Where Have I Heard That Before?
May 19th, 2008 by Wyatt
So, Senator Obama made a much-ballyhooed appearance at Waterfront Park in Portland over the weekend. Chances are the most likely news story you will hear will be about the large number of people and the very pretty pictures of large crowds along the riverbank in the sunshine.
What caught my eye, however, was a quote Drudge mentioned on his front page today. He refers to this news story that quotes the senator thusly:
“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK,” Obama said.
“That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen,” he added.
Wow. Read that again if it didn’t strike you as an amazingly clueless statement.
Let’s take this apart piece by piece. First, Senator Obama refers to driving, eating, and temperature control in a way that clearly implies that we are guilty of doing too much of something. I presume he’s critical of our consumption of gas, food, and power. It strikes me as incredibly arrogant for someone to wag his finger at me and tell me that I’m driving too much, eating too much, and using too much air conditioning. I’m sorry, but if I can afford all of those things, what exactly am I guilty of? Not living how you like? Isn’t this a free country? Or is he proposing a different style of government where the rules are a little more restrictive. Please take note that if they can’t guilt you into compliance, they will find other ways.
Then, he continues on to say that other countries may disapprove of our legal consumption. Once again, if we’ve paid for it, what exactly are we doing wrong? If we’re indirectly funding terrorism, we should find another way. But, if the criticism is that the rest of the world is unhappy with our consumption, my response is blunt: “So what?” Why should any other country have one sliver of influence over how I live my life or how my country governs itself? This is the déjà vu the title of this post refers to. Anyone remember John Kerry and his “global test”? After reading many a book about the Founding Fathers, I’m always amazed when an American politician suggests that we should let foreign opinion of any kind influence our internal decisions. This is really outrageous.
But, then he throws in the kicker. He declares that letting Americans do what they want within legal limits and letting us decide our own fate is not leadership. His kind of leadership, evidently, means not letting Americans do what they can afford or letting us, as a country, chart our own course. His kind of leadership means giving strong suggestions or even compelling us to drive less, eat less, and use less power. His kind of leadership means consulting non-citizens when deciding on domestic policy.
I don’t want that kind of change, thank you very much. That’s a change that scares me.