What the (Bleep) Just Happened? (53 page)

Most significant, it has
us
. At every major turning point—the founding, the Civil War, the Great Depression, World War II, the civil rights struggle, the malaise of the late 1970s—we have produced leaders who were prepared for the fight to restore the nation. But it was the American people who led the charge. We have always known that we don’t have to settle for anything less than the Founders’ ideal and that we don’t have to put up with con men and other sundry kooks as they butcher the Constitution. This time is no different. Team Obama and his wingmen moved with all deliberate speed, and so must we.

Most important, we must do it as Happy Warriors, infusing the ferocity of the mission with an optimistic, joyful love of America. Nattering nabobs of negativity don’t score big in battles over the future. Reagan and Thatcher succeeded largely because their messages were correct on policy and positive in attitude. We need to summon courage and selflessness. We need to tell the truth about what’s happened and what’s required—of all of us—to get us back on the rails. If we want America restored to AAA status
in every way
, we’re going to have to do it ourselves. Disaster may be all around us but, like Marshal Foch, we say, “Situation excellent.” And we attack.

This is our battle cry, Happy Warriors. It’s time to get back to the idea of Big America (as opposed to Big-Government America): high growth economically, powerful militarily, strong politically, dynamic culturally, and adventurous from sea to space. It’s time to reclaim American Exceptionalism—without exception.

The path toward national salvation will be arduous and long, but we must undertake it lest we truly do lose our exceptional country to the malign forces of redistributionism and degradation. On the day that exceptionalism was codified in the Declaration of Independence, the Liberty Bell rang out. A witness to history said, “It rang like it meant something.” This nation of reinvigorated Happy Warriors must do the hard work to get that Liberty Bell ringing like it means something again. We are, after all,
the
nation of renewal, opportunity, and reinvention.

At the end of
The Wizard of Oz
, Dorothy is told by Glinda the Good Witch that the power to go home was within her all along. And so it is with us. The ability to “fundamentally restore” America to its timeless principles has been with us all along. And like Dorothy, we had to learn that for ourselves. If we summon our true Happy Warrior spirit, grit, and determination, we can make America
America
again. We can go home again, and at the same time, America—our birthright, our heritage, our home—will return to us.

The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use your e-book reader’s search tools.

Bagram Air Base as detention facility, 225, 357

Bush and, 207

need for foreign policy changes, 353, 354–55

Obama’s foreign policy and, 214, 218, 240–46, 306–7

foundations of, 5, 7–8, 15–16

Happy Warrior concept and, 22–26

Left’s “virtuous” redistribution and, 7–10, 26–28

Obama on, 6

reclaiming of, 361

shattering of assumptions about, 3–4

socialism and, 10–11

U.S. citizens’ anger over Left’s statism, redistribution, and notion of American decline, 13–21

of Left, 20–21

of U.S. citizens, 13–20

background, 43

as Obama adviser, 45, 52

Obama’s political rise and, 33–37

background, 12, 39, 40–41, 320

Occupy Wall Street and, 41, 167–68

of automobile companies, 99–102

of financial institutions, 97–99

bailouts of, 98

Community Reinvestment Act’s effect on lending by, 179–80

Afghanistan and, 242

“green jobs” and, 93

Iraq and, 239

Israel and, 301

on Obama, 12, 209

unemployment and, 148, 170–71

stimulus bill and, 90

taxes and, 158

U.S. debt and, 106, 120–21

counterterrorism policy, 219–36, 325

failure to cut entitlement spending, 85

freedom agenda for Middle East, 248

Gadhafi and, 265

Obama’s attack on foreign policy of, 207

September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and, 28–29

TARP and, 97, 99

taxes and, 150, 151, 156

U.S. debt and, 112, 113

Left’s disdain for, 40–41, 83, 188

moral case for, 319–20

Obama and, 320–22

Smith’s invisible hand and, 82

military budget increases in, 283–85

U.S. debt and, 114, 123, 281

U.S. foreign policy and, 215–16, 278, 279–82, 351–52, 354, 356

American as aspirational society and, 169

of Edwards, 33

of Obama, 33–35, 51, 73–74

redistribution of wealth and, 109, 147–55, 157–58, 161, 163

Afghanistan and, 306

apologies made, as secretary of state, 215–16

China and, 283, 284

Egypt and, 255

Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal, 296

Honduras and, 299

Iran and, 251, 253

Israel and, 301, 304

Mexico and, 287–88

Russia and, 277

Syria and, 261–62

2008 primaries and, 208–9, 237

Axelrod and, 43

Obama and, 12, 34, 40, 42, 167

Obama’s attitude toward, 59–60, 326

“terrorism-talking school” for, 222

euphemisms for Islamic terror, 219–22

Guantánamo Bay detention facility, 222–28, 357

illegal immigration and, 289