In the raging discourse over the stark choice facing American voters in November 2024, the “future of our democracy”, the “future of America”, the “soul of America” are phrases thrown out by many politicians, pundits, and the putative President. Likewise, former President Obama suggested in his speech at the DNC that America faces a stark choice between the values represented by his fellow former President Donald Trump and the current Vice-President Kamala Harris. On this he is absolutely right, but not on which is the better choice.
Like his wife’s speech that sounded hypocritical condemnation of the wealthy while wearing a pantsuit more expensive than many American women’s entire wardrobe, the hypocrisy and misdirection of Barack Obama’s speech was clear to those not taken in by his impressive albeit subtly mean-spirited delivery. Both Obamas then confirmed that we voters face a stark choice in November, between straightforward, unapologetic support for America as an exceptional nation founded on Judeo-Christian values or post-modernist cant about America as an oppressive nation founded on racism and greed.
One manifestation of this division on views of America is respect for the political and governance order found in the Constitution as written and amended. Not perfect as drafted, the founders wisely inserted a means to amend the Constitution in hopes to steadily improve it as its imperfections were revealed through experience and after wise consideration. At times amendment followed strong debate, at others easy consensus, at its worst, amendment came only after a Civil War that nearly destroyed the American experiment. The Constitution, as amended, serves the American people as both a foundation and structure that allows flourishing and prosperity of individuals and communities.
Currently, many Democratic Party activists and politicians seek to re-make our Constitutional order to serve the post-modern paradigm of the oppressor versus the oppressed. This paradigm, with its roots in the French Enlightenment, has grown up like weeds sown in the garden of Western Political Philosophy, seeking to choke the flourishing American Republic which is the offspring of the marriage of Athens and Jerusalem, or reason and faith if you will.
Though not the most strident of adherents to the post-modernist, Neo-Marxist paradigm, the Obamas’ speeches reflected their adoption of such notions as the wealthy cheating the poor, military strength being a tool of oppression not a means to protect the populace, or Whites oppressing People of Color. Apparently the great benefits afforded to them by the American Constitutional order have not shaken their conviction that America remains a land of racial and economic oppression, with the Iron Heel of Capitalism crushing People of Color and so-called marginalized identity groups (LGBTQIA+ etc.).
This should not surprise us, for humility, the physic for the vice of pride, is in short supply among politicians, especially ones who see their success as resting solely on their efforts for there is no God who endowed them with the knowledge, intellect, and self-discipline that fostered their rise to the top of the political heap. Barack Obama was famous for saying, “You didn’t build that” in reference to successful businessmen having received government aid or having had others to help them along the way, but he certainly would never apply those words to his own rise.
Which brings us to the very real binary choice we face in November - do we support the Democratic Party candidates who are immersed in the ideology of divisiveness, of rule by might, of desire for power for power’s sake, or, do we support Republican Party candidates who recognize the inspired wisdom of the Constitution that creates opportunities for all, fosters American exceptionalism, and serves as a beacon of hope to the peoples of other nations? Do we reject the Party that lied repeatedly about the mental competence of President Biden, corrupted the Judicial system to attack a former president, and destroyed economic hope for millions with ideologically driven spending on partisan boondoggles? And, do we stand by the Constitutional order that guarantees our natural human rights rather than adopt the hubristic claim that it is government that creates rights.
A time for choosing. Make the Right choice.
Orwellian.