Marching in Lockstep

Because I wanted to say as little as possible about Obama's SOTU speech on Tuesday, I overlooked an important argument from the president that was seemingly odd but completely within the realm of progressivism.  Here is Obama on putting military virtue in place of civilian virtue:

At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, [the American Armed Forces] exceed all expectations.  They’re not consumed with personal ambition.  They don’t obsess over their differences.  They focus on the mission at hand.  They work together. 

Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example.  (Applause.)  Think about the America within our reach:  A country that leads the world in educating its people.  An America that attracts a new generation of high-tech manufacturing and high-paying jobs.  A future where we’re in control of our own energy, and our security and prosperity aren’t so tied to unstable parts of the world.  An economy built to last, where hard work pays off, and responsibility is rewarded.

This has been the clarion call of progressives for generations:  the removal of any impediment to "getting things done."  The impediments for progressives include the Constitution, the principles of the Declaration, separation of powers, federalism, and politics rightly understood.  For them, Americans should simply fall in line and paper over any differences, because in reality, there are no longer any crucial disagreements about the most important things.

Here is Jonah Goldberg on this idea:

Indeed, Obama is upending the very point of a military in a free society. We have a military to keep our society free. We do not have a military to teach us the best way to give up our freedom. Our warriors surrender their liberties and risk their lives to protect ours. The promise of American life for Obama is that if we all try our best and work our hardest, we can be like a military unit striving for a single goal. I’ve seen pictures of that from North Korea. No thank you, Mr. President. 

And:

I don’t blame the president for being exhausted with the mess and bother of democracy and politics, since he has proved so inadequate at coping with the demands of both. Nor do I think he truly seeks to impose martial virtues on America. But he does desperately want his opponents to shut up and march in place. And he seems to think this bilge will convince them to do so.

And here is George Will:

Progressive presidents use martial language as a way of encouraging Americans to confuse civilian politics with military exertions, thereby circumventing an impediment to progressive aspirations — the Constitution and the patience it demands. As a young professor, Woodrow Wilson had lamented that America’s political parties “are like armies without officers.” The most theoretically inclined of progressive politicians, Wilson was the first president to criticize America’s founding. This he did thoroughly, rejecting the Madisonian system of checks and balances — the separation of powers, a crucial component of limited government — because it makes a government that cannot be wielded efficiently by a strong executive.

I wonder if Obama and his speechwriters have been reading too much Thomas Friedman?