When did America Cease to be America?

Matt Yglesias and Jonathan Chait have some fun with Charles Krauthammer’s argument that resistance to Obama’s health care plans is rooted in a certain concept of American exceptionalism. Here’s Dr K:

This spirit of being independent and not wanting to be controlled by the government is something that is intrinsic in America. It’s the essence of America. And it’s what distinguishes Americans who are essentially refugees of the old society in Europe. That’s why it’s always been harder to make Americans break to the yoke of government, as happened in Europe. Look, once you get accustomed to the kind of entitlements you have in Sweden, England, France, elsewhere, it doesn’t get undone. And America is different. It’s resisting the imposition of new yokes. And that’s what’s happening today.

Since I have some sympathy with Frederick Jackson Turner* I’d concede that Krauthammer has half a point. But the frontier closed long ago. Even if you wanted to recast the Cold War as the last leg of the Frontier Thesis (and I think, to some extent, you can do that) we’re still talking about stuff that, as far as the kids are concerned, is ancient history.