Via Ace, a holiday-themed gloss on Daniel Henninger’s point that “More and more, Mr. Obama’s speeches reflect the progressives’ impatience with politics of any sort and their preference for policy by imposition.” He’s presenting this as a plea to Congress to work with him on infrastructure spending, not (for once) as a threat to act unilaterally if they don’t do what he says, but if you’re framing your preferred outcome as the “patriotic” option then you’re probably not too invested in compromising with the other side. (Right, Patriot Act critics?)

“[W]e can make even more progress if Congress is willing to work with my administration and to set politics aside, at least occasionally, which I know is what the American people are urgently looking for,” Obama said Thursday at 1776. “It’s a sort of economic patriotism where you say to yourself, how is it that we can start rebuilding this country to make sure that all of the young people who are here but their kids and their grandkids are going to be able to enjoy the same incredible opportunities that this country offers as we have. That’s our job. That’s what we should be focused on. And it’s worth remembering as we go into Independence Day.” House Speaker John Boehner’s office has pointed out that the Republicans are doing things — 40 things, currently pending in the Senate — they just aren’t passing the bills that Obama wants.

He didn’t get into detail but I’m going to guess that “economic patriotism” involves plenty of deficit spending and lots of unsustainable unfunded liabilities. Actually, I don’t have to guess: You may not remember but this isn’t the first time he’s used this term. It popped up towards the end of Campaign 2012, replete with a two-minute TV ad on the subject and a 20-page booklet with “economic patriotism” in the title. He’s mostly laid off since then — maybe even The One finds this phrase a tad too clumsily Orwellian for his liking — but now that we’re four months out from an election his party’s expected to lose badly, it’s kitchen-sink time again.

Via RCP, here he is warning that if the GOP doesn’t move left, i.e. embrace economic patriotism, they’ll never win the presidency again. Exit question: I’m afraid to ask, but I’ll ask anyway. How would he define “immigration patriotism”?

immigration patriotism