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DNC video: “Government is the only thing that we all belong to”; Update: Not our video, says Obama campaign

posted at 7:30 pm on September 4, 2012 by Allahpundit

Yes, rest assured, Romney and the GOP are already working on ads about this. It’s the GOP that cut the clip and circulated it, in fact. Mitt himself evidently can’t wait to get started:

We don’t belong to government, the government belongs to us.

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) September 4, 2012

People are going to follow Romney’s lead and seize on the word “belong” but that’s only half the problem. Even if Democrats had chosen a phrase that didn’t connote ownership, like “participate in” (Obama’s preferred turn of phrase when pushing this idea is “doing things together”), this is still a creepy, spurious justification for expanding government. As Yuval Levin recently explained in NRO:

The president simply equates doing things together with doing things through government. He sees the citizen and the state, and nothing in between — and thus sees every political question as a choice between radical individualism and a federal program.

But most of life is lived somewhere between those two extremes, and American life in particular has given rise to unprecedented human flourishing because we have allowed the institutions that occupy the middle ground — the family, civil society, and the private economy — to thrive in relative freedom. Obama’s remarks in Virginia shed a bright light on his attitude toward that middle ground, and in that light a great deal of what his administration has done in this three and a half years suddenly grows clearer and more coherent, and even more disconcerting.

Again and again, the administration has sought to hollow out the space between the individual and the state. Its approach to the private economy has involved pursuing consolidation in key industries — privileging a few major players that are to be treated essentially as public utilities, while locking out competition from smaller or newer firms. This both ensures the cooperation of the large players and makes the economy more manageable and orderly. And it leaves no one pursuing ends that are not the government’s ends. This has been the essence of the administration’s policies toward automakers, health insurers, banks, hospitals, and many others.

How psychologically impoverished must you be to find validation in “belonging” to a government? You’re forced to “join,” your “dues” are typically squandered on stupid, wasteful projects, half of the other members are perpetually at your throat, and the whole thing is shot through with corruption at every level. It’s essentially the world’s biggest and worst union (and worst in part because it’s biggest). In fact, didn’t we just spend an entire week listening to the left’s friends in the media tell us how racist Republicans are? Why would any liberal want to belong to a group with people like that in it? This rhetoric is pure communitarian garbage, designed to inculcate some perverse civic pride in the ideas that (a) government will continue to grow and usurp your choices and, more importantly, (b) you need to pay more “dues,” even though government’s already so big that realistically there’s no amount you could pay to make it sustainable. Loathsome.

Update: Someone’s nervous.

An Obama aide emails that the Charlotte host committee, not the Obama campaign, produced the video:

“The video in question was produced and paid for by the host committee of the city of Charlotte. It’s neither an OFA nor a DNC video, despite what the Romney campaign is claiming. It’s time for them to find a new target for their faux outrage.”

That’s super. Now how do they explain the “doing things together” rhetoric?

Tags: belong, Democratic National Convention, government

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Not our video, says Obama campaign

…not our economy…not our wars…not our deficits…we didn’t say that…etc.etc.
…we’re incomplete!

KOOLAID2 on September 4, 2012 at 10:04 PM

An Obama aide emails that the Charlotte host committee, not the Obama campaign, produced the video:

“The video in question was produced and paid for by the host committee of the city of Charlotte. It’s neither an OFA nor a DNC video, despite what the Romney campaign is claiming. It’s time for them to find a new target for their faux outrage.”

Ha! It’s Romney’s fault their ass doesn’t know what their head is doing ! I can’t wait for the blame game which will follow for decades in the future after he’s actually President Romney.

Buy Danish on September 4, 2012 at 10:07 PM

“A government big enough to give you everything you want,
is strong enough to take everything you have.”

Absolutely great quote. I am sorry to point out that Gerald Ford, the nitwit who appointed leftwit/retard John Paul Stevens to the SCOTUS, somehow came up with this all by himself.

Jaibones on September 4, 2012 at 10:11 PM

May I also point out that the GOP conducted a happy, optimistic, and generally favorable convention, and that the idiot Democrats are already on the verge of melting down on opening night?

How they get anyone to vote for their imbecile candidates is a mystery.

