Obama at Notre Dame

After all the anti-abortion protests surrounding supposedly pro-choice Barack Obama’s honorary degree and speech this week, the upshot of President Obama’s commencement address at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, is a religious idea: you are thy brother’s keeper. Shoulder the burdens of your fellow citizen, Obama told Notre Dame’s graduates (his wife, Michelle Obama, addressing graduates at the University of California at Merced, said the same thing). Self-sacrifice, the Obama presidency’s essential principle, is the opposite of what made America great. This nation’s greatness lies in its founding principle that each individual has the right to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness. The moral premise of individual rights is: selfishness. Telling young college graduates as they embark on a career that they exist for the sake of others (Mrs. Obama’s wicked guilt trip has to be heard to be believed) is explicitly anti-American. It is also inherently religious. Obama’s Judeo-Christian opponents, take note: Barack Obama is one of yours.