The More Things Don't Change...

This post is from three years ago but could have been torn from this week's headlines:

File Under "Do Tell"

Matt Yglesias is reporting live from the Dems "Come Home, America" conference (oh, whatever), and he delivers this shocker:

[According to former Kerry pollster Diane Feldman], when you ask if America is "the greatest country in the world" most voters say that it is. When you ask if Democrats believe that America is the greatest country, most voters say that they do not.

I think it's clear that this perception creates some electoral problems.

Really?  From Jeanne Kirkpatrick's "San Francisco Democrats" who "Blame America First", past Michael Dukakis's angst about pledging allegiance to the flag, and right up to Kerry and Clark whining about their right to wear the flag in their lapels, I would say that yes, it has been a bit of a problem.

There's more, and it hardly needs updating.

Comments

[clarice]

Ethel Kennedy has hoped aboard the O express. I can't imagine who cares.

[Elroy Jetson]

Clarice,
I wouldn't care if it were Ethel Merman. I'll concede Obama's strength among Ethels.

[Elroy Jetson]

In all seriousness though, Democrats have a huge problem with patriotism. They start with an embrace of victimization, stirring in mass quantities of multiculturalism, and seasoning with moral relativism and they wind up with one massive brew of confusion. As a result, a yes or no question like "Do you think America is the greatest country in the world?" turns into a 500 word verbal essay.

[MayBee]

Democrats have a huge problem with patriotism

That's why they've tried to re-define patriotism, to the point where I just roll my eyes when I hear the word from anyone anymore.

I think Obama has come from the school of the "I want my country back"icans.

This is a great country, they say. Although it was founded in slavery and everyday people struggled until the good war WWII where everybody agreed with going off to war and nobody was really all that sad when their own child or husband was killed, because it was such a good war.

We were perfect throughout WWII [note:do not discuss Japanese internment camps], never torturing or mistreating our prisoners, right up until we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.
Then the war ended, and we went back to the Jim Crow days and everything was bad until those laws were repealed and then Vietnam and THEN all the factories started shutting down.

Then people struggled to find income equality and prices went up and then George W Bush ruined it forever.

That is the history of this great nation of ours, which I want back because it used to be what it can be again. Great.

Do not question my patriotism.

[Porchlight]

Elroy and MayBee,

Great comments. Obama is definitely part of the "same as it never was" crowd.

[MayBee]

Oh, I love that, porchlight!

I think Obama's message is: This is a great country. And that greatness will start the minute I'm elected.

[ParseThis]

The Messiah sayeth: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate America he cannot be my disciple."

[Danube of Thought]

How well I remember the near-rapture of the nation's youth about George McGovern. Unpopular war, unpopular president, and along comes a decent man to oppose him. And unlike Obama, McGovern had donned a uniform and put his life at very serious risk for his country. The energy and excitement generated by the campaign were palpable.

He won Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.

[Porchlight]

Thanks, MayBee! I agree completely and I think Michelle Obama does, too. The Obamas think that this is a great country if and only if Barack becomes the president of it.

[Doug]

Nothing's changed in the three years since that post?

How about control of Congress?

Sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

[Danube of Thought]

Changing control of Congress sure has improved things, hasn't it? Are you better off than you were eighteen months ago?

[windansea]

How about control of Congress?

Sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

yes, Pelosi and Reid have managed to name a few Post Offices

[clarice]

For the first time Gallup shows Hill inching ahead of Obama..
http://www.gallup.com/poll/106606/Gallup-Daily-Clinton-46-Obama-45.aspx> Nothing they can do about it now

[Soylent Red]

managed to name a few Post Offices

I think those bills are still in committee. All of the members keep voting "Present".

[Tom Maguire]

I think Obama's message is: This is a great country. And that greatness will start the minute I'm elected.

Actually, in the recent debate he explained that this is a great country because it made him possible. Seriously:

SENATOR OBAMA: Well, look, I revere the American flag, and I would not be running for president if I did not revere this country. This is -- I would not be standing here if it wasn't for this country.

