The brilliant author and journalist Midge Decter coined a line to live by. “You’ve got to join the side you’re on,” she has said. On the anniversary of American independence, all of us, especially our president, would do well to follow her advice.
Decter’s observation, which grew out of her disillusionment with modern liberalism, is relevant in our era of spreading global disorder. History is unfolding in rapid fashion in the volatile Mideast, yet the only consistency in American policy is hesitation, followed by vacillation.
From Afghanistan to Iran to Egypt to Libya to Syria and now back to Egypt again, President Obama has resembled a weather vane. Over and over again, he waits to see which way the wind is blowing, then races to get ahead of the storm.
When it changes direction, he does, too. If he had been top dog in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776, American independence would have died waiting.
The president’s problem is that he can’t decide whose side he’s on. The lack of a perfect social order, as he defines it, leads him into paralysis and dead ends, such as the one in Libya, where aides boasted he was “leading from behind.” When Syria’s butcher crossed Obama’s “red line” by using chemical weapons, the president’s fumbling response was that of a lawyer looking for a loophole.
His belated decision to send small arms to some Syrian rebels means he aims to delay defeat instead of going for victory. It’s a pattern he follows around the globe, even when it involves our troops in Afghanistan. Confused by imperfection and lacking principled clarity about America’s interests, he can’t bring himself to join a side.
Obama is lost because the real world is too messy for his utopian dreams. And his compass is distorted by the need for self-aggrandizement.
The first clear example came in 2009. When brave Iranians took on their thuggish masters, Obama was shamefully silent. His aim was to negotiate a deal with nuke-loving theocrats, and he treated millions of Iranian protesters as so many distractions to his plan. He got no deal and the opposition movement was crushed.
When Egyptians challenged Hosni Mubarak in 2011, Obama made the opposite mistake. Although Mubarak was an ally who had helped keep the peace for 30 years, Obama called for him to leave and sided with demonstrators, despite many warnings that the Muslim Brotherhood would gain the most.
Now, a year later, he’s straddling the fence in Egypt, unsure of whom to back as a possible civil war emerges. It is not a sign of success that both sides accuse us of being with the other.
These issues are not simple. If they were, they would be solved before they got to the president’s desk.
But Obama made a hash of foreign policy because his worldview is so warped and his experience so limited. His starting point, that America needed to apologize for its arrogance, reflects a naivete about history and human nature.
He also picked a lousy time to favor neo-isolationism and a break-the-bank spending spree at home. The result is that our leadership role abroad is being replaced with Islamists, despots and opportunists, none of whom can or want to provide the infrastructure of stability.
American Exceptionalism has been a blessing and a burden on this great nation. From our founding, we recognized ourselves as different, and that belief gradually conferred a special duty to the world.
We now have a president who, more often than not, rejects the very notion of American Exceptionalism. In effect, he has not joined the side he’s on. Unless he embraces America’s unique role, and does it soon, his mistake will become the world’s tragedy.
The pols are scared – and they should be
If Gov. Cuomo needed more incentive to clean up Albany, he’s getting it from the hostile reaction of a top legislator. Before Cuomo named the members of his investigative panel, the Senate GOP leader threatened to return the favor by probing the governor.
“We have an elections committee,” Dean Skelos told a radio interviewer. “We have the opportunity to do the same type of research which the governor is proposing to do.”
My guess is that Cuomo’s not worried, but it sure looks like Skelos is. He should be.
As Cuomo told me last week, he wants to reveal the relationships between campaign contributions and legislators’ official actions.
“It’s going to be a real follow-the-money investigation,” he said. “We want to see who gives you money, the legislation you introduce and your member items.”
Cuomo’s first step was to load his panel with current and former prosecutors. It is bipartisan, and NYPD boss Ray Kelly serves as an adviser.
It is beyond dispute that something is rotten in Albany.
As Cuomo said yesterday in introducing his panel, the corruption has “been worse over the past few months.”
The parade of pols-turned-perps should make people like Skelos embarrassed, so his defiance raises a red flag. He and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver had a chance to pass a package of anti-corruption proposals, but refused.
They left Cuomo little choice: either look like he was part of their cabal, or use the Moreland Act to subpoena campaign and other records.
Cuomo was too patient for too long, but he pledges now he is “as serious as a heart attack” about getting the truth.
Good. Even better that Skelos already is having palpitations.
Hypocrites!
The liberal impulse to enforce speech codes always seemed a case of double standards run amok, but never more so than now. The attacks on food fatty Paula Deen for using the n-word years ago smack of a cultural takedown instead of a concern for racial harmony.
Especially when liberal elites get a pass for their slurs. Bill Maher’s repeated use of vulgar terms to describe women and his calling Sarah Palin’s special-needs child a “retard” don’t keep him from being welcomed to network television. Nor did Alec Baldwin’s “toxic little queen” threat to a British reporter earn him a timeout from corporate sponsors.
Then there are the entertainers — Beyoncé, Usher, Sting, Jennifer Lopez — who sing and dance for murderous despots for a few shillings. When they plead ignorance, all is forgiven.
But let’s face it — Deen’s repeated apologies haven’t helped her because the onslaught isn’t about what she said. It’s about who she is. And that makes her accusers the real bigots.
Mike faces a ‘Chris’-road
Is Mayor Bloomberg ditching Council Speaker Christine Quinn? Bloomy is on the warpath over two pieces of legislation that would handcuff cops, saying they are “life and death issues.” He pledges not to endorse council members who supported either bill.
That would seem to include Quinn, who voted to install an inspector general independent of the police commissioner.
It’s a tough choice for Bloomberg. He clearly favored Quinn to succeed him, but supporting her now would undercut his dire warnings. Even he can’t have it both ways.