Primary Impulses and Secondary Impulses

I read "America Alone" and he describes governments in Europe and mainly Britain that they have place more importance on secondary impulses over primary ones. He explains that primary impulses for a government and for a society are things such as; national defense, family, self-reliance, and reproductive activity. Secondary impulses are and not limited to; government health-care, paternity leave, vacation lengths, pensions and so on.
I would rename the two and call them Needs and Luxuries for a society. Without the Needs there are no luxuries, without luxuries you still have needs.

What do you think are a societies Needs, and once they are met what are a societies Luxuries?


Mark Steyn (who wrote America Alone) goes on to worry that Luxuries if too many can limit and impair the Needs, thereby unstabilizing the society. Something like a snowball effect. Do you see this as the case?

Perhaps this would work if we maybe wrote down what we think are Needs for a society to function and function well. And maybe a little of Luxuries and then go from there.

Need of a leader by Scott

I was reading this article, by Todd Purdum from Vanity Fair, looking for something else, when I came across this paragraph

"Sure, Obama has made his share of mistakes, rookie and otherwise. But don’t count him out—not just yet. For the fault, dear readers, lies not in our stars, nor even in our rock-star president, but in ourselves: in our impatience, our intemperance, our lack of perspective, our susceptibility to the easy untruth and the quick fix. Barack Obama only rarely falls victim to any of these vices, and, with luck, he may yet save us from ourselves."

Is this worship of a governmental leader healthy for a democratic/republic style government?

I have overheard people say things such as, "if congress just got out of Obama's way then he could fix everything." or "it's Nancy and Harry that are messing things up and making Obama look bad, they should just get out of the way."

Is this article and others attacking the very foundation of our government or am I over-reacting?

Here is the article. It is very amazing on how he believes Obama can do no wrong.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/01/purdum-on-obama-201001

Post from Nathan

I would have posted this for open post monday but this will have to due. Its a politically related sort of hypothetical: if we remove the issue of slavery (so that ethical considerations don't play as much of a role here) would you rather live under the USA or the Confederacy?