I waited all afternoon to watch the DNC tonight. Once it started, I lasted ten minutes before I wondered why I was giving myself an ulcer sitting through this gloom and doom stuff. Hope is out the window; tonight all we've got is change. Tonight it's all about The End of the American Dream.
Bill Clinton said we need to "rebuild the American dream." Joe Biden said "the American dream is slipping away."
Biden talked about people who can't pay their bills and said, "These are common stories among middle-class people who've worked hard their whole life and played by the rules, on the promise that their tomorrows would be better than their yesterdays. That promise is the promise of America."
And I suppose Joe Biden just summed up why I will never be a Democrat.
The greatness of America is not that everyone's tomorrows will be better than their yesterdays. It's simply not; that's not something you can promise. The greatness of America is that everyone has the opportunity for better tomorrows. The chances are there for the taking, but it's not a promise.
The Democrats want to promise you that they will make all 300 million of our lives better. That's absurd. But Barack Obama is all about "the world as it should be." He'll promise you some ideal that can never be lived up to, something that doesn't exist. Some America where no one makes less than twenty bucks an hour and everyone is guaranteed a low interest rate on a McMansion. Where everyone's health care is free but no one's taxes go up except for Exxon executives'. An America of no trade offs, no opportunity costs at all. Flowers and sausages for everyone, once Obama's in power. A full 180 from the gloom and doom we live in now. Come January, life will be perfect.
Audacity, indeed.
Frankly, I'm disappointed that all the Democrats can talk about is changing America. If there's even a whiff of that at the Republican convention next week, I'm afraid I'll cry. The United States of America is already the greatest country on the planet. I'm weary of hearing speech after speech about how we need to change it. How it's "downright mean." How we need to set a better example for the world.
How the American dream is dead.
I don't want to change anything about our country. I don't want the government (spit) to promise me my American dream, to promise me the picket fence and microwave oven. I only want my government to assure me that all the dreams I could ever want are at my fingertips if I work hard enough and make good decisions. And then get the hell out of the way and let me work towards them.
That is the promise of America.
And that is why I'm not a Democrat.
Posted by Sarah at August 27, 2008 11:08 PM | TrackBackGreat points. Also, Obama fans tend not to recognize that their visions of fulfilling lives on the backs of evil executives are actually incompatible with themselves. If we interfere and make it more miserable and less profitable to be an executive, people will quit. Less tax revenue for gov't and its flowery guarantees... and oil execs? (With all of the companies' evil teensy percentage profits?) We'd sure miss our plastic freezer bags... and our Tupperware... and our Vaseline and Dove products. I wonder how far we'd get before EVERYONE finally realized that "evil oil" doesn't just power vehicles. Plus, when it's more profitable to be a cog than a leader, more industries will be ripe for nationalization, and boy... doesn't that *cough-Putin* sound *cough-Mussolini* familiar?
Posted by: kannie at August 28, 2008 12:06 AMExcellent Sarah! You hit the nail on the head, great post.
Posted by: tim at August 28, 2008 08:02 AMWell put. I, too, don't want the government to supply me with the "American Dream", I want it to stay out of my way while - as an American - I pursue it.
Posted by: prophet at August 28, 2008 08:06 AMgovernment to stay out of my way while I pursue dream, that is.
Sorry for the indirect reference. . . .
Posted by: prophet at August 28, 2008 08:08 AMOne of the ways you can detect a promotion for a financial scam is that there's generally a lot of stuff on how wonderful it will be to have a lot of money--"Pay off your bills. Take exotic vacations. Buy a new car."--and a lot less about how this particular investment is actually going to make you any money.
The Democratic promotion is much the same. It's all about how awful X,Y,and Z are now, and how wonderful they'll be under a Democratic administration...but not much in the way of cause-and-effect thinking.
Posted by: david foster at August 28, 2008 10:00 AMExact-a-mundo! I am pissed off at the whole "let's join together and change!!" Change what, exactly? Up our taxes? Withdraw from Iraq? I guess no one really knows except that it's got "to be better than the last 8 years!"
Posted by: Allison at August 28, 2008 12:01 PMPlease don't all pile on me, but I really would like one of those Obama dolls they keep showing in the pictures. I'm not sure why, but I really do want one.
To add to my collection of political campaign stuff, that is. Not to cuddle with at night or anything.
Posted by: airforcewife at August 28, 2008 12:35 PMDamn fine post!
Posted by: Lame-R at August 29, 2008 02:08 PMGreat post Sarah! So very well said.
Posted by: RedLegMeg at September 2, 2008 11:58 PM