"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Thursday, October 11, 2012

The President, Infantilized

There is a scene in the early 1970s version of the movie The Heartbreak Kid (the one with Cybill Shephard and Charles Grodin), where the shallow young man who has divorced his first wife and is now marrying the beautiful rich girl he coveted (even on his honeymoon!) tells people at the second wedding his plans for the future, which all involve his desire to "help people."   And as adults peel away from the vacuous young man, he finds himself finally telling his story of wanting to "help people" to a couch filled with children.

I hadn't thought of that movie for 35 years until Obama ran for President.   That's what he reminds me of, a shallow man who steadily shrinks until the only people who think he's interesting or intelligent are the most childish among us.   Michael Ramirez captures the nature of our incredible shrinking President perfectly:

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