Jaibones on September 4, 2012 at 10:13 PM

FEMA camps and plastic coffins …. hmmmm.

OldEnglish on September 4, 2012 at 10:14 PM

That wasn’t their video.

It was Bush’s fault.

Wino on September 4, 2012 at 10:14 PM

“The video in question was produced and paid for by the host committee of the city of Charlotte. It’s neither an OFA nor a DNC video, ,

It was on the screen, behind the stage, at the Democrat National Convention. No way Obama knew.

BobMbx on September 4, 2012 at 10:25 PM

I hope Team Romney plasters the nation with ads about this by tomorrow morning.

Philly on September 4, 2012 at 10:34 PM

WE? I don’t belong to no stinking government!

minnesoter on September 4, 2012 at 10:53 PM

As Popeye said “That’s all I can stands and I can’t stands nomore”.
Lock and Load.
They reveal themselves as the Fascists they are.
Prepare for the worst….they will never stop trying to enslave us.
It appears war is imminent.
III%

dirtengineer on September 4, 2012 at 11:03 PM

I dunno.

If I were Obama – first I ‘d be single- and I’d seen this video, I’d be very concerned that some group were paying good money to produce and distribute an ad that made me look bad….and that group was affiliated with my PARTY!!!

socalcon on September 5, 2012 at 12:09 AM

“The video in question was produced and paid for by the host committee of the city of Charlotte. It’s neither an OFA nor a DNC video,…..” Did they or did they not authorize it? Answer: If was played @ the DNC they authorized. They own it.

Sheerie on September 5, 2012 at 12:35 AM

Santorum approves.

mythicknight on September 4, 2012 at 7:39 PM

What a ridiculous reach. I doubt Santorum would be welcome at the DNC.

There Goes The Neighborhood on September 5, 2012 at 1:15 AM

If the left ever really understood that the single defining characteristic of government is force, they might not be so quick to suggest this is a good thing.

Of course, even then, they wouldn’t mind the use of force to make us stupid rubes do what’s “good” for us. They just might be smarter about trying to sell it.

There Goes The Neighborhood on September 5, 2012 at 1:19 AM

Government is the Big Marshmellow Monster in Ghostbuster. It’s going to roll over all of us.

DWoDiego on September 5, 2012 at 1:50 AM

So the Democrats think I belong to the government.

Of course.

This is the same crowd that boasted that they would absolutely be ready to “rule” on Day One of Obama’s reign.

Remember?

JohnD13 on September 5, 2012 at 3:52 AM

An Obama aide emails that the Charlotte host committee, not the Obama campaign, produced the video…

An Obama aide, huh? This one clearly has Baghdad Barbie written all over it!

pilamaye on September 5, 2012 at 5:42 AM

Obama campaign: “We didn’t build that ad!”

BKennedy on September 5, 2012 at 6:10 AM

“It’s time for them to find a new target for their faux outrage.”

Child, we’re never outraged when one of you goes off teleprompter and expresses your inner Marxism. You are.

Marxist chump.

MNHawk on September 5, 2012 at 7:05 AM

Not OFA’s video, so we are stupid for linking it to O, but Akin’s words might as well of been spoken by Romney.

That will be the excuse all week. The speakers can use all of the hateful left wing rhetoric they want and O can say “It wasn’t me!” I think this is the real reason he is at BoA stadium. No matter what is said at the convention, his speech will look like a separate event, and he can say “That was the DNC, I wasn’t even at the convention.”

tdarrington on September 5, 2012 at 8:03 AM

Yet they are more than willing to tie all publicans to Akins… saying all conservatives think like he does… what is fair is fair luberals.

watertown on September 5, 2012 at 8:08 AM

…an ax and rods maybe….with some nice shirts…?

harlekwin15 on September 4, 2012 at 7:36 PM

You mean like … Axelrod..?

affenhauer on September 5, 2012 at 8:09 AM

lie . . . deny, lie . . . deny, lie . . . deny. That’s the story of the Obama administration.

rplat on September 5, 2012 at 8:14 AM

Would that be the same host committee that was responsible for organizing and raising funds to pay for the whole convention? The same group that began accepting money from corporations like Wells Fargo, BoA, and Duke Energy?

