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Streetcar Line
Volleyball Mom Knows Better Than Obama
Wisdom from a middle-school gymnasium.
“So, we have only 40 days to save the country.”
That’s what the random Volleyball Mom said to me last Thursday right after I had entered the gym to watch a game featuring my middle-school niece.
“I mean, you give Obama another four years and he’ll just rule more and more by those executive, you know, dictates, or whatever they’re called,” she said. (I think she meant executive orders.) “But he doesn’t love the same America we love. He wants to create a new America, and it’s not an America where freedom matters in the same way. I mean, I hope this makes sense, but he seems more interested in ordering us into what he thinks is a better world, rather than letting us decide for ourselves how to get there. How can people not see that’s what he’s doing?”
The great William Raspberry had his cabbie; my wisdom comes from a Volleyball Mom.* As I muttered a few words in agreement while looking around for my niece, Volleyball Mom pointed to the girls warming up for the game: “Look, there’s not a single one of them old enough to have been paying attention when the news had anything other than a failing American economy. If Obama gets his way, I don’t think they ever will. And those girls darn well don’t have the same sense we did in growing up that America is great, that we’re special, that we’re winners. I really think this: I think these are things they don’t learn from Obama. And we’ve got to give them a chance to learn it.”
Volleyball Mom was absolutely right, and I tried to let her know I agreed entirely — but I had to excuse myself because I saw my niece hobbling with an ankle brace, and I hurried over to find out that she was injured and wouldn’t be playing after all. So I didn’t stay around. But as I walked back to my car, it struck me that the mom wasn’t just expressing middle-class anxieties; she was yearning for, trying to find a way to rediscover, the middle-class hopes that historically have marked the American outlook. Her tone wasn’t angry, wasn’t as if she was motivated by a personal dislike of Obama; it was more a lament, as if she thought she saw the things she loves just slipping away, and she wants to grab them back and pass them on to her daughter.
And she’s right: Every available bit of evidence shows that Obama doesn’t understand why we love America, or what it is about America that we love. Obama not only doesn’t really admire the Constitution the way we do; he doesn’t even revere the Declaration. Instead, he feels common cause with what he called (in The Audacity of Hope) “the cranks, the zealots, the prophets, the agitators, and the unreasonable — in other words, the absolutists — that have fought for a new order.”
Most of us don’t want the “new order,” the order of Washington-centric, all-encompassing government, that Obama envisions. We love the America we grew up with — an America that evolves, slowly, to be sure, but through the free choices of millions of individuals, not via the force of a government that thinks it knows our best interests better than we know them ourselves.
We in America love the freedom to fail and fail and keep on trying until we succeed — and we love the amazing multiplicity of ways that we can indeed succeed in a country that doesn’t regulate us into straitjackets. And we love the chance to help others succeed, too — not through some sort of misplaced charitableness, but by enlisting them in common cause for those things we can achieve together as businessmen or community members. But, speaking of causes that do merit true charity, we love the ability to decide which charities merit our donations, rather than being forced by government to pay for causes we don’t approve. We love to volunteer, but hate to be commandeered.
We love the chance to choose how to define success. We love the idea of improving our standard of living for the sake of our children — and of being able to leave something for our children, or our charities of choice, after we’re gone. And we resent it when government tries to tell us we haven’t earned the right to pass on the rewards of our own successes in that way. We know we built that success, or are in the process of building it, more despite government than because of it.
We do love government for one big thing, though: We love the way it has built and trained the greatest armed services the world has ever known, and we love the values that drive those armed services. We love the idea — nay, the truth — that we are the “good guys” on the world stage; that never in the past hundred years have we ever fought for conquest, but only for ideals, for self-protection, or for protecting the innocent — or all three. Even when some of us disagree about when military force should be used in support of those causes, we take pride that our uniformed personnel are dedicated to such high standards of conduct. And we know, unlike Obama, that protecting American interests throughout the world is by definition a noble cause, because our interests are interests of a free and noble people.
We yearn for a president who will tell the world the truth that never before in mankind’s history has a nation voluntarily sacrificed so much in order that so many others might be free. Repeatedly the United States of America has been far, far more sinned against than sinner, and we are owed more apologies than those we owe others.
Finally, we have confidence that we can out-compete anybody, and any nation, via mostly private (or voluntarily collective) genius and hard work. Honest competition is bred into the American character from birth; it is celebrated and honored and, yes, flat-out enjoyed more here than perhaps anywhere else. As we compete, we all get stronger; it’s not a zero-sum game — and competition in some realms certainly doesn’t hinder voluntary cooperation in others.
