Ask Not...
Oh for the days of liberals like John F. Kennedy!
I recently watched Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address on YouTube. (See it --> here.) It was filled not with grandiose, government, give-away programs, but with rhetoric about how we as citizens of the finest country on Earth have control over our own destiny. He went on to say again and again that both sides (US and Soviet) needed to work together in a new spirit of cooperation and peace, using science not for destruction, but for exploration and the betterment of man against our common enemies, tyranny, poverty, sickness, hunger, and the other ills of the ages. Encourage discovery and commerce. Commerce! He then said that this battle wouldn't be won during the first hundred or even the first thousand days of his administration, and maybe not even in our lifetimes, but that it was important to begin. And that, "In your hands, more than mine, rests success or failure." He actually said that. This was followed by a call to service to bear the burden of the long struggle. A call to service! The long struggle. You see, Kennedy understood that government couldn't fix these problems, and indeed that they couldn't be 'fixed.' They could only be battled, and that it was going to take people serving and getting involved. He followed this with one of the greatest phrases from any inaugural speech:
Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
JFK has been the liberal posterchild ever since, but curiously, you don't hear much about him these days. Perhaps that's because no liberal in his left mind would say, or even support, the principles President Kennedy was espousing. Service. Sacrifice. Struggle. Involvement. Persistence. Compare these principles with Mr. Obama's. He literally promised to fix things and he promised that government was going to do it and do it quick. People needed only to get out of the way and let him get the job done. In his hands, not ours, lies success or failure. And once he has stared the problem down it will be finished. No protracted struggle. No sacrifice. No service. Just a blank check -- if only those pesky conservatives would get out of his way. "Let me show you what your can country do for you!" has been his mantra since the beginning of the campaign. (Or is it "Show me the money!") And now the government is helping you buy a car!!! That's what your government can do for you, baby. Kennedy is rolling over in his grave!
But even with his push for publicly-funded healthcare, nationalization of the auto industry, and socialized car purchasing I guess there's still one line from Kennedy's speech Mr. Obama might be able to use. He'd give it a little polish to make is shine just right, though. His own special spin to make it truly his, for he does turn a phrase like no other. It'd probably go something like this:
"Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you!"
Futbol Guru, http://mises.org/community/blogs/not-a-lemming