And though I’m generally more predisposed to like Obama than most of my more conservative friends, the national service theme which has gradually taken center stage in our new president’s rhetoric leaves my mouth tasting like I’ve been licking batteries. Will Wilkinson’s liveblogging (which I read after the fact, again to avoid being part of some moment) captures that taste just right:

12:22: The troops are awesome, because they “find meaning in something larger than themselves.” So we all need to be like troops in the war on badness. Was that a cellphone? 12:23: Here’s our theme, kids. New Era of Responsibility. Your empty meaningless life can be made whole by your obeisance to collective duty. That was a cellphone.

Not that Obama’s rhetoric is going to generate any new enthusiasm for libertarian ideas. People want to believe in things bigger than themselves, be it God or The Nation. Atheism and libertarianism—it’s the stuff for cranks like me.