Obama’s Advice to Children: America Sucks!

Not wanting to be forgotten as he heads off to Hawaii for vacation, Sen Obama wanted to leave a message for voters that would remind them what his candidacy is all about.  In response to a 7 year old girls question on why he was running for President, Sen Obama answered:

“America is …, uh, is no longer, uh … what it could be, what it once was.
And I say to myself, I don’t want that future for my children.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d667NAI9HIM&eurl=http://mightyrighty.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13989

Perhaps this was just another slip of the tongue, another gaffe as it is called in politics.  But Obama has a history with this kind of rhetoric.  At a 2004 book signing he said:

“The Basic Outline of the government we possess and our civic religion as a people is such that potentially at least, we could create a society that is a model for the world, it isn’t right now.”

Of course Sen Obama doesn’t have to waste a vacation day responding to what will be a firestorm on talk shows and the fair and balanced media.  He has already given his answer to questions about all of this when he said:

“This is the moment that the world is waiting for,” I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.”
Barack Obama

Setting aside his wife’s “really proud” comment, Rev Wright’s “God Damn America” and other comments, and Rev Pflager’s racist comments about America,  Sen Obama’s own words are indicative of how he sees the country and it’s future.  I think the real question here is-would you tell your young children the same things? Would you tell impressionable young minds that the country they live in is devoid of possibilities and its leaders lack the moral compass to lead? Or to put it in the language of a 7 year old-America is no good. 

Of course Americans have been trying to form a more perfect union for well over 200 years.  There have been missteps along the way and there will be in the future but through it all America has always been a symbol of what can be if individuals are willing to set aside differences, racial, religious and otherwise, and work for a more perfect union. 

Immigrants used to come to our shores with dreams of streets lined with gold.  Upon arriving they realized that the gold wasn’t a tangible piece of wealth but rather opportunity to pursue their dreams and better themselves in ways no other country could provide.  Irish, German,Chinese,Mexican and any number of other cultures have become part of the American culture because of the dreams of immigrants.  They still come to our shores, in record numbers, seeking those streets and finding more opportunity than ever before. 

In contrast, the people of China are experiencing unheard of growth in their country but they can only pursue as much happiness as the government allows. Protesters are routinely being drug off the streets in Beijing.  Internet access is limited to government approved sites for citizens and visitors alike.  Religious freedom is almost unheard of in China as persecutions and executions take place throughout Tibet just because of a person’s beliefs.   And while the wealth in China grows, only a small percentage of people have access to it because of government controls.  No one is busting through the borders of China to seek opportunity. 

What WAS America to Sen Obama before he started running for President?  He must have an answer if he told a 7 year old girl that it is no longer what it once was.  Since Sen Obama was born he has never known depression on a national scale.  He has never suffered institutionalized racism.  He went to college, taught at Harvard and was elected to state and national government.  He is the first black man to ever be the nominee of a major party and ran against a woman who would have been the first female nominee of a major party.  Unemployment in Obama’s lifetime has dropped steadily,  with occasional spikes, to record low levels.  There have never been the diversity of opportunities in education than exist right now with charter schools and cyber schools growing every year.  Since Sen Obama was born the stock market has grown to unthinkable levels, creating more opportunities for Americans than were ever possible before and more wealth for more people than ever before.  And finally America has won the Cold War and sent its military around the globe to protect and defend the people of countless counties from injustices simply because it was the right thing to do. 

History, both America’s and Sen Obama’s own,  has shown  that America has been the shining city that Ronald Reagan envisioned.  A place of opportunity and freedom unparalleled in the course of human history.  Yet Sen Obama told a 7 year old girl that America is not a place he wants his daughters to grow up in. So much for the audacity of hope!