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Striving towards a more perfect Union

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About once a week, far-right blogs throw a fit about one manufactured controversy or another, usually to no avail. This week’s outrage, apparently, was Barack Obama’s response to an Indiana girl’s question about why he’s running for president.

“America,” Obama said, “is no longer what it could be, what it once was. And I say to myself, ‘I don’t want that future for my children.'”

It struck me as a pretty innocuous thing to say, but more than 300 conservative blogs are outraged — or, at a minimum, feigning outrage — as is Rush Limbaugh. Apparently, Obama’s response was insufficiently patriotic. The title from the YouTube poster reads, “Barack Obama To Little Girl: America’s Not So Great.”

I see. So, if one believes the nation could be better, and has fallen short of late of some of the greatness we’ve achieved in years past, then he/she necessarily sees the United States as less than great now. Got it.

Of course, as Steve M. noted, that might cause Ronald Reagan some trouble, given that one of his 1980 campaign slogans was, “Let’s make America great again.”

“Yup, Reagan said we had to make America great again,” Steve responded. That meant that, in 1980, he didn’t think America was great. Filthy America-basher. (And I hear he was from Hollywood, too.)”

I also can’t help but think John McCain may also have trouble with the right’s standard for patriotism.

In June, for example, McCain hosted an online Q&A and heard from a man who was educated at Princeton and Harvard, and who made more than $300,000 a year. “How can I be proud of my country?” he asked. The question was intended to be a not-so-subtle shot at Michelle Obama.

McCain didn’t pick up on the joke. Asked how someone could be proud of the United States, McCain said, “I’ll admit to you that it’s tough, it’s tough in some respects.” He added that America needed to be “more humble, more inclusive.”

Really? It’s “tough” to be proud of the United States? We’re too arrogant and overly exclusive? These aren’t radical, treasonous ideas, but if Obama had said the same thing, you better believe we’d not only hear about it, but the comments would quickly become the basis for an aggressive push-back campaign that would last from now until November. (“What do you mean it’s ‘tough’ to be proud of America? It’s easy to be proud of the greatest country on earth. Why would someone who wants to lead the nation not believe that?”)

A few months earlier, McCain told Fox News, “I really didn’t love America until I was deprived of her company.”

What’s wrong with that? Nothing in particular; I know what McCain meant (that he began to appreciate America more when he lost his freedom during Vietnam). But, again, one can easily imagine the right’s unhinged reaction if Obama had said something similar. (“What do you mean you didn’t really love America? Real Americans always love America….”)

The point isn’t that McCain and/or Reagan are unpatriotic; the point is Obama’s remarks were harmless and uncontroversial. He loves America, so he wants it to be even better than it is today. That’s not unpatriotic; that’s the opposite of being unpatriotic.

Weekly right-wing freak-outs are not only tiresome, they’re embarrassing.

Comments

  • Tom Cleaver

    says:

    Weekly right-wing freak-outs are not only tiresome, they’re embarrassing.

    That’s because the right wing is tiresome and embarassing. Doesn’t it embarass everyone here to think that the words “my fellow Americans” includes those morons??

  • Capt Kirk

    says:

    A day in the life, tiresome right wing Republican gas bag hears a patriotic American making a speech that uplifts and inspires, gas bag blows a gasket spewing and spouting through an entire 2 hours of live radio about the godless hedonists who cannot muster the proper pride in their warring and torturing country. Out of breath and sweating profusely, gas bag is driven by limousine to the doorstep of his darkened lair. Gas bag relaxes and leans back in his favorite chair, ties off and takes that really big blast of Oxycontin right in the mainline.

    And all is well and right with the world… ain’t America great!?

  • neilt

    says:

    The more time this humble Canadian spends conversing with Americans the more he realizes that we have far more in common than not.

    This bizarre over-inflated hyper-patriotism things however, is not one of them.

    It’s just plain weird.

  • maya

    says:

    Everyone needs to back away from the sushi bar and take a deep breath. We really won’t know how Great America is until after the final medal count in Beijing. Leave a 10% margin of error for ensuing doping scandals.

  • doubtful

    says:

    We really won’t know how Great America is until after the final medal count in Beijing. -maya

    You might also want to include China’s choice to revoke our athletes’ visas if they don’t agree with their political beliefs in your MOE.

