Dude, where's my gravitas?

By Jon Daly

Every once in a while an article comes along that describes perfectly in the pathology of the left. Shelby Steele, in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, does it. In a piece entitled "A Referendum on the Redeemer," he says:

"...Barack Obama... is a child of the 1960s. His coming of age paralleled exactly the unfolding of a new "counterculture" American identity. And this new American identity-and the post-1960s liberalism it spawned-is grounded in a remarkable irony: bad faith in America as virtue itself...

He goes on to point out what most conservatives have recognized but found hard to express:

"Among today's liberal elite, bad faith in America is a sophistication, a kind of hipness.."

Think John Stewart. Think Bill Maher. Ignorance combined with smugness, as Rush says. There is another word for this kind of person, to steal a Seinfeld term: Hipster Dufus.

More Steele:

"It puts Mr. Obama and the Democrats in the position of forever redeeming a fallen nation, rather than leading a great nation."

This is backed up by Bill Clinton's urging of the Democrats in the health care debate to "just pass a bill". Then, said Clinton, comes the good part: "endless reform". To Democrats it is the process that matters. We are a country that needs endless reform and greatness is not an option.

So as Obama continues his "Dumbing down the Presidency Tour" by going on any friendly liberal show to "reach his base" (what next? Tosh.0?) and having hipster dufuses like Stewart call him "dude" (by the way, guys with gray hair in their late 40's shouldn't say "dude") and doing that lame car analogy, conservatives can take solace that the "Baby Boomer, Timothy Leary is dead, thinks Mick Jagger is still cool" crowd finds their hipness in childish 60"s liberalism. If it weren't so true it would be funny.