"Relax, it's only natural in a period of transition for the more timid element to run for cover."
----The Hudsucker Proxy
The Obama victory has been explained in various ways: His early and often personal attack ads on Romney, new demographics, the use contraception as a proxy for young women, the weight of incumbency, the passive press. Yet these factors, as reasonable as they might be, are one generation removed from the essence of the question. The real factor here is a philosophical evolution in the American electorate. What we are seeing here is a true change in how the citizen sees his relationship with the government. There is an acceptance of government activity for the presumed benefit for the citizen, an approval of government intervention, a willingness to sacrifice individual responsibility for a perceived safety offered by governmental leadership. Essentially we are seeing a people increasingly willing to trade freedom for comfort. That is a new thinking that precedes gender or ethnic identification.
Or is it? Colin Powell said recently that Americans want more government involvement in their lives but a poll revealed that most Americans disagree. Most -- 71 percent -- say they want less government in their life. (Exit polls: 51-43.)
How can one ever explain these choices? How could Lincoln get only 35% of the vote? How could Obama get the Nobel Peace Prize? How did the room look after that vote? How could Teddy Kennedy repeatedly be elected Senator from a major state? Is there some clandestine Irresponsible, Drunken, Public Disgrace Lobby? Is Nancy Pelosi the public face of....what? And Rick Santorium?
America is a gigantic diverse country organized around certain principles held in common, principles about the nature of men and their relationship with their government. It does not matter how many Latinos or unmarried women or gays or evangelical Christians there are voting. It matters what they think. And every voting citizen should think as an American first. If they think as a self-interested subset first, that will become America. A new America. But that America is not now. Nor will it happen over night.This is a legislative system where North and South Dakota with Wyoming outvote New York and California. And it will not be a transition that will be smooth. That self-interest has another side. This is an aggressive, demanding culture and long term mediocrity could be a long, difficult march.
----The Hudsucker Proxy
The Obama victory has been explained in various ways: His early and often personal attack ads on Romney, new demographics, the use contraception as a proxy for young women, the weight of incumbency, the passive press. Yet these factors, as reasonable as they might be, are one generation removed from the essence of the question. The real factor here is a philosophical evolution in the American electorate. What we are seeing here is a true change in how the citizen sees his relationship with the government. There is an acceptance of government activity for the presumed benefit for the citizen, an approval of government intervention, a willingness to sacrifice individual responsibility for a perceived safety offered by governmental leadership. Essentially we are seeing a people increasingly willing to trade freedom for comfort. That is a new thinking that precedes gender or ethnic identification.
Or is it? Colin Powell said recently that Americans want more government involvement in their lives but a poll revealed that most Americans disagree. Most -- 71 percent -- say they want less government in their life. (Exit polls: 51-43.)
How can one ever explain these choices? How could Lincoln get only 35% of the vote? How could Obama get the Nobel Peace Prize? How did the room look after that vote? How could Teddy Kennedy repeatedly be elected Senator from a major state? Is there some clandestine Irresponsible, Drunken, Public Disgrace Lobby? Is Nancy Pelosi the public face of....what? And Rick Santorium?
America is a gigantic diverse country organized around certain principles held in common, principles about the nature of men and their relationship with their government. It does not matter how many Latinos or unmarried women or gays or evangelical Christians there are voting. It matters what they think. And every voting citizen should think as an American first. If they think as a self-interested subset first, that will become America. A new America. But that America is not now. Nor will it happen over night.This is a legislative system where North and South Dakota with Wyoming outvote New York and California. And it will not be a transition that will be smooth. That self-interest has another side. This is an aggressive, demanding culture and long term mediocrity could be a long, difficult march.
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