Obama in Kansas #3

There have been many reactions to the unhappiness and failure of men. Of the political, some are abstract and violent like Marxism, some center on withdrawal like the old socialist religious sects, some are interesting but without a format like Wendell Berry or the Distributionists. The Progressives believe the complexity of the world, the concentration of wealth and power that inevitably results from any competitive success, the randomness of economic and political evolution demand that well schooled and disinterested experts guide the culture towards rational and purer ends for the betterment of the nation and the individual. In some respects it is reminiscent of the democratic managed economies of the emerging Eastern nations, but with a broader moral base. Hence the Federal Reserve, Prohibition, Dewey's education system, the United Nations--all perhaps reasonable but ironic, certainly not what one would put in one's portfolio of success. And all quite opposed to the nature of this nation.

So what did Obama say in his speech in Osawatomie?
His opponents feel "we are better off when everyone is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules," "the free market will take care of everything," "if prosperity doesn't trickle down, well, that's the price of liberty." They want "free license to take whatever you can from whomever you can." This approach "doesn't work. It's never worked....Understand, it isn't as if we haven't tried this thing." And the solutions? "A higher education is the surest route to the middle class," "making wind turbines and semiconductors and high powered batteries." Is there anyone who believes any of this who isn't a polygamist in the hills of Utah? Even libertarians don't believe this. Even Hannity doesn't believe this.

This is where Obama becomes so confusing. Obama is the leader of the country and as I am on the county's side I am on his side. I see him as struggling, trying to make his vision, his word, real. But this is simply nonsense. Nobody believes any of this. This is a war with straw men and caricatures, much goofier--and more shallow--than one expects from him. And if you hear this kind of stuff often enough you begin to wonder about him.

I have no love for the rich. We don't even date. But this terrible insincerity demands honesty in response. There are many contributing factors in our economic problems--cheaper labor competition, short-term economic thinking, unproductive foreign wars, unmanaged entitlements, scandalous financial mismanagement, an aging population--but being rich is not one of them and I can not pick up my torch and pitchfork and follow.

There was another famous--well, less famous--event in Osawatomie. John Brown, the fierce abolitionist, brought a wagon load of weapons to the town to support the anti-slave faction battling the pro-slavery forces in "Bleeding Kansas". Brown eventually led a raid, called a massacre, where several men were killed. John William Reid led a pro-slavery force of 250 men into Osawatomie in response and Brown fought him there until he ran out of ammunition. Several of his sons were killed and the town was burned.

Not everything that happens in Osawatomie is worthwhile.