President Obama’s State of the Union address was disgusting.
The president began with a moving tribute to the armed forces and their accomplishments. But as he has done many times now, he celebrated martial virtues not to rally support for the military, but to cover himself in glory — he killed Osama bin Laden! — and to convince the American people that they should fall in line and march in lockstep.
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He said of the military: “At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They’re not consumed with personal ambition. They don’t obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together. Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example. Think about the America within our reach.”
That is disgusting.
What Obama is saying, quite plainly, is that America would be better off if it wasn’t America any longer. He’s making the case not for American exceptionalism, but for Spartan exceptionalism.
It’s far worse than anything George W. Bush, the supposed warmonger, ever said. Bush, the alleged fascist, didn’t want to militarize our free country; he tried to use our military to make militarized countries free.
Indeed, Obama is upending the very point of a military in a free society. We have a military to keep our society free. We do not have a military to teach us the best way to give up our freedom. Our warriors surrender their liberties and risk their lives to protect ours. The promise of American life for Obama is that if we all try our best and work our hardest, we can be like a military unit striving for a single goal. I’ve seen pictures of that from North Korea. No thank you, Mr. President.
Of course, Obama’s militaristic fantasizing isn’t new. Ever since William James coined the phrase “the moral equivalent of war,” liberalism has been obsessed with finding ways to mobilize civilian life with the efficiency and conformity of military life. “Martial virtues,” James wrote, “must be the enduring cement” of American society: “intrepidity, contempt of softness, surrender of private interest, obedience to command must still remain the rock upon which states are built.” His disciple, liberal philosopher John Dewey, hoped for a social order that would force Americans to lay aside “our good-natured individualism and march in step.”
This is why Obama’s administration believes a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. This is why Obama has been prattling about “Sputnik moments” and sighing over his envy of China and its rulers. This is why his spinners endeavored to translate the death of bin Laden as some sort of vindication of his domestic agenda: because he cannot lead a free people where he thinks they should go.
At the end of his address, Obama once again cast the slain bin Laden as the Vercingetorix to his Caesar. (Vercingetorix was the defeated Gaulic chieftain whom Caesar triumphantly paraded through Rome.) “All that mattered that day was the mission. No one thought about politics. No one thought about themselves,” Obama rhapsodized.
The warriors on the ground “only succeeded . . . because every single member of that unit did their job. . . . More than that, the mission only succeeded because every member of that unit trusted each other — because you can’t charge up those stairs, into darkness and danger, unless you know that there’s somebody behind you, watching your back. So it is with America.”
“This nation is great because we worked as a team. This nation is great because we get each other’s backs.”
No. Wrong. It is not so with America. This nation isn’t great because we work as a team with the president as our captain. America is great because America is free. It is great not because we put our self-interest aside, but because we have the right to pursue happiness.
I don’t blame the president for being exhausted with the mess and bother of democracy and politics, since he has proved so inadequate at coping with the demands of both. Nor do I think he truly seeks to impose martial virtues on America. But he does desperately want his opponents to shut up and march in place. And he seems to think this bilge will convince them to do so.
What I can’t forgive, however, is the way he tries to pass off his ideal of an America where everyone marches as one as a better America. It wouldn’t be America at all.
I like Jonah Goldberg, but I think he is reaching with his article. He's distorting Obama's words to mean something other than which was intended. The President used the military's bravery and resolve as an analogy for American teamwork, and while that might be a bit cravenly opportunistic, it's not sinister.
I am going to second AVM's comment. I think Obama was referring to the bitter politics and disagreements over the last couple years between conservatives and liberals and asking, "can't we all just get along?" I think it's a big stretch to say there was something more sinister about it. You need to sit back and ask yourself, "would I get this mad if a Republican president said this?" If your answer is, "probably not", then you should calm down. I remember similar discussions during George W. Bush's presidency, where liberals complained about the unity message and felt they were not allowed to criticize Bush (though, they got over that by his second term). Was Obama in campaign mode, uh, yeah; was he preaching socialism/facism? Nope.
Those of us in the military give up a lot of rights that civilians take for granted (and have lawyers to ensure that they get in the event of a criminal accusation). We have lots of briefings, training classes, and individuals whose job it is just to make sure that we're all treating each other exactly equally and not making anyone uncomfortable or feel singled out for negative treatment. Exceptionalism is only permitted in specific ways that the military approves of and encourages.
Translating that to civilian life is exactly the sort of thing that is a liberals fantasy, and Jonah is right to call it out. None of us want to be forced, in our every day life, to fit into the box that the rest of the world has made for us. But President Obama would sure love it if we would all climb far enough into the box that we felt the urge to shut up and stopped criticizing him. He'd probably also be happy if we went even farther and just started marching in lockstep with liberal ideals.
Absolutely true! Men and women in the military give up the right to bear arms every time we go on post. We give up our protection from unlawful searches as well. They can search your vehicle at any time for any reason on post. We give up our right to free speech and are forbidden to speak against the Commander in Chief. Those in the military are forced to take injections that average citizens can opt out of. The list is long. Our men and women in uniform choose to give up these freedoms so our country can remain free. America is not fashioned after the military, and Americans should not fall in line, "shut up, and do what you're told."
Of course Obama wants that. But, I would daresay that many conservatives wish the same thing about liberals. I mean, who wouldn't want that? The distinction I make is that this is NOT some kind of evil plot to make the U.S. more like China or the former Soviet Union. Does Obama and Democrats wish the U.S. was more like some Western European countries? Yes, but nothing like Jonah implies. This liberal facism/conspiracy stuff is just plain nonsense.
