You really just can’t help yourself, can you? I’m guessing you were off teleprompter when this little gem came out. You know, like that San Francisco fundraiser when you came up with that “.. they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them” quote. Did you send some Chicago friends to find the person who recorded that? Bill Clinton used to get people like that audited. Perhaps he can give you some pointers.
Today on my radio show I’m going to let my listeners hear you, in your own words, deliver your “America’s gone soft” message. But for people who don’t get my show (like Norfolk) and those who haven’t discovered the TuneIn Radio app for their smart phones, I’ll just go ahead and transcribe it here … word-for-word.”
“There are a lot of things that we can do .. and and .. th .. the way I think about it is .. you know .. th th this is … ahhh …a a a a … you know … a great .. ahhhh … uh … great country that … ahh … had gotten a little soft … ahh … and .. you know … we didn’t have that same competitive edge that was needed.. ahh .. over the last … ahh …couple of decades. We needed to get back on track.”
Yeah … easy for you to say.
But you know what, Dear Ruler? You really do have a point here. American; or much of America, really has gone soft. The problem is you don’t seem to understand why. Fact is, Mr. Obama, understand why America has gotten a little soft you really don’t need to look beyond your own political party and the assorted leftists and anti-capitalists who support you.
Competitive edge, huh? That’s bothering you. Well, me too. And maybe you have a point here. But why do you think this is happening?
Just where do Americans first start to develop their competitive instincts? Two places … on the field of play in sports, and in the classroom.
Sports first.
Have you heard of Demias Jimerson? Well .. you will. The kid is 11 years old and in the sixth grade. He plays football .. and pretty much every time he gets his hand on the ball he scores. You ought to see videos of this kid. This kid actually scored seven touchdowns in one game. Quite the competitor, don’t you think? Well guess what they’ve gone and done to him. They’ve told him that he can’t score more than three touchdowns in a game now; and if his team has a 14-point lead he can’t carry the football across the goal line. So what do you think has happened to this kid’s competitive instincts? He’s been told that if he’s too good … if he works so hard that he sticks out above the crowd … the government, in the form of his government school, will be right there to hold him back. Is there a chance this kid might lose his competitive spirit? After all, the government is beating him down for being so exceptional. And let me tell you, Mr. Obama, you won’t find conservatives making rules like this. Conservatives celebrate excellence. Liberals not so much. After all, the same crowd that thinks everybody ought to have an equal amount of stuff is hardly going to celebrate individual achievement.
This anti-competitive attitude permeates youth sports in our country today. Not only in schools, but in community recreation programs as well. How many times have we heard about youth soccer leagues where they don’t keep score any more. Scoring, after all, means that there are winners and losers. But wait! Isn’t that why we compete? To win? How do we regain that competitive edge you’re talking about in a non-competitive environment where there are no winners or losers?
We see this in the government school classrooms as well. So-called liberal education innovators have been working for years trying to figure out a way to get grades out of the education equation. Some teachers won’t give “F”s because they discourage students. Others hand out “A”s to students who clearly haven’t earned them for the same reason. When government schools hand out achievement awards they make sure that every student, no matter how able or poor, gets one. Why compete for the awards when every kid is going to get one? And that brings us to the valedictorian mess. More and more schools are now refusing to name a valedictorian at the end of the school year. Feelings get hurt. Self esteem gets crushed, they say. What kind of a competitive edge is a person going to take with them from a school that won’t allow them to compete for academic honors because someone’s tender little sensitivities might get hurt?
Perhaps you haven’t noticed, Dear Ruler, but there’s competitiveness in the marketplace every day. Competitive drives innovation. Do you think we would have iPhones if Apple didn’t have marketplace competition? Why innovate if not to get an edge on a competitor and thus take some of their market share?
Let’s bring it down to the individual. You told Joe the Plumber that we needed to raise taxes just to spread the wealth around. Why is one worker going to go the extra mile to compete for a promotion or a raise if the government is simply going to step in and seize the extra money for the “spread the wealth around” fund? If you give some people the choice between stepping it up a notch in the workplace to compete for that promotion, or simply waiting for their keepers in government to send a little more of the wealth their way … which way do you think people will go?
American gone soft? Well … let’s see.
If you make a decision to have a baby that you know full well you can’t afford to raise, the government is there to send some wealth that someone else worked for and earned your way. How do you build strength and character when the government is there to bail you out of every stupid decision.
Retirement? Why work for retirement? Why save? Why go through the trouble of making a retirement plan and doing the hard works it takes to follow it? Don’t you know the government is there with Social Security and Medicare — plus a free nifty little electric scooter – when you reach your golden years? You don’t have to tough out a retirement plan. The government is there with the safety net. You can’t find a job that suits you? Fine … here’s almost two years of government payments for not working. Then there’s the wonderful Earned Income Tax Credit. Many Americans won’t work those extra hours available to them because they might earn too much money and lose their eligibility. Just how does this bring back our competitive spirit and turn soft Americans into strong and rugged ones?
And speaking of safety nets: How do you build strength when there is no penalty for weakness?
There are, Mr. Obama, some Americans who are hardening up; Americans who are embracing the competitive spirit right now. These are Americans who see the threat you pose to the America they love – and they are wholly dedicated to the competitive goal of seeing you replaced, seeing you sent back to the streets of Chicago where you can ply your community organizing skills once again. Who knows? Maybe you can even return to a pulpit in Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church and start paling around with your terrorist friends Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn again!
I think you’re going to see just how soft Americans have become in about 13 months. That day can’t come soon enough.
U.S. Constitutional Free Press 