Our Father, who art in the White House

Chris Rock led an unimpressive little celebrity posse to Capitol Hill to “demand a plan to end gun violence” today, and unbosomed himself of this brilliant observation: 

“I’m just here to support the president of the United States. The president of the United States is, you know, our boss. But he’s also, you know, the president and the first lady are kind of like the mom and the dad of the country. And when your dad says something, you listen. And when you don’t, it usually bites you in the ass later on. So, I’m here to support the president.”

It all sounds so much better in the original German.  I’d like to hear Mr. Rock reconcile his theory of the President as national father-boss with the lefty outrage over Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” speech.  Where was Romney wrong in describing the 47 Percent as dependent children, if Chris Rock is proud to refer to them in the same terms?

Few attitudes are less compatible with the American system of government than viewing the President as a “father” or “boss.”  A nation prepared to receive our priceless inheritance of proud Constitutional liberty has no use for a father-boss, and in fact should be ready to vigorously oppose any such figure.  Ben Franklin supposedly told America the Founders had given it “a Republic, if you can keep it.”  How do you keep something your father wants to take away from you?