I asked Biden about the surprise applause line in President Obama's State of the Union speech -- "I do not accept second place for the United States of America." Will we hear more on the America-as-No.-1 theme?What followed was a torrent, in red, white and blue.
"From me you're going to hear more," he replied emphatically. "I want to tell you something, because if we cede the ground to those who suggest that -- I don't mean foreigners, I mean domestic critics -- that somehow, we are destined to fulfill (historian Paul) Kennedy's prophecy that we are going to be a great nation that has failed because we lost control of our economy and overextended, then we might as well throw it in now, for God's sake. I mean it's ridiculous."
Combine with VDH, HERE:
Our military is rushing anti-missile batteries to Iran's Arab neighbors in the Gulf in anticipation of new Iranian military escalation.
As in the case of the 2004 Indonesian tsunami, the U.S. both gives the most aid to a devastated Haiti and still seems to receive the most criticism.
China has just warned us not to supply more armaments to Taiwan.
Our Predator drones continue to be the judge, jury and executioner of suspected terrorists in Pakistan.
What's gone wrong with Obama's dream of multilateral cooperation?
For starters, the world's tensions were not caused by, and remain far larger, than George W. Bush -- and thus cannot be so easily solved by his absence.
Obama also has apparently confused what people say with what nations do.
Dionne wants us to believe that all repubs can do is cut taxes and spend military dollars to counter the idea of decline..as opposed to creating a gazillion engineers and scientists forming the ground on which the economy is built, and VDH accurately points out that behind a monstrous economy you need more as well.
But there is no doubt that American supremacy is based on economic might (backing historian Kennedy's thesis), and that the dems believe that economy depends on govt guidance and formation. The republicans believe that the historical model of free markets and free enterprise FORMED economic might ..and the dem respond that against today's China, India, EU and low labor costs, that model is dead.
Sorry but we need a lot of the latter and a little of the former. We depend on the govt to ACCURATELY IDENTIFY which educational and economic items to fortify mightily with tax dollars to support scholarships and tax cuts and grants (hint...DIVERSITY as a mandated outcome does not help, nor IMHO does religiously motivated curtailment of research). We depend on the govt to prevent other govts from unfairly targeting our businesses, and ensuring fair trade is maintained, and finally we depend on the govt to ensure that foreign intimidation and force does not affect the growth of American business.
But the govt cannot create wealth.
It can only make the creation of wealth easier or harder. Creation of real wealth comes from the individual mind, and the individual back, then expanded to many.
LAW OF NATURE.
Read both articles, VERY WELL WORTH IT.
2 comments:
It seems like a growing number of Americans are comfortable with the idea of a weaker, less influential, more inward-looking America. This includes people on the left that want us out of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as some conservatives and libertarians (Ron Paul & PJB types).
Great post, Epa.
I wonder if Obama will ever gaze out at the geopolitical landscape and see what VDH sees. It's as plain as the nose on his face, but Obama seems incapable of recognizing that reality, no matter how many times his efforts at apologizing (and still getting criticized) fail.
For instance, Cuba, Venezuela, and France ALL accused America of "occupying Haiti", under the Obama Presidency.
It's an absolutely absurd accusation, and one that had been leveled at Bush during Indonesia and even Katrina.
Did Obama flinch at all when the French government idiot made that comment? Did that comment give him any pause at all?
Did he begin to recognize the reality that America leads, and gets criticized for it, no matter how nice we are? Did he begin to realize that to our enemies, and even to some of our allies, he is ObamaHitler, just as sure as Bush was BushHitler?
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