A Tale Of Two Presidents: One An Audacious Hypocrite; The Other A Shameless Sellout — In Short, A Pair Of Real Phonies
A Tale Of Two Presidents: One An Audacious Hypocrite; The Other A Shameless Sellout — In Short, A Pair Of Real Phonies
By
Ken Eliasberg
While I have no wish to belabor the recent offerings of Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderon, I find them so outrageous as to be worthy of additional discussion. First of all, since when do presidents of other countries — any other countries — come into our country and be given an open forum to attack a U.S. policy, even if it be a policy by default, i.e. a States’s legislative effort, the result of the federal government’s refusal to act. And, since when does a president of the U.S. take the foreign president’s side against one of his own states. Since when? Since Barack Obama assumed the presidency of these United States, a circumstance that we shall regret for decades to come (as we lapse into banana Republic status).
While Calderon’s conduct was a breach of protocol that is so far beyond the pale of geopolitical diplomacy as to be almost incomprehensible, it is all the more amazing for coming from this particular president and his particular country. Why? Let us count the ways.
First of all, Calderon presides (in a fashion) over one of the most, if not the most, corrupt countries in the world.
Second, Mexico is well beyond the routine corruption typically associated with a kleptocracy; it is a narco state. That is, at any given moment, it is questionable whether the government or the narco gangsters actually preside over the country. With the passage of time, it is beginning to look more and more like Columbia during the period when the drug cartels were warring over who actually controlled the country.
Third, the reason we have an illegal alien problem is that Mexico, a country possessed of rich natural resources, has never been stable long enough to create a stable, let alone a vibrant, economy — one that might encourage its citizens to stay home and eke out a living in their country of birth. That is, quite simply, they come across the Rio Grande to make a living because they are unable to do so in the land of their birth.
Fourth, not only do the conditions in Mexico argue for abandoning the country of their birth, but, in addition, they are encouraged to leave and supported when they choose to do so.
Fifth, and an absurdly clear indication of Calderon’s hypocrisy, is the fact that Mexico’s immigration laws are far more draconian than anything done by Arizona. Indeed, I would be quite content if America took the same approach to illegal immigration as that pursued by Mexico. Of course, not only has Obama nor Napolitano read Mexico’s laws on the subject, as oft noted, they lacked the judgment, let alone the courtesy, to read Arizona’s law before criticizing it.
In short, Calderon’s own country has created the conditions which fuel our illegal alien problem, has supported those of its citizens who chose to leave, and then has the unmitigated gall to come into our country and complain of one of our state’s efforts to protect itself from the cost and abuse engendered by his country’s failings. It is much worse than just unmitigated gall; it is unspeakable, and the appropriate thing to do would be to treat Calderon as we should treat illegal aliens — don’t let him in, and if he gets in, throw him out!!! As you may have gathered, I find Calderon’s behavior more than just a breach of geopolitical protocol, I find it reprehensible in the extreme.
However, as despicable as I find Calderon’s behavior, there is something I find even more reprehensible. What might that be? Two things: First, Obama’s providing him with the opportunity to engage in that behavior — twice, first in a statement from the White House and thereafter in a statement to our Congress — and second, in the reaction of Obama and the Congressional Democrats to his presentation. Obama, rather than defend the actions of one of the States over which he is supposed to preside, agreed with Calderon. Can you image any other head of State allowing his country to be so slighted? And, of course, the Congressional Dems gave this ineffectual low life a standing ovation. How low has America fallen!!!
It is bad enough that when our President goes abroad he never misses an opportunity to either apologize for his country, suck up to an enemy while alienating a friend, or jeopardize our national security in some other fashion, but now he has sunk so low as to invite foreigners in to join in his effort to further demonstrate just how unexceptional America really is — and, believe me, a few more years of Obama, and we really will be unexceptional.
By the way, do you know of any other country that has done more good for the world than the U.S.? Do you know of any other president, prime minister, or head of state that has gone around the world apologizing for his country’s misdeeds? Let me help you out here — the answer is no! Actually it’s worse than that. For example, Germany, which provoked 3 major conflagrations over a period of 75 years has not prostrated itself on the alter of public opinion apologizing for those massacres. Japan, which ran through Asia, raping, pillaging, and murdering not only does not apologize for its transgressions, it either denies that anything happened, or that WWII was our fault — i.e. we refused to sell them any more scrap metal so long as they continued on their rampage.And that is their version of history, according to one of the most recent efforts by one of their academics. So what is this apology nonsense all about? As Victor Davis Hanson noted in a recent column at National Review online (5/2710)entitled Our Chief Confessor — Right Now there are quite enough foreign felonies in the world without dwelling on American misdemeanors:
“Obama, however, in response to Calderon, mentioned the growing
of borders themselves. He cited his own worry about the propriety
of an Arizona law that currently receives a 70 percent approval rating among Americans. Even if Obama in the past has remarked that he thinks America is not necessarily an exceptional nation, the president still should side with that want to enforce federal laws rather than foreign nations that seek to circumvent them.”
But I guess that would be asking too much of a president who finds his own country so unexceptional.