Jindal's Fatuousness

[NYCGirl]

A good point from one of Sullivan's readers

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/02/jindals-fatuous.html

A reader captures it:

"Americans can do anything". This was the title of Jindal's speech and its refrain. I'm almost too exhausted by it all to work up an appropriate amount of outrage. But come on! When will everybody let go of these vacuous, egotistical stabs at patriotism. Americans can't do anything. And it is the notion that we can (democracy in the Middle East, pyramid schemes on Wall Street, deficits don't matter) that has gotten us into the problems we have now."


What was a necessary pep-talk in the 1980s from Reagan became calcified into a dogma that verges on national self-idolatry. The point of the American founding was not that Americans are somehow better than any other people on earth, but that they had figured out a way to make government more amenable to freedom, stability and prosperity. Many other countries have figured this out too. But not many others have dug themselves into the ditch the US now inhabits. I don't think more cant on the Jindal lines helps.

[gratuitous]

1. We can't launch two invasions and cut taxes on the wealthiest?

Gosh, why didn't someone tell the Republicans that earlier?

Luke 14:31-33

[ananda]

2. It's a propaganda myth.

It sounds all nice and glowy.. but it's
just candy coating on a cake of shit
and decay.

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. I think america has proven that math is quaint.

It isn't? Oh shit.

[zipplewrath]

4. We CAN do anything

and sometimes we use our government to accomplish it. I object to the notion that Americans can't use their government to achieve common goals. The interstate highway system could only be accomplished through the federal government. FDIC, FDA, FCC, NASA, these are instruments to be used to achieve the goals we seek. We went to the moon, and don't think for one minute it could have been accomplished entirely in the private sector. Government is not "us vs. them". Government is "we". "We the People". When Jindal says "We can do anything", he's right. "We the people" can, and occasionally we'll do it using the instruments of government, which by the way, are by, of and for us.