I remember hearing that and being absolutely stunned by it. I wonder what the liberals think who grew up in the 60s? I guess once it's your guy in the white house, it's OK to blindly follow the government.
First thing that struck me is that the pres does love his strawmen. "People who think government is the source of all our problems." Almost no one is saying that, and frankly no one of any real consequence. But it's important for him to divide and demonize, so make sure today's youth knows that anyone who wants smaller government is trying to tell you that we should just get rid of the whole thing.
But the second thing was his concept of "this experiment in self-government". This is a favorite among many liberals - the idea that we are in fact "self-governing." It's either incredibly naive or it's a lie designed to keep the moderates in the party from freaking out when the people they send to Washington start talking about confiscating 401K's and things like that. "Hey, it's alright, we're self-governing! Those things will never really come to pass! You're in control!"
The fact is, we are NOT self-governed. We elect people to govern us. If you don't believe that, let's go see if we can get a meeting next week with our No. 1 employee. I'm betting he won't take our calls. He works for us ONLY in the strictest "Civics 101" sense. Once an official is elected he can do whatever he wants until his next election cycle - and if he covers his tracks well enough he doesn't even have to worry about that, because odds are people won't see what he's done until it's too late.
What Barak Obama is saying is that because we are "self-governed", then we're really sending people just like me and you to Washington. And you trust "me and you", right? So get out of their way and just know that they're doing what's best for you. Funny how when "people like me and you" are conservatives, all of a sudden they're evil white men trying to starve the poor and kill of the elderly.
I found the whole statement incredibly disingenuous and insulting.