Sigh, I wonder if Ms. Strassel has ever read the Federalist Papers? So many of the “debates” we are having are explicitly addressed by our founders. Take this issue, in fact, what she’s really talking about is what Hamilton and Madison referred to as “factionalism”, addressed in depth in Federalists 9 and 10.
They aren’t hard to read - a little old and some colloquialisms - but the meaning is plain. They felt that democracy had within it an inherent risk that its politics would devolve into a factionalism in which politicians would manipulate coalitions of minorities or outright majorities to “vote” impingements on other “group’s” liberty.
They were terrified of it actually. They claimed it would destroy our ‘experiment in self-government’. They believed that free, self-governing citizens would need to engage their reason and understand that the limits classical liberal ideas place on government served all Americans and that they traduced another’s liberty at their own peril. Hamilton, Madison and Jefferson are on the record in many ways on this topic. Factionalism is un-American - a word I don’t use lightly.
Ergo, Obama is un-American in his use of factionalism as a political strategy, and is at odds with the very idea of limited democracy. People miss that the reason Obama is anti-capitalist and so enamored of the power of the state is that he - and every other Progressive=Social Justice Fetishist=Marxist - reject the moral philosophy which informed the very construction of our liberty. He thinks they, and those of us who still adhere to the classical liberal ideas of Madison and Jefferson, are wrong and clinging to a disproved ideology. Our founders sought to limit the ability of people like Obama who sought to use democracy (mob rule) to violate the liberty of classes of people he decides don’t deserve the same liberty as other groups.
Your analysis is brilliant. The truth is, Obama is alien to even the most basic fundamentals of freedom that have traditionally made our country great. Simply put, he is not one of us — or more correctly: he is not one of those of us who still share the essential values that made America great.
And thereby lies the rub — and, in fact, the great, and far more frightening, truth. Obama, you see, has correctly figured out that the factions that will return him to the White House have very little knowledge of, let alone respect for, the moral imperatives that once made America great.
His constituency is made up of the ne’er-do-wells, the cavilers, the profligates, the lazy, the lethargic, and the promiscuous. Tattooed, body-pierced, unbathed, and disease ridden, they scoff at those who value hard work, virtue, decency, dignity, a daily shower, and a bar of soap.
They are deeply offended by someone like Sarah Palin, who commits what to them is the goody-goody transgression of sleeping only with her own husband. And a sissified Tim Tebow who clings to his antiquated virginity is to them, quite simplt repulsive. Give them the Kardashians and Bobby Browns any day of the week. Now, they really know how to live!
Unfortunately, we now live in Barack Obama’s America. If you doubt that for one single, solitary second, just turn on the TV. Or the radio. Eavesdrop on the conversation of the folks under 40 sitting next to you at the local diner. Or, ask the next ten pregnant women you run into if they are married.
You are entirely correct: Barack Obama is engaging in repugnant and destructive factionalism. And, tragically, in America today, those two terms also describe his rapidly growing faction.
It shouldn't be surprising, since he spent his formative years in Indonesia, a country not known for reasoning nor "classical liberal" philosophy.
And even when not in Indonesia, he was raised and indoctrinated by people who hated everything about America.
It shouldn't be surprising that Obama wanted to "fundamentally change" America, especially since he stated exactly what he wanted to do, just like a certain Austrian did in his book, "Mein Kampf." And everybody ignored what that a$$hat said he would do if he ever got the chance!
Mark