The Real Significance Of Obama’s Global Grovel: Yielding To Global Multiculturism And The End Of American Exceptionalism
The Real Significance Of Obama’s Global Grovel: Yielding To Global Multiculturism And The End Of American Exceptionalism
By
Ken Eliasberg
As Obama has groveled — oops, I mean apologized — his way around the world, putting his own country down in his search of greater numbers of acolytes, one might be understandably perplexed re how, if at all, this effort has redounded to the benefit of that country. How has it improved our national security? But how foolish of me, that was never the purpose of this tour. What then was the purpose of this global grovel? To raise Obama up by demonstrating a faux humility, and by minimizing — indeed, denigrating - America’s contribution to the world order. The purpose of all this was to buy back our supposedly lost prestige by demonstrating that America is really just one of the guys. And, if in the past, any of our actions appeared to be haughty or might in any way be construed as to suggest that we thought of ourselves as something special, or that we seemed arrogant, dismissive, and possibly even derisive, then please forgive us. And let me assure you that we are not at all special; we just want to be one of the guys again. So please, on behalf of my country, accept my apologies.
Newsflash — we have never, ever been just one of the guys — we have always been the guy, and the whole world (other than Obama, of course, and his America-hating, left-wing cohorts) knows that to be the case - and acts on it whenever they’re in need. Why is the left so insistent on bringing us down? What threat does American exceptionalism pose to them? And when I say American exceptionalism, I am neither bragging nor being immodest (let alone arrogant). I am merely acknowledging the obvious (admittedly with some pride that might pass for patriotism except, of course, in left-wing circles where loving your country is sinful). To acknowledge our exceptionalism takes nothing away from any other country, and their citizens, of course, are free to disagree with my assessment and are certainly free to view their country with similar pride.
And the notion of American exceptionalism seems to be a bitter pill for many members of the left-wing in this country to swallow. I don’t know why this is — whether it emanates from some exaggerated idea of humility or just cuts across their grain — but this I do know — their failure to do so is making us into a house so divided that we shall not be able to withstand a serious assault on our independence. And, until they can come to grips with this reality, we are very much at risk of losing our country. As Charles Murray, an American Enterprise scholar put it in an exceptional column in The American (The Journal of the American Enterprise
Institute) onMarch 16, 2009 entitled, The Europe Syndrome and the Challenge to American Exceptionalism:
What it comes down to is that America’s elites must once again fall in
love again with what makes America different. I am not being theoretical. The possibility that irreversible damage will be done to the American
project over the next fewyears is real. The drift toward the European
model can be slowed by piecemeal victories on specific items of
legislation, but only slowed. It is going to be stopped only when we are
all talking again about why America is exceptional, and why it is so important that America remain exceptional. That requires once again
seeing the American project for what it is: a different way for people to
live together, unique among the nations of the earth, and immeasurably precious.
Another worthwhile column that further elaborates on the concept of American exceptionalism can be found in the July 1st online issue of the Washington Times by Monica Crowley entitled just that — American exceptionalism
And, along these lines, a subject that does interest me, and that I wish to take a brief look at here (and a much deeper look at later) is America bashing by the left — as reflected in the constant (as well as erroneous and irrelevant) nattering about the damage that Bush has done to America’s good standing in the world community. Other than the frequent assertion that this is the case — made frequently by our lefties in this paper as well — what is the evidence for the reality of this assertion? Is there any evidence that we were once well liked and that Bush substantially changed this reality? I assure you that there is none. For as long as I can remember, there were many in the world who had issues with us - typically surrounding their dependence on us — but few who, when push came to shove, were willing to cut the umbilical cord that connected them to us. And none ever disliked this country as much as our own America-hating left, whose sole effort seems to be to constantly throw fuel on this mythological fire. We’ll deal with the reality of this assertion down the road; for present purposes let’s deal with a couple of auxiliary questions:
Who cares whether the actions of our President result in our being
disliked if those actions are in the best interests of America, and
Isn’t it about time that we stopped obsessing about our popularity, and were reminded that life is about doing the right thing, which may not always be the popular thing.
On both scores Bush was right. He kept us safe for 8 years, a fact which the left either chooses to disregard or minimize, and he did so with no apparent intent or inclination to do violence to our relations with our friends. Some may disagree with our Iraqi intervention (and they would be wrong for reasons that I have demonstrated at great length in previous columns and will briefly revisit in the future in a vain effort to puncture the left-wing anti-war balloon), but no one can demonstrate that there was anything dishonest about his effort in this regard (misguided, perhaps, but dishonest — absolutely not). An effort that not only put a backbone in the endless (and spineless) resolutions of the U.N., but rid a country and the world of a brutal dictator who menaced his people and the region for years.
For a final word on the “popularity” theme, I strongly recommend an interesting, insightful, and amusing column by Bruce Thornton (a genuine scholar, who actually knows what he’s talking about) entitled The World Likes Us, It Really Likes Us!, which appeared in frontpagemag.com on 4/22/09, and which quite obviously plays off Sally Field’s acceptance speech at the 1985 Academy Awards. Thornton is a very bright guy and really demolishes this line of Bush bashing.
Just for the record, and in conclusion — America is not just one of the guys, never has been, and never will be. We are quite simply the guy, and the only guy that the world turns to when they need bailing out (or a scape goat when they don’t), and this has been the case almost from our inception and certainly for as far back as I can remember (which is a helluva lot further back than the Presidency of George W. Bush). And that’s not just my opinion, that’s the ways it is — check it out!! (to be continued).