But is that America?

Tied up with a project today but wanted to pass along this piece by Richard Fernandez, wherein he takes a wee look at worries over in Davos about “American instability” and those usual suspects who blame the stability on America people who won’t just sit down, shut up and let their betters tell ’em what’s what.

The source of this worry appears to be the reluctance of the American voter to follow the leader. Friedman writes “You can understand why foreigners are uneasy. They look at America and see a president elected by a solid majority, coming into office riding a wave of optimism, controlling both the House and the Senate. Yet, a year later, he can’t win passage of his top legislative priority: health care.” What they would prefer to see, in Friedman’s words is a ‘Confucian-Communist-Capitalist’ consensus.

under the umbrella of a one-party state, with a lot of government guidance, strictly controlled capital markets and an authoritarian decision-making process that is capable of making tough choices and long-term investments, without having to heed daily public polls.

Not that Friedman is necessarily buying it. But he does get the sense that less than a dozen Republican senators stand between the nation and a negotiated consensus that will allow America to go forward. And he’s not alone in wanting to see Obama lead Washington out of the wilderness to the new promised land of Hope and Change.

Other elites, of course, are suggesting that the Democrat majority just “boldly” ram what’s good for America down our throats, because we’re apparently too stupid to know what’s what. They know, though. Anna Quindlen apparently “knows” that GOP filibusters would just make Americans “angry.” She seems not to understand the mood of the nation, at all.

But this is a very Pauline Kael sort of mindset, isn’t it? Recall the (perhaps apocryphal) story of her remark upon Nixon’s winning the White House, “but no one I know voted for him!” These people are so insulated, so isolated in their perspectives that they really have no idea. They think because “everyone they know” thinks as they think, that the majority of the nation thinks identically, and it’s only a couple of loud neanderthals stirring up the masses, that are mucking things up.

It’s very sad, and very troubling, too. These people need to get out more, from the Upper West Side, and Georgetown and DuPont Circle. But these ideas, that legislation need be “rammed through” is in opposition to the notion of representative government. It doesn’t sound much like America, does it?

I don’t know, when you start talking about “ramming through” legislation, and thinking that the people don’t know what’s good for them, it seems to me you are heading down the road to Venezuela. Take a look at that picture, and that weapon, which the Venezuelan government is willing to use on its people, until they smarten up, or something.

Meanwhile, some would like things to not look much like America, too. And some would like to stifle the sound of America, too.

And our president is reversing his nuclear weapons rhetoric (which I’m not sure is necessarily a bad thing – it might be a good-if-grim thing, overall – but it is a notable reversal). This in response to the madman in Iran, who never was someone who could be dealt with.

The President is also bowing to the mayor of Taiwan Taipei Tango-Tango Tampa, Florida.

Victor Davis Hanson: Our Obama Saga.

Oh, he’s gonna raise the deficit some more, too. Spending will be up another 6%? Remember the Grace ads, during the Reagan years, of an apocalyptic world where our children were still paying off our debt? I do. I thought those ads were great, back then. But I was a Democrat, too!

Hey, as long as we “say” the word “transparency,” that’s all that matters. I’m wondering if the president simply thinks that words -just words- are magical in themselves, and they don’t have to mean what they mean; they can mean the precise opposite of what he says they mean, and still mean what he says! Or, you know, he doesn’t have to take his own advice. Or something.

I still say his biggest problem is he believes his own hype. That’s never wise, or productive.

Mrs. Pelosi and her kids are overfeeding at the public trough. If this Speaker of the House had an R after her name, the press would quite rightly be hounding her from office for her excesses (and her um, mad embellishments and bizarre utterances) but she has a D after her name and so she is as untouchable as a sacred cow in India, or something. Different rules for different parties, you know. I frankly think she is out of her mind, and for God’s sake, she is third in line to the Oval Office.

Instapundit says he just doesn’t want to hear any more crap from her about his carbon footprint. Doesn’t he realize, carbon concerns are only for the little people!

In other news: Haiti says US, please take over. Hmmm…some of us have been saying from the very start (and over and over) that a particular American or two should have been put in place over there, to bring some leadership to the increasing chaos of Port au Prince. America knows how to handle crisis and relief. So, for that matter, does tiny Israel, which gets little notice (and, sadly, predictably some ignorant backlash for all the work it has done in Haiti.

Jews in some parts of Sweden: fleeing for their lives? What the deuce?

Good news on the HIV/AIDS front.

Did an Obama nominee lie to the congress? And will that matter as to her seating. Take your best guess.

Finally: Change the law and put Mother Teresa on the stamp, already!