We learn through competition that the most effective competitive edge often comes from teamwork, which we establish through private endeavor and improve through communal exertion. (Communal, we stress, not governmental. Freedom, not fiat.) And we love all these pursuits for the sake of the pursuits themselves, and we love them because we were the ones who made the choices to pursue them.
Such are the things I think Volleyball Mom loves about America. And such are some of the very lessons those middle-school girls are learning in that gymnasium.
As the mom said, “America is great… we’re special… we’re winners.” We always have been thus. And as of today, we have only 35 days left to save America.
*Clarification: Just as the late William Raspberry’s “cabbie” was a composite character, so my Volleyball Mom is a composite for things various people say to me in ordinary life, out here well beyond the Washington Beltway.
About the Author
Quin Hillyer is a senior editor of The American Spectator and a senior fellow at the Center for Individual Freedom. Follow him on Twitter @QuinHillyer.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (54) | Leave a comment
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Gary B| 10.2.12 @ 7:26AM
"How can people not see that's what he's doing?" Indeed.
Oldefarte| 10.2.12 @ 3:03PM
I've asked the same exact question over and over again since [and pre] 11/4/08!!!!!!
Pecos Pete| 10.2.12 @ 7:54AM
Obama voters are stuck on stupid.
Oldefarte| 10.2.12 @ 3:05PM
Apparently that encompasses the majority of the American people [or voters] since he was elected by them on 11/4/08. The only remaining question is perhaps....HAVE THEY LEARNED THEIR LESSON??????
vtwin| 10.2.12 @ 8:29AM
“Finally, we have confidence that we can out-compete anybody, and any nation, via … genius and hard work.” True Americans can given a chance out-compete anybody, and any nation, but unfortunately the Romneys of our country, the investor class, the 1%, don’t and have given up on America they’ve decided that China is a better bet, lower taxes, cheaper workers, they will close a factories here leaving thousands unemployed and in need of government assistance, sure it weakens our country and straightens a potential adversaries, but they put profits before patriotism.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 10.2.12 @ 8:39AM
vtwin;
If you don't mind, could you list truthfully and briefly your resume, where you've put patriotism over profits and chose the service of others at the exclusion of your own interests?
Gary B| 10.2.12 @ 8:43AM
Albert, he has no idea what you're talking about. I think he can be classified as one of those useful idiots we see and hear so often. He's a slogan shouter.
vtwin| 10.2.12 @ 9:15AM
Army, United States, 1972-1976.
Crassus| 10.2.12 @ 10:20AM
Thank you, sir, for your service to our country. I guess somebody had to peal those potatoes at Fort Dix.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 10.2.12 @ 11:28AM
Thank you for your service. If (as an honorably discharged veteran myself) I might pry farther, what was your branch (if an officer) or MOS (if enlisted)?
Bill8472| 10.2.12 @ 4:23PM
Some really crappy years for the U.S. Army. Produced some great leaders among the dedicated later, though.
Gary B| 10.2.12 @ 8:41AM
vtwin: Tell me... how the hell can you outsource a retail chain to China? Many of Romney's projects are household names in American retailing. You're repeating worn out, mostly-wrong, anti-investor, liberal harangues. GM, Obama's stolen, poster company, closed American plants in favor of new Chinese factories. What about that?
To quote lyrics from an old jazz song... "Your mind is on vacation and your mouth is working overtime."
vtwin| 10.2.12 @ 9:07AM
How? Where once we found many small locally owned family businesses happily serving their communities we now find a few large investors-owned businesses with minimum-wage workers whom hate their jobs stocking shelves with Chinese made products, products we once made here.
Denver Todd| 10.2.12 @ 10:06AM
I can think of the local family run business that I worked at in high school, a quaint paint store in the downtown of my small town, and I worked for minimum wage and nothing more. Then I worked as a busboy and made more in three months than I did at the paint store in over a year. But each job was a springboard for the next one.
I think that the high-paying family run business is a myth. Every business in America puts another business out of business when the former is better run that the latter. Every grocery store put an end to a smaller one that didn't serve its customers well. If you think about it, even now, most money changes hands through smaller businesses rather than large. Yes, Walmart is the face of large business, but other than how we buy groceries, a lot of money passes through smaller businesses.
