Thanks to Reason for putting into words something I’ve struggled to express for some time:
The popularization of Derridaian post-modernism since the 1990s has generally been a lot of fun, turning mainstream Americans into sharp observers of signs and meaning who are sure that either there’s nothing outside the text or everything is outside the text or both.
But at some point it helps to look at that thing above the subtext, which is generally known as “the text.”
Up to this point the presidential election has been Obama vs. Obama Junior.
With “You didn’t build that,” which his campaign has made no effort to clarify or redirect, the president has drawn a line in the sand.
There is no nebulousness here.
