“…Did you see that amazing football game this weekend?…”
That’s a question millions of Americans ask each other every week throughout the fall and early winter. Whether you prefer high school, college or the NFL is irrelevant: it is the nation’s unquestioned #1 sport, and everyone knows precisely what is meant upon hearing the question.
And yet: what happens if you ask the same question of an Englishman? Instantaneously, he’ll picture images of a soccer field in a rowdy stadium, with the latest exploits of Manchester United or some other local club replaying in his mind.
We purportedly speak the same language (English), and use the exact same word (“football”). The actual understood meanings of that word, however, are completely different.
And so it is with Barack Obama and “freedom”. Whenever he speaks of it, our president is supposedly speaking the same language as the country he leads, and yet “freedom” to Mr. Obama most certainly doesn’t mean what it does to you and me.
…and it certainly doesn’t mean what our Founders intended, either.
Two Heads are Better Than One 