Obama seeks to affirm his patriotism
That’s the headline from this article by the AP, that talks about how Barack has been inserting more patriotic statements in his recent speeches.
The article quotes the following as his “patriotic” statements:
I love this country not because it’s perfect but because we’ve always been able to move it closer to perfection,” he told an audience in North Dakota.
And in Montana: “It’s a country where … I’ve seen ordinary Americans find justice, where I’ve seen progress made for working families who need leaders who are willing to stand up and fight for them. That is the country I love.”
But are these really patriotic statements?
I’ll concede that these statements are factually accurate, but they don’t seem patriotic to me. They strike me as more of the “yeah but” kinds of statements that Barack uses when he tries to deal with an issue without making himself look like the leftist he is.
“…move it closer to perfection,” I wonder where on the perfection scale Barack thinks we are? By his statement I assume he thinks we’re at least at 1 but not at 100, but where between 1 and 100 are we? Factually, I would agree with Barack that we are not at 100 for the simple reason that much of the country still views abortion as a valid birth control method, but I digress….See, if Barack wanted this to be a patriotic statement he would have said something like,
“I love this country because it’s the best system in the world. While we may not be perfect, we have a process that allows us to make constant, peaceful strides to that end.”
You may say I’m playing with semantics and that’s true. However, wasn’t it Barack who kept talking about the importance of “just words?” Words and how you choose to use them say alot about the intent of the speaker. Making a beginning declarative statement rather than starting by trying to establish equivalency, would have made this patriotic, putting it together as he did makes it “yeah but.”
“I’ve seen ordinary Americans find justice,” Is Barack suggesting that it is unusual for “ordinary” Americans to find justice? Is he suggesting that only the wealthy or well connected can be assured of justice in our country? Again, start with a declarative statement,
“I love this country because we have the best justice system in the world, a system where regardless of your economic or social standing, you can expect justice to serve you. And in those few instances where the system doesn’t work as it should, I’m proud that there are leaders who will step up and fight to correct injustice.”
Once last comment on “just words” and the Obama supporters who will tell me that I’m twisting his language. These comments came not from off-the-cuff remarks. These comments came from prepared speeches. Off-the-cuff remarks like “I don’t want them to be punished by a baby,” show me the individual’s true heart on a topic as they haven’t had time to think through the words and craft them. Statements may be mad in factual error but when it comes to judgements, they speak with their most prevalent thought on the topic. However, with prepared remarks, words that are considered and crafted in a particular order, well, you don’t get the chance to say “but he really meant XXXXXX.” See, if he had really meant “XXXXXX,” he would have crafted “XXXXXX.” Barack purposely chose not to use declarative, patriotic statements simply because he will not declare his patriotism. How tough is it?
Barack tried to distance himself from Jeremiah Wright’s hateful speech by saying he didn’t agree with it and then quickly added a “yeah but” by telling us that Wright had come out of a generation where this speech was acceptable and we needed to appreciate that. Now Barack’s trying to tell us he’s patriotic, and it seems to me that he’s also trying to tell us that people are “patriotic” even if they don’t believe the US is the best country in the world.
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