It’s hard to be wildly optimistic about our country this Thanksgiving 2010, and not just because China and Russia “quit the dollar” on the eve of our iconic national holiday and celebration of abundance. According to some, the American decline has been going on for a while now. Lee Smith, writing in Tablet magazine about French novelist Marc Weitzmann, summarizes this view well:
American foreign-policy analysts are divided these days into two camps: those who believe the United States is a twilight power, and those who think that the only threat to America’s superpower status comes from a self-induced crisis of confidence, brought about by wimps in high places who are steering us toward decline. President Barack Obama appears to be in the first camp, and there’s an argument to be made that he’s right.
One way to understand Obama’s presidency is as the stewardship of a leader who must subtly make his countrymen confront a fact they would prefer to avoid — namely, that the age of American prosperity is over. From that perspective, passing healthcare legislation was all-important to his presidency because without the economic boom of the post-World War II era, the state is now being forced to care for its aging population by dividing up a shrinking pie. As for Obama’s foreign policy, it is not a matter of making the United States appear to behave in a more modest and polite fashion after eight years of George W. Bush’s stubborn unilateralism. Rather, reality itself has humbled us.
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“Subtly?” Well, we could quarrel with that. Obama has been anything but subtle in his approach to American decline, which in a certain sense, and given his ideological and social predispositions, he appears to delight in or even seeks to exploit. But nevertheless you could read his administration as a coming to terms with the end of American exceptionalism, or even with the end of the American dream itself. Smith, via Weitzmann, offers an interesting explanation:
But if the American century is coming to an end, it’s not just on account of Bush’s failures or the worldwide economic crisis, but because of a larger historical divide that we have barely begun to fathom — the end of the Cold War. “There was a balance of terror during the Cold War that people didn’t acknowledge,” Marc Weitzmann, a French journalist, literary critic, and novelist, told me recently in Paris. “The violence of the Cold War was sent to the Third World. These conflicts existed in faraway areas, places that we didn’t care about, like the Middle East. Now they’re fought out everywhere. As it turned out, the Berlin Wall wasn’t between East and West Germany, it was protecting the citizens of the West from violence.”
There is no question that the aftershocks of the Cold War are still shaking all of us, possibly even to a greater degree than the aftershocks of 9/11, as Smith’s piece further argues. (Called “Twilight,” it’s worth reading in its entirety.)
But the day before Thanksgiving, I have to admit I am not sympathetic to the article’s cynicism and wish to fight it. I find the prospect of the twilight of American power truly depressing — and not just for chauvinistic reasons. (Yes, I have some of that. Like many of us, I can be a “homer,” and again not just for a hometown sports team, but for the USA. So deduct whatever cheerleading quotient you wish from what I am going to say.)
I am more convinced than I ever was of the necessity of American exceptionalism and more concerned than ever about its possible loss. I came to this view slowly, after many trips abroad, several of which were behind the then-Iron Curtain. Most of these trips were made when I was still a leftist, but even so I began to realize how many of my assumptions were wrong. Wherever I went — and however much fun I had and however much admiration for the local cultures, architecture, art, or whatever I felt, and however much my country indeed had its own myriad problems — America was still a better place.
Roger writes:”I sincerely hope that Barack Obama and what he stands for is just a bump on an ever-bumpy road and that we are on our way out of the slough of despond that our country finds itself in. I think we can all agree, however, that this slough is pretty deep. Getting out of it will not be as easy as a few tea party victories. The work has only just begun. But it’s worth the effort, most certainly. Happy Thanksgiving.”
Amen, and happy Thanksgiving to you and all the great people at PJM.
A “slough of despond” is right on. Haven’t heard that trenchant phrase from John Bunyan’s PILGRIM’S PROGRESS (1678) in many a year. As Bunyan explains:
“This miry Slough is such a place as cannot be mended; it is the descent whither the scum and filth that attends conviction for sin doth continually run, and therefore is it called the Slough of Despond: for still as the sinner is awakened about his lost condition, there ariseth in his soul many fears, and doubts, and discouraging apprehensions, which all of them get together, and settle in this place; and this is the reason of the badness of this ground.”
We were and continue to be the window of the world and the city on the hill. A beacon of hope to all, such as the Iranian democracy demonstrators.
I believe they know that even with our current (but transient!) self-absorbed incumbent in the White House, the American people and our country still stand as a beacon of hope.
With enormous hard work and a lot of luck, we will survive this presidency and become again what we have always been: the last best hope of humanity.
I sincerely hope that Barack Obama and what he stands for is just a bump on an ever-bumpy road
I had a conversation with a 19-year-old theater major from a Pennsylvania college yesterday.
She said she and her theater-major friends think Obama has a plan to destroy America and hate his guts.
I attempted to defend 0 by pointing out my belief that he is merely a simple incompetent but she wasn’t buying it.
We are talking 19-year-old female theater major, people.
Perhaps both of you are correct. Obama is an incompetent, empty suit, puppet taking his orders from the puppet masters, i.e. Soros et.al., to put the finishing touches on destroying the U.S.
Nature abhors a vacuum. America’s lessening prestige and power will result in a much more dangerous world. Sworn enemies will take advantage of the growing opportunities. Our country is also often similar to the family living next door to neighbors who permit the children to play with machine guys. Strictly speaking, it’s not their problem—except for the fact that bullets are now being shot through their windows. Isolationism in principle may sound nice, but the practical reality can prove disastrous. The world today is too small to find a good hiding place. Utopian Europeans can afford to be snarky toward the United States only because we pick up the costs for most of their national defense needs. They can be readily compared to spoiled adults who constantly ridicule the local police officers until the day their defenders disappear forever.
Barack Obama is existentially hostile towards the very country he was elected to lead. That was quite obvious long before the presidential election. He was making it quite clear if one was actually paying attention. We must now marginalize Obama as rapidly as possible. The United States will be stronger—and safer only if the present occupant of the White House is pushed further to the sidelines. The House of Representatives must grab as much power that is Constitutionally allowed. There is no other alternative.
As usual you are spot on in your analysis.
David Thompson nails it. Without the U.S., bad actors will emerge to take up the space. The U.S. may not be perfect, but we’re far better than most.
I disagree Sammi, the US is perfect. Refuting that statement by pointing out our imperfect people is flawed logic. Our country was, and is, built for the explicit purpose of establishing the optimal relationship between government and citizenry to foster the best life achievable, given the flaws of human nature and hostile environment of nature. Even til now, we sacrifice blood and treasure trying to bring our gift to the world. We are hated by those who see personal advantage in suppressing those gifts. We must not let them speak for ourselves or the other people of the world.
Willis, about the US being ‘perfect’.
By design, it ‘was’ perfect. But additions to the constitution have created flaws.
The worst being the 17th.
Without the 17th, none of ‘this’ (Obama’s efforts) would have passed the Senate.
We need to tie down the commerce clause also, IMHO…
“Perfect?” That must be a conservative absolutist term, but what it has to do with humans and their nature is a question to be asked. You might say that we had the best yet developed, and you would have a chance at making sense. With “perfect,” not so much.
nothing is perfect; especially if human hands have a part in constructing it
our government, as it was founded, was very sound as it’s bedrock principles implied man’s imperfection and sought a way to minimize the “damage” that any one man can do
Barack Obama was existentially hostile to the country he was elected to lead.That was quite obvious long before the presidential election. He was making that quite clear if one was paying attention.
Quite right. Then how was it he was elected. WHO elected him and his cohorts in the “Democratic” Party ? WHO voted for him. HOW and WHY did the DNC choose HIM as their standard bearer for their Party? Did they require answers to questions about his personal and social provenance with proofs ? If not why not?
We have public imputations and burgeoning evidence of local voting fraud in some electoral districts in the service of the “Democratic” candidates. And some comment about the singular methods by which he obtained the nomination from the DNC.
To stop and roll back his and his Parties / allies’ hasty and aggressive damage to the USA is of course the priority at the moment.
BUT there remain legitimate reservations WHICH ALL AGENCIES of the government actively fail to examine dismissing them as irrelevant, to the legality, the constitutionality, of the election of 2008.
