America is at a crossroads — we always seem to be, but this time
we really are.
We are living under the administration of a president that is now
the least popular since World War II. A full one-third of those
polled by Quinnipiac rate Barack Obama the worst
president since 1945. (Reagan is rated the best.)
What accounts for this? There are dozens of reasons that
have been detailed on these pages and many others. The man has lied to us
multiple times — and to himself as well, no doubt — and many people now
apparently sense this. But I think the deepest reason, the motivating
cause, stems from a time Barack Obama actually didn’t lie, but told an important truth.
Back on July 27, 2004, a then obscure Illinois senator made
himself famous by standing in front of the Democratic National Convention and
speaking these words: “There is not a liberal America and a conservative
America. There is a United States of America. There is not a black America and
a white America, a Latino America, an Asian America — there’s the United States
of America.”
Did he believe those words? Maybe. Once upon a time.
But evidently not very deeply. The fact is he betrayed them completely
and almost everything he has done wrong has stemmed from that betrayal.
He has acted in the most partisan and deceitful manner, surrounding
himself with a tiny group of yes-women and yes-men, making a mockery of
his self-proclaimed transparency, shamelessly exploiting interest groups in a
way that could only divide our society while diminishing America’s place in the
world, and allowing evil forces to grow across the globe.
All of this while being convinced he is always doing the right
thing. The rest of us are wrong. He is not the commander-in-chief. He is
the moral narcissist in chief. It’s not “I think, therefore I am.”
It’s “I believe — therefore it is.”
But most of the country seems to realize that now. And his
poll numbers reflect it. Sometimes it seems as if his only real
supporters are government employees, food stamp recipients, and the
editorial board of the New York Times.
Whatever the case, that 2004 speech to the DNC is so far in the rear view
mirror we might as well be on Battlestar Galactica.
First of all, we should get over ourselves. Our country may
be great, but we’re nothing special just because we realize a few political or
economic points. Moral narcissism is the psychological illness of our
times. It infects all of us. Liberals and progressives aren’t the
only ones who adhere to “I believe — therefore it is” and make a hash of
things. Plenty of conservatives and libertarians do too.
I will admit that we do not suffer from MN as badly, but we still
suffer from it. The destructive manner in which Tea Party Republicans and
mainstream Republicans treat each other, even in those cases when they believe
nearly the same things and differ mainly on strategy, attests to moral
narcissism. They should calm down and concentrate on the larger objectives.
The situation we are in this July 4th calls for humility of talk
coupled with firmness of action. It does not call for circular firing
squads. With thirty-three percent of the country acknowledging Obama as
the worst president since the Second World War, people on the other side and in
the middle are clearly beginning to listen. Ears are opening. This
is, as they saying goes, a golden opportunity.
This Fourth of July, take it. Talk to your liberal and independent
friends, family and neighbors, but don’t gloat. Don’t point to the polls
and brag “I told you so!” Commiserate with them instead. You and
they are Americans, after all, as Barack Obama once said and then forgot or
ignored, and it is our great country that has come to this pass. And, as
we all know, as America goes, so goes the world.
This is serious business. Just being right doesn’t mean
much. Getting things fixed does. We are at that tipping point
where it could get fixed. It’s up to us. If not us
