But American execptionalism is at the foundation of the West Point ethos>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Its more than just “ethos.” It is the rock solid foundation of our country. Obama saw it, and it unerved him, and his speech rang hollow , and was so obviously
stupid, picayune, self serving when confronted with the “ethos” of these West Point cadets.
Obama walked away knowing that his socialist agenda- Alinsky plan can never succeed in America. Obama was thorpopoughly shaken, as he should be.
If Obama and the left want to socialize and communize America, they will have to pay the blood price of civil war, and conflict. Obama saw that in that field of gray, and walked away from it a shaken man.Obama’s very world was quaked by what he saw and felt at West Point.
I am very glad that happened in front of a nation entire, which voted for a romatic notion, and received in return a surreptitious national socialism for its caring about race.
That gray field shook Obama. It was populated by the best and brightest of America, and its ranks are well seeded with people of all the races of the world. You bet it shook him. Obama saw in his their eyes, the complete defeat of his socialist agenda.Obama no longer believes.
Matthews picked up on it, and revealed a fundamental truth about Obama, not about West Point.
Your take on this is equally compelling, Candor7. American exceptionalism is the ethos that made this country great and at West Point it is not plasticized by platitudes, it isn't rationalized by academic intellectuals and it isn't buried under a workload of studies that have nothing to do with it. It is front and center in everything they do. It is what they are there to become as soldiers, as citizens and as people.
“The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training - sacrifice. ... However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country, is the noblest development of mankind.”
McArthur cut right to the bottom line of that ethos and at West Point the bottom line is written in blood. Obama can't even imagine that and, you're right, he has never faced an auditorium full of young Americans filled with that spirit.
“I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism, and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”
When 0ba-Mao said that he revealed that he has no conception of what it really means to be an American. I believe that most people have a nationalistic pride and loyalty to their native country. Even those who live under despicable regimes. But that's not what American exceptionalism is.
It isn't mere nationalistic pride and loyalty. It is inspiration and vision unleashed by the founding principles of our Republic. The feeling an American citizen has that he or she can do anything, that everyone has that opportunity and that this country was founded for no other purpose than to defend and support those aspirations. That we can accomplish anything as individuals and as a nation if we apply ourselves to it because we are free to choose to.
The Irish are intensely proud to be Irish but American exceptionalism is why millions of Irish emigrated to the United States. It is why fiercely proud Italians emigrated to America. And Poles and Germans and Indians and Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos and hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world.
No doubt individuals have their own reasons such as escape from oppression, escape from economic collapse or desire to be rich or famous. But the fuel that brings millions in unending streams, from everywhere, for reasons that run the gamut, is the spirit of American exceptionalism that holds the promise that you can be as great as you're capable of being if you will only work for it. And as a citizen you can instantly be a part of the greatness of America as a whole.
0bama can't see that. His Marxist professors didn't see that. His ACORN comrades don't see that. His black liberation pastor doesn't see that. His activist mother didn't see that. He was insulated from that concept as a child and has kept himself insulated from it as an adult. He is steeped in the secular humanist moral relativism that America is just another country like any other country. That America's success is just a matter of being lucky. That Americans are spoiled and egotistical to think that America is special.
I am sure you are right that his evening at West Point was a great shock to him. He never imagined, much less encountered, a room full of students aspiring to put their whole lives, and if called on give their very lives, for duty, honor and country. It had to make his life, not just his speech, seem trivial, paltry and, to use your word, picayune.
0ba-Mao is a lover of ideas and ideals. He has built his career on selling ideas and ideals. He even sees himself as an idea and an ideal. (major narcissism) But he fails to see that America is as much an idea and an ideal as it is a country. That for two and three quarters centuries not only Americans but millions of foreigners also have thought of America that way. Obama does not know America.