ALL representatives elected AND appointed, swear oath to Uphold and Defend the US Constitution, NOT the political party. But interpret its clauses in their parochial legal language and structures.
In the USA : A Country of Law, NOT of men. Part of the American Dream. Dream ? The Dream of freedom, protected in Law, of common men from obeisance to arbitrary powers of king and court ?
Not incorporeal dream until the past half-century when the Big Government “liberals” insinuated into pivotal position in all civic institutions of the USA.
“. . . marginalize Obama . . .”?
Obama isn’t the problem, he is the fruit of multitudinous problems that cascade through 3½ generations of Americans, but ALL from a single source: the failure of teachers, civil and spiritual, to teach.
The post WWII Great American Pigout begot the 60s. The teachers then begot Twilight America.
Believe it, Roger. We don’t come back from a half century’s skid. It’s over.
You are right about the teachers. parents in particular have done a poor job over the past few years.
There is a lack of respect for each other, or even ourselves in many of our actions. “get what you want no matter how you do it”…
There is a major lack of respect for our country and the laws.
I hope you’re wrong about not coming back.
We’re hoping Obama is a “wake up ” call for our republic.
Education was specifially targeted by enemies of this country, and after 3 generations, replects the values of the enemies, not the value of traditional Americans. It’s a huge, huge problem but the blame rests elsewhere than on the teachers themselves. Many of them are basically brainwashed.
USSR communist disinformation and drug addiction programs failed to take hold in the 50s, but layed us on our backs in the 60s due to the inattention wrought by Lyndon Johnson’s failed wars on communism and “poverty”.
Congress, including dumbass Country Club Republicans, socially engineered us to a fair-thee-well while Moscow played the tunes.
So who’s at fault when teachers got “brainwashed” by the Progressives and the USSR communists? THEIR teachers, of course! No matter how you cut it, Plato would agree, it’s the teachers, no one else.
Parents? Parents had teachers too. At home, at school and at religious instituitions, the teachers failed.
Think we’re not toast yet? Your generation still doesn’t understand one of its greatest songs:
…By the river of Babylon
…Where we sat down
…and cried for Zion………………..
I believe that Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday. Words from his Gettysburg Address: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers founded this nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal . . .” Only the United States has been so conceived, based on reason.
I am old enough to remember the Carter Administration and this era seems to be a repeat performance (on steroids). Our biggest problem for the future is, there’s no Reagan on the horizon.
I was there (just leaving college) when Reagan was rising to national prominence during the 1970′s. The political and media establishment hated him with a fury none of them will acknowledge today (unless they are with their closest and most trustworthy friends). They regarded him as a hopeless intellectual lightweight, completely simpleminded and unable to comprehend political issures in their true complexity — he was a has-been Hollywood movie actor, you see, and nobody in such an unserious occupation should even think about being president. The only politician since then that I’ve seen those people get as worked up over, and describe in similar terms, is Sarah Palin.
I like Sarah Palin, but to do what Mr. Simon describes in the article is going to take someone else. Since I am a woman I can say this; it is going to take a man not a woman to do this job. Unless the woman is a matron looking older woman like Margaret Thatcher or PM Merkle she will not have a chance of being respected abroad; and even they had their problems. Sorry, to bring us back from the brink is going to take a man; and not just any man, at that. Haven’t seen him, yet.
When Margaret Thatcher came to power she wasn’t matronly looking! Even the French President thought she had great legs and dangerous lips!
We should all cheer up. In the West we live under a system devised by White, Christian, Democratic, Capitalists. No other system has benefited the Common Man so much. There is no sign of an improved system coming along and countries like China will crash unless they adopt the system.
Mrs. Palin has many wonderful attributes but I don’t think she will be the nominee of the GOP in 2012. The conservative media, the little that existed in the 70′s were all behind Reagan ie. George Will, Bill Buckley and James J. Kilpatrick. I can’t remember one conservative disparaging Reagan. Mrs.Palin not only has to put up with the usual left wing smears but at least half of the conservative punditry is attacking her.
I came across this comment by Cindy Mumford on Allahpundit that you might find interesting.
“Is anyone watching that six part special Britt Hume is doing on conservatism? It is very interesting to see how the “establishment” Republicans closed ranks and tried to get rid of Ronald Reagan in 1976. Even Barry Goldwater, who was suppose to be the very model of conservatism, shunned the man who campaigned tirelessly for him to support the establishment Gerald Ford. I’m not saying Gov. Palin is Ronald Reagan but we need to beware of the insiders keeping us from electing a conservative, especially now. If you want to discuss cults, you need look no further than Washington and you can tell the members by the snark.”
Pedro, and their won’t be a reagan, as he is gone. but america can regenerate, and we will. time and again in american history, when the moment came, so did the man.
The only major threat to American supremacy is the loss of self-confidence in both our abilities and our culture brought on by decades of having it brainwashed out of our kids by the feckless, America-hating leftwingers who dominate the teaching profession and by political leaders like Obama who mostly hate the country they’re supposed to be leading. Period.
^^ here here
There is all this talk in the media that Obama will be very, very, hard to beat in 2012. Bunk. This guy is Jimmy Carter on steroids. His whole presidency is a malaise speech, the famous speech where Carter said that American exceptionalism was dead. What utter trash.
Then came the great Ronald Reagan to set both America, and the world, straight on that view. I think Obama will be easy to beat if we find our next Ronald Reagan. We just have to look around. Add to that the fact that Americans have now seen the true face of socialism in this country under Obama, Pelosi, and Reid, and they are horrified. Americans know instinctively that what Obama is pushing is hopelessness and insurmountable debt, two things good Americans will never tolerate. Not only is America great, it always will be great because of what it represents: Hope. We are not only the last best hope for the free world, but we know our optimism in the future will always see us through the rough spots, like now. Nope, 2012 will represent a major change in this land and Obama, thankfully, will not be a part of it.
So on Thanksgiving day I really do want to give thanks because I know the terrible nightmare that is Obama will be over soon. With a Republican House and a larger Republican minority in the Senate, at least Obama’s socialist agenda will be slowed down if not stopped entirely. So I’m thankful about that and I know that by Thanksgiving 2012 we will REALLY have something to be thankful for, the end of the Obama administration.
The only people with Reagen-like star power are Marco Rubio, Chris Christie and Sarah Palin, and each one has a fatal flaw. Rubio is too young and too new, Christie isn’t socially conservative, and Palin, sad to say, will create a furor that has never been seen in this country and will never get above 40% in the general election.
The country will have to make do with someone without that kind of pizzazz.
Conservatives need to get used to it and not become too invested in a hero.
Winning is the important thing. Everyone with any chance on the Republican side can save the country from the Obamists. We don’t need a white knight on a horse, just someone who can win and change the path of destruction we are on.
geez, proreason (and others)… Sarah Palin bashing here on pajamas media?
of course she can WIN if she decides to run…
hey middles, moderate and righties: the LEFT bashes her enough wouldn’t you agree?
look at her RECORD… who has a BETTER one than HER to be the next POTUS?
I’m all ears…
If you think that is Palin-bashing, you have a serious case of fools-love for Sarah. Personally, I think she is wonderful and is one, if not the most effective leader of the the Tea Party movement.
But no matter how much you love her, you are foolish to refuse to see that her path to victory in 2012 is highly unlikely, and that nominating her may well be Obama’s best chance to complete his destruction of this country. She knows it too, and will almost certainly decide not to run. maybe in 4 or 8 years it will be different.
Think about it this way. Imagine you are a general fighting an army that is very close to destoying your country. You have a choice of two strategies. The first is to land a tiny amphibious assault force in pitch darkeness and freezing weather. If they survive, and can then find and assasinate the highly protected enemy leader, you will win a glorious victory. That is the Palin strategy. The other strategy is to spread your superior forces in well defended positions and begin to probe the enemy’s lines until weak points emerge, and then concentrate forces at the weak point. That is the strategy of finding a candidate who can hold the Tea Partiers and appeal to other Americans who are beginning to wake up to the Obama threat.
If you want to roll the dice on the high-risk solution, with your country at stake and no second chance, at least don’t get so engaged in it that you refuse to do the right thing when cooler heads prevail.
