There’s been a lot of speculation about what President Obama meant when he told an Orlando television interviewer that the United States is “a great, great country that had gotten a little soft” over the last two decades. Some critics have compared Obama’s remarks to Jimmy Carter’s 1979 “malaise” speech in which Carter, down in the polls, the economy failing, his prospects for re-election growing dimmer by the day, made a television appearance in which he told Americans they were having a crisis of confidence. Others have argued that Obama’s statement revealed a mix of “condescension, incompetence, and narcissism,” in the words of columnist Charles Krauthammer.

There’s another way to read what the president said. Look at Obama’s speeches in the last couple of months, and he has repeatedly scolded audiences for not working hard enough and for not sacrificing enough to achieve the goals he has set for his administration.  He’s done it with both supporters and with adversaries.  With friends, his message has been: Nobody told you this would be easy, and you’ve got to work harder to enact my agenda.  With adversaries, his message is:  You’ve had it too easy, and you’ve got to make sacrifices to enact my agenda.  Obama’s “gotten a little soft” remark fits into that theme: A soft America is one that is insufficiently willing to work and sacrifice to enact the Obama agenda.