Return of the Reluctant Hero

George Washington established the role for the American political stage and we've seen it reprised countless times in film, mostly Westerns, always to great satisfaction.  You know, a band of bad guys terrorizes the town and the only fellow who can do something about it would rather not.  Finally, the bad guys go too far and the good guy's sense of duty overcomes his desire to otherwise be left alone, a desire, importantly, that informs and nourishes that same sense of duty.  Anyway, he rises up in righteous anger, rids the town of the vermin, and then, true to character, rides off into the sunset determined to be left alone again.

P.J. O'Rourke, in a way only he can, reminds us that this is who we really are, that this represents, always, the very best in us.