Ha! Your attempt a military strategy example amuses me. I reject your two choices. As you said, the invading army is very close to destroying your country. We may have may have superior numbers, but we are not a superior force. Think Stalingrad. Yes, eventually the Russians won, but it was not without cost. The Left are professionals at political warfare, we are guerillas. They have been pushing us back to the Volga for many years now. Ronald Reagan was the last person to gain territory for our side, but his replacement, George H W Bush, was weak, and allowed the enemy to counterattack, thinking they were ineffectual.
We had a small victory in 1994, but those forces were quickly overwhelmed. Now, here we are in 2010, we’ve stopped the enemies advance cold, thanks in large measure to this well organized fighting force called the Tea Party. Not a month later people are once again cowering in their hovels saying we need a less emphatic leader. The Tea party is too polorizing. Will the right never learn?
A defensive force doesn’t probe the weak points of an offense. We must go on offense. Until we go on offense, we’ll continue simply fight over the same terrain, possibly losing more while our leaders say we didn’t lose as much as we thought we would, so it’s a victory. The kind of moderate Republican candidate you are looking for is one who wouldn’t exploit a weakness if they found it. They would refuse to do so. I’m torn about Sarah Palin, but I’ll take a Sherman over of McClellan any day.
American is in decline in my opinion and a large part of it has been our foolishness in giving away manufacturing and tech secrets that could have been licensed through eternity using conventions of international law. The worst culprit however is political correctness. The resolve and audacity that once typified the American spirit has been reduced to tears by the ‘offend no one’ and protect everything from lawsuit approach that has created a bureaucracy that has stifled American culture and cost every municipality in the land treasure to conform to. The worst aspect of political correctness is the flight from reality syndrome in the form of a monstrously exaggerated form of politeness that causes us to attack and defend things which should be done the opposite way around. Today in America, the big elephant in the room is still the unsettling fact to many that it is white men who have in the past and today, innovated nearly everything under the sun. According to the tenets of political correctness, one cannot even contemplate such a thing yet it is reality. In fact, in PC America, it is the opposite that is true and the biggest and easiest and most frequent target for everyone from minorities to gays to women are white men who are considered endemically spiritually bankrupt and representative of the history of America which is looked at as a series of invasions, genocides, opportunism, oppressions and more. Even white folks attack white folks and, as Holder wasn’t talking about blacks when he said Americans are cowards when it comes to talking about race, those who criticize America aren’t talking about women. Ethnicity is popular nowadays in America in the politically correct world and are to be coddled, supported, kowtowed to and celebrated. With the white man it is the opposite and in fact this sorry creature needs a leavening of people of color in America in the way of diversity to cure the white man of his many flaws. Obama is nearly a perfect amalgam of the evil of political correctness and why the Americans still unbrainwashed hate him so much. Obama can be in a racist church, have racist hiring practices within his administration and condone racism at the DOJ and across the land and it is not even an issue. On the other hand, if I don’t want 12 kazillion illegal aliens or talk about black crime in the US I am a racist but it is perfectly fine to talk about the largely white Rep. Party and Tea Party as a bunch of Hitler loving Klansmen and to emphatically suggest that it is the white skin color that is the problem. The zeitgeist that propelled American innovation and exceptionalism has gone completely the other way and today the US is a wounded whale on the beach. American exceptionalism still exists but it is being diluted by a Third World baby boom and effectively strangled from within as was the Roman Empire. The fundamental idea behind diversity is itself racist as it believes that skin color does indeed doll out morality and immorality but as long as this current flows one way it’s okay. Holder was wrong, white America is not afraid to talk about race, they are not allowed to, not in any meaningful way. What Holder means is a dialogue that ironically parcels out guilt by skin color, white skin color. This type of hypocrisy that rises to the level of Orwellian delusional madness is present in so many layers of society that it is hard to overestimate its negative impact. The new TSA rules that target children and nuns in order to assuage people of color in what is essentially a view of the US Constitution as a suicide pact is murderous, like a sick person who likes to cut themselves. Since this evil I write about is championed across the land by virtually everyone in the fine and liberal arts, media and education and interpreted to be the essence of the US Constitution, I think there is no cure. We are being overwhelmed by a Third World baby boom because of self loathing and America as it once existed is doomed and dying. The people most able to effect a cure are the least activist since they do not view society as in need of ‘fundamental change’ but one that was, once upon a time, pretty damn good and now getting worse and not better. Serial killers, utter vulgarity, child cheerleaders simulating sex, the kidnapping and murder of children, NAMBLA, over trained policemen who now comprise one giant SWAT mentality rather than an adjunct, reverse institutional racism in the form of the DREAM Act, affirmative action, the Congressional Black Caucus, a corrupt Congress entirely in the hands of big business but now done legally and 10,000 other things I could mention have put paid to the American dream but we don’t know it because there are no longer such things as report cards. China, India and Islam will win by default because they are still in their hearts the same entities they always were and having a lot of kids is not cultural superiority but a tidal wave that mimics such. When I went to college I could smoke in the classroom and now cannot do so anywhere on campus. This is a sea change whose gulf is wide and we cannot go back because as Americans, we now think of what can go wrong rather than what can go right and there is a giant bicycle helmet over America and one with blinders while we let the worst but most active among us hijack a brilliant culture into oblivion in a bloated caricature of “comrade” Emily Post. If I am wrong and our great-grandchildren somehow escape this anti-white, anti-man, anti-reality leavening of American culture, they will spit on our graves.
Thank you, James May.
Very, very, well said. These very thoughts need to be repeated and thought about.
Otherwise, it’s a denial of History and Reality.
Use the Enter key.
Paragraphs are the devil’s tool. Or so it’s said.
It might be worth reading, but I’m not going to try and find out.
Dear James May,
It was a bit hard to read your whole comment, but I got the gist, and you’re right about the white males. I’ve always wanted to go around wearing a T shirt (I’d have to design it myself, and I’m not much of an artist) saying, “Thanks for the Western Civ, DWEMs!” (There was a time when ‘dead white European male’ was a derogatory term, believe it or not.)
Being female, I’m really glad to have been born here, in a culture that grew out of the Judaeo-Christian culture of Europe, leavened by the Enlightenment, etc. I despise the white males of today who attempt to win points by disparaging white males of the past.
I’m old enough (college in the 70s, grad school in the 80s) to remember how exciting it could seem, at times, to criticize long-standing traditions and wake up to what was iniquitous in them. The problem was, that so many of the young and critical forgot to check out what the alternatives (other human societies that actually existed, that means) had on offer. I think this is Mr. Simon’s basic point here. This and any society can be improved, up to a point, anyway (I’m no utopian). The dead white males gave us a pretty good starting point, which we should acknowledge, particularly on a day of giving thanks.
Happy Thanksgiving!
American is in decline in my opinion and a large part of it has been our foolishness in ….CHASING/TAXING…. away manufacturing and tech secrets that…….. could have been licensed through eternity using conventions of (?)international law(?).
International law! Oh pluuuease!( I roll my eyes ).
Yeah, more lawyers. How’s that worked so far?
The American dream is in a comma; but still alive if we change a few thing maybe we can still end up on to on it all
I think you meant “coma”. But I like the fact you used “comma”. I do believe our great nation is up against a comma. We have a break that must be followed up. The ideals of individual sovereigns forming a government that is subserviant to them, is still an ideal yet to be duplicated.
As we approach the American Comma, we must realize that sovereignty has been ceeded to a band of school-yard bullies and is about gone. The idea still has power; the ideal is still worth fighting for.
As we consider our move to the otherside of the comma, I leave you with this thought: are you ready to fight for, pay for, and die for individual liberty? Are you ready, like our forefathers, to give up your comfortable fortunes and places of honor for something more eternal? If so, then come on to the other side of the comma and lets build the next America for the next century.
American exceptionalism is a river that must be replenished, not an oil well to be exploited.
Mr. Simon:
“Is the American Dream Dying?”
For some folks, it died long ago because that’s the way they wanted it.
When you reject America, and prefer to despise her because of her flaws rather than hold her in esteem in spite of them, America rejects you.
The American Dream only exists for those who choose to dream it.
