This is an apt illustration of what I was writing earlier about people who don’t know how to prioritize politics in their own lives.
The following is a question posed by a University of New Hampshire undergraduate named Jenny Ballantine at a town hall meeting with John and Elizabeth Edwards:
I need to be able to look to my leader and see words of encouragement, words of hope. I need to be able to trust that person. I need to be able to know that I’m going to be grow [sic in transcript] in a world that’s not going to be full of hate and prejudice and racism and to know that I matter, that I wasn’t just dumped in this world for no particular reason whatsoever.
I’m busting my ass in school, I work 25 to 30 hours a week, and it’s just me and my dog. So what can you do for the people that are in my situation, that are trying their damnedest in school, wanting to go to grad school, is going to be hit with the loans—and, uh, I have no idea what I want to do when I grow up. I don’t know what I want to be when I’m an adult. But I’m 22 right now, so people are like, “Honey, you are an adult.” You know what? It’s about me. It’s about me voting for you or supporting somebody who’s going to be the next president. So it’s all about me right now. Just give me something.
Two thoughts: First, we’re a long way from John F. Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” Second, this woman isn’t looking for a president; she’s looking for a savior.
This is the natural result of the Nanny state, in which the people are infantilized and made to expect that they should turn to the government to satisfy every need, that they can’t do anything for themselves, and that their only duty is to pay taxes and submit willingly to the elites running everything.
Incidentally, the Edwardses’ response shows that he’s no JFK either, but instead panders to her self-involved demands. Why not? He wants to be the Enabler-in-chief.
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