So Obama didn't mention God on thanksgiving

Doesn't surprise me.  In an age where hip enlightened post-moderns are fighting the good fight for more easy access to pornographic imagery and more F-Bombs on network television, the same are making it clear there are a growing number of other things that shall not be mentioned in public.  It used to be Jesus Christ by name.  In recent years, the very reference to the Almighty it becoming suspect. 

But that's not what caught my eye.  Obama is merely pandering to the part of the electorate that represents his base.  What caught me was this:

“The ability to spend time with the ones we love; to say what we want; to worship as we please"

Now anyone who is anyone knows that little catchphrase was a popular sleight of hand in the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It was a way to say they certainly ensured the freedom of worship, as long as it was behind closed doors and didn't bring one into conflict with the State. Freedom of religion and its free exercise, however, was hell and gone from the USSR.  Rather, a person of devout religious beliefs in the USSR was often treated as we treated Blacks in the old south before the days of desegregation.  

In my Graduate days, I met a group of students from the former Soviet Union.  Thinking about listening to them explain just how harshly people of traditional faith were treated, the formal mocking and derision that came down at them from official sources of Soviet life, can't help but give me pause.  As I've pointed out before, especially since the HHS mandate, I've heard many progressives preferring the term 'freedom of worship' rather than the traditionally American phrase 'freedom of religion.'  If the lessons from history have anything to say about it, I just can't believe it's a coincidence.  Those who value freedoms of all sorts, especially the traditional freedom of things like peaceful assembly, speech and religion (as opposed to sexual expression, abortion and pornography) should probably take note.

UPDATE:

So I posted a similar lament over at Google News Service.  Google?  I know, but it's the default news page I can quickly access.  I usually go from there.  But I put a little post suggesting the same thing as above, and the first two responses came back like this:

"America became more of the Soviet Union over time. Many right (wrong!) posters utter the same things that the Commies did. Anti-Unions (something the commies do not allow), telling everyone that the US was founded on Jesus (commies, their foundation based on man-made gods, too. Lenin, Marx, Mao), singing patriotic songs to the motherland (yup! Commies made this compulsive, too). Ironic how the GOP seems to be so much like the Soviets"

And:

"bringing up the USSR, way to stay up on current events....."

Figure what the first was trying to say and I'll give you a dollar.  But the second one caught my eye.  Nothing like mocking an appeal to history to avoid potential problems for the future (which was sort of the reason education was always considered important).  Why do I get the feeling that this level of insight we see across the Internet is just the type of profound thinking that those who yearn for tyranny crave?