Monday, November 23, 2009

Obama The Well-Beloved

The President of the United States is widely loved throughout the world. Conservatives, I among them, have constantly harped about how Obama is destroying America's prestige overseas. Yet the headlines and the Democrat/Liberal mainstream media constantly point out that this can't be true, because the whole world loves him.

It's easy to love a hapless, powerless, fawning and drooling lap dog, but that doesn't mean you respect it. Kids love their stuffed toys, but they're not likely to expect to get real life lessons from them. And you can love Frosty the Snowman, but you had better not rely on him to save you when the jihadists decide it's your turn.

Our European allies love Obama because he makes them look strong while at the same time enabling them to make back room deals with the Islamists, undermine Israel, soothe the radical Muslim breast within their own borders, and placate the not-so-lovable Vladimir Putin. The Middle East dictatorships love him because he's so easily fooled and manipulated into putting his "we'll greet you with an open hand if you'll unclench your fist" plan into action. They just unclench their fists and reach for their swords. And the dictators of the "reformed" communist dictatorships love him because he caves into their demands faster than you can say "workers of the world, arise."

They love him because they have never before been afforded the opportunity to deal with such a spineless, self-centered, over-indulged, ill-prepared overgrown child as the alleged leader of the free world. They know with a leader like that, the free world won't remain free much longer. And they share his views of government. In whatever form, the elite must govern for the benefit of the ignorant masses. They're used to dealing with "cowboys (Reagan, Johnson, and Bush)," masters of deceptive craft (Nixon, Clinton), former generals (Eisenhower), tough haberdashers from Missouri (Truman), confused but still patriotic executives (Carter, at least back then), and one other callow youth who learned quickly (Kennedy). All of them loved America, and not one of them ever made a world trip to denounce their own country to foreigners on foreign soil.

But Obama is a new thing under the sun for them all. This is the first president to greet overseas leaders while apologizing for everything America has done wrong since its very foundation. He is the first president to announce that he knows how arrogant America has been, and he will now undo all that damage. He is the first president in history to travel nearly the entire world acting as if his sole mission was to reduce America to a second-rate member of some nebulous world community. He is the first president to meet foreign diplomatic demands as more important than America's own interests. He is the first president to bow deeply to foreign potentates, while giving the Queen of England nothing more than a cheap gift (no bow).

So the liberals are right, aren't they? He's wildly popular and loved worldwide, and we should be thrilled. Except new age touchy-feely political beliefs, fostered in the silly Sixties (all you need is love; give peace a chance) misunderstand a simple concept. Love without respect is a wasted emotion. It's frivolous, it's mindless, and it almost always leads to disaster. It creates blindness to our enemies' plans and toward our allies' fatal weaknesses. Kumbaya, here, have a dirty nuke for New York.

Obama, for cheap and obvious reasons, tends to confine his love message to contrasting himself with George W. Bush, his immediate predecessor. And the world buys it. "Bush alienated our allies, they say." What they really mean is "Bush wasn't weak enough, and he had a bad habit of ticking off our enemies causing them to hate us." But it is Obama who has slit the throats of the Poles and Czechs with his cave-in to Moscow, and even in Afghanistan is actively undermining our unfortunate but sole ally, Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Who is alienating our allies?

Obama was too busy bowing to the Japanese emperor and probably the Chinese chairman to be bothered to go to Germany to celebrate the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the death of communist hegemony in Eastern Europe. He was too busy bowing to the Saudi king to bother noticing that Iran is planning to obliterate our ally Israel. But he did send a nice note to the Iranian mullahs. Who is alienating our allies?

Obama has rejected the very idea of free-trade talks with South Korea and Colombia. A firm Central American friend constitutionally ejects a potential dictator, and Honduras is suddenly a target of the Obama administration which doesn't even understand its own Constitution. And Queen Liz has to content herself with cheap CDs that don't work in Britain and a pat on the back from Michelle Obama. But at least they got the Winston Churchill bust back. Who is alienating our allies?

