Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Bowing to the one   [Jay Nordlinger]

When I read about that celebrity video where they say, “I pledge to be of service to Barack Obama,” I thought that the people do not deserve to be American citizens, because they have no idea what America or a liberal republic is. They would be much more comfortable under a fascist dictatorship or something. But then I thought of something more merciful: It’s not their fault, really, because they have never been taught about America, never been taught proper civics. Oscar Hammerstein II wrote, “You’ve got to be carefully taught,” and they were carefully taught the wrong things — like a lot of us, but some of us learned our way out. You know?

 

Also, it strikes me that “I pledge to be of service to Barack Obama” is the product of a thoroughly secular mind, which is another marker of contemporary America. (Yes, feel free to quote your Chesterton, or your faux Chesterton, or your almost-Chesterton, or whatever it is, now.)

 

P.S. Did conservatives ever say “I pledge to be of service to Ronald Reagan”?  I never heard it — and the notion is preposterous.

09/02 01:28 PMShare