And I've said this -- again, there's no other country in which my story is even possible; somebody who was born to a teenage mom, raised by a single mother and grandparents from small towns in Kansas, you know, who was able to get an education and rise to the point where I can run for the highest office in the land. I could not help but love this country for all that it's given me.

[Donna V.]

Danube of Thought: The difference between now and '72 is decades of PC crammed down everyone's throat. The "youthful idealists" who backed McGovern now run the MSM and the universities.

I am cautiously optimistic about McCain's chances. If B.O. keeps stepping on it like he has been doing, no amount of media geneflecting will save him. But I don't think this will be a replay of 1972 - not by a long shot.

[DebinNC]

Obama's "story" is in no way unique, even among Presidents. I haven't seen anywhere that Mr. Soetoro, his step-father, or his grandfather Dunham were abusive or rejecting of Obama, unlike Bill Clinton's boyhood reportedly spent with a raging alcoholic. Some other fatherless fellows who somehow managed to make good. Obama keeps validating the charge that he's weak.

[Donna V.]

P.S. Barry's innocent friendship with characters like the lovely Rev. God Damn America and Billy Ayers would have been immediately lethal to any candidate 35 years ago.

In 1976, nobody would have voted for Mr. Peanut if they had believed him to be anti-American. We all thought he was John Boy Walton. We didn't know John Boy would be bending over to kiss low places on Hamas terrorists a few decades down the road. With Obama, you can picture him doing it while he's still in office - and yet he'll still probably be their nominee.

[bgates]

I remember that Yglesias post. A spirited discussion erupted in the comments between two points of view. One one had, "why should we think America is the best country in the world given slavery/Iraq war/Fox news, and the whole concept of a 'greatest nation' makes no sense, besides which clearly Canada/France/Cuba/Iran are better than here."

On the other hand, "shut up guys, if people hear you talking like that we'll lose."

[Porchlight]

bgates,

Isn't lefty reasoning the best?

I recently learned that Yglesias was born in 1981. That explains a lot.

[Danube of Thought]

Donna, I don't see as much difference between the academic and media elites of today and those of 1972. They were a unified and forceful chorus calling for Nixon's scalp, and there were no cable news outlets, no talk radio, and no internet to answer them. If there was a pro-Nixon voice being heard on any American campus or on any of the networks, I have surely forgotten it.

I can't say Obama will carry only Mass. and D.C., but I'll guarantee he gets fewer than 150 Electoral Votes. He's crumbling like a cookie before our eyes, and no one has come after him yet but his Democrat opponents. Wait till the Fascist Hyenas join the fray. (Remember, this guy has never faced serious opposition in any election.)

[Danube of Thought]

Change my guarantee; should read "fewer than 250 Electoral Votes."

[Porchlight]

Remember, this guy has never faced serious opposition in any election.

Right you are - this should have been red flag numero uno to Dem leadership when considering his electability. Hundreds of gallons of ink will be spilt on this and other "shoulda seen it coming" indicators, if he loses.

[M. Simon]

It will be a replay of 1948 with McCain as Truman.

[M. Simon]

Its Bomber Ayers.

[Danube of Thought]

No way, M. Simon. In 1948, no one knew how to take polls--it was a brand-new undertaking, done with laughable amateurishness, and not done on any regular basis. By today's standards, on election eve 1948 no one had the slightest idea what was likely to happen.

On election eve 2008, the issue will long since have ceased to be interesting. Every sentient being in America will go to bed knowing that John McCain has won, and he will know it because it will have been electronically determined to a certainty before he goes to bed.

We're accustomed, in light of the two most recent presidential elections, to think that they're all cliff-hangers. They're not, and the next one surely will not be one of them.

Toast.

[Danube of Thought]

I withdraw my comment immediately above--I made an erroneous assumption about what point M. Simon was making. Might have helped if I'd gone to his link first. Sorry about that.

But we're stil talking toast.

[M. Simon]

DoT,

No problem. I'm often cryptic and hard to understand.

Although narciso has me really beat in that category. I still love you narciso.