The International House of Bacon

Naturally, the conservative blogosphere is up in arms over this speech:

The issue here isn’t necessarily what he said - after all, if someone was to ask me “Is America is what it could be, what it once was,” my answer would absolutely be “no, not at all.” But I know why I feel that way - I think we’ve moved way too far away from the form of government we intended, the type of society we aimed to be, and the type of society I think we naturally want to be.

Why, exactly, does Obama feel this way? Whether we like the direction we’ve been heading as a whole, there’s no denying that there’s more overall government protection of the individual than in any point in history, there’s more spending and assistance for less fortunate individuals than ever before, we’re the only current superpower in the world, and we have more equality enshrined in the law for women, minorities, and alternative lifestyles than any other era could realistically say. This is America today - 2008.

Now, if Obama’s saying that we’re not what we “could be,” that’s all well and good - on one hand, we could be a Constitutional government for once. On the other, and the hand he’s probably referring to, we could theoretically do a lot more than we are. But what it once was? Really? So if he’s saying we need to achieve what we “could be ” and “once was,” what era is he referring to, exactly?

When I note that I don’t think Barack Obama has a firm grasp on reality, it’s statements like this that drive it home for me. Yeah, there’s a lot of room for improvement here, and I don’t think anyone reading this disagrees - but, truly, when was it ever better?