  • joey

    says:

    The obvious is that no matter what is true about Obama these people are only out to twist anything he says to smear him. They walk around with blinders on discounting anything good about anyone they have not already pre-judged to be one of them.

    They “know better” about Michelle’s comments…about Clark’s comments etc but find a way to use their comments to mean other than what they know was intended.

    I would lose all hope for America if I believed they represented a majority of public opinion. They will never change or grow or progress because they shun everything that doesn’t already fit into their already formed opinions. It is willful ignorance unable to learn, grow or change. It is pitiful that they believe what is true about them…that the only way to change a person’s mind is to stick a .45 to their head and blow their brains out…

  • Dee Loralei

    says:

    The right has no standard for patriotism, they do however, have a standard for nationalism. And for tribalism, as long is it’s their tribe in power.

  • Charliet

    says:

    These people are either mentally ill, emotionally damaged and societally dangerous; or they are mixed up in a power for pay, quid pro quo scheme. Look, when was the last Republican altrustic act you can name? Eisenhower warning against the Military, Industrial Complex. Today that gets him Jimmy Carter villification. I guess he’s grandfathered under the current defacto contract as untouchable.

  • jc

    says:

    He spoke the truth, what more do Americans want in a president. What was he suppose to tell a 7 yr old that they could possibly understand but the truth? If he had mentioned to war or the economy or the price of gas the conservatives would have probably been screaming about the way he spoke to the girl.
    Wish the talking heads would all go find their bodies and get a life and stay out of MSM.

  • Chad

    says:

    “Yup, Reagan said we had to make America great again,” Steve responded. That meant that, in 1980, he didn’t think America was great. Filthy America-basher. (And I hear he was from Hollywood, too.)”

    That was probably because Carter screwed everything up and Reagan came in and cleaned his mess. I had faith in Reagan because he had the experience and herewithal to do so. I don’t have that same faith in Obama, because he doesn’t have the experience to fix things.

    I think what’s happening here is that the right is getting sick of hearing all this doom-and-gloom coming from the Obama side. “America isn’t what it once was” Really, what was it once? What is it now? “America’s a downright mean country & for the first time in my adult life…” Maybe the Obama’s should stop putting down America all the time and acknowledge it’s greatness for once.

    And really, to tell a little girl that America isn’t that great, that’s just plain stupid. I do recall that Michelle actually made a girl cry for answering a simple question negatively.

  • Dale

    says:

    Striving towards a more perfect Union

    Oops, thought it was another John Edwards thread.

    As President Bush told Kumar and Harold “You don’t have to trust your government, you just have to trust your country.”

    I don’t trust either.

  • nepat

    says:

    Hanging Chad –

    Let’s see. Two unfinished wars, tanking economy, healthcare costs rising, jobs being shipped overseas, etc. etc., and Obama needs to change his message because the right’s feelings are hurt? Reality can be tough taskmaster (just ask John Edwards!), but that doesn’t change reality.

    What you’re really saying, I think, is that you want permission to proudly keep your head in the sand. Permission granted.

  • Charliet

    says:

    Re: 14

    Yeah, Reagan hated America rightfully because Jimmy Carter had screwed things up so badly. He had to come in and cleanup Carter’s mess. Yep, heard that one before. Never mind, a rather convienient release of hostages at the moment of presidential ascention. The Iranian’s were so afraid of Reagan that they shit themselves and let the hostages go. Never mind Bush’s visit in Spain, Never mind the need to destroy the union movement as his nearly first act. Never mind the staggering deficient spending that we’ll never pay down. Never mind violating the Boland Ammendant, and God never mind the illegal arms sales to Iran through … who? When Reagan famously said the government was the problem he wasn’t kidding. He made it so. How can anyone with an IQ at or above 100 (by definition the average) swallow this shit sandwich?

  • Mark D

    says:

    Chad sure is trying to get that autographed tire gauge, ain’t he?

    And it must be weird to inhabit a reality in which one’s country never does anything wrong, its greatness always to be celebrated regardless of the facts.

    it must be very Orwellian.

