We Are Not Worthy
Obama thinks you’re soft and lazy. Once again you have let him down. Or, as Rich Lowry puts it, “The president’s “lazy” comment is one of a series of remarks carrying an undercurrent of disapproval of the country he is so luckless to govern.”
Back in September Shelby Steele looked at the bigger picture by examining Obama’s distaste for American exceptionalism. Steele defines exceptionalism as the result of a “difficult rigor” based on individual initiative and responsibility.
“Anti-exceptionalism has clearly shaped his “leading from behind” profile abroad—an offer of self-effacement to offset the presumed American evil of swaggering cowboyism”
“At home the values that made us exceptional have been smeared with derision.”
“As a president, Barack Obama has been a force for mediocrity. He has banked more on the hopeless interventions of government than on the exceptionalism of the people. His greatest weakness as a president is a limp confidence in his countrymen. He is afraid to ask difficult things of them.”
In other words he’s just not that into you.
Chip,
I read the Shelby Steele article. Reinforces to me that Americans are best when faced with a challenge – but leadership needs to shape that challenge and inspire us. We lack that today, I am afraid.
Terry Bedell