I would maintain that they want to make the US exactly like the worst of the Euro-social democracies. Their "stretch" goal, if they could do it, would be to turn the US into a proletarian dictatorship like Venezuela and put all Republicans into reeducation camps.
We'll see my friend, if obama gets a second term I'm sure you will not like the results. Even while campaigning for that second term he has little to no respect for the constitution as can be seen by his "recess appointments" that already have long ranging and detrimental effects on the country and in his own words, he will bypass congress at every chance to implement his Western European ideologies, and they are working very well aren't they? Can you imagine him not having to concern himself with being re-elected. Conspiracy or not a second term will turn this country into something you and I really don't want to see.
Matt, there may be some conservatives who want to force liberals to march in lockstep with their position, but I would wager that the majority of conservatives simply want government to stop telling us what to do, when to do it, how to do it and to stop taking our tax proceeds to execute their agenda.
My conservative view is that my liberal 'friends' are free to pursue the fulfillment of their life and happiness using whatever good/bad ideas and philosophies they personally espouse for achieving that fulfillment. And, they are free to succeed or fail in those endeavors. Where I start getting agitated is when liberals insist that I must support their view of the world, bend to their ideas through mandatory legal enforcement, fund their ideas through use of taxpayer proceeds, and force the rest of us to deal with the fall-out or consequences of their poor ideas.
To boil this down, I don't want to force liberals to go along with my views, but they want to use government to force me (and other conservatives) to go along with them. That is a very big philosophical difference. Good ideas/policies should sell themselves and allow people the freedom to choose what they believe is right for them.
Whenever Obama is talking about dissent, lack of cooperation, partisanship slowing progress, it is my opinion that he is simply trying to say that everyone needs to drop their concerns and go along with what he wants to do. What I find stunningly hypocritical is that Obama and some of his supporters would scream the loudest if we forced them to do the things we conservatives think are important, but they apparently see no issue with conservatives being forced to go along with them.
That is precisely what Obama means; and taken together with his regretting that he can't operate as a Chinese autocrat and his obvious longing for the failed socialist policies of Europe, it's clearly what he does believe. If he is allowed another term in office, we may never recover.
What are you smoking? The Alinskyite community organizer, the product of ruthless, one-party Chicago politics, the guy who brought in Rahm Emmanuel and Bill Daily back-to-back to be his chief of staff, is decrying ....partisanship?
AVM is right if we only had this speech. But, we have a speech yesterday where Obama tells us that no millionaire made it on his own. A bit like the Elizabeth Warren rant. When you put the two ideas together you get one lock step army building widgets and solar cells for the good of the country. Don't let these remarks that seem to be innocent fool you. They want you and your money to fall in line. Of course it will be for the good of many.
"The President used the military's bravery and resolve as an analogy for American teamwork"
I might agree with that if he meant ONLY that Americans should come together and have each other's backs, to act with a sense of community.
But that is not what he meant, not in its purest form, anyway. In the liberal mindset, the fashion in which Americans come together is by sacrificing their liberties on the altar of expanded federal dependency. Coming together and paying more taxes. Coming together and enacting more regulations. Coming together and subsidizing dubious initiatives.
America needs to re-learn what it has forgotten in the progressive century: that Americans were, are and can be a great people by coming together IN THE PLACE WHERE YOU ARE. It's no better to hand off your tax dollars to an inefficient, corrupt body hundreds and even thousands of miles away, and walk by your neighbor's house and not just offer a hammer and an hour of your time to fix the broken railing on his porch step, than it is for people who send a check to Africa but don't offer to cook a meal when their neighbor breaks a leg or is in the hospital with a delivering wife.
We don't need a federal program to fix all our problems, and we sure as heck don't need it to gain a sense of community and shared sacrifice. All we have to do is look around, see the need all around us, and then FILL THAT NEED. Share your sacrifice DIRECTLY, don't just mail it off to Harry Reid and assume that guy's gonna spend your good will wisely. He's gone a thousand days without even trying to pass a budget.
This is the main theme of Liberal Fascism. It's depressing that even though your book was successful, very few people recognize it when it happens. Libs are continuing to win with Obama's rhetoric "if we could only put our differences aside and work together." It sounds good. I confess it took this NRO post of yours to realize that his "let's be like the military" was a call to fascism. If even strong conservatives like me can be, at least temporarily, fooled by that rhetoric, imagine how effective it is with the electorally-crucial independents.
I wasn't at all disgusted by Obama's military analogy, but ashamed of myself after you pointed out the implications. As Ledeen might say, LOUDER, PLEASE!!
The only similarity between Obama and Caesar is that O relishes the thought of overthrowing a republic as well. I guess he doesn't realize that the troops he is encouraging us to emulate are sworn to defend the Constitution. Maybe he does, in which case he's not wrong, just irrelevant.
Nice work Jonah. I would only take exception with this statement:
"Nor do I think he truly seeks to impose martial virtues on America."
Why not? I don't see any reason, if given a chance, that he wouldn't. Fast and Furious was created as a means to ever tighter gun control laws. Who believes if given a chance Obama and his minions would disarm us all? And what is the first step in subjecting a free people but to remove their weapons?
If you were the owner of Gibson Guitar you might think differently, having been raided by heavily armed agents on more than one occasion to rummage through your wood pile.
I don't understand the need of giving people the benefit of the doubt. The man started off committed to Marxism, began his political career in a terrorists home, and has made no attempt to change course. I have no trouble believing, if given a chance, he'd overturn our democracy and setup his own dictatorship.
"Who believes if given a chance Obama and his minions would disarm us all? "
I'll fan that fire; while at the University of Chicago, he told John Lott outright, "I don't think people should own guns."- then spun around and walked away with his usual disdain of discourse.
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