  • Dennis-SGMM

    says:

    I think what’s happening here is that the right is getting sick of hearing all this doom-and-gloom coming from the Obama side. “America isn’t what it once was” Really, what was it once?
    It was five trillion less in debt.
    It was four thousand military people ahead.
    Gas was two dollars a gallon.
    It was respected throughout the world.
    It had a budget surplus.
    It required warrants for wiretaps.
    It wasn’t borrowing money to bail out banks and hedge funds.

    The right is sick of hearing doom and gloom? Those filthy sons-of-bitches were the ones clapping their flippers together as president fratboy started a war of choice and then ran this country into the ground. The right is sick of doom and gloom? The rest of us are exhausted from paying the price of Bush’s follies. Our children and grandchildren will be similarly exhausted. Would the right like a do-over? America sure as hell would.

  • CJ

    says:

    Weekly right-wing freak-outs are not only tiresome, they’re embarrassing.

    What’s embarrassing is that we’ve allowed our airwaves to be taken over by the far right…radio, cable, and now network news and other traditional media outlets.

    As an example, here in Atlanta, my AM talk radio choices include Neil Boortz, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingram, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh. That’s a lot of “right-wing freak outs” goin’ on.

    Not one AM talk show representing the views of the left is available on Atlanta airwaves…not one.

  • Mr DeBakey

    says:

    “Reagan because he had the experience”

    Well, he starred in that 1954 epic “Prisoner of War”

  • Chad

    says:

    CJ, no one’s allowed our airwaves to be taken over by the far right except for the people that listen to them. Didn’t the left try to start Air America? Whatever happened to that? Oh yeah, no one listened. If the left made any sense at all instead of whining all the time about the big bad oil companies and how we’re all going to live in an apocalyptic world unless we change our lightbulbs, then they’d have listeners.

    Besides, doesn’t the far-left already have the government and tax payer’s expensed NPR? You don’t hear the right bitch and moan about that as much as you B&M about Rush.

  • slappy magoo

    says:

    the right’s attacks are like a flowchart: If Obama says A then counter with B, if he says X, counter with Y. Consistency in the attack is unnecessary, more people will remember the GOP attack then the Dem retort. Honesty in the attack is unnecessary; low-info voters don’t have time or inclination to fact-check. Just keep attacking & keep McCain from imploding and ther odds improve dramatically.

  • William

    says:

    More gainsay stupidity, with a dash of fascist style nationalism! it won’t take long before both sides are doing it but for new the Repugnic*nts have a patent pending on fascism in America (that and the Rapture, LOL) Personally, I’d really enjoy a government that didn’t leave my ass sore 7 days a week and stayed the f#ck out of my business. How about that question for the candidates? How about it, Senator InSane?

  • Chad

    says:

    The left calls it attacking Obama, i.e. William Ayers, Rev. Wright, Frank Davis, Farrakhan, Rezko, Chicago political machine, inexperience, most liberal senator, sexist, race card playing, socialist leanings, anti-drilling, Che loving, tax-raising, etc…

    The right just calls it pointing out the obvious.

  • Shalimar

    says:

    I’m pretty sure the left calls most of that lying rather than just attacking Obama. We use the lie word when what you’re saying isn’t actually true.

  • grape_crush

    says:

    Didn’t the left try to start Air America? Whatever happened to that?

    Still going strong…and there are other non-Air America progressive radio shows on the air, like the Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz shows.

    doesn’t the far-left already have the government and tax payer’s expensed NPR?

    Not under the Bush administration, no….and yes, the right-whingers piss and moan about a supposedly ‘liberal’ media all the freakin’ time…a lie if there ever was one…

    The right just calls it pointing out the obvious.

    Taking pride in your ignorance, Chad?

  • libra

    says:

    And really, to tell a little girl that America isn’t that great, that’s just plain stupid. — Heart of Darkness, @ 13

    “That dastardly Obama! How dare he give a truthful answer to a 7yr old child! And a *girl-child*, at that! He should have known that children — especially girl-children — need to be talked down to, lied to and indoctrinated. But, no; here he is, pandering… pretending he respects her! Bad, *bad*, BAD Obama!”

    How paternalistic-Victorian of you, Chad. No wonder your heart belongs to that artificially revitalized mummy, also known as POW! McCain!, who thinks of *all of us* as children to be lied to, “for our own good”.

  • Steve

    says:

    Chad,

    http://airamerica.com/

    fuckwit.

