I thought it was a standard line coming out of the right, that the "progressives" and liberals don't respect America's greatness, that they don't believe in American Exceptionalism and that conservatives do and they uphold that belief no matter what. You know, it's those weak kneed "progressives" who are always apologizing for something America did somewhere that hurt someone, conservatives would never do that! Well if that's the case, then why are some conservatives running a political action committee called "Make Us Great Again"? If we are already great then why would we have to reinvigorate our own existing greatness? Looking at it logically, if conservatives believed we were truly great wouldn't they call their PAC "Make America Greater"?

I don't know about you but I'm starting to think that some conservatives don't really believe that we are really that great so we need to do something in order to be great again. What I suspect is that they have a particular, if not peculiar version of "greatness" that most of the rest of us would find a lot less than great no matter how you measure greatness.

"Make Us Great Again" is in fact, a PAC set up to funnel unlimited amounts of money into the campaign of Rick Perry. Its Mission Statement is: "The mission of Make Us Great Again is to support Rick Perry for the Republican nomination for President in 2012, to oppose Barack Obama’s reelection, and to support Rick Perry in the general election in November 2012." Ah, now I see the logic, we'll elect as president a guy who can't remember what parts of government he wants to eliminate, who accuses Ben Bernanke of treason and who suggests that Texas could leave the Union and this guy will restore us to "greatness"!

Rick Perry is probably a really nice guy who believes in his heart of hearts that he knows what's best for America but I hardly find the road to renewed or enhanced American greatness on the pages of his playbook. Likewise I don't think I'd find a suitable substitute on too many of the playbooks of our conservative presidential contenders in the run up to 2012.

SJG

11/16/11