But if you want the definitive answer to your question, take a gander at the lists of foreigners wanting to legally immigrate here and become Americans…or for that matter, the numbers of foreigners who run the risks inherent in coming here illegally and living a shadow existence.
Then YOU tell ME if the American Dream is dying.
“On this Thanksgiving Day, I sincerely hope that Barack Obama and what he stands for is just a bump on an ever-bumpy road and that we are on our way out of the slough of despond that our country finds itself in.”
We can give thanks that in less than two years we get the opportunity to vote Obama and his ideological kind out of office and into their customary,(and deserved), sulking and resentful irrelevancy, can we not?
Happy Thanksgiving.
So I clicked the crawler banner up yonder on the: “Why do Republicans hate poor people?” and read this Katrina vanden Heuvel piece in the WaPo:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/23/AR2010112303873.html
Her first para is:
“Thanksgiving may be a time to give thanks for our blessings, but in Washington, the resurgent Republican conservatives want needy Americans to have fewer of them. The new Republicans have the same old leaders – and their passion hasn’t changed. It isn’t about offering a hand up to the afflicted – it’s about handouts to the connected.”
It declines from there, believe me…
But Lord above! What a wretched and miserable woman! Here on the day set aside to give thanks for our individual and collective blessings, this dame with a brain like a bucket of squirming, slithering snakes thinks that this is the PERFECT opportunity to vent and whine because, when you get right down to it, she hasn’t gotten her way.
What a hideous and empty existence such people must lead…
Like I said above, the American Dream only exists for those that choose to dream it.
Not an entirely empty existance.
They are filled to the brim with hatred for anybody who disacgees with thier junior high vision of the world.
I am grateful for Roger Simon and his internet newspaper. The electronic age has freed us of the old media’s brainwashing. We who seek to understand what is really happening can find answers not dreamed of 30 years ago. We can instantly communicate with the representatives in Congress and state government; we can read the laws for ourselves; we can see the gross waste in government; we can join other Americans and stand together. This is just the beginning of a new age of empowerment of the individual. We have lots to be thankful for this year.
I firmly believe Obama will be defeated in 2012, that is if the Republicans use even a modicum of intelligence about who they nominate. Watched the Fox News Special portraying Bush and Blair and was struck by the change in the national mind set. Had my differences with Bush, but he is a patriotic man who, I believe, really loves his country and it infected the rest of us. Obama has cast a pall over us and it is like living under a constant cloud. I really feel like I am witnessing a case of national depression.
Not dying, dead. Killed by novelists who glamorized communist gumshoes; killed by several generations of textbooks which vilified or ignored the Founding Fathers; killed by the praising of Communists who called themselves feminists, greens, & rights activists; killed by academics who admired the European politics of the 20th century, and killed by Americans who voted decade after decade for more taxes, more entitlements and more machine & dynasty politics.
“and killed by Americans who voted decade after decade for more taxes, more entitlements and more machine & dynasty politics.”
You hit the nail on the head with that statement. I agree 100% and we the people need to begin to take our civic responsibilities seriously. Maybe the recent election proved that a turn around is beginning.
The election is a sign things are turning around. Since Obama was elected to captain Sloop America, he’s demonstrated his lack of sailing skills. We sailed left at a comfortable pace for many years. He spent the first half tightening the sails while bringing us to windward, raising our speed in a hurry to mark (socialism).
As speed picked up, winds increased and the ride became much rougher. Rather than veer off, he decided to throw out the spinnaker. The Right grabbed the tiller and threw the bow straight into the wind, leaving the sails flapping, our momentum falling, and giving us two years to point to starboard while deadlocked in Congress.
If enough people move to the starboard rail, the captain’s efforts will be useless against the ballast that’ll bring her around. In irons is where we’ll be for a while until momentum begins again to point her in the ‘right’ direction. It’s already begun, we have to be patient.
i am convinced that there is a modern age samuel clemens or benjamin franklin out there waiting to come to the forefront
to write america off at this point is essentially un-american
america always does it’s best when the proverbial ca-ca has hit the fan
i believe we are in a transition period ready to shed itself of all the idiotic indulgence of the 60′s smugtards; but we must look at this in terms of a decades long movement and not a “i want it now” hyper-gratification, fly-by night scenario…
until we are able to roto-root our public schools and properly re-introduce our kids to this country, until we begin demolishing government agencies like godzilla in tokyo, until we tell the unions and their bloated pensions to take a hike; until we create an economic environment that unleashes our entrepreneurial instincts; until we stop worrying about what everyone thinks about us but, instead, chart our own path illuminating the way for others to follow; until we succeed in these things we can’t let up
happy t-giving
Yessir. When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
Happy Thanksgiving, and may the God bless our troops (I’m being selfish here).
I doubt the American dream is dying. It will never die as long as Americans exists. The country that we knew will change, though. We need to take it back and make it better. It will take time and sacrifices, and most Americans are not ready yet for what is coming.
Having visited and lived most of my life in some 70 countries working and studying, I’ve concluded that most people think their country is okay to live in. (My French-Swiss girlfriend was more interested in teaching me to say and repeat “je t’aime à la folie” than compare the differences of our nations.) Only the Americans tend to think that their country is the “best in the world.” To gauge or compare various countries is kind of trifling, and that is why America is never on the top in any international comparisons.
The world without America would be a dark place, and yes, not much appreciated even by those who ought to thank the United States first thing in the morning for their freedom.
We must fix this country, concentrating taking care of us – the Americans. First step is to take the country back and restore the Constitution of the United States I among millions of others have sworn to support and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Let’s not dream about it, let’s do it.
Again, Happy Thanksgiving.
Roger, in terms of foreign policy, yes, I agree with you that one of Obama’s worst decisions was to not support the Iranian dissenters. I guess for me the question is why he chose to do this and my conclusion is that there is something in his character that supports the actions of tawdry dictators like Ahmadinejad. Would Bush or Clinton have done anything different? I guess we will never know but I still remember JFK in Berlin and Regan’s “tear this wall down” speech. Their stances were unequivocal in support of freedom.
Dear Dr. Bones,
Don’t you think a sincere Hyperzionist from the old-fashioned religionatin’ crew would find this latest neotericity of his freelordship’s maybe a bit offensive? What ’exceptional’ credentials does provincial North America possess? What are they, exactly, and who forged them for Wunnerful US?
Not a hard question, the “whodunnit” one: the answer stares out at one from most mirrors.
Perhaps, though, the moralist must degrade her style a little and repeat a word within the Zone of Restriction: only OLD-FASHIONED mirrors will work, not some fun house, or YaleoDramatic™, or Foxcuckoolandisch product line.[1] The serious moralist requires a WYSIWYG mirror, so to acronym it.
Naturally an agitpropper in the path of Party and AEIdeology needs *that* sort of mirror like Earl Dracula needed a garlic frappe.
Down at Neohaven an’ Rio Limbaugh, all the YD™ mirrors are carefully synchronized to make Cindy from Wasilla look like Queen Cleopatra, an’ Wally Wingnut a good deal better than Marcus Antonius was ever accused of looking. For, take away Master Wally an’ Mizz Cindy, an’ — boggles the mirror! — “no dream, no symbol of humanity’s hope.”
Alas, however, for his freelordship’s collective self-conceit! The Heimatland Gottes is not, as it happens, absolutely indispensable, hopesymbolwise. The late Mr. Matthew Arnold, who had mixed feelings at best about central North America, nutshellised The Dream of Dreams admirably without any mention, express or implied, of Wunnerful Sam:
How about that, sir? Though Matt the Evangelist missed out the word ‘dream’, yet does not “guiding-star through life” convey almost exactly the same kiddie-selfservative neoidea? Even better, ‘symbol’ does indeed occur — and it occurs in forceful conjunction with that ever-immortal Truss Manufactory! We could hardly ask for more.
The good neokiddies from Wingsdale an’ Wombschool Normal U. an’ St. Dilbert Antistate may, to be sure, have so dim an idea of what manufacturin’ used to be as to have comprehension problems — as alien to Wally as bound feet on females and bird’s nest soup is the notion of a manufactory. Trusses might as well grow like mushrooms in the basement of WalMart. Yet, who knows?, the B’nê Frankenstein may have them doing exactly that by the end of next week! Especially if the Bush Tax cuts are left in effect….
