Insight on Obamunism's Use of the Artful Dodge

Levin's writing on Statism, (which has both positives and negatives):

For the Statist, the international community and international organizations serve as useful sources for importing disaffection with the civil society. The Statist urges Americans to view themselves through the lenses of the those who resent and even hate them. He needs Americans to become less confident, to doubt their institutions, and to accept the status assigned to them by outsiders--as isolationists, invaders, occupiers, oppressors, and exploiters. The Statist wants Americans to see themselves as backward, foolishly holding to their quaint notions of individual liberty, private property, family, and faith, long diminished or jettisoned in other countries. They need to listen to the voices of condemnation from world capitals and self-appointed global watchdogs hostile to America's superior standard of living. America is said to be out of step and regressive, justifying the surrendering of its sovereignty though treaties and other arrangements that benefit the greater "humanity." And it would not hurt if America admitted its past transgressions, made reparations, and accepted its fate as just another aging nation--one among many.

Levin's prose is a bit over-wrought; obviously, he's not a Catholic who has gone through 'examination of conscience.'

It would be polemically less satisfying but far more useful if Levin had simply ignored the Ninnies and Nannies of Suavity and Debonair-ity both here and abroad and contrasted the US with even higher standards than those of "Europe" and the "UN" (a body filled to the brim with rapists and thieves, by the way).

On the other hand, Levin has drawn an accurate picture of the Left-o-Statist propaganda of Obama and his allies in the Governing Class. It is very easy to find one or two (or several dozen) examples of INDIVIDUALS who are jerks--greedy, coarse, murderous, uncaring slobs--in the US' 300 million population.

But it is impossible to assign those faults to the US population as a whole.

And therein lies the rhetorical trick the Left has used to great effect: generalize the particulars. Sure, it's a logic error, but who cares? It works very well, indeed.

Levin should have rejected the Left's language; those who control the language control the debate. He should have, instead, pointed out the flaw in the argument.

"The decisions were made only after exhaustive legal analysis, and tacitly (or vocally) approved by ranking Members of Congress--our representatives, as you recall from your study of the Constitution. So you would ascribe evil to the entire population of this country, Mr. President? Would you say that our self-defense was malevolent from the start? That this country's population and leaders are immoral to the core?"

"We think not, Mr. President."

HT: Dr Sanity via McCain