When I look at the Walmart that is going in about a mile from me, I think of all the jobs they will create, maybe 300 more than the dirt lot that was there before. And I think that with that Walmart, the local Kroger that is five blocks from me will have to compete by removing the oil on the pavement in the parking lot, making sure the carts move smoothly, and getting the the employees to be a little more helpful. Competition is great!
TinaB| 10.2.12 @ 3:52PM
Gary, you're much kinder than some, you might have said diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain. Of course I would never say anything so crude to Vtwin either.
Mike G| 10.2.12 @ 9:00AM
How many businesses have you started with the express intention providing jobs rather than making a profit? How long did you stay in business without making a profit? How many jobs did you provide without making a profit?
fmm| 10.2.12 @ 10:11AM
The simple truth is that intervention in the free market by government fiat is what causes those things you fret about. It is not your one percent, but government control which is behind those things. As usual, the lib mind set has the facts backwards.
Big Bob| 10.2.12 @ 11:45AM
I've only heard libs behave this way. Could VTWIN be confused? I've heard democrat congressmen glorify Chinese"capitalism"; I've hear cabinet members say that Mao was their "hero"; they were all democrats. What is VTWIN talking about? ANYONE???
Oldefarte| 10.2.12 @ 3:15PM
No, as usual you are either totally ignorant or tingle-down-the-leg stupid [or both]. What you describe resulted from the corruption of labor unions, which due to their excessively above market wage demands of corporations [and their resultant explosion of payroll-wage costs/expenses from same], caused same companies to offshore their labor operations overseas to China, India etc. If this country' legal framework would outlaw labor unions and grant every state a right-to-work status, then jobs/manufacturing etc would return in droves to the USA [since the transportation costs of overseas manufactured goods back to this country would then disappear and USA companies could fairly compete with those in other countries]. Thereafter, an explosive increase in domestic employment [along with consumer incomes, health insurance, retirement savings, college tuition payments by parents with jobs etc] would occur. Of course, labor unions are supportive of the Democratic Party and therefore all Democrats are corruption oriented in thsi process, the one/only solution for Americans is to vote for Republicans solely!!!!!!!!!!
spike59| 10.2.12 @ 4:19PM
did Kos give you a receipt for those talking points?
markenoff| 10.2.12 @ 5:36PM
Yes, the way Romney is standing in the way of the Keystone pipeline which would create jobs here in America and reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil is close to treasonable. Not to mention his unsupported by scientific evidence moratorium on drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico which drove mobile rigs out of the Gulf and overseas taking their jobs with him. Not to mention the fact that under his administration we have seen a redution of over 50% in new leases of feeral land for oil exploration and production. And he ignores his own "job council" which called for a reduction in the US corporate income tax rate, the highest in the world, which is a potent incentive for jobs to move overseas.
Oh, did I say Romney? I meant Barack "Under my plan electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket" Obama.
If BO is reelcted and gets his way a plethora of coal fired power plants will close all over the US particularly affecting the midwest. Supply will not be able to meet demand at peak hours. You will see rolling....wait for it....Barackouts.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 10.2.12 @ 8:34AM
It is the challenge for the Romney campaign as well as those who would like to see America rescued from the Obama agenda to see that this volleyball mom and enough like her show up in sufficient majority to prevail on election day in November.
Von Mises Jr| 10.2.12 @ 8:57AM
I think Mr. Hillyer should have spent some more time talking with this woman. I think she understands that it is not just the economy and financial opportunity for her daughter that is at stake. It is about Freedom.
Our Founders tried to help us understand that we have a choice between liberty and security. Security always ends up as servitude and slavery.
The question boils down to "are you willing to be a slave to the state run from Washington.”
Save a few, I don't even like the bastards; no less do I want them as my supreme rulers.
vtwin| 10.2.12 @ 9:26AM
Or are you willing to give up your democracy to a cabal of the moneyed elite, to slave to plutocracy.
FastJohnny| 10.2.12 @ 9:36AM
Put away the little red phrase book.
Crassus| 10.2.12 @ 10:19AM
Man, those cliches are so 1975. Change the record.
JP| 10.2.12 @ 12:14PM
The moneyred elite now include Bill Clinton, Rahm Emanual, Jamie Gorelick (the latter 2 cashed in nearly $100 mil via Fannie Mae), Stephen Spilberg, Jeff Immelt, Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, Oprah Winfrey, ALGORE, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Larry Ellison, Peter Lewis....
I could go on. The list above includes famous Progressive Dems. As a matter of fact, if you go through the wealthiest zips codes San Fran, Beverly Hills, Boston, Austin, Manhatten, Long Island, etc..) you will almost all are Far Left.
KennesawJack| 10.2.12 @ 1:06PM
You are, apparently, willing to give up your liberty for security. Franklin had guys like you figured out 235 years ago.
TinaB| 10.2.12 @ 3:58PM
Moneyed elite, you mean Shill and Billary, and Moochelle and Barry ? Like the dingos from Hollyweird? Moneyed elite like the kennedys and rocky fellers? A cabal of the moneyed elite lawyers, and their lackeys? No business acumen needed, we just wanna run the show moneyed elite(ists)? That elite plutomickeymouseocracy?
TinaB| 10.2.12 @ 4:01PM
Sorry JP, I almost quoted you and I hadn't gotten past vtwin's 9:26 am post. All I can say is, "great minds think alike."
KennesawJack| 10.2.12 @ 8:36PM
Tina, THAT is called takin' him to the woodshed. Good ol' fashioned ass-whuppin', indeed. Good on ya'!
spike59| 10.2.12 @ 4:21PM
did you get one of those 'cool' Mao outfits when mommy bought the book for you?
markenoff| 10.2.12 @ 5:48PM
You mean Obama, Pelosi, Kerry, Soros, Kaiser (Solyndra) and the Hollywood left? Let's not forget which candidate raked in (by a large margin) the most money from Wall Street in 2008. Hint: it wasn't McCain or Clinton.
Occam's Tool| 10.2.12 @ 9:16PM
Like Barack Obama? I make $350 K a year and am technically in the top 1 or 2 percent. But I'll tell ya---I love steak but I've never has a 100 gram Wagyu (less than a quarter pounder)---and Barry has it every night.
Obama gets rich by stealing and lying to the poor. His wife earned her $350K a year job at U of C (no on call, no weekends) by DENYING poor people access to medical service at the U of C hospitals and clinics.
Liberals are hypocrites and racists. No one hates poor Black kids more than Barrack and Michelle Obama.
Oldefarte| 10.2.12 @ 3:17PM
Possibly this volleyball mom and other women should therefore stop watching and being brainwashed by the Oprah Winfrey/Ellen Degenerises of their world then huh??????
Dave Williams| 10.2.12 @ 9:19AM
The VOLLEYBALL ITSELF knows more than Obama!
Gary B| 10.2.12 @ 10:18AM
LOL
Drunken Sailor| 10.2.12 @ 1:17PM
Wilson for President?
Oldefarte| 10.2.12 @ 3:22PM
At least "Wilson" was FULL OF HOT AIR by means of a manufacturer and not by Axelrod!!!!
Oldefarte| 10.2.12 @ 3:19PM
Well Tom Hanks was once relegated to talking to a volleyball named "Wilson" while marooned on an island, and that sadly is where we're headed IF OBAMA IS RE-ELECTED!!!!!!!!!
FastJohnny| 10.2.12 @ 9:34AM
She is right and I care less for myself and what I am faced with and more for what we will be offering my daughter and her peers. It is kind of like that fishing bumper sticker that a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work. Only in this case, it would be something to the effect of "I would rather be miserable, free and independant than 'happy' and living in Obama's America."
It isn't all about money, it isn't all about what is in it for me: it is what I can provide to my daughter. Too many people think they deserve the American dream, they are selfish and think only of themselves. They have forgotten that the American dream takes generations of work, it takes an unselfish attitude of those of us that are willing to 'suck it up' to provide our children with what is important. It is not about us, it is about our children. Many people just don't think like that anymore. My grandfathers and grandmothers worked hard and took their lumps, never whined about grievances, had to forego some of those now 'essential' luxuries so that they could provide a better future for us and now it is our turn to do the same thing. The government can keep their Obamaphones, food stamps and class action grievance suits, they just better leave me alone to bust my butt in my own way and the way I see fit for my family.
Who Knows?| 10.2.12 @ 10:49AM
Let freedom ring, let it be, let it be!
Intrade is perhaps having a dead cat bounce, as it’s recently gone from 20 to 26% for Romney. Each passing day in this latest “crucial” election seems to be clarifying things.
As the MSM takes an eggbeater to the pool of “news”, making muddy water even more rambunctious, and harder to see through, perhaps a settling down of it all will allow the “silt” to settle---look for more people saying, “Oh my God!”