And I wish you, as ever,
Happy days through affordable healthcare (surgical appliances hopefully included).
___
[1] There is a little to be said against “old-fashioned” as well, notably that fairy-tale lookin’-glass that regularly sucked up to whichever Her Highness it was as “Fairest of All.” Also, as “the Best Balanced of All”, I betcha, for who can doubt that this must be where Firstlord Rupert an’ Kiddiemaster Roger [he of Ailes, not of Simon] got their F ’n’ B soundbark from?
Unfortunately popular oral matter like this tale is usually undatable: the mirror that lies as it flatters and flatters as it lies may not be “really old” at all. Not by un-American chronological standards, anyway.
I can’t decide if you really think you’re saying something worthwhile here, or indulging in a rather 19th century sort of satire, but whichever it is, this is a work of art.
Now, stop it.
I wonder how often that cry was heard at dinner time, for we seem to have here a Matthew Arnold redux. Thus, any analysis would be misplaced – you just listen in awe, enjoying the wall of sound and plucking the odd, fleeting concept here and there if you are fast enough. As others have said, this is a voice poking fun in the wilderness. While Denver was not ripe for Mr Arnold, surely we are now for his Doppelgaenger!
“I wonder how often that cry was heard at dinner time, for we seem to have here a Matthew Arnold redux. ”
I rather think an Ignatius J. Reilly with a more acute pilotic valve disorder.
PJM being his electronic notebook…
Roger, I wish a Happy and healthy Thanksgiving for you and yours.
Is the American dream dying? No, but it has been hijacked.
1)When our kids are being indoctrinated that an outward affection for their own land is “the wrong kind” of patriotism, we chip away at the natural instinct to defend her.
2)When Hollywood produces film after film after film where entrepreneurs, our defense apparatus, and everyone on the center right is evil, greedy, homophobic and racist, it injects a hesitance, a halting, a wavering from chasing the American Dream. It’s held up to ridicule and scorn, made to feel unworthy.
3)When the “Centrist Healer”, elected to showcase our goodness, our tolerance, our openness wanders around the world apologizing for our history, commoditizing our exceptionalism, marginalizing our own Constitution, where his wife calls us a mean nation, and they speak and act with an open lack of pride in this land, that window to the world becomes grimy and stained. How can anyone wish to admire or respect such a place? The prism through which the First Family views this land has been handed to the world, don’t think this doesn’t influence how we are viewed, it does.
In fact, the world gets its views of America and the American Dream through Hollywood movies, the media, and our leaders, by and large.
4)To borrow a phrase, the American Dream was allowed to be hijacked and now our “chickens are coming home to roost”. We allowed stealth socialism/anarchism to infiltrate our schools, our media, Hollywood, and the Democratic Party. To suggest that the far left agenda has not taken root in all of those systems to deny a great strategic battle waged under our very noses for nearly 50 years.
To further suggest that it has not corrupted the American Dream, the American landscape, the American place in the world, is either to buy into the masquerade of “populism”, or to be devoid of firing synapses.
5)For far too long we sat idly by and allowed this to happen to this land of ours. Sure, we pointed at it, we even said “those gosh darned liberals , look at what they are doing. Then, they responded with slanders and slurs calling us “teabaggers”, McCarthyites, racists, homophobes, stupid, …and we curled up into a ball and began rocking in the fetal position, for fear that somebody might believe it about us.
This tactic has worked nearly every time, for nearly four decades.
So, on this Thanksgiving Day we have a choice to make about our American Dream. Do we want to be a beacon to the world? A window free of the debris of leftist self-loathing? If so, we have a clear decision to make.
Let’s roll.
In fact, the world gets its views of America and the American Dream through Hollywood movies, the media, and our leaders, by and large.
CF
I agree with this statement. Among those who are molding disrespect for America is the Mawker-In-Chief, Jon Stewart. I was surprised to see you defend Stewart when he cluelessly shared a stage with the fatwa-supporting Yusuf Islam.
Liberal Americans are fighting the cultural war with gusto – as was Stewart when he held up Islam and dared conservatives to condemn him. Conservatives don’t have the stomach for the cultural wars and have conceded ground to the liberals by default. Conservatives have lost America. It will never be the same again.
I am a Canadian with a sincere respect for your country and the sentiments expressed by Roger on this blog. I can also understand the feeling of hopelessness that some of you have expressed.
FWIW, I have observed the left in both our countries behave as free agents for decades; demanding others to carry an ever-increasing share of the cost of government. It is my firmly held belief that such a trend shall continue so long as the self-entitled are allowed the comfort of believing that the funding class will never gather up their resources and leave. As drawn-out and ugly a process that such a re-education of the left may be, I believe that true change will only come when taxpayers make it clear that they, too, are capable of acting as free agents and declaring “no deal”.
A window to the world; that’s how Roger’s girlfriend described America. Insightful to the nth degree.
If she described what it meant to be an American, she probably would have had an equally insightful description.
Brave? Ingenious? Inventive. Creative? Hard working? Freedom loving? Self reliant? Optimistic? I can only guess. But while none of those words seems to capture her facile description of America, maybe the fault doesn’t like with the words, but with too many Americans. Are too many of us just plain cheaters and slackers. With ethical backbones of jellyfish. And too boot we have a President who has no more empathy and understanding for what being an American means than my screen door has for the flies it keeps out.
To help explain for myself what it means to be an American, I decided to write about one American; someone I actually knew. Respected. And admired.
Not because he was fault free. But because he surely had American written all over him. It was about the way he thought about life. And duties. And responsibilities. And needs and wants.
“If you don’t have enough money for a bike,” he’d say, “you either work to make enough money to buy it, or you build one yourself.” That was Ed.
Joe Dimaggio hit in 56 straight games. Ed Haroff hit the road and headed for Grumman for 67 straight days.
I’m in awe of both records.
I met the Ed 40 years ago. Like “Big John,” the Jimmy Dean hit, “he didn’t say much, kind of quiet and shy. And if you spoke at at, you just say hi to big John.”
About six months ago, I told Betty, his daughter, that I was eventually going to write about her father on a slow news day. She looked up and smiled.
So with Obama wetting his pants about North Korea. And with Janet the nincompoop screwing up Thanksgiving by assaulting half of the Thanksgiving travelers because of some leftest politically correct garbage, I think my timing is perfect.
Unfortunately, on a summer day in June of 1934, Ed’s timing was less than perfect. After climbing a tree, he slipped and fell twelve feet screwing up his right leg forever. It never again would bend correctly at the knee. ObamaCare might have fixed it on a cold day in hell, but about all it’s going to do for us is leave us in a fix. But I’m getting off track.
After the hell Sunday in 1941, Ed tried to enlist in the Navy, then the Army, then the Marines. All said the same thing. And it wasn’t “sign right here.” “Sorry son but you’ve got a bum leg. 4F.”
Grumman, a manufacturer on Long Island apparently had less stringent physical requirements than the service arms of the United States about bum legs, so Ed signed up to do what he could for the war effort and make war planes, Navy Hellcats to be precise.
Living in Queens, the hour and a half trip didn’t phase Ed. And so instead of fighting Japs, he fought traffic to and from Grumman. It soon became apparent that Ed was a whizz at machines. Fixing them. Making them. In later years, when I saw his prowess in action, amazed is a word that doesn’t do my amazement justice.
In 1942, the war news was bad. Ed, living in Queens with a wonderful wife was off to work before the bad news hit the streets. Because the Jap Zero was ripping the hell out of our planes; Dec. 7, pretty much like shooting fish in a barrel,The HellCat was about to leap off the drawing board.
“During “The War,” Grumman was an outstanding example of American productivity, employing 20,000 workers, few of whom had ever worked in the aircraft industry before; many of them were women. Bethpage was a happy place; there were no strikes, work stoppages, nor unions. Grumman took care of its employees with daycare centers for working mothers, social events for all, Christmas turkeys, and the famous “Green Car Service” to help employees with dead batteries and other minor problems.
