Posted by
The Fowler Report on Thursday, October 16, 2008 12:38:32 PM
As it turns out, the entire debate comes down to how you view the world. Either you view the world as a cold system in which you’re relegated to a “position” assigned at birth, or you view the world as a place full of endless opportunity to make yourself better. Either you think you’re entitled to happiness or you think you’re entitled to the pursuit thereof. Either you look for a hand-out or you look for a hand up. Either you want that fish for a day or the ability to provide yourself all the fish you could need for a lifetime.
This election presents many contrasts, but the most stark is that between American exceptionalism and socialism. That’s it! Senator Obama has played to the human tendency towards class envy and continues to tell people that they can count on him to take from the successful and “spread the wealth around.” It occurs to me that in America that should be the end of the story and that the source of such idiocy should be laughed out of this race, but sadly, many Americans today would rather have everything handed to them than invest the sweat and tears sometimes necessary for survival. What happened to American exceptionalism? What happened to the American drive to succeed? What happened to a pride in one’s ability to take a lemon and make from it sweet lemonade?
When did America become a nation of whiners looking for someone to ride in and solve their problems? That is not the spirit that has made America great? We come from a long line of down-and-outers who wanted more – they wanted better, but they didn’t want more and better at someone else’s expense. They worked their fingers to the bone and paid the price to provide a brighter tomorrow for themselves and a future for their families. They understood the satisfaction that comes from making it happen for themselves.
Obama can promise the moon and punish the prosperous to pay for it, but in so doing he will deeply wound if not kill a vital element of Americanism – that spirit of self reliance. He is telling us to ignore the fact that he and millions of other successful Americans came from humble beginnings but worked hard and have done quite well for themselves despite them. He is telling us that we are not capable of doing the same for ourselves but rather should look to him and to the nanny state he would create for our well being. After all, we’re drawing breath and as such are entitled to happiness and prosperity packaged in a neat box wrapped in festive jackass paper and a big blue bow, deposited on our doorsteps courtesy of the DNC and their socialist comrades.