2014
In an op-ed in the March 5 New York Times, Thomas L Friedman uses these words:
He is guilty of the soft bigotry of low expectations toward his people.
Friedman is writing about Vladimir Putin, his abuse of Russia and the Ukraine.
However, those are exactly the words I have been looking for to describe Barack Obama and his liberal followers. What better way to describe the constant drum beat of class warfare, inequality, loss of opportunity, equal playing field and all the rest? Isn’t all this really saying we have quite low expectations for this generation of Americans who simply can’t make it without our help and help and help?
Here is a message of “you are not responsible, someone else is holding you back, blocking your opportunities. You can’t do anything by yourself. Whatever happened to YES WE CAN!
All this could be believable were it not for two and a half centuries of evidence to the contrary showing American resilience, creativity and fortitude.
Yes, at times we all need help. At times government programs are necessary. During a crisis we need to do extraordinary things, but when the crisis passes we move on. That is not what we are talking about today. While the words say create opportunity for upward mobility, the actions say a large swath of Americans dependent on one or more government programs designed more to sustain them in their current state than to uplift them.
That is the soft bigotry of low expectations.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 