I think the Obama’shad already planned to throw them under the bus the second someone asked about the hypocrisy involved with corporate donations. That is why they were so quick with the response to the video. They were already planning on throwing the host committee under the bus.

weaselyone on September 5, 2012 at 8:17 AM

Yet they are more than willing to tie all publicans to Akins…

I was a publican a long time ago, but I drifted away. I am coming back to the fold, so that makes me a REpublican.

ba-dum–bum

Thanks…I’ll be here all week…please tip the bartender.

tdarrington on September 5, 2012 at 8:33 AM

All Hail Obama!
All Hail the State!

Bevan on September 5, 2012 at 8:37 AM

This nation was founded on the belief that citizens need to be un-yoked from the chains of government.

These people are not only sick, they are evil.

matthew8787 on September 5, 2012 at 8:40 AM

I belong to the government. I belong to the state. Rome had a lot of folks who belonged to it. So did Greece. So did Egypt. So did Europe, what with the serfs and all. Until the Magna Carte and the government recognized the personhood of even the serfs. Then the colonies said, nope, we don’t belong to the king. And then there were the plantation owners. A lot of folks belonged to them.

I thought we’d settled this question. In 1776 and again in 1865. After this? I can see another surge in gun ownership, because if this doesn’t scare the cr*p out of you, nothing will.

Portia46 on September 5, 2012 at 8:46 AM

As Megatron once put it, “I BELONG TO NOBODY!”

ZK on September 5, 2012 at 8:48 AM

Genesis 47:20 So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s, and Joseph reduced the people to servitude, from one end of Egypt to the other. However, he did not buy the land of the priests, because they received a regular allotment from Pharaoh and had food enough from the allotment Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land.

Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can plant the ground. But when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children.”

“You have saved our lives,” they said. “May we find favor in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.”

So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt—still in force today—that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh.
***

Pharaoh’s slaves only paid 20% to the government. The democrats want all of you.

Mojave Mark on September 5, 2012 at 8:53 AM

I can tell you with certainty, that my parents are rolling over in their graves. Their once-beloved Democratic Party, which they left in 1980 to vote for Ronald Wilson Reagan, has turned into a bunch of Godless Communists.

kingsjester on September 5, 2012 at 8:53 AM

Ein volk, Ein Reich, Ein FuhrerLightbringer!

98ZJUSMC on September 5, 2012 at 9:07 AM

Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato.

RobertE on September 5, 2012 at 9:08 AM

“Gov’t is the ONLY thing we all belong to ”
Of course that riled me up, and started thinking .. I’m sorry, but I belong to my God first, my family, my church, etc ….
THEN he throws in that our CHURCHES do, too, and that made my jaw drop !!

Godless crew, that MUST be defeated.
No accommodations nor negotiations.
THEY MUST GO !!

pambi on September 5, 2012 at 9:09 AM

The Democrat position can be summed up in these words:

Almost 4 years ago we brought forth a new government founded in hope and change —that this nation, under government, shall have a new birth of government—and that government of the government, by the government, for the government, shall not perish from major metropolitan areas of this land.

claudius on September 5, 2012 at 9:18 AM

If I say something incredibly stupid… I didn’t say that.

Write Wing on September 5, 2012 at 9:26 AM

“Government is the only thing that we all belong to”

~ goes with ~

“You didn’t build that”

Mao would be proud.

petefrt on September 5, 2012 at 9:40 AM

Pretty sure that believing that Government is the ONLY thing we all belong to is dumber than actually saying it, but good grief, what a stupid thing to say.

The Charlotte committee got thrown under the bus awfully fast.

gatorboy on September 5, 2012 at 9:49 AM

Update: Someone’s nervous.

If the DNC is already trying to distance themselves from the video and the quote, they must know it will hurt them.

Romney and the GOP need to beat this dead horse all the way to Election Day….

GadsdenRattlers on September 5, 2012 at 9:52 AM

Triumph of the Will isn’t a Democrat Party video either, but if they showed that proudly at their convention, they should catch hell for it.

In any case, I will find it interesting to find out who this video really belongs to.

WannabeAnglican on September 5, 2012 at 10:10 AM

anything you own, possess; life, freedom, property belongs to government and they are committed in “investing” our lives away.

jaboba on September 5, 2012 at

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