You are still the problem

The day after The Inauguration, I posted, "You are the problem."

George Will, on President Obama's inauguration speech:

... one of his themes, delicately implied, was that Americans do not just have a problem, they are a problem.

I don't think it was so "delicately implied."

Now, 17 months after that day, just as the rubes are starting to wake up, comes the NYT's Charles Blow, whon starts off promisingly enough in, "The Thrill Is Gone."

President Obama’s relationship with America, like many a young marriage, is growing sour. ...

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the magic has drained away. Even among his most ardent supporters, there now exists a certain frustration and disillusionment — not necessarily in the execution of his duties, but in his inability to seize moments, chart a course and navigate the choppy waters of public opinion.

What’s left for many is a big plume of disappointment and sadness lurking just beneath the surface.

Has yet another rube begun to awaken from his stupor? Is Charles Blow - yes, Charles Blow, of all people - finally returning to reality base?

Nope. Not a chance. As it turns out, the problem is not with a president who seems to spend more time golfing and partying than working and who decided that the best way to stop The Spill was to ram through higher taxes and wreck the whole oil industry.

Blow gives a head nod to fairness and balance by pointing out that, "There is blame on both sides."

On the other side stands Obama — solid and sober, rooted in the belief that his way is the right way and in no need of alteration. He’s the emotionally maimed type who lights up when he’s stroked and adored but shuts down in the face of acrimony. Other people’s anxieties are dismissed as irrational and unworthy of engagement or empathy. He seems quite comfortable with this aspect of his personality, even if few others are, and shows little desire to change it. It’s the height of irony: the presumed transformative president is stymied by his own unwillingness to be transformed. He would rather sacrifice the relationship than be altered by it.

Wait a minute - if that's "the other side," then what was the first side? Well, that's everyone who is not Obama.

On one side is America — fickle and excitable, hotheaded and prone to overreaction, easily frightened and in constant need of reassurance.

See? The problem is still you and me. And this gets expanded as the column continues. Oh, I almost forgot: the problem is also George W. Bush. Always.

America has to grow up and calm down. Expectations must be better managed. On balance, this president is doing a good job — not perfect, but good — particularly in light of the incredible mess he inherited.

I said it before and I'll say it again: Both the Republicans and Democrats are big-government activists, they have a foundational philosophy that is the same: America is a problem to be fixed, and Americans are a people to be managed. And that, Mr. Blow, is why Tea Party activists are not the "stepchildren" of the Republican party. Americans are waking up evermore strongly that we do not want to be managed. Only now are a few Republicans awakening to that fact, too, but the Dems? Not one yet.