“On average, Grumman’s Hellcat flew 55 MPH faster than the Zero; at about 20,000 feet it was 70 MPH faster. At altitudes in excess of 10,000 feet, it had a comparable rate of climb. At all altitudes, due to its heavier weight and greater power, it could out-dive the A6M. (This was generally true of American fighters; in a tough spot, the pilots could nose over, firewall the throttle, and zoom down.)
“Its armament, power, and range gave the Hellcat great versatility. The basic weaponry consisted of six wing-mounted .50 caliber machine guns, each with 400 rounds of ammunition. Many, including all F6F-5N and F6F-5P variants substituted a 20mm cannon with 200 rounds for the innermost machine gun in each wing. The Hellcat could carry a up two 1,000 pound bombs. Its most destructive weapons were six 5-inch HVAR’s (High Velocity Aircraft Rockets), which the author Barrett Tillman described as “equal to a destroyer’s broadside.”
“This variety of weapons and equipment permitted the Hellcat to carry out a broad range of missions: fighter versus fighter combat, strike plane escort, combat air patrol, long range search, ground support over invasion beaches, night fighting (see F6F-5N), and photo recon (see F6F-5P).
“Operations – 1943
“Fighting Squadron Nine (VF-9) took delivery of the first Hellcats in January, 1943.
“The Hellcat’s first combat mission occurred on August 31, 1943, in a strike against Marcus Island, including Cdr. Charles Crommelin’s VF-5, Lt. Cdr. Phil Torrey’s VF-9, and a detachment of O’Hare’s VF-6. The early-morning raiders destroyed eight twin-engine bombers on the ground; while losing two Hellcats to anti-aircraft fire and one to engine trouble. The next day, over Howland and Bakers Islands, Lt.(jg) Dick Loesch and Ens. A.W. Nyquist scored the Hellcat’s first aerial victory when they teamed up to shoot down a Kawanishi H8K “Emily” flying boat.
“Large-scale carrier operations began in October, with a attack on Wake. When four carriers struck Wake Island on October 5-6, the Hellcats saw their first significant aerial combat. Half an hour before dawn on the 5th, each of the four carriers launched three fighter divisions, 47 Hellcats in all. When they were still 50 miles out from Wake, the Japanese radar detected them, and 27 Zeros intercepted. In the ensuing dogfight, Fighting Nine’s skipper, Phil Torrey, shot down one Zero, then evaded two more by dodging in and out of clouds. Lt. Hadden, while watching a shared kill fall into the ocean, was jumped by two Zeros, and was lucky enough to make it back to Essex with most of his engine oil emptied out through several 20mm holes. Lt. (jg) Hamilton McWhorter dove into a gaggle of Zeros, when one serendipitously appeared in his gunsight. He fired a short burst and exploded the Zero – his first aerial victory.
“The raid showed that the new Hellcats could more than hold its own against the Zeros. They destroyed 22 of 34 aircraft at Wake, and 12 American planes were lost – 6 to the Zeros and 6 to AA gunfire.
“In early November, the U.S. forces attacked the large Japanese base at Rabaul, and again the Hellcats over matched the Zeros.” (credit unknown)
How do you produce 500 Hellcats a month?
You work 67 straight days.
You don’t complain a second.
Maybe the most amazing thing about Ed was that he’d get home, eat , then work on his self made immaculate 2 acre yard having moved to Bethpage in 1942 so he could get to work an hour early and make it to work when winter time snow stopped others.
Ed and Rosemary, his loving, devoted wife for 58 years, moved to Schroon Lake in 1974 and had a picture perfect, upstate New York retirement. Only problem for Ed. Two years ago, vision got blurry. Macular degeneration was slowing him down. Since he loved to read, it was a devastating.
Complications from pneumonia after another bad fall (darn those falls), and Ed’s days were numbered. But never once did he complain. No feeling sorry here. Although he never made “ace” for shooting down enemy planes if there was a medal of honor for making them, not to mention for making a wonderful life for all around him, Ed Haroff is wearing one. Something tells me when our Lord needs something fixed, there’s no doubt who he calls. He might never had been a “religious man”, but he lived life by the good book. And he did it religiously. With Ed, it came naturally. In my eyes, Ed Haroff is a true American hero.
Great story, Rachel!! Hats off to Ed, and the hundreds (or thousands) like him who did what needed to be done. There are still Eds out there today, who will, LORD willing, rise up again in America’s time of need. I think you will be one of them. Happy Thanksgiving to all the readers here!!
Thank you for that story, Rachel. It was most inspiring.
Robert
Communism collapsed with the Soviet Union. Socialism is following a couple decades later. The economy is looking relatively good in Texas. The diverging fortunes of Texas and California will not be ignored by the public. It is natural selection at work!
Happy Thanksgiving! I am most thankful for my family and for the men and women who serve this country with honor and dignity. I celebrate all people who work hard and give more than they take.
Since this is my favorite holiday, I will give politics less attention today. The failed, tired ideas of this President will not allow him to achieve his dream of turning America into a nanny state. The independent spirit that has fueled much of America’s greatness is alive and well. We watch, we wait, and we vote. Our enemies, if wise, will not assume Obama’s weakness is also ours. I thank The Precedent for awakening the silent majority. In time, America will be stronger because of the Obama experiment.
Nicely said. Obama is serving a purpose just not his own.
Right on, LeighB!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Keep the faith! Nothing is worse than giving up…
Stay strong and let’s roll!
Stay strong and let’s roll indeed. And Happy Thanksgiving to the PJM regulars! I love you all. Even the trolls.
Part of the belief is American decline centers on the fact that the Taliban have a capacity to survive—although not necessarily prosper—under circumstances that would have withered a normal army. Insurgencies are not normal. They are not even close to normal; they are closer to terrorist organizations that have merely taken to the field. Much of the disappointment people feel about Afghanistan is that the US eventually got sucked into playing the game according to rules not of its own making. Is it any surprise then that Karzai is calling for the US to end its predator attacks, as are the Pakistanis? If the US had the political courage to drop the nation-building nonsense in Afghanistan and deal with the Pakistanis the way they deserve to be dealt with the situation there would change and perhaps quickly.
The other component to belief in American decline is the huge trade surplus we run with many Asian nations. When Japan began running a multi-billion dollar surplus with us we groused over it for a while (perhaps remembering the time the Japanese came to Washington in the early sixties to bitterly complain about the mere one billion surplus they were running with us), but we sort of got over it. Then, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea all got into the act and it began to get pretty expensive, not to mention hair shredding as an irritant. But it was clear, except to American ‘trade negotiators,’ that these people had no intention of ever allowing equal access to their own markets. Now, China is playing the same game, but with a difference. Along with doing the Greater East Asia reverse engineering path to prosperity they have shown the same stubborn refusal to allow equal access to their growing market. And, of course, they never will. The cure for this problem will be more difficult. It may take a sea change in Washington’s collective psychological outlook on the world. Too many in Washington were asleep at the switch while China was rigging everything in sight to its advantage (from China’s collective point of view everything they do is merely good business practice). Or, was it the case that Washington was salivating so hard over the borrowed money they had no time left for rational thoughts about its consequences? If the US is a real market—and our Asian trading ‘partners’ seem to believe it is—then, there will have to be an adjustment of some kind down the road. The dollar de-valuation is part of it; so is revaluation of China’s currency. But it will take more than this. Political courage is required. This means Washington’s ‘surviving’ politicians need to stop thinking like lawyers and start thinking about what is best for the country. Hint: within two to four years the Democratic Party will exist in name only.
My long comment didn’t go through; I’ll try a shorter comment.
America is not simply the ‘window of the world’ but of humanity. America is based around an acknowledgement of the human being. As a free, reasoning individual, capable of positive, moral and rational action. The Declaration of Independence and Constitution are based on this acknowledgment – and the USA was the first nation in the world to focus on the individual. All other societies privileged the group and denigrated the individual; all other societies insisted that the individual was incapable of governance and required an authoritarian leader, god, monarch or aristocracy. Only the US rejected this – and thus enabled the power of the human mind to emerge and develop its ‘exceptionalism’.
The Democratic Party has been taken over by radicals who want statism for their own authoritarian needs. George Soros with his agenda of a world governance with himself as Financial Authority. People like Pelosi and Reid who want statism to gain them power over money to their states and themselves.
