« Rasmussen: Voters Trust Republicans More On 10 Top Issues | Main | Harry Reid just held a press conference, and .... »
October 26, 2009
Krauthammer's take on New Liberalism's strategic retreat under Obama
Topics: Political News and commentariesCharles Krauthammer reminds America that decline is not a condition, it is a choice, and facing the choice of whether to maintain our dominance or to gradually, deliberately, willingly and indeed relievedly give it up, we are currently on a course toward the latter:
For the New Liberalism, it is not just that power corrupts. It is that America itself is corrupt -- in the sense of being deeply flawed, and with the history to prove it. And because we remain so imperfect a nation, we are in no position to dictate our professed values to others around the world.What remains to be seen is if America will choose continued decline over maintaining our dominance and prosperity. That choice will be manifested through the election process, with the first test being in 2010, and ultimately in 2012. Our take home question is how long Americans are going to tolerate the Obama era's choosing for America to decline.Demonstrators are shot in the streets of Tehran seeking nothing but freedom, but our president holds his tongue because, he says openly, of our own alleged transgressions towards Iran (presumably involvement in the 1953 coup). Our shortcomings are so grave, and our offenses both domestic and international so serious, that we lack the moral ground on which to justify hegemony.
These fundamental tenets of the New Liberalism are not just theory. They have strategic consequences. Thus, for example, there is no more "Global War on Terror." It's not just that the term has been abolished or that the secretary of homeland security refers to terrorism as "man-caused disasters." It is that the very idea of our nation and civilization being engaged in a global mortal struggle with jihadism has been retired as well.
This deliberate choice of strategic retreats to engender good feeling is based on the naive hope of exchanges of reciprocal goodwill with rogue states. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the theory -- as policy -- has demonstrably produced no strategic advances. But that will not deter the New Liberalism because the ultimate purpose of its foreign policy is to make America less hegemonic, less arrogant, less dominant.
In a word, it is a foreign policy designed to produce American decline -- to make America essentially one nation among many. (More)
Posted by Richard at October 26, 2009 10:22 AM
Articles Related to Political News and commentaries:
