That’s one of the biggest reasons why there is so little resonance with our spirits in this year’s election campaign. The Obama campaign’s attacks on Romney are just noise in this season, but even Romney’s proclamations don’t matter all that much. In 2012, the governing dynamic is the American people talking to ourselves, deciding who we really are and what we really believe. Romney isn’t, at any point, going to intrude on that dialogue. In an important sense, Obama is irrelevant to it, except as an example of the extremes to which our century-long practice of seeking saviors can take us.
The dialogue will continue for years after November 2012. The dialogue is what matters, and if a sleeping giant is awakening, it will take some time for it to educate itself. The need for the people to educate and improve ourselves, as self-governing citizens, is actually a good thing, in my view. If we had another Reagan to elect this fall, we would remain passive, waiting for the president to try to do what only we can do. It is good for the people to have to step up to our responsibilities, which start with character and knowledge.
This year, meanwhile, the great resolution we are working toward isn’t so much Democrat or Republican, Obama or Romney; this year, it’s America – liberty, self-government, responsibility – and us.
Originally published at http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/07/09/america-this-time-its-personal/