The Democratic Party this week displayed an unusual confidence in its values — an ideal of equal opportunity and sacrifice — that provided a fitting rebuttal to the views expressed by the Republicans last week.
GOP leaders had arranged their convention in Tampa around the conviction that individual enterprise, as embodied in the phrase “I built it,” is the only true path to prosperity. In contrast, President Obama’s acceptance speech, which touched on many issues, only soared when he got to his notion of citizenship: “the idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another, and to future generations.” Along the way, he showed how fully he now inhabits the office of president, paying tribute to fallen heroes and attesting to the goodness of average Americans. But like Republican nominee Mitt Romney, he didn’t offer a compelling game plan for how to achieve those ideals, especially in the face of the deadlock in Congress.
Comments
I wish I was as sanguine as your editorial writer that the Congressional deadlock will be broken. I expect the winner, whichever man it is, will prevail by a hair, and therefore the deadlock will continue. We've become a nation of sore losers, unable to progress to a more representative system of governance than the corporate-funded duopoly in place now. In that respect, we richly deserve the national dysfunction we've brought on ourselves.
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