"This guy," being Paul Rahe, Professor of History and Politics at Hillsdale College. In response to Mark Steyn's grim assessment of the government takeover of health care he had the following to say:
"Back in November, when Peter Robinson interviewed me for Uncommon Knowledge, he waited until the last segment to throw down the gauntlet, asking me bluntly why I was so much more sanguine regarding the future than was the estimable Mark Steyn. My reply, which caught him off guard, was what he jocularly called “a low blow.” For I said something like this: “Mark Steyn is a Canadian. What would you expect? I’d be a pessimist myself if I were a Canadian.”
That's funny right there! I am a fan of Mark Steyn and his rapier wit, but he does tend to be a bit of a pessimist at times. Continuing Paul Rahe's comments:
"We are not yet a people apt to acquiesce in dictates handed down by our lords and masters. When Britain and Canada drifted into socialism, there were no tea parties spontaneously formed by ordinary citizens to buck the trend. The British and the Canadians lacked the spirit of resistance – though, to be fair, it lived on in the likes of Margaret Thatcher.
"We Americans are made of sterner stuff. During the Cold War, we defended the Free World. In our absence, I am convinced, everyone else would have given way...
"In my view, [Barack Obama] and today’s Democratic Party represent the last gasp of the Progressive impulse. The tyrannical ambition hidden at the heart of Progressivism’s quest for what Franklin Delano Roosevelt termed “rational administration” Barack Obama has made manifest; and to all with eyes to see, the danger that we have temporized with for nearly a century is now perfectly visible... What is required in what he calls “this defining moment” is what Abraham Lincoln once called “a new birth of freedom.” The period we just entered could be our finest hour."
Call me old fashioned if you will, but I have great reverence for the American Constitution. It has given us the longest surviving republic in the history of the world. I also have confidence that the American people will do the right thing in the end. I only wish we hadn't chosen such a painful road to travel...