Emulate help, not hope

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Obama: Americans must emulate courage of founders

I love that, in a cringing yet metamessage way. Emulations, of course, are reasonable facsimiles of other goods. What we have here is a variation on the peculiar tendency of liberals to sap meaning from concepts for fear, I'm snidely assuming, that what is below the surface is too unsavory to expose all at once.

Remember the 1996 Democratic convention mantra of "Hope is on the way?" Examined for what it is, "Hope is on the way," means that somewhere down the road, as Clarence Darrow told the judge at the Scope monkey trials when the judge said he hoped Darrow wasn't impugning the honor of the court, "one is entitled to hope."

It's not even a thin gruel; it's hope of gruel to come. Thus do expectations get lowered and agendae covered with mush.

In the case at hand, we are asked to pretend-up the courage of people whose problems were several degrees from ours, people whose worldview we so dilute with the paralysis of dependence, down looks like up.

We need our own version of courage, a version of return to individualism, liberty, and making-do without benefit of our neighbor's pocket (or, even more despicable his credit card, or -- the height of self-indulgence -- the already maxed-out credit cards of generations unborn). Too big to fail? Don't assume the US government is, because the assumption alone can lead to the fall.

Emulate, not the founders, but the pioneers. They learned how to survive without bailouts.