Next week on November 9, many European nations — many across the world will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Its symbolism of tyranny far outstripped its utility as a barrier — and it was a formidable barrier to freedom. And so the world will mark the occasion of its fall and the resulting freedom and in many cases freedom’s attendant chaos and turmoil. One leader — representing the one nation who had the most to do with the Wall’s dismantling — will be AWOL from this celebration. You see, the One’s schedule is too busy. He’s too busy limiting our freedom to celebrate the loosening of the restraints from Easter Europe. He’s too busy selling out our Eastern European friends to their Russian antagonists under the guise of “smarter” missile defense. Rich Lowry has the break down at Real Clear Politics…:
Obama famously made a speech in Berlin during last year’s campaign, but at an event devoted to celebrating himself as the apotheosis of world hopefulness. He said of 1989, “a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.”
The line was typical Obama verbal soufflé, soaring but vulnerable to collapse upon the slightest jostling from logic or historical fact. The wall came down only after the free world resolutely stood against the Communist bloc. Rather than a warm-and-fuzzy exercise in global understanding, the Cold War was another iteration of the 20th century’s long war between totalitarianism and Western liberalism. The West prevailed on the back of American strength.
But Obama doesn’t think in such antiquated, triumphalist terms. Given to apologizing for his nation abroad, he resolutely downplays American leadership. “President Obama is applying the same tools to international diplomacy that he used as a community organizer on Chicago’s South Side,” the Washington Post notes, approaching “the world as a community of nations, more alike than different in outlook and interest.” To the extent that the Cold War doesn’t fit this unbelievably naïve worldview, it’s an intellectual inconvenience.
Wouldn’t Obama at least want to take the occasion to celebrate freedom and human rights – those most cherished liberal values? Not necessarily. He has mostly jettisoned them as foreign-policy goals in favor of a misbegotten realism that soft-pedals the crimes of nasty regimes around the world. During the Cold War, we undermined our enemies by shining a bright light on their repression. In Berlin, JFK called out the Communists on their “offense against humanity.” Obama would utter such a phrase only with the greatest trepidation, lest it undermine a future opportunity for dialogue.
Think about that for a moment. Lowry’s right… “the world”? To hell with that. It was Ronald Reagan and the U.S., Maggie Thatcher and the British, the Vatican — specifically Pope John Paul II. Much of the world came under Soviet sway involuntarily. Many other countries voluntarily aligned themselves with the Soviets. Others kept their powder dry trying to maintain the appearance of “non-alignment”. This is a moment that deserves celebration and more specifically — a moment we should accept the gratitude of our Eastern European friends. We deserve it — even if our current President thinks us nothing special.
I bet this guy’s going:
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If BO had been president in ’89 he would have allowed the wall to stay up in hopes of receiving some kind of favorable concession from East Germany sometime in the future. The fall of the Berlin Wall simply holds no significance for BO. In his mind East Germany was not an oppressive regime flawed in its very nature, just an example of statism gone wrong. That is the problem with all the progressives, totalitarian regimes are not examples of bad forms of government, just examples of bad leaders using their power incorrectly. BO thinks if he had that same power, he would use it in a wise and benevolent way. These people are blinded by their own self-importance.
An excellent analysis of the progressive movement Blackhawk. There is no right or wrong, simply misunderstandings and people who need to be educated by the enlightened. It’s a cult of egotism.
Just keep Roger Waters the hell away from there. That’s right, I said it. What, this isn’t the “Things I Don’t Get” thread…?
If things continue on the present course, future generations of school children will be taught that it was Obama who brought down the Berlin Wall, through the force of personal diplomacy.
What a bunch of shit. The progressives core values look further beyond what is good for “me” and look to what is good, period. Nobody supports totalitarian regimes. If you read any of BO’s books you would know that he respects and loves democracy and the constitution. You might have been lucky enough to have him teach you about it someday as an aspiring lawyer. Progressives don’t believe these are just bad leaders gone astray. We accept the notion that looking out for your fellow man is part of being a “good” person. In that same line of thought, a governmental system that looks out for your fellow man can be “good,” when kept in check. No one wants government running their lives, but relies on the government to make sure the playing field is level by electing representatives who support their positions. BO believes in checks and balances, so no one person (not even himself) can wield the power in a vacuum. Your simplistic view of progressives is equivalent to me saying conservatives are ignorant, backward simpletons. Be careful as you lump people into categories so you can disregard the merit of their points. This country was founded on a progressive principle at the time called democracy.
“Watch their hips, not their lips.”
I prefer to base my judgments not on what people say, but rather what they do. Sure BO says great things about the Constitution, but his actions don’t reconcile with those things. He talks about the free market and capitalism while he does everything in his power to make sure that he has ultimate control over the market, which is inconsistent with a true free market system. BO and his cronies think that capitalism is like fire, it has its uses, but it must be heavily controlled by people who know better (e.g., gov’t bureaucrats who have no free market experience).
This is a joke. The free market and capitalism are not dangerous forces that need constant oversight. They are simply scales, they tell us what people will pay for a given product at a given time. Both the Republicans and the Democrats have destroyed core concepts of the free market by forcing oppressive regulations and granting bailouts to plutocratic corporations who use their power to loot our economy and then buy off the government in exchange for a steady stream of middle-class funded subsidies, meanwhile the money men like Soros pull the strings behind the scene.
I hope the leftists in the Obama administration are happy, they are going to end up making a bunch of rich men richer.
You know, it’s interesting to me that everyone keeps associating this event with “The Wall” by Pink Floyd, which has NOTHING to do with the Berlin Wall, and no one ever mentions “Heroes” by David Bowie, which expressly mentions it.
Dude?! Like, Bowie’s gay.
Because Mr. Waters crassly used the crumblin’ down of the Berlin Wall as a chance to bring a bloated production of his “seminal” work to the locale, in the flesh so to speak, I mention it sarcastically, R3. Sorry, should have mentioned that.
If need be, cue the Scorps.
[As Blackhawk stands over BarryO's limp and lifeless body]
“Now stay down bitch!”
No shit. Great beat-down, blackhawk!!!
Thanks, but really, knocking down BarryO’s talking points and pseudo-philo-bullsh*t abstractions is like picking on a blind kid. It may be fun, but you feel like a big douche afterwards.
Hey, blind kids can scrap. Haven’t you seen any old martial arts movies with blind ninjas? It’s more like picking on a hippy. Hippies are useless and their only real defense is their offensive body odor or incessant rambling about why pot should be legal and why we should all drive hybrids.
@ Rufus: No, he’s not gay anymore. He got better.
@ Eric: Actually, The Wall is a great piece of prog rock, it’s just all about internal isolation, and has nothing to do with anything even remotely political. Well, I guess it does have a bit to do with the politics of WWII, but, you know, too late to do anything to change Churchill’s way’s now, isn’t it?
I’m actually more of a fan of The Wall than I’ll begrudgingly admit, R3. It’s got some great stuff for sure, but like any double-album that isn’t Exile on Main Street, Sign ‘o’ the Time, or London Calling, it’s just too ponderous for me. Do like the movie, though, so go figure.
Fair enough. I’m actually having a hard time thinking of another double album that I like right now that isn’t a compilation. But of course I just got back from band practice, and I’m rather fazzled.