    Oh, and by the way—America is in a shambles compared to what it used to be. we used to value the Constitution, not use it as toilet paper as “your presidunce” does—and as “your candidate” want.

    Let’s discuss “your America”—a land where people get arrested because of a few words on a t-shirt or a sign; a land where people get thrown out of a public event because of a bumper sticker; a land where people get fired because of the political affiliation of a relative.

    “Your America”—where international treaties and laws mean nothing any more, if ignoring those laws results in political expediency. Where nothing is illegal if it lends toward the concept of profit.

    On average, America isn’t all that great, because the great things about America are constantly being countered by the absolutely pooch-screwed shit that America has been vandalized with, courtesy of the GOP and fuckwit-fools such as yourself.

    You broke America, chaddie. You and other fuckwits just like you broke her—and then you whine and snivel and pout and throw your little points-earning tantrums because we won’t buy your broken merchandise any more? Because we want something more perfect than the absolute imperfection that you’ve turned pour country into?

    You’ve betrayed this Republic, its Laws, its People, and its Ideals for profit, for power, and for Fame.

    You—and all those like you—have repeatedly, intentionally, maliciously, and remorselessly committed Treason against the United States of America.

    Benedict Arnold used to be a hero, until he chose to betray America; now his very name is synonymous with the label “traitor.”

    As is the name John McCain….

  • Prup (aka Jim Benton)

    says:

    Chad: First, I want to say that you are not a troll. You are welcome — in my view — as an articulate spokesman of the Republican position, and I have never thought you were anything but sincere — wrong, usually, but sincere. But boy can you ‘lead with your chin.’

    If Reagan was justified in his comment after Carter — not one of my favorite Presidents — how much more justified is Obama after the mess that Bush and the scandal-plagued Republican Congress left. Carter failed to turn the economy around, maybe made it worse — but not as disastously as Bush, who might achieve a full-scale recession before the end. And Carter got stuck in the morass of the Iranian Hostage crisis, but that pales next to Iraq. And Carter perhaps failed in restoring the prestige America lost during the (Republican) Nixon Administration and its petty criminality, but America has never been looked on as badly as it has been under Bush. (The only brief equivalent was the McCarthy era and the Cohn and Schein(sp?) follies in their tour of Europe — and for those too young to remember this, the subplot on the wonderful DAMAGES between the lawyer, Ray Fiske and Gregory Malina is obviously based on that relationship.)

    But Carter left nothing like the following — just to mention a few:
    Halliburton/KBR — in which not only was the US overcharged Billions of dollars, but was given such faulty equipment soldiers have died from it;
    Abramoff — which certainly came close to the Oval Office door and left another ‘war hero’ Congressman in jail;
    The Justice Department Scandals — which were as bad as anything in the Grant Administration and which will result in a lot of high level officials needing new orange jumpsuits — or Presidential pardons. (And which, incidentally, demonstrated that the Bush Administration considered Jerry Falwell’s University to be the finest law school in the country — based on the number of graduates that got hired);
    The parade of middle-level officials arrested for crimes as scurrilous as they were petty, like shoplifting;
    The misuse of the Faith-Based Initiative — which automatically turned down non-Protestant — even non-Conservative Protestant religions when they applied;
    and, of course, Abu Gharaib, ‘extraordinary rendition’, Guantanamo, and the ‘torture memo’ — which may make even the President and others reluctant to leave the country and make themselves liable for International prosecution.

    And you criticize someone for saying:
    “America,” Obama said, “is no longer what it could be, what it once was. And I say to myself, ‘I don’t want that future for my children.’”

    (And, by mentioning Reagan, you shoot holes in the celebrity meme — though Reagan got elected by having been a (minor) celebrity — Obama’s ‘celebrity’ comes from the response to his actions in being elected.)

  • Prup (aka Jim Benton)

    says:

    Steve: such comments are uncalled for. McCain is no ‘traitor’ just an egotistical, principleless, foolish old man. And it is far better to treat someone like Chad with respect, and show how wrong he is. And no, chad did not ‘break America’ except by being ignorant (not stupid, ignorant) and failing to protest those who, in fact, did.

