It is likely, for example, that no president in our history has spoken so seldom of his love for his country. In his case, there can be no disloyalty involved, no treason in whatever deals he might cut with foreign rulers, for the simple reason that, for him, place does not exist. He is not alone, as in other matters, Clinton is but a walking mirror of those who set him in place, an elite as rootless as he. Place for them is at best an oddity, a niche market, a cute touch of nostalgia. The effects of having a vagrant elite of itinerant values are enormous.
Nuclear secrets drift to China.
The right of local and state governments to do their own business is quietly transferred to unelected lawyers meeting in secret in some European city. The president regularly trashes the 10th Amendment. Foreign officers, including at least one general, are allowed command our troops with barely a whisper of public debate. Multinational corporations not only buy our urban downtowns but move into quiet neighborhoods as well. Without place, we no long have a story and without a story we lose our being.