Liberal blog posts filled with advice for dealing with “crazy right-wing relatives” at Thanksgiving dinner are now a dreary fixture of the holiday season, with a semi-official version emanating from the Democratic National Committee. However, it looks like President Obama has become the crazy uncle at everyone’s Thanksgiving table, unloading a ridiculous comparison between Syrian refugees and the pilgrims who came to America on the Mayflower in his holiday address.
Transcript courtesy of The Hill:
“Nearly four centuries after the Mayflower set sail, the world is still full of pilgrims – men and women who want nothing more than the chance for a safer, better future for themselves and their families,” Obama said in his weekly address Thursday. “What makes America America is that we offer that chance.”
The president praised Americans who have offered to open their homes to refugees fleeing war-torn Syria.
“One woman from Pennsylvania wrote to me to say, ‘Money is tight for us in my household. … But I have a guest room. I have a pantry full of food. We can do this,’ ” Obama said.
“Another woman from Florida told me her family’s history dates back to the Mayflower — and she said that welcoming others is part of ‘what it means to be an American,’ ” he added.
Obama called for citizens to put the “generosity” of America on full display by welcoming refugees into the country with arms wide open.
“I hope that you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving, surrounded by loved ones and full of joy and gratitude,” he said. “And together, may we all play our own small part in the American story, and write a next chapter that future generations can be thankful for.”
On the bright side, it’s amazing to see the pilgrims finally get some respect from a left-winger. Obama’s ideological tradition has previously held white Christian settlers to be the worst thing that ever happened to the Americas, and perhaps the worst thing that ever happened in the history of the world. America’s founding is normally depicted by liberals as a criminal assault on the Native Americans.
But suddenly the pilgrims are super-awesome, because Democrats are really hung up on their new political strategy to portray anyone who has qualms about importing tens of thousands of people from a religious war, with negligible security screening, as an unpatriotic bigot. The defining attribute of American patriotism is now held to be open borders… by the same people who would howl with blood-curdling rage if their patriotism was questioned in any way.
Among the many differences between colonial America and the 21st century is the fact that small groups of determined individuals can now inflict horrific damage on defenseless civilians. This makes the security screening process a bit more complicated, and important, than anything faced by pre-industrial societies.
Are we really going to be brainwashed into thinking there’s no practical difference between the Christian creed of the Mayflower pilgrims and Islam? How much Thanksgiving table-wine must one guzzle before it becomes possible to imagine Syrian refugees as a homogeneous group of oppressed peace-loving waifs, with no unpleasant ideological baggage of their own?
Also, we’re back to the usual leftist trope of conflating voluntary individual charity with compulsory government programs. Anyone who wants to bring a Syrian family into their guest room should be welcome to do so, assuming the family in question passes a real security screening — which is a far more difficult process than Obama makes it out to be, given the awful conditions in Syria.
Pretending the Syria refugee crisis is a situation that can be addressed by inviting a few people to stay in guest rooms is sheer idiocy, unworthy of American political leaders. The Constitution is not a suicide pact, and nothing about patriotism requires putting America at unnecessary risk.