    And I spent too much time watching the wreckage caused by the McCarthy era and HUAC to ever tolerate using ‘traitor’ as an insult. Yes, perhaps the Halliburtons, maybe even Bush, might deserve it, but never use it for people who were merely, sincerely (or insincerely and greedily) wrong.

  • Ed Scott

    says:

    Let’s see—- boy where to begin? Granted the right-wing bloviators, should
    stick to facts and let the comments of Obama hang him, or make him
    president. If President Bush has done so badly, why are the democrats not impeaching him and removing him? Then they could impeach Cheney and we could have Nancy Pelosi. Then we can have a socialist paradise, and the world will love us!!!!!!! I am not sure what reality you all come from, but the democrats won’t solve the minor recession, only make it worse with taxation. Iraq was a neccissary war, given 9/11. Or should we have left
    Saddam in charge until he attacked Israel w/ a WMD? Then we’d all be talking about what a wuss Bush was!!!!!! Economics aside, we’re not in as bad a sitrep as you all are trying to portray. McCain is not Bush!!!!

  • daniel rotter

    says:

    “If President bush has done so badly, why are the democrats not impeaching him and removing him?”

    So the only stick to measure whether a president has “done badly” is if he has committed impeachable offenses? I don’t know what Ed Scott is smoking, but it probably ain’t legal.

  • Bruno

    says:

    Prup I have to give it to you. You have a big heart. Putting up with Chad’s consistent ignorance, and blatant trivializing of Obama’s positions while being oblivious of his hero’s shortcomings.

    Maybe you worked with special education kids at some time, hence your understanding why people like chad, shouldn’t be made fun of.

    In one way, I totally agree with you, about trying to understand chad and such, but at what time do you decide that enough is enough? I mean, he’s been hanging out here at the Carpetbagger Report for quite some time now, but he still keeps spewing the same nonsense, without even considering the counterpoints made by several commenters.

  • petorado

    says:

    During the Clinton years, all we ever heard from the right was how this country was going down the tubes and how a blowjob destroyed this nation. With Obama in office, they’ll be bloviating about how he’s taking this nation to hell in a handbasket.

    To the righties, it’s treasonous and unpatriotic to complain about anything when a Republican inhabits the White House, but then it seems to be the opposite when it’s a Democrat in the Oval Office. I can’t wait to call them on their unpatriotic bitching when the next administration comes into power.

  • Prup (aka Jim Benton)

    says:

    Bruno:
    Let me explain. I happen to think that some of the lurkers here might be people who, like chad, actually believe, or are considering seriously, this nonsense. By actually pointing out his fallacies, and treating him politely as I show how wrong he is, even if he’s incorrigible, maybe those lurkers aren’t, and are convincable. I see no reason to insult him — unlike some obnoxious ‘true trolls’ who are merely craving for attention — and we even have some of them on ‘our side.’ Politeness and respect are not that difficult, especially to someone who, if repetetive, is not insulting to us.

    Now for Ed Scott: In the first place, there is no way that Nancy pelosi could ever become President through impeachment. You, like several people here, forget the Constitutional Amendment calling for the replacement of a VP if the current VP either dies, is removed, or is promoted — through death, disability, or impeachment. Remember Agnew was replaced by Ford, who, when he became President, had Rockefeller as VP. (Arguably, because this is a later Amendment, it would be a requirement that a President be given that opportunity. At least it would make a hell of a Court case. And, in fact, it is unimaginable that such an opportunity would not be given, on grounds of courtesy, and because any ‘party change’ would be condemned — rightly so — as a ‘coup’ and the party that tried it would be ‘in the wilderness’ for decades.)

    Furthermore — as the person who has been applauding impeachment being ‘taken off the table’ since January 2007 — I have insisted it would be absurd to try. Not because Bush (and Cheyney) haven’t committed countless impeachable offenses — they obviously have — but because the ‘jury’ is the Senate, and there are not the needed 17 votes for conviction whatever the evidence in the current Senate — even assuming every Democrat voted to convict.

  • Maria

    says:

    Well, I’ve never noticed Chad before and probably wouldn’t have this morning if he–or someone else by that name–hadn’t been posting at Washington Monthly about McCain’s stellar leadership while Barack Obama was sloughing off attending school.

    But now I wonder: Do these folks get more McCain keychains, backscratchers and travel mugs if they get more people to engage their nonsense?