Simply put, the more pro-American any nation is, the more neglected and demeaned it will be treated by Obama. And the more vicious and determined a nation is to destroy or completely weaken America, the more positive attention it will get from this weak, confused, and backbone-deficient president. So those who used to count on America to clean up their messes publicly love Obama, lest the predators take revenge on them. And the dictators love him because the last impediment to their lust for power and mass murder is quickly being removed. But nobody who has the least sense of self-survival respects him.

This is not a group of therapy-obsessed individuals we are dealing with. These are nations, with national needs and national interests of their own. So long as America was willing to bear the burden of defending the world from dictators and terrorists, the world was satisfied to publicly dislike the American presidents while secretly thanking God they existed. No more. The surrender-at-all-costs left loves Obama (anybody remember "better red than dead?"). Those who were willing to support previous American presidents reluctantly now profess great love for the great peacemaker ("Gosh, he's even better than Neville Chamberlain").

Machiavelli posed the great question for princes: Is it better to be loved or feared? It was never the only choice. In the modern world, the best answer would be "it is best to be loved and respected." But Obama will never understand that if "loved and respected" doesn't work, then forget the love, earn the respect of your allies and the fear you instill in your enemies. I suspect this hapless child will not learn those lessons.

13 comments:

StanH said...

Blithering Barry, cares not about being respected, he cares only about being liked. This makes him a fool, someone when he turns his back, people will laugh. This is a classic schoolboy lesson that Barry has not learned, “you can’t be friends with everyone, and you shouldn’t try.” This doesn’t mean that you should be a jerk, but be selective, your true friends will rise up by their actions, not by what they say. Barry’s development as an adult, has been stunted. Developmentally he’s stuck in the schoolyard, wanting all the kids to like him, and all this will get him is a good ass kicking, and God help us he’s the President. So by extension, not only will Barry get a bloody nose, but so will America.

Writer X said...

Love the cartoon today, LawHawk. Very appropriate. Like a toy or a stuffed animal, my guess is that the currently fawning nations will soon tire of the bumbling Barry, too. In the meantime, there will be pain.

Tennessee Jed said...

"Love without respect is a wasted emotion." One of the greatest blog post lines . . . ever!

AndrewPrice said...

I agree with Writer X, nice cartoon -- very funny.

I think you're right that his policy of being loved cannot lead to respect, in fact, the opposite.

Right now he is building up problems.

Unknown said...

StanH: The sad part is that I think Obama does want to be respected, but doesn't have a clue how to earn it. Earning respect is a messy, difficult thing. And he just wants it to be handed to him because of the magnificence of his keen mind and noble bearing. Aw, hooey!

Unknown said...

WriterX: So true. So they all love him, or pretend to love him, and make their plans knowing they can no longer count on the United States.

Unknown said...

Tennessee: Thanks. I'm pretty sure it was my mom who gave me that word of advice.

Unknown said...

Andrew: The lesson Obama needs to learn is that the toughest kid on the block is rarely loved, no matter how much he might like to be. Sometimes power, even the benign and protective kind meant for the good of all, simply brings resentment. Surrendering leadership won't bring love, but it will lose respect.

I think another old saying also applies here. "Familiarity breeds contempt."

HamiltonsGhost said...

Lawhawk--The word "love" in English has multiple meanings which can be misused and abused. The Greeks were smart enough to have several different words for love, depending on which emotion they specifically wished to express. I am now looking through my Greek dictionary for the word to say "I would love to see Obama resign and go back to preaching at Chicago's Cabrini Greens."

Unknown said...

HamiltonsGhost: Well said. Obama is making "love" to an unwilling public, and there's quite another word for that.

Game Master Rob Adams said...

The bowing to everyone has been called 'showing respect'. It makes me sick.

Unknown said...

ArmChair: Like so many things, Obama doesn't get it. A bow is a sign of fealty, not respect. Americans don't bow. A gentleman's bend at the waist is the closest thing our democratic society allows, and that is indeed a sign of respect--much like a salute. A nod of the head is also acceptable. But a bow is the acknowledgment of an inferior to a superior. Obama is a very inferior person, but it's unseemly for a president of the United States.

CrispyRice said...

LOVE the cartoon, too!! So very appropriate.

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