Brad Carlson noticed this tweet, which I endorse:
Dan McLaughlin
@baseballcrank
If Donald Trump and/or Barack Obama significantly affected how much you love America, you don't really love or understand America.
Yep. Obama's presidency was a disaster. Trump's may turn out better, or it may not; early returns are encouraging, but I'm not a fan of tariffs, among other things he's done. We continue to find out together. We are more than our government. We have to be.
3 comments:
Yes. The POTUS can set a tone, or change the atmosphere, but there's not a whole lot that they can really do. It's the house, the senate, and the courts that have the larger impact. Congress regulates how commerce works in the US. And the courts can alter it. They get the economic credit should it be good, or bad
The thing that really tempers my love for country is its (often) failure to live by its ideals. Get away from the notion of limited government and the like, and it's tough to show a lot of love to it.
That noted, Obama didn't write any protections out of the constitution. He made it a lot harder to use some of them, but they're still there for now.
If America is a nation founded on ideas, not on blood, then the state of those ideas matters. I love America because it is my home. But I love America the more as it lives up to certain ideals; and I love America less as it discards its birthright.
So I guess you could say that I love the Platonic form of America. But I don't have unconditional love for America in its actuality. That kind of unconditional love is for human beings, not abstract ideas.
Post a Comment