Barack Obama, father of his country
Comedian Chris Rock ventured to Capitol Hill in support of gun control today, because it makes sense to seek input on such weighty matters from a hideously over-paid actor who sometimes pretends to be someone who fights bad guys using a gun. While in Washington, he delivered this sage bit of political wisdom:
“I’m just here to support the president of the United States. The president of the United States is, you know, our boss. But he’s also, you know, the president and the first lady are kind of like the mom and the dad of the country. And when your dad says something, you listen. And when you don’t, it usually bites you in the ass later on. So, I’m here to support the president.”
So his argument in favor of more gun-control laws is that our Maximum Leader wants them, and unquestioning obedience to his superior wisdom is required of all good Americans? Can anyone find me a quote of Chris Rock saying stuff like that about George Bush?
This pithy quote is an almost perfect antithesis of the true American relationship between citizens and the State. The President is not our boss; we are his bosses. He’s not a father figure, he’s a politician. Responsible citizens are supposed to make their own informed decisions about weighty matters, not chill out in their diapers until Papa President tells them what to think. It’s one thing when right-wing extremists like me criticize Obama’s base for acting like helpless dependent children, but now they’re talking about themselves that way.
Let’s not even get into what fashionable liberals think about the value of actual fathers.
I could swear I’ve heard Chris Rock’s theory of the president as national father-boss somewhere before. Don’t the Germans have a word for that?