‘Real’ or moderate Democrats do exist. Will they reclaim the Democratic Party from the radicals? The radicals set up Obama, a pathological narcissist, with no capacity for intellectual thought, ignorant of history and economics, as their upfront puppet to push throught their statist agenda. He is failing them; will the radicals turf Obama?
Obama has no ability to feel empathy for anyone; he psychologically requires adulation. He would be unable to support the Iranian demonstrators not merely because they wanted individual freedom but because they wanted freedom..rather than Obama. All he can do is campaign or be a community organizer where he exhorts his minions to ‘activate’ while he himself has no ability to think through their, or his, actions and the issues.
He loathes the work of being president, of having to think through issues; he’s unable to do so and delegates all issues, all policies to others. This results in a massive internal WH turf war over these policies. Obama can’t make a decisions and thus, the internal wars escalate..until one wins and Obama announces the decision. But he’s unable to take questions on these policies as he dosn’t undertand, or even care, about them.
He’s surrounded by and has developed within a climate of anti-Americanism and racism. His wife is both. His selected staff are both. He’s shown his disdain for America constantly with his endless apologies for America, his denigration of its achievements, his accusations of American racism.
He’s being marginalized by the radicals, because he’s failing to sell their statism, he’s being marginalized by the moderate Democrats for he’s imploding their party. And the American people are waking up to his agenda of statism and anti-Americanism. The Tea Party, the blogs and internet, the massive rallies, FOX news. And Sarah Palin, who should not be president but remain as the voice of the people no matter what political party.
Will the Democrats turf him? The American people are marginalizing him. Consider the remarkable resurgence of George Bush, who is now constantly on TV, coming across as genial, knowledgeable and above all, deeply loving America. And classy, refusing to say a word against Obama, saying that to do so would be to ‘demean the role of the presidency’. What a contrast to Obama, who openly derides America and its people, and constantly ‘bashes Bush’.
And a recent Hannity show, showing Bush and Blair, teamed together to save western freedom from its enemies, comparing them to Roosevelt and Churchill. Again, a blatant contrast to Obama, who has insulted Britain and our allies and refuses to acknowledge terrorism and denigrates American freedoms.
So- will the Democrats get rid of Obama? And get rid of the radicals? Will Obama, who loathes the work of being president, disappear more and more? Move into a clinical depression? Move to the UN? Or?
The more strongly Obama is confronted, denied and thwarted, the faster he will implode. I think it entirely possible, he will resign before his term is up.
The American dream needs more high impact defenders such as West, Rubio, etc. In fact the most effective use of RNC dollars would not be in the same old, same old but rather taking those funds to purchase five minutes of air time weekly for Allen West alternating with others such as Rubio. Sarah Palin has changed the rules. I think giving West et al a national exposure can accomplish as much as RR did with the radio and print columns in the late 70′s. Pray and hope for massive change in 2012. GBUSA
This Canadian agrees with Roger 100%.
I thank God for American exceptionalism and for our wonderful neighbours to the south, who, among many other fine things, cover our backs in a dangerous world.
My husband and I were recently in Washington, D.C., where I bought a drink for a soldier in uniform. I thanked him for his service on our behalf. He was very gracious–and indicated that seeing the back of Obama at election time was something he’d like to see. ‘Me too: too bad I can’t vote.
On this Thanksgiving Day, I give thanks for the United States of America and the many and great riches your fine country has bestowed upon our world.
God bless America and long may she reign!
And thank the Lord for good neighbours.
(Would you like your Expos baseball team back?)
Many thanks, Bilgeman.
Re the Expos: I’ll ask my husband and let you know!
A very Happy Thanksgiving!
There was a time before the dollar being the world’s reserve currency, before the “New World Order,” before many things people take for granted, and assume will be around forever. The funny thing is, we got along just fine without them.
And we can do it again.
We’re not done yet, not “in twilight” by any means.
The Obama White House is beginning to look somewhat like the battles between the “Hamburg” [and perhaps Berlin] and the “Munich” sides of the NDSAP in Germany. Otto and Gregor Strasser eventually lost [one dead, one fled to us finally]but the parallel is interesting. Hitler often made no decision on important matters until the battle was to the point of party fracture. If published accounts are even near accurate, Obama operates often in a similar manner. Hitler was fortunate that Stalin, KPD, and the West paid no attention. Obama is center stage, and the lack of positive decision process will be exploited by every gomer and Hitler/Stalin/Mao wannabe. Whatever the name, party status, or victory margin, the President inaugurated in January 2013 may well be facing the worst diplomatic and military crisis since 1942. Hope for massive change in 2012. GBUSA
On this Thanksgiving Day, one of the many, many things for which I am grateful is Pajamas Media and all the other voices for sanity in the “alternative” media. Thank you, Roger, for using your talents for such an important cause. It is nothing less than the survival of “the last best hope of humanity.”
I agree that, in a sense, the American Dream will never die–even if we fritter away our role as its vessel–because the American Dream is the deeply held dream of humanity.
What do you think November 2nd was about if not millions upon millions saying YOU WILL NOT KILL THE AMERICAN DREAM?!
The United States is in decline. America on the other hand, is being — or more likely has been — defeated.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and to all the Readers !
America has been poisoned with marxist propaganda, nihilistic philosophy, and other forms of ignorance.
We can get rid of all that, and we can get stronger than before, after we learn our lesson.
You are right, it will be a long road, and we have just started.
But in this day let’s dedicate one deep thought to our Warriors abroad, to the Law Enforcement Officers and to all the People in the Emergency Services: they are the backbone of our Freedom, under God.
On this Thanksgiving Day, I am grateful that my country has seen fit to slam on the brakes and stop the Obamamobile from its wild and out-of-control slew to the far left. May God grant us the collective intelligence to, in 2012, throw out the Democrat criminals and start to repair our national finances and defense. May He also grant us the strength and force of will to severely punish those who took us to such a horrible place with the stern justice it will take to deter later generations from the same errors.
For more on how the United States can rise again, check out The Bond Project at http://www.thebondproject.blogspot.com
Imagine if Reagan had been born thirty year later and had aspirations to be an actor, but for one reason or another, wound up staying in his native Illinois and taking over a small family business. Then, on a whim, he got involved in local politics and wound up becoming Governor. Imagine the aftermath of Watergate, with the American people assuming that the Democrats will win the upcoming elections, and with liberals going so far as to believe that they’re on the cusp of a “permanant Democrat majority”. Imagine an elderly Republican presidential nominee picking the young, handsome, charasmatic, idealistic Reagan as his veep. He would have been savaged in a manner identical to what Sarah Palin has been subjected to, with country club Republicans piling on.
We need not look any further for our next Reagan. We already have her. She may be twenty five years removed from having the amount of wisdom and life experience that Reagan had when he became president. But all the other ingredients are there. Which is why she inspires the exact same kind of visceral love from true conservatives, visceral hatred from liberals, and confused skepticism from all the others who would be inclined to appreciate her if she was given the opportunity to govern, but are too influenced by liberal pop culture to give her a chance.
It is the socialist or progressive wimps in high places who think if they could decide every aspect of our lives it would be a better and a more fair world. Well, it would be for them.
Thank you, Roger. “Can’t help lovin’ that real American Man”
JoJo is right to ask some hard question which boil down to “how did we end up with such an unAmerican president”.
Which says to me that the tea partiers and the patriots coming out in the open now better be prudent and wise as serpents about how they go about repairing the damage done. Remember Obama loves a crisis.
Ahmadinejad and Obama may be working out of the same playbook. Ahmadinejad wants a world crisis to prepare for “the coming of the Hidden Immam” and the world caliphate. Obama said, tellingly, “bring it on” as regards a battle over repealing his socialist agenda. I hope to heaven Obama doesn’t dream of being the Hidden Immam. He certainly acts as messianic as ever.
As to our economic decline, some what if’s:
What if the power of radical environmentalism was curtailed.
What if the excessive power of the unions, both private and public was curtailed.
What if the out of control, unaccountable bureaucrats and their regulations was curtailed.
