism. He believes we're an arrogant nation, which is why he has been obsessed with apologizing for America and bowing before foreign potentates. He believes that the United States, with its big guns and its big money, has thrown its weight around too much, been too aggressive, pushy and demanding and too insensitive to how our actions affected others. We need to atone for that, he believes, by being taken down a notch or two. He intends to do the takedown.

According to Mr. Obama, exceptionalism is so yesterday, an uncool, antiquated and ultimately destructive notion. Rather than be first among many, we should simply be one of many. Just another country on the United Nations' roll call. Nothing special. Equal to, say, Myanmar.

He is accomplishing this by expanding government in unprecedented ways. It's unprecedented for us, although it's certainly not unprecedented in the kinds of countries into which he's trying to turn us. By expanding government into every nook and cranny of your life - through health care, cap-and-trade, and education policy - he will exponentially grow the base of people dependent on the federal government. By doing that, he will create a permanent Democratic majority. (This is why he will take up amnesty for illegal immigrants as soon as the ink is dry on the health care bill this week.)

The objective: a massive welfare state, a la France and Greece - both of which, by the way, are sinking fast under their monstrous debts. One of the keys to unexceptionalism is a crippled currency. By transferring millions more Americans to the public dole through health care entitlements, he is growing our debt to levels that will bring about the end of the dollar as the exceptional cornerstone of the world's monetary structure. We'll soon be going hat in hand to the Chinese (the way the Greeks are going hat in hand to the European Union), begging for economic salvation. America as uniquely free? Not anymore.

This is why most Americans are not going to settle for anything less than the full monty: absolute and total repeal of Obamacare. Most if not all Republicans will run on repealing it. That's swell, but we have two conditions: (1) that they actually mean it and aren't just spewing "fiscal responsibility" rhetoric to get elected and then, once in office, backtrack from working for full repeal, and (2) there are to be no exceptions in any repeal. No exemptions for subsection this or that. No "well, that part isn't so bad" or "let's only throw out the bad parts." The entire thing is the bad part. The whole bill should be deemed an unconstitutional, criminal act. It must be repealed in toto.

Health care "reform" was never about health care. It was about expanding government into every part of your life as an excuse to confiscate more and more of your private property, strip you of your constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and remake America into a two-bit, second-rate, debt-laden European socialist backwater.

Sunday night, Mr. Obama said, "This is what change looks like." The change to which he refers is the change to unexceptionalism. Note to the president and congressional Democrats: We are exceptional Americans, and you are wholly unexceptional thieves of freedom. We want our liberty and exceptionalism back. We're throwing off the chains.

Monica Crowley is a nationally syndicated radio host, a panelist on "The McLaughlin Group" and a Fox News contributor.


(Hat tip The Freedom Foundation)

13 comments:

JCUKNZ's blog said...

This reminds me of the screaming child just out of the womb. Obama seems to have delivered America into the circle of civilised nations who look after their sick. Though sadly instead of creating a genuine healthcare system he has forced the American people into the hands of the con merchants, the insurance companies. More on my own blog.

KG said...

Beautiful! And every word rings true.

KG said...

"Obama seems to have delivered America into the circle of civilised nations who look after their sick."

What a load of unadulterated tripe. If you look at the uninsured Obama and his fellow marxists are so fond of talking about, you'll find they consist mainly of the young- who are seldom inclined to buy health insurance anyway-and illegal immigrants, who ought never to be subsidised by law-abiding, taxpaying Americans.

Macdoctor has an excellent post on this totalitarian outrage.
You leftoids won't be content until we all have healthcare on a par with the foul, murderous NHS in Britain. Anyone who thinks the State can run healthcare better than the private sector should take a look at that disaster.

KG said...

Ah yes, State-run healthcare..
NHS porters and cleaners can snoop on your medical records
As many as 140,000 non-medical staff, including porters and housekeepers, have access to sensitive NHS patient files, it emerged last night.
and:
Number of NHS bureaucrats increases SIX TIMES as fast as number of nurses
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

But of course, Obamacare will be different, yes?

Lucy said...

Excellent. I agree with every word.

Unfortunately the majority of American people voted in a socialist President with a socialist agenda (even if most of them didnt have a clue what living in a socialist country would mean)and he is acting exazctly as you would expect.

BTW JCUKNZ you are a pratt.

Anonymous said...

Cut through the rhetoric and you discover America is just another country awash with corporate/polictical corruption,nepotism,massive social disorder through crime/drugs/poverty And to top it off America must be one of the most indebted nations on the face of the earth. It contiues to borrow trillions of dollars to fund questionablw wars around the globe with no end to any conflict in sight.

A bastion of freedom summed up by the old adage of "Truth Justice and the American Way is just picture post card rubbish.

Dirk

KG said...

Dirk, perhaps you'd care to point to another country which has liberated millions, has poured money into the reconstruction of Europe and Japan, has given untold billions in foreign aid and disaster relief, which has earned more Nobel prizes for science, has kept the world's sea lanes policed for more than fifty years, which pours billions into space projects and makes the results of those available at no cost, worldwide....
And the list goes on. And on.

All wars are "questionabe" to somebody or other. If we went to war today against Adolf Hitler there'd be a bunch of slimy leftists whining about it. And while you're talking about "questionable" wars, why not mention Saddam's mass graves? Or Pol Pot's?
Nah..that wouldn't suit the "America bad" meme, would it?

Lastly--the first four lines of your comment could equally well be applied to NZ.
Have you been to America, experienced it first-hand? If not I'd suggest you take a look in person. The reality is for the vast majority of Americans is very, very different to what you seem to believe..

Anonymous said...

We'll soon be going hat in hand to the Chinese

Duh. They've been going hat in hand to China for years and years and years.

Real reform wouldn't stop with Obamacare - the US must urgently roll back at least to before the Great Depression, before the New Deal and the Great Society, back at least to the mid 1800s, if they wish to be truly free.

KG said...

True enough, Anonymous. The Republicans are no friends of small government and liberty either.

Anonymous said...

KG I reguarly travel to America. 5 times in the last 8 years. Average stay 6 weeks.

I have logged nearly 25 thousand miles driving;riding around the country. Texas, New mexico and Oregon my favourite states.

I admire and own classic American cars, and motorbikes.

My favourite authors are American, Larry McMurtry, James lee Burke, Harper Lee and Truman Capote to name a few.

I grew up on a diet of cowboy and cops and robbers movies.

I have many good friends in America and they have showered me with their generosity. But generaly speaking I think the average American dumb because they are suckers for the rhetoric.

I respect your comments KG, but I stand by mine.

Dirk

Jack said...

the first four lines apply to NZ quite well and I'd add a bit more: insular, protectionist and xenophobic and far more than the Americans.

KG said...

"But generaly speaking I think the average American dumb because they are suckers for the rhetoric."

Well...yes! But that remark could be applied to the voters in any country.

Nevertheless, America is still be best exemplar of liberty and principled action we have.
(I'm very glad to hear you've enjoyed America as much as I have Dirk. I trained with them many years ago and came to respect and admire them.)

Anonymous said...

But that remark could be applied to the voters in any country.


Monaco? Hong Kong? China?

There are alternative models - and guess what - they give much much better results.