by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
NRO’s\u00a0The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n I\u00a0don\u2019t know whether this was the intent or not, but Obama\u2019s weird trip to Latin America \u2014 characterized by constant anti-American outbursts from heads of state eager to blame their own failures on Yanquis \u2014 probably killed any notion that any sane American would support either further free-trade agreements or “comprehensive immigration reform” with a continent that seems to blame all of its self-inflicted troubles on what the United States supposedly did last century.<\/p>\n What is strange about the now well-known Obama three-step visits (apologize, then trash Bush, then nod that America was bad before he came along), is that they seem to incite more anti-American choruses rather than fewer, incur more bad will than good, and end with not a single accomplishment, much less concession. (Ortega\u00a0et. al.<\/em>, as the bullies they are, seemed madder at Obama that he was letting up on Cuba than they were with Bush, who wouldn’t). Does Obama think that the American people really want to hear their country ritually trashed from those anti-democrats \u2014 who are, at the same time, jostling to keep our borders open to ensure more dollar remittances and more sanctuary for their own fleeing citizens?<\/p>\n These Victory Column-like foreign campaign stops are now getting stale, and at some point I think Emanuel and Axelrod will see that these magical mystery tours have the potential, in their scripted regularity, to really turn off the American people \u2014 and convince bad players abroad that it is about time to test the waters.<\/p>\n Multiculturalism Trumps Morality<\/strong><\/p>\n The great threat to global morality, to paraphrase Aristotle, is the notion that you can be moral in your sleep \u2014 that by condoning any and all, under the guise of tolerance of the other, you are ethical rather than amoral. Take the bankrupt U.N. secretary general Ban Ki Moon, who in Geneva sanctions the uber-racist Ahmadinejad even as he preaches tolerance from his U.N. soapbox. \u201cI fear that today\u2019s economic crisis, if not handled properly, could evolve into a full-scale political crisis marked by social unrest, weakened governments, and angry publics who have lost faith in their leaders and their own future,\u201d Mr. Ban said. Thus he cowardly ignores the concrete moral felony in front of him as he cheaply and easily goes after a putative moral transgression in the abstract.<\/p>\n We have forgotten that the clich\u00e9s that have been so loudly on display during the recent Obama global tours \u2014 such as \u201ctolerance\u201d (for what?), \u201cmultilateralism,\u201d \u201cpartnerships,\u201d etc. \u2014 while often therapeutic, avoid the harder and often tragic choice to stand up to the glad-handing multicultural thug who wants a photo-op with an American president, who in turn wants a photo-op emphasizing how well he is liked abroad and resonates with the global masses \u2014 all at the expense of the poor soul thrown into a Cuban jail, or beaten up by the Ch\u00e1vez goon squads, or slaughtered by the Ahmadinejad religious police, or shut down and hounded by the Ortega thugocracy. When all \u201cpaths\u201d are equal, there are none better or worse than the others \u2014 and we really are on the road to perdition.<\/p>\n \u00a92009 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s\u00a0The Corner I\u00a0don\u2019t know whether this was the intent or not, but Obama\u2019s weird trip to Latin America \u2014 characterized by constant anti-American outbursts from heads of state eager to blame their own failures on Yanquis \u2014 probably killed any notion that any sane American would support either further free-trade agreements […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[722],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-JC","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2945,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/an-impulsive-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":0},"title":"An ‘Impulsive’ America?","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services President Barack Obama's first TV interview was with the Dubai-based, partly Saudi-funded Al Arabiya satellite channel. In passing, he faulted past American policy for too readily \"dictating\" in the Middle East. He had better things to say about Saudi King Abdullah's \"courage\" in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "February 2009"","block_context":{"text":"February 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/february-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4571,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-do-they-hate-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":1},"title":"Why Do They Hate Us?","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 16, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson A shorter version of this review appears in the current issue of\u00a0National Review. Understanding Anti-Americanism: Its Origins and Impact at Home and Abroad.\u00a0by Paul Hollander, editor (Ivan R. Dee, 388 $28.95) Hating America is not new. Nor does it have much to do with the unpopularity\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3286,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/americas-nervous-breakdown-and-the-worlds\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":2},"title":"America’s Nervous Breakdown–and The World’s","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Ancient thinkers from Thucydides to Cicero insisted that money was the real source of military power and national influence. We've been reminded of that classical wisdom these last three weeks. In a manner not seen since the Great Depression, Wall Street went into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "October 2008"","block_context":{"text":"October 2008","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2008\/october-2008\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3621,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/is-the-sky-falling-on-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":3},"title":"Is the Sky Falling on America?","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The suicide-murders and roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan sicken Americans. Soon-to-be nuclear Iran seems loonier than nuclear North Korea. American debt keeps piling up in China and Japan. And we think of angry Venezuela, the Middle East and Russia every time we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "May 2007"","block_context":{"text":"May 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/may-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1930,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-empty-apologetics\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":4},"title":"Obama’s Empty Apologetics","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online At any time in the 2,500-year history of Western diplomacy, has a head of state been advised by his host not to apologize for a long-ago act? I cannot think offhand\u00a0of any instance until, apparently, two years ago. According to a controversial leak\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Diplomacy"","block_context":{"text":"Diplomacy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/geopolitics\/diplomacy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8383,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-westernized-anti-westerner\/","url_meta":{"origin":2828,"position":5},"title":"The Westernized Anti-Westerner","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"What accounts for hatred of the West by people who voluntarily spent years here? by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online One of the stranger things about East\u2013West relations these days is the schizophrenic attraction to, and hatred of, Western culture that characterizes many foreign leaders and celebrities. 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