Obama on the American character
This evening, President Obama gave a long-overdue public defense of his health care reform proposals. He took the opportunity not only to defend his plan substantively but to lay out his definition of the American character, which is worth understanding.
In the first third of his speech, Obama laid out the basic tenants of his plan, mostly revolving around tactical goals of lowering costs and increasing coverage.
It is only in the last third of the speech that Obama makes his moral commitments clear. Interestingly, he begins doing so in the words of the recently deceased Ted Kennedy, who wrote in the last months of his life. “What we face,” he wrote, “is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.” Obama seeks to flesh out what Kennedy means by the “character of our country:
That large-heartedness – that concern and regard for the plight of others – is not a partisan feeling. It is not a Republican or a Democratic feeling. It, too, is part of the American character. Our ability to stand in other people’s shoes.
According to Obama, this concern leads to a natural inclination to use the power of government to create mutual security and correct injustice:
And they knew that when any government measure, no matter how carefully crafted or beneficial, is subject to scorn; when any efforts to help people in need are attacked as un-American; when facts and reason are thrown overboard and only timidity passes for wisdom, and we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter – that at that point we don’t merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves.
Obama, finally, is reacting against those that would oppose government intervention in any circumstances (and those who would use whatever means necessary to do so). For Obama the national character is the sparing use of government intervention to halt injustice, both procedural and apparently material.
- John
Related posts:
- Obama and Afghanistan
- Obama & international relations
- Obama’s pragmatism
- Obama’s governing philosophy
- Obama, anti-neocon
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