For a Transcendental splash of Awakening “water”---
“When materialistic or sense-based egoity becomes the principle of general cultural, social, and political organization, we see the development of totalitarian, utopian, and merely humanistic regimes. In our day, such attempts at organizing human beings on the basis of materialistic idealism and realism are profoundly evident in the worldwide growth of technologically based political materialism. The movements motivated by such a view of life obviously include socialistic, communistic, revolutionary, radical, and dictatorial political efforts of all kinds. But this same idealism, since it is the conventional basis of scientific culture, is transforming even democratic and traditionally free societies.”
“Nirvanasara” by Da Free John, 1982 page 63
Who Knows?| 10.2.12 @ 11:06AM
“Modern secular society is simply an extreme development of the exclusive exotericism of the monotheistic cults that were in power previous to the age of scientific materialism. Just as the monotheistic cults suppressed and eliminated the magical cultus of pluralistic and polytheistic animism, the modern cult of non-religious and anti-spiritual or non-animistic materialism has also suppressed and generally eliminated the mystical and the religious cultus of monotheistic animism and the entire world view based on Divine or Spiritual Emanation.”
“Materialism is an ancient philosophical tendency. It is the product of mechanical mind, an analytical (or left-brained) and sense-bound (or merely perceptual) consciousness that is fixed upon elemental processes. It is a view that presumes no ultimate Invisible Spirit Power or Creative Energy that is prior to and independent of matter. And, therefore, it does not presume the world and the self to be arising depended upon the Process of Divine or Spiritual Emanation and ultimately or inherently existing in the Condition of utter Identification with the Divine, or Transcendental Being, Consciousness, Freedom, Power, or Bliss.” ibid p 62-63
Bill8472| 10.2.12 @ 4:19PM
So, if the materialistic view doesn't presume the the world and the self arising from divine involvement in the world, what follows from that? Rationally-based values? What's wrong with them?
If the only problem from the materialist point of view is the creation, can't that issue just be ignored?
RonRonDoRon| 10.2.12 @ 8:31PM
Any chance you could drop the incoherent drivel from cult leader "John of the many AKAs" and just say what you are trying to say in actual English?
Bill8472| 10.2.12 @ 4:20PM
There were totaliatarian, authoriarian, utopian, and humanistic regimes long before the rupture between materialism and spiritualism.
Al Adab| 10.2.12 @ 11:16AM
The words this president has used are: "Rule" not govern and "fundamentally transform America". Is it so hard to understand what The Left here has in mind?
IronmanAtl| 10.2.12 @ 11:25AM
Bravo. well said.
JFGalt| 10.2.12 @ 12:40PM
As long as the Prince of Fools has enough fools to back him without thought because they know a free ride when they see one and then the other morons pile on because they feel guilty about possibly being racist for not voting for a black man and then the rest of the general fools then this nation is truly in trouble. How is it that such a large percentage of the population can't see this man for what he is? Has the population of this country been dumbed down that much? Are the moneyed interests that support him fully understanding that once he is fully in place without the need of another election that he can destroy them just as easily as he is destroying the rest of us? This is a man that will bite the hand that feeds him. I thought that nothing could be worse than Bush (and no - I did not vote for the Prince of Fools the first time - I saw him for the fake that he is). My God! Was I wrong!!! Whether he is American by birth or not, he has proven repeatedly that he is not American in spirit, soul or anything else.
Paul A'Barge | 10.2.12 @ 3:52PM
We all yearn for something. I yearn for a President who will acknowledge that we are a Nation of Davids who prefer to run our own lives. I yearn for a President who will shut down completely at least 3 Departments, starting with the Education Department and including the EPA. And when I say shut down, I mean lay off the entire staff and let real estate developers sell their buildings across the USA.
Bill8472| 10.2.12 @ 4:27PM
John Locke discussed the delegation of legislative power by elected legislators to agents who are not elected, in his Second Treatise of Government. He said that if the elected representatives of the people delegate their law-making power to those not elected to make such laws, the people are under no obligation to obey those laws, since the laws now have no connection to the relationship between the governed and the governors chosed to do the leading.
Paul A'Barge | 10.2.12 @ 3:52PM
Yes, I know the EPA is not a Department. Shut it down anyway.
TinaB| 10.2.12 @ 4:05PM
Department, agency, essentially the same, and don't forget to fire all the czars.
Bill8472| 10.3.12 @ 9:49AM
Right, they're all agents and all of them have fiduciary duties to act with due care and good faith. Anyone who is harmed by an agent acting within the scope of his authority may sue the principal who put the agent in motion, and if the case is proved, the principal will be accountable for the wrongdoing.