We're All Better Off...when We're All Better

Six Decades Ago, As Mao's Communists Seized Power, The Question In Washington Was, 'who Lost China?' Now, As His Capitalist Descendants Stand Astride The World Stage And Washington Worries About Decline, It Seems To Be, 'who Lost America?'

Many Smart Folks Seem To Think That If You Just Get Your Metaphors And Messages Right, You'll Win. That If You Start Describing What You Favor As A 'moral Value' - 'affordable Health Care Is A Moral Value' Etc., - Then You'll Appeal To Red-state Voters.

The Next Time Someone Uses Denial Of Citizenship As A Weapon Or Brandishes The Special Status Conferred Upon Him By The Accident Of Birth, Ask Him This: What Have You Done Lately To Earn It?

To Be Sure, The United States Has Profound Problems, Not Least Our Faltering Educational And Physical Infrastructure.

If Half-black Barack Obama Had Decided Years Ago To Call Himself White - Which His Genes Certainly Entitled Him To Do - His Story Would Have Carried Very Different Meaning. If Millions Of Part-black People Had Followed Him Into Whiteness, Then The N.a.a.c.p. Would Be In True Crisis.