American Exceptionalism In Action

One of the phrases our oh-so-thoughtful-and-intelligent president must regret more than most of his inane and empty utterances must be this one:

"I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism,"

Obama wittered on further, as is his wont:

Now, the fact that I am very proud of my country and I think that we've got a whole lot to offer the world does not lessen my interest in recognizing the value and wonderful qualities of other countries, or recognizing that we're not always going to be right, or that other people may have good ideas...

Yadda, yadda, yadda....

But he's wrong, and Tony Blankley displays why, in a powerful essay. Simply put: When "other countries" are faced with financial and social crisis, they riot and demand the government do something to help them. In America, when we are beset with turmoil, we rise up and demand that the government had better...back the f*ck off, now:

Most of the country had turned fearful (I know I was scared -- and so were some very experienced New York financiers whom I personally knew.) President Obama started applying the typical remedies: bailouts, nationalizations, trillion-dollar stimulus -- spreading the wing of the state to "protect" the helpless people.

And then the American miracle occurred; not in Washington, but in the hearts and heads of the American people. The polls started to show that the American people wanted Washington to do less, not more. They didn't want to be sheltered under the wing of the state.

The American people feared the permanent loss of liberty more than they feared the temporary loss of their income or property.

The tea parties self-formed without leadership from above. But millions of people who didn't join the tea parties nonetheless endorsed their sentiments and values -- so that by last month, polls showed that the tea parties were more identified with than the Republican Party, which itself had just won the greatest election victory in well over half a century.

No other people in the world would have responded to economic danger by seeking more liberty and less government protection.

No other people would have thought to themselves, "If I have to suffer economically in order not to steal from my grandchildren, so be it."

We know this is not true of other nations....

Someone send a cable to the president, and tell him to rethink his philosophical and moral starting point, before he moves any further (as he intends to) with his radicals statist agenda. Lest he find out that his so-called "comeback" is as short-lived as the hopes of a Washington Nationals fan...