On the campaign trail, Barack Obama promised that he would “reboot America’s image” around the world. Indeed, many Americans who voted for Obama believed that his global popularity would somehow reverse the tide of anti-Americanism that so vexed his predecessor. Echoing this sentiment of Obama as savior of America’s image abroad, presidential advisor David Axelrod recently asserted that “anti-Americanism isn’t cool anymore.”
In Europe, where anti-Americanism was elevated to the status of a religion during the presidency of George W. Bush, the “chattering classes” have, by and large, toned down their criticism of the United States since Obama was elected. In general, European media coverage of Obama has been quite favorable and the vehemence of the anti-American rhetoric has been notably more muted than in recent years. But now, five months into the age of Obama, the highly vaunted transatlantic honeymoon may be coming to an end. During the past several weeks, European media have started publishing stories that criticize Obama and once again cast the United States in a negative light. Could this be a harbinger of things to come?
The linked article goes on to note the increasing stream of anti-Obama and/or anti-American articles pouring out of the European MSM – some of these articles I’ve seen, and what I catch from them is a sense of betrayal: the EU-niks were hoping, I guess, that Obama would immediately make us just like them and, perhaps, haul President Bush before a war crimes tribunal. Of course, we here at home view Obama increasingly as an Euro-weenie trying to out yellow-belly the most cowardly people in the world – but for the Europeans, its always been a choice: deal with Europe’s glaring failures, or condemn the United States for errors real and imagined. Almost invariably, the choice has come down to condemning the United States.
And, once again, it is because of what we are, not what we do. Obama is doing plenty to please even the most kooky Euro-leftist, and its not enough….because America is still America: still more powerful than any other nation, still richer than any other nation, still more dynamic than any other nation, still more free than any other nation. Deep in their heart of hearts, I think, they realize that we’ll transcend Obamunism in the by and by and we’ll once more be surging ahead while Europe tries to balance the need for workers with the worry about eventual Islamist beheadings. They really, really want to be on top of the world, and they can’t stand the fact that they’re not, and never will be. This resentment is now being turned on Obama.
All of this just illustrates that America can never set its policy based upon concern for what people think of us. It really doesn’t matter what we do – those who are enslaved to lies will hate us, come what may. Much better, than, to just do the right thing and realize that in the long run, these chatterers will be forgotten while the man who did the right thing will live on in memory for ages to come.
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