Michael Prell: Sarah Palin and Fishing for American Exceptionalism

"Sarah Palin's Alaska" offers a more optimistic view of what it means to be #1
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At American Thinker, author Michael Prell opines that watching "Sarah Palin's Alaska" is like going back in time -- no, not to a time when Americans were hunters and gatherers, but to a time when competition and a desire to excel was encouraged and celebrated rather than discouraged and scorned:

There was a time in America when young people were taught that being #1 was a good thing, and that anyone could grow up to be president, which is the #1 position of power in the world. Now America is led by a president who bows down to the world and apologizes for America's power, while criticizing powerful and successful Americans at home, scorning them as "fat cats," and saying that "at a certain point, you've made enough money."

Contrast President Obama's attitude about success to that of his biggest challenger, Sarah Palin, who said in TLC's "Alaska" that "[i]t's very important to remember that the more successful fisherman is going to be the harder-working fisherman. The harder you work, the more money you're going to make, the more fish you're going to be able to pick. That, again, is a life lesson that so many should, and could, be learning."

The desire to succeed and be #1 is deeply ingrained in the American character. Some even call it the "American spirit" or "American exceptionalism." But American exceptionalism is under attack by a new and potent belief system that assigns virtue and scorn along an "axis of power," between the power-haves and power have-nots. Those who have less power can do no wrong -- even when they do wrong -- and those who have more power (the rich, the successful, the United States) can do no right -- even when they do right.

I gave this belief system a name -- Underdogma, the reflexive belief that those who have less power are good because they have less power, and that those who have more power are bad because they have more power.

This anti-exceptional belief system permeates our culture through movies, television shows, the news, and even now through the words and deeds of the president of the United States. The underdog is reflexively cast as the good guy (even when he is not), and those who have achieved success and wealth and power are cast as villains, criminals, or even enemies of the state to be singled out for scorn by the president.

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- JP

Sarah Palin: 'Whether we like it or not?'

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Sarah Palin took to her Facebook Notes page Friday morning to excoriate President Obama once again:

Mr. President, is a strong America a problem?

Asked this week about his faltering efforts to advance the Middle East peace process, President Obama did something remarkable. In front of some 47 foreign leaders and hundreds of reporters from all over the world, President Obama said that “whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower.”

Whether we like it or not? Most Americans do like it. America’s military may be one of the greatest forces for good the world has ever seen, liberating countless millions from tyranny, slavery, and oppression over the last 234 years. As a dominant superpower, the United States has won wars hot and cold; our military has advanced the cause of freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan and kept authoritarian powers like Russian and China in check.

It is in America’s and the world’s interests for our country to remain a dominant military superpower, but under our great country’s new leadership that dominance seems to be slipping away. President Obama has ended production of the F-22, the most advanced fighter jet this country has ever built. He’s gutted our missile defense program by eliminating shield resources in strategic places including Alaska. And he’s ended the program to build a new generation of nuclear weapons that would have ensured the reliability of our nuclear deterrent well into the future. All this is in the context of the country’s unsustainable debt that could further limit defense spending. As one defense expert recently explained:

The president is looking to eliminate the last vestiges of the Reagan-era buildup. Once the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are “ended” (not “won”), the arms control treaties signed, and defense budgets held at historic lows while social entitlements and debt service rise to near-European levels, the era of American superpower will have passed.

The truth is this: by his actions we see a president who seems to be much more comfortable with an American military that isn’t quite so dominant and who feels the need to apologize for America when he travels overseas. Could it be a lack of faith in American exceptionalism? The fact is that America and our allies are safer when we are a dominant military superpower – whether President Obama likes it or not.

- Sarah Palin

We can see Sarah's spine from our houses.

Update: Ed Morrissey comments.

- JP