We The People – Update: Cavuto Commentary
It’s not easy to understand why we Americans behave the way we do. Our culture is indeed unique. To be sure, I am convinced, within each and every one of us beats the heart of a free thinker who values personal liberty.It is why “Live Free Or Die” seems to resonate, even if softly, with so many, more than two centuries after it became the rallying cry of a young republic. It is why Americans push back so heard today against not just politicians but large corporations that attempt to steal that freedom from us periodically through control of our money, and our property.
This current economic crisis seems to have crystallized this point as well as anything. The American people across the political spectrum are outraged. Each defining whom they believe to be the enemy, but both seeming to agree on what is at stake. Our very freedom to choose and direct our destiny , not just as a country but as individuals as well.
This essay by Janet Daley, a conservative columnist for the Telegraph in London, is one of the best analysis I have read of the “American Way”. Here’s a portion but I urge you to read it all.
Unlike in Europe – where the historical commitment to democracy has been patchy – America has little difficulty with the question, “who needs to be in charge of our future?” The answer is always, “we the people”. Democratic self-governance, and the concept of personal freedom that underpins it, comes first and last.
Which is why the anger in America about bankers (and the recent furore about AIG bonuses) was more personal than political: the rage was against individuals who had abused the freedom of the market and who needed to be punished as individuals.
When the crisis first hit, the overwhelming majority of Americans were vehemently opposed to any bank bail-out. That was why Hank Paulsen’s first rescue package was thrown out by Congress: the bankers had screwed up and they were not (hell, no) going to be pulled out of the tank by taxpayer dollars.
The US population had to be painstakingly persuaded that if Wall Street went down, Main Street would go with it before they agreed to stump up: they were much more inclined to believe that the banks should be allowed to go under than that the hard-earned money of ordinary people should be given to support them. You take the consequences of your own stupidity: that’s the price of freedom. Faced with the damage that such bank failures would have done to the mass of the population, Americans relented, but I suspect that many still believe they could have rebuilt their lives and economy again from scratch through their own industry and resilience.
It gets better. It is written from a conservative point of view, but I think everyone will see the value in this piece.
Update: Here’s Neil Cavuto’s commentary from last night. It is along the same lines and puts the government takeover of GM into perspective for each of us as Americans.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PahuQArFtjo
Jim
11 Comments
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I just want to play that over and over and over. Too bad the so called "objective" mainstream media (not the dreaded "Faux" News!) can't be bothered to look past the daily talking points issued by Obambi to see the handwriting on the wall (hint: it is the same writing you can find in the Commmunist Manifesto).
The most frightening sentence in the world just got more frightening: "We're the government, and we're here to help you."
If anyone thinks what is happening is good for this country, perhaps not you, but certainly your children, will learn painfully that it is not.
Under the guise of "fairness" we tax the productive so they are no longer willing to produce, we turn business into the image and likeness of political expediency, and we reward failure so that those who have failed become pawns in some grand political chess game.
None of these policies will do anything but bring this formerly great country to its knees.
"Too bad the so called “objective” mainstream media (not the dreaded “Faux” News!) can’t be bothered to look past the daily talking points issued by Obambi to see the handwriting on the wall (hint: it is the same writing you can find in the Commmunist Manifesto)."
You can't tell the other side to stop drinking their "kool aide" while simultaneously drinking your "kool aide". Whatever the flavor, its still kool aide.
Hold your nose and check out some of the left blogs and you'll note that there is pretty much the same outrage at the Giethner Plan, Obama for clinging to the Wall Street gang, and Chris Dodd for being Chris Dodd as there is on the right.
Jim is right about this issue, this is not a left/right thing. This is a "wrong is wrong" thing.
Is this where post-partisanship begins?
I have watched this video a few times now. First I was so angry, I couldn't right a comment. The next few times I watch (total of four). I was trying to think what I wanted to say. The last time I watched it all I can think of is fear. Now I know what it was like when people elected someone like Hitler. They were hoping for a change and the got hell. I hope the change we have now is one of awakening. People have to stop ignoring things like the GM CEO getting fired by Obama. We've all heard the saying about "When they came for my neighbor…" Let's hope we wake up before it's too late and there's no one left to stand up for us.
When I first heard Neil I was struck dumb. This morning I played this again and my eyes became moist. I thought about Costa Rica or Poland as places to move. That passed and I said to myself, no Russ, you are a ninth generation New England swamp yankee. Nobody is going to drive you out. Four of my great great great great grandfathers fought in the American Revolution. My great grandfather was in the Union Army in the Civil War. My father fought in WWI and my brother in WWII. I served in Germany in the occupation forces. I may be old but I'm not dead. I'm ready to do whatever is necessary.
"You can’t tell the other side to stop drinking their “kool aide” while simultaneously drinking your “kool aide”. Whatever the flavor, its still kool aide."
I am fine with that. Now show me where, in the "allegedly" liberal MSM, you see anything remotely resembling what Cavuto did here. I routinely listen to both sides of the media, but even the liberal comedians condemn Fox News as being untrue, when it clearly is not. Listen to both, average it out.
Oh, and compare the media coverage of Obama from the left and the right media. Those bloggers you reference on the left are surprised at Obama's ineptitude, while those on the right are only surprised by the speed with which it surfaced.
That is because the lefty media was/is so in the tank for Obama, they forgot what their job was/is. Fox and the few other conservative outlets told you exactly what was coming, just like Cavuto is doing now. Only on Fox. The lefty MSM is still covering for him.
I'll take the red KoolAid every time. The blue KoolAid has a narcotic effect that numbs the mind! 😉
"I’ll take the red KoolAid every time. The blue KoolAid has a narcotic effect that numbs the mind! :)"
Thank you for making my point for me.
You stay in the right-wing locker room and listen to the pep talk all day. Lefties are increasingly doing the same.
Shouldn't we be settling this on the field?
Give a pay-for-view death cage match line-up of Oberlman vs. O'Reilly…Rush vs. Franken…and dare I say a headliner of Jim vs. Colin. That's what I want to see. Get these guys out of the locker room and onto the field. Now that's must-see TV!
You did note the smiley after that statement, right? 😉 There is another!
And you didn't comment on the point I made about Cavuto publicly making the point that needs to be made, and isn't present in the liberal media. That's a field too! Objectivity in the press (my main point) is the real field of competition for "post partisanship."
"And you didn’t comment on the point I made about Cavuto publicly making the point that needs to be made, and isn’t present in the liberal media."
David Schuster called out Obama for hypocricy by firing the GM CEO yet inviting the bank CEO's in for tea. Rachel Maddow ranted and allowed Dave Sirota to rant about Obama's love affair with Wall Street insiders. Krugman was all over the Sunday talk shows one way or another.
There is significant dissonance with BO's Wall Street policies from the left in the MSM.
BTW, should the right media make the same points Oberlman has been making on his "Special Comments". My guess is you think not.
Great for the blogs and cable, but what about the rest of the media? All the ranting, from either side, gets little, if any coverage, hence my point.
I am inundated by the liberal media, and try to get the rest of the story (thank you, Paul Harvey) from Fox, the Washington Times etc. That is expanding my inputs, not sitting in a conservative "locker room," as refreshing as that might be. 🙂 Just listening to the regular television is the narrowed, subjective approach. I want all of the points you mentioned to be covered by the likes of Couric and the others, but it won't.
I don't have cable, so the Oberlmann points are moot to me. Post them. I'll watch.