NYC Letter: Today's Big Stupid -- The Unhappy Liberal Fourth Of July

Day 1,259 of CHOPE
D-minus 197 Days

Independence Day Bummer Edition

The Fourth of July, as any school child once could tell you, is the day set aside in remembrance of the Crown colonies in America declaring their independence from the Crown at the end of the 18th century. It was a bold play, based on radical ideas of self-governance and the unalienable rights of the citizen -- not privileges by leave of kings. It was also a desperate gamble, pitting a quarreling rebel government against one of the greatest military powers of the day. The United States prevailed and Great Britain forever lost its claims on the former colonies.

That's just not good enough for liberals. History worth celebrating is history that meets today's liberal sniff test. [Sniff. SNIFF.] Sorry, America, you stink!

We begin with Mr. Obama.

It has taken these men and women -- these Americans -- years, even decades, to realize their dream. And this, too, reminds us of a lesson of the Fourth. On that July day, our Founders declared their independence. But they only declared it; it would take another seven years to win the war. Fifteen years to forge a Constitution and a Bill of Rights. Nearly 90 years, and a great Civil War, to abolish slavery. Nearly 150 years for women to win the right to vote. Nearly 190 years to enshrine voting rights. And even now, we’re still perfecting our union, still extending the promise of America.

That includes making sure the American dream endures for all those -- like these men and women -- who are willing to work hard, play by the rules and meet their responsibilities. For just as we remain a nation of laws, we have to remain a nation of immigrants. And that’s why, as another step forward, we’re lifting the shadow of deportation from serving -- from deserving young people who were brought to this country as children. It’s why we still need a DREAM Act -- to keep talented young people who want to contribute to our society and serve our country. It’s why we need -- why America’s success demands -- comprehensive immigration reform.

Mr. Obama,
making suckers of naturalized citizens
REMARKS AT NATURALIZATION CEREMONY
WASHINGTON July 4, 2012 (White House)

The Founders only declared independence. They completely failed to produce a perfect union. In Mr. Obama's telling they were foot-draggers on codifying the government, establishing essential rights in law, abolishing slavery, and extending suffrage and enforcement. Luckily America today has Mr. Obama, who -- with a stroke of his EO pen -- welcomes both the legal AND illegal immigrant to the American fold. That's how easy and speedy perfecting America can be (after a reasonable evolution or as polling dictates)!

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air does the carve-up:

Yesterday, Barack Obama got to speak at one such [naturalization] event where the new citizens went the extra mile and served in the US military, too. What would a President say to these fine young men and women on the occasion of their official transformation into American citizens?

Er … how about a plea to Congress to let those who came illegally get the same honor. ... [M]aking this pitch at a naturalization ceremony, especially this one, makes one wonder if Obama can tell the difference between legal and illegal immigration.We know one thing for sure: his audience certainly did.

Let's -- as the left is always encouraging us -- move on. Chris Rock, who makes a career in film acting stupid, demonstrates his screen persona is not much of a stretch with this special holiday message.

Happy white peoples independence day the slaves weren't free but I'm sure they enjoyed fireworks

— Chris Rock (@chrisrock) July 4, 2012

Iowahawk, who is a white person, takes the bullet for us all. All us white persons.

@chrisrock Good one! I bet your Guatemalan house staff got a good chuckle.

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) July 4, 2012

Then there is this sniffy patriot who gives a "shizzle m'nizzle" nod to Mr. Rock:

Slaves weren't freed for another 90 years. So maybe just enjoy some of the fireworks...

— Zach Braff (@zachbraff) July 4, 2012

(Huh? Who is Zach Braff anyway? Was he the next-big-thing sometime before the current next-big-thing?)

Finally mixed-blood* racialist Melissa Harris-Perry has a special holiday message, too: America is less than perfect, actually, historically, it's kind of crummy:

Up next, my footnote for the Fourth of July, which is, of course, Malia Obama's birthday.

Duh, Melly. Of course!

But Independence Day is more aspirational than actual. We have longed defined the American Dream with commodities, a home of ones own, better education for the kids, family vacation and a car to the vacation in.

And if we measure the dream by acquisitions, we`re trouble. National unemployment remains above 8 percent. Wages have dropped, and the median net worth of American families plummeted by almost 40 percent.

Financial security is important, but it`s only an outward manifestation of the American Dream. Freedom itself is both more elusive and more complicated. Our founding is not an acquisition and merger story of young entrepreneurs looking to maximize profit -- or at least not solely that. I mean, our founding is an unlikely narrative of young men, so inspired by an age of ideas that they threw off the yoke of colonialism and founded a free nation -- men who were embarrassingly imperfect.

The land on which they formed this Union was stolen. The hands with which they built this nation were enslaved. The women who birthed the citizens of the nation are second class.

But all of this is our story. Each of us benefits from the residuals of oppression and each of success harmed by the realities of inequality. This is the imperfect fabric of our nation, at times we`ve torn and stained it, and at other moments, we mend and repair it.

But it's ours, all of it. The imperialism, the genocide, the slavery, also the liberation and the hope and the deeply American belief that our best days still lie ahead of us.

Mind-numbingly smug.

What all our liberal friends completely and utterly lack is any sense of history. They complain that 18th century America is not the 21st century America they prefer. Our liberal friends shake their heads and wonder how can we celebrate limited suffrage? How can we celebrate a founding where gays served the country in the closet? And what's to celebrate about slavery? [They swoon. We dab at their noses with a twist of handkerchief infused with spirit of hartshorn. We stroke their hands, their troubled brows. They have swooned hard.] We are not celebrating those things, we explain. What we celebrate is the founding of the greatest nation yet to appear on the planet earth.

The liberals' litany of America's defects were not let stand (the one's enumerated above anyway) because the freedoms at the conceptual heart of the American experiment did not let them stand. What miffs liberal patriots is America was not founded with everything exactly as they would have it. Thank God.

CHOPE.

America the imperfect.

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* We only mention this because there is a recent sniffiness among certified black people about miscegenation (and here).

Posted by Damian at July 6, 2012 01:45 PM