The Leader of the Free World

posted at 1:41 pm on September 24, 2009 by Doctor Zero
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The leader of the free world spoke before an international assembly yesterday, and said:

We believe in the rights and the responsibilities and the inherent dignity of the individual…. We don’t believe that human nature is perfectible; we’re suspicious of government efforts to fix problems because often what it’s trying to fix is human nature, and that is impossible. It is what it is. But that doesn’t mean that we’re resigned to, well, any negative destiny. Not at all. I believe in striving for the ideal, but in realistic confines of human nature…

[We’re] not going to impose our values on other countries. We don’t seek to do that. But the ideas of freedom and liberty and respect for human rights, it’s not just a U.S. idea. They’re very much more than that. They’re enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and many other international covenants and treaties.

These remarks were made in Hong Kong, not the United Nations building. The speaker was not the current President of the United States, who is sadly irrelevant to the cause of freedom. It was Sarah Palin – who is, for the moment, the de facto leader of the free world. It’s very unusual to see the position occupied by a private citizen, with no official power to back up her words. I doubt Mrs. Palin likes the situation any more than I do. It’s a position with absolutely no tenure, outside of high office – a new standard bearer could speak with greater clarity and passion tomorrow. Someone with power must soon fill the role… but for now, a voice pouring the right words into hungry ears will have to suffice. The free world holds ideals above power anyway. It cannot be led through force. It uses power to defend its ideals, not to impose them.

In the best of times, the President is also the leader of the free world, putting American economic and military power behind the cause of freedom. Instead, Barack Obama is the leader of the indentured world. Every action he has taken in office has been designed to reduce the freedom of Americans, in exchange for what he believes are noble goals. It’s not necessary to question his sincerity to understand that his vision of the future is less free than the nation we live in today. No one can carry the banner of freedom in one hand, and a 1200-page cap-and-trade bill in the other. The language of freedom cannot be spoken convincingly while the President’s minions are using intimidation, wild charges of racism, and physical violence to suppress dissent. Talk of democracy and the rule of law is hollow when it comes from a man laboring to install a deranged Marxist as the dictator of Honduras, over-riding that nation’s constitutional law. Every fraudulent vote produced by Obama’s close allies at ACORN was an offense against the freedom of the legitimate voter it nullified. A vigorous defense of liberty cannot be mounted from the sick bed of a welfare state.

While Palin expounded on political and economic liberty in simple, but forceful, terms, Obama was offering disposable nonsense like this to the petty thugs and tyrants at the United Nations:

I took office at a time when many around the world had come to view America with skepticism and distrust. Part of this was due to misperceptions and misinformation about my country. Part of this was due to opposition to specific policies, and a belief that on certain critical issues, America has acted unilaterally, without regard for the interests of others. This has fed an almost reflexive anti-Americanism, which too often has served as an excuse for our collective inaction…

We have also re-engaged the United Nations. We have paid our bills. We have joined the Human Rights Council. We have signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We have fully embraced the Millennium Development Goals. And we address our priorities here, in this institution — for instance, through the Security Council meeting that I will chair tomorrow on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, and through the issues that I will discuss today…

We have sought — in word and deed — a new era of engagement with the world. Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges… If we are honest with ourselves, we need to admit that we are not living up to that responsibility. Consider the course that we are on if we fail to confront the status quo. Extremists sowing terror in pockets of the world. Protracted conflicts that grind on and on. Genocide and mass atrocities. More and more nations with nuclear weapons. Melting ice caps and ravaged populations. Persistent poverty and pandemic disease. I say this not to sow fear, but to state a fact: the magnitude of our challenges has yet to be met by the measure of our action.

Brutal terrorist attacks, blowing off a young woman’s head because she dared to protest a stolen election, insufficiently draconian global warming legislation.. it’s all the same, really. We’ve all made mistakes. Who are we to judge? The next time terrorists are preparing to saw off the head of a blindfolded captive, I hope they’ll remember Obama outlawed “torture” at Guantanamo Bay, and appointed a special envoy for Middle East peace. Why wouldn’t they be eager to set aside their ancient hatreds, and join America in squandering their prosperity over “climate change?”

Later in his speech, the man who incessantly blames George W. Bush for all of his failures managed to say this with a straight face: “Nothing is easier than blaming others for our troubles, and absolving ourselves of responsibility for our choices and our actions.” Evidently, the international quid pro quo for Obama’s endless concessions is that they didn’t laugh at him. At least, not out loud.

When Ronald Reagan spoke the words that shattered the Berlin Wall, he drew strength from the confidence of his nation’s commitment to freedom. That commitment cannot be conditional. Obama can’t be the czar of czars, supreme executive of nationalized industries, and distributor of trillion-dollar “stimulus” checks, while also serving as a plausible champion of liberty. The wealth of free men cannot be “spread around” to suit a politician’s ideas of fairness, without compromising the freedom of both the providers and the recipients. Embracing freedom means allowing others to choose their own course in life, earn and spend their own money… and take responsibility for their occasional failures. Freedom is meaningless in the absence of responsibility. Children are not free.

The increasingly bitter and frustrated man who addressed the United Nations yesterday was not the leader of the free world, challenging the forces of tyranny and offering hope to the oppressed. He went there to offer pleasing words and concessions to the tyrants, so they would leave him alone, while he draws a burial shroud over the American century. No dictator will ever be moved to free his captive people by an appeal to prevent the polar ice caps from shrinking.

When he finished his remarks, the President politely turned the stage over to creatures like the Holocaust-denying president of Iran, and the lunatic dictator of Libya. By tomorrow, not even the sycophants at MSNBC or the New York Times will remember a single thing Obama said, although they will continue to insist it was magnificent.

Meanwhile, the unlikely champion of liberty and capitalism scooted back to her hotel room in Hong Kong, to update her Facebook page. It takes nothing away from Mrs. Palin’s accomplishments to say that we need more than words in support of liberty – it’s our responsibility to take it further, in the voting booth. If you don’t think Sarah Palin should be the leader of the free world, vote for someone who can do the job. If you do think it should be her, convince her to stand for office. We could use more people saying the things she told her audience in China, but for this lonely and perilous moment, she’s the only one who has both the ideas, and the audience. The free world has plenty of demand for more leaders… but it has no room for either masters or servants.

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