Michelle Obama sent a request to millions of Americans last week asking that we send birthday greetings to President Obama as he turns 49 on Wednesday.
Our founders sent a notice to King George celebrating America’s birth long ago. If Hallmark were to borrow those words to create a birthday card for President Obama it might read, “Today we celebrate your life. We thank the Creator for your gifts and liberty to pursue happiness. We ask that Divine Providence protect you this day and forevermore. Happy birthday!”
But Hallmark didn’t create the electronic card the first lady distributed. It’s the work of Organizing for America. After his election, President Obama gave his list of 13 million campaign supporters to the Democratic National Committee and spawned OFA, which rallies support for the president’s agenda.
Leonard Read, the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, was concerned about the ideology represented by groups like Organizing for America. He said that progressive ideologies have a common characteristic, which is a “belief” in using government, or “organized force,” not for its original function but for controlling “the productive and creative activity” its citizens. In that same speech, “The Essence of Americanism,” Read warned, “The American people, by and large, have lost track of the spiritual antecedent of the American miracle. You are given a choice: either you accept the idea of the Creator as the endower of man’s rights, or you submit to the idea that the state is the endower of man’s rights. I double-dare any of you to offer a third alternative. We have forgotten the real source of our rights and are suffering the consequences.”
We see these consequences playing out today, supported by Organizing for America, in the raw use of power to expand government’s meddling far beyond its constitutional limits into the lives of its citizens. Moreover, consider President Obama’s denial of the most basic element for “productive and creative activity”—life—in his direct support for abortions by lifting the Mexico City Policy.
Birthdays are a celebration of the miracle of life. Each precious life is endowed with certain inalienable rights, and those rights represent the seed of America. I encourage you send President Obama a birthday card and help him celebrate his birth, his inalienable rights, and the miracle of America they represent.