The list of anti capitalist legislation and regulation goes on and on.
The forgotten freedom ,gentlemen, is we are free to react as they are free to plot and scheme.We gather here and there to air our grievances and plan for our victory politically.May I remind you that at this very moment you are free. Do not be woeful or deterred from enjoying life and working to preserve that which is most important to you. We shall prevail because we cannot, will not, surrender! Happy thanksgiving to each of you.
Thank you — this was absolutely lovely.
Edgelady
Texas
Mr. Simon;
You’ve really put it together nicely here. There were parts of the government that theorized we’d be nostalgic for the Cold War at some point. But these are the same folks that completely mis-diagnosed and forecasted poorly USSR’s longevity.
Yes I do believe the failure to capitalize on the Iranian uprising is the turning point for Obama. And that we are going to prevail is not about him or what he represents or any political party, person or movement. It is about America, the window, the ideal, the hope and the people.
And if after Obama is back in Chicago we can’t see our way back to greatness, we have only ourselves to blame….then NUKE ‘EM
Is the American dream dying? Or better put…Is the American dream being killed?
The answer to the first is no. The answer to the second is, they sure are trying.
The American dream was and is based on freedom. Freedom had a hyper-expansion in 1776, and the world and ourselves still benefit. The ONLY reason it will come to an end is if we let the marxists destroy it.
Here’s what doesn’t matter. An older population, decaying Europe, Islam, 5.8 billion people rooting against us.
Here’s what does matter. Freedom to innovate. And that was and is enabled by a framework that is well known, proven and documented: the ability for innovators to prosper financially, Intellectual Property Rights, safe communities, consistent laws, unoppressive regulations, access to eduction, free commerce, etc.
Prosperity doesn’t arise from static economics like the marxists want you to think. Prosperity isn’t the amount of money in circulation. Prosperity occurs when the amount of time it takes to supply basic needs is minimalized so that you can spend more time doing things you want to do instead of things you have to do. And nothing in the current state of world affairs prevents America from continuing to excel…except our own corrupt and despicable ‘leaders’.
It isn’t complicated. Millions of people innovating create thousands of times more wealth than a few thousand.
We HAVE to stop the marxists NOW, or they will kill the American dream. That’s their mission in life..destroy you so that THEY can live in splendor forever. They couldn’t care less about improving humanity. Indeed, they want to crush those that do enjoy innovation, because we are a threat to them.
And to be 100% clear, by “them” I mean OBAMA and his handlers,
Obama is not the problem but rather a symptom of the problem. Before he was even elected he told the American people that he thought the Constitution was a flawed document, and he endlessly chanted about “changing America”. How much larger a red flag did we need? He clearly didn’t love America.
The real problem is an electorate that did not see the enormous red flags, and voted for a man who had no respect for America as it existed for more than two centuries.
While our schools from elementary on up teach our children about America’s faults, I doubt there is a public school in America that teaches anything in depth about our founding documents. We have raised a couple of generations that don’t know what the American Dream is much less care. How can they care about something they don’t even know about?
I fear it is too late.
You fear correctly. And BTW, that’s 3½ generations, not “a couple”.
…By the river of Babylon
…Where we sat down
…and cried for Zion……….
“The real problem is an electorate that did not see the enormous red flags”
No, the problem is that the media is a captive of the radical left and the country is only now beginning to fully comprehend it.
“We have raised a couple of generations that don’t know what the American Dream is much less care”
The problem is two-fold, and only partly the fault of our generation. Like the msm, the education system has also been captured by the radical left. Should we have stopped it? Yes. But understand that we had no reason to suspect this or fear it. This has been a subversive activity over a 50 or 60 year period of time, and I believe it is unfair to blame the lobster for losing track of the temperature. Now we know…if it isn’t corrected now, we bear the full blame going forward.
“I fear it is too late.”
Only if you give in to what they want you to give into. Despair. Don’t do it.
Well said, proreason. If you give up, you have already lost.
I didn’t mean to indidcate that we should give up. I only meant that we have already gone a considerable distance down the road to decline and what’s more, there seem to be few among the younger generation who realize the gravity of the situation. Their security was never in question in their lifetime or in the lifetime of many of their parents. Ther are just too many who seem to believe that everything will always be OK, just as many liberals believe that there will always be enough money for the government to pay for another entitlement.
We should not give up the fight, but I believe it is a MUCH more difficult fight than most of us think it is.
I can’t be optimistic about the long-term future of the US. I think that VDH’s essays describe the realities better than yours, Roger, with all their optimistic under-surge. No doubt, there are many good things in the US. The best of all is the sense of practical optimism that Americans generally carry. Still, the objective factors are dragging her down to a place that is not near exalted.
People would also be better served were they to acknowledge the corruption of the ‘elites’ – as is expressed in phenomena like the illegitimate (illegal) Presidency of BHO.
I return to my country, Israel, in late December; I will miss things about America, but not all that many.
Naw.
America will be OK. I was going to say I don’t see the next Ronald Reagan yet, but a couple of videos of Chris Christie got me thinking. Also, I like Marco Rubio – the name rolls off the tongue like Marco Polo – but he needs some time to evolve.
Some points.
1. We are 300+ million with a common language and 200+ years of common culture. Who else really has that size, and cohesiveness beside the Chinese? India has 30+ languages and a massive subsistence population to drag up the ladder.
2. The EU (if it holds together), will probably need 200 years to knit together properly. Civilizations operate on longer time scales. Russia is a mess, Asia is fractious and likely headed for its big wars like Europe had. Africa – oh well. Islam needs a reformation, also see Asia. Everywhere I look, I see cultures that have serious work to do to get to where we are.
3. I don’t envy the Chinese, they are on a huge boom which usually leads to an equally huge bust and then the hangover. This may be their century, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a good one too. The world is not a zero game system.
4. In spite of some fraying, this is still a country where you can count on civility and rule of law. I have always thought our greatest strength wasn’t our military prowess, but our individual humility and cooperation. We tend to behave well toward each other for the most part (some drivers notwithstanding).
5. We bitch about immigration, but America leads the world in showing ethnic groups how to work together. We have covered ground that others have avoided (like France and Germany). They will have to pay the bill eventually.
Lots of stuff we need to work on, of course, with education reform at the head of my list. We have slipped there and the seed corn must be tended to.
BTW Watched some of the “Right, All Along”. Very good. Reminded me that Ronald Reagan had two run ups (1968, 1976) before he came in after Carter in 1980. Was that God holding the good wine for 22 years until the most needed moment?
We imported 350,000 indians last year with fake degrees to take away all our technology jobs from hard working americans last year
american dream indeed
financial regulations and a tax environment that is hostile to business forces companies to export jobs to keep costs down
then, lefties shout shenanigans when they are responsible for the cultivation of this anemic economical environment
american dream is well and can again be realized when we return to simple, time-honored, and conservative principles
Roger, when did your girlfriend stop being French?
Sorry, couldn’t resist the tweak. This is a fine essay. I am a short-term pessimist, but a long-term optimist. I don’t know if you’re a fan of “Shakespeare in Love,” but I’m reminded of its running gag in which one character after another, when being asked to explain how everything will turn out all right in the end, replies: “I don’t know, it’s a mystery!” I don’t flatter myself to know, today, the exact hows, because part of what will permit America to keep turning out all right will involve responding to challenges that we haven’t even recognized yet.
I suppose I’m trusting in large part to the resilience that Americans have always demonstrated in the past. Drawing from my own life experience, things aren’t even quite as bad now as they were in 1979-1980, and we came back from that. And I know that my late father — born in 1922, reared during the Depression, and brought to manhood under Japanese fire in the Pacific — would have simply laughed at those who think America is in its twilight years.
I thought the new American Dream was redistributing wealth and power from White/Anglo/Euro/Christian/Males. At least that is what they teach at Uni.
We in America, the US part of the Americas, are most fortunate that our only geographical neighbors, for a long way indeed, are Mexico and Canada, neither of which can pose any threat to us.
The America I knew as a WWII farm lad has perished almost completely. We can only hope that, as the legendary Phoenix is said to have done, we can arise from our ashes.
the american dream is not dying it is commiting suicide…slowly