I change my self-definition from "pro-American" to "pro-West"
It's not every day you change your self-definition, but I think after the re-election of Barack Obama
I have to reconsider my long-standing
self-definition as "pro-American".
Yes I am pro-West, and for all my life America was the leader of the West.
But if enough American voters want America to withdraw from that role,
to become just another unassertive, apologetic, former great power like Britain and France,
then "pro-West" starts to define my world view better than "pro-American".
America is still
the greatest country in the world,
the scientific and cultural leader,
and the most interesting place on the planet.
But it seems it is no longer the political leader of the free world.
The West is now multi-polar.
It has no leader.
Mark Steyn, 9 Nov 2012, says the problem is that the American people want this:
"the key point about Barack Obama is not that he's a secret Muslim Kenyan Commie or whatever. Whether he was born in Honolulu or Mombasa or Stockholm or up on Planet Zongo, what matters ... is that in his general worldview he is
entirely typical and perfectly representative of tens upon tens of millions of Americans. Tuesday's majority confirmed that. They don't need a "conspiracy": They agree with him. That's the problem."
Rule America?
Liberal elites ruined Britain as a hyperpower. Could America meet the same fate?
by Jonathan V. Last, Oct 2005,
on how Britain ceased to be a superpower in the early-mid 20th century.
"In an important sense, the British Empire's strength failed
because its elite liberal citizens stopped believing in it."
If the same happened to America, the result would be a very dangerous world.
"We are the rarest of geopolitical phenomena: the accidental hegemon and, given our history of isolationism and lack of instinctive imperial ambition, the reluctant hegemon - and now, after a near-decade of strenuous post-9/11 exertion, more reluctant than ever.
Which leads to my second proposition: Facing the choice of whether to maintain our dominance or to gradually, deliberately, willingly, and indeed relievedly give it up, we are currently on a course towards the latter. The current liberal ascendancy in the United States - controlling the executive and both houses of Congress, dominating the media and elite culture - has set us on a course for decline. And this is true for both foreign and domestic policies."
"Growth provides the sinews of dominance - the ability to maintain a large military establishment capable of projecting power to all corners of the earth. The Europeans, rich and developed, have almost no such capacity. They made the choice long ago to devote their resources to a vast welfare state. Their expenditures on defense are minimal, as are their consequent military capacities. They rely on the U.S. Navy for open seas and on the U.S. Air Force for airlift. ... The United States can do all of this because we spend infinitely more on defense - more than the next nine countries combined.
Those are the conditions today. But they are not static or permanent. ... The express agenda of the New Liberalism is a vast expansion of social services .. that will necessarily, as in Europe, take away from defense spending."
"The temptation to abdicate has always been strong in America.
... So why not? Why not choose ease and bask in the adulation of the world as we serially renounce, withdraw, and concede?
Because, while globalization has produced in some the illusion that human nature has changed, it has not. The international arena remains a Hobbesian state of nature in which countries naturally strive for power. If we voluntarily renounce much of ours, others will not follow suit. They will fill the vacuum. Inevitably, an inversion of power relations will occur.
Do we really want to live under unknown, untested, shifting multipolarity?"
"Decline is a choice. More than a choice, a temptation. How to resist it?
First, accept our role as hegemon. And reject those who deny its essential benignity. There is a reason that we are the only hegemon in modern history to have not immediately catalyzed the creation of a massive counter-hegemonic alliance - as occurred, for example, against Napoleonic France and Nazi Germany. There is a reason so many countries of the Pacific Rim and the Middle East and Eastern Europe and Latin America welcome our presence as balancer of power and guarantor of their freedom.
And that reason is simple: We are as benign a hegemon as the world has ever seen."
Nov 2012: Bryce Williams,
a black
TV reporter,
is disciplined
for
breaking impartiality by wearing an Obama badge during the election.
Aug 2015:
Bryce Williams
murders two whites live on TV.
He blames "racism".
(In reality,
the black killer was racist,
not his innocent white victims.)
I blame the American people
Why did the Republicans lose?
For me, it wasn't really the campaign.
It wasn't the choice of Romney and Ryan.
It wasn't their policies or message.
It wasn't "gaffes" or ads or debates.
The campaign was imperfect, but ultimately the choice was clear.
It's something worse.
It's the American people.
There was a clear choice this time, and the American people knew what they were voting for.
After 4 years, they know what Obama is, and they chose more of it.
Obama's America is what they want.
To me,
Romney was a great candidate.
I agree with this.
"The Right can't field a better candidate. We put up an impressive, mainstream guy with super credentials, who made few gaffes, did well in the debates, and was amply funded. The result? A repeat of 2008, basically. If I'd known it would turn out like this, I would have backed a Gingrich-Palin ticket. More fun, less expensive - same result."
America is an idea, and
David French
says the fact is there is a huge bloc of Americans who don't believe in the idea of America:
"we have to be clear-eyed about our challenge: To tens of millions of American voters, a conservative message of self-reliance and individual economic freedom is, quite frankly, terrifying."
John Hinderaker, 7 Nov 2012:
"To me, the most telling incident of the campaign season was a poll that found that among young Americans, socialism enjoys a higher favorability rating than free enterprise.
...
conservatives have entirely lost control over the culture. The educational system, the entertainment industry, the news media and every cultural institution that comes to mind are all dedicated to turning out liberals.
...
Unless conservatives somehow succeed in regaining parity or better in the culture, the drift toward statism will inevitably continue, ...
This is not primarily the job of politicians, but politicians cannot escape it, either. I have been grumbling for a long time that
Ronald Reagan was the last politician who made a real effort to teach the principles of conservatism
to the American public.
...
These are dark days, indeed."
Abe Greenwald, 11 Nov 2012, says for once the American voters didn't seem to care about the economy.
They were in the grip of something stronger.
"Barack Obama ushered in America's first large-scale experiment in personality-cult politics. The experiment continues apace. Obama got reelected because he enjoys a degree of personal popularity disconnected from his record. No modern president has ever been returned to office with employment figures and right-track-wrong-track numbers as poor as those Obama has achieved.
Obama couldn't run on his record, which proved to be no problem - Americans didn't vote on his record. According to exit polls, 77 percent of voters said the economy is bad and only 25 percent said they're better off than they were four years ago. But since six in ten voters claimed the economy as their number one issue, it's clear this election wasn't about issues at all.
The president's reelection is not evidence of a new liberal America, but rather of the illogical and confused experience that is infatuation. For multiple reasons, Americans continue to have a crush on Barack Obama even after his universally panned first term. No longer quite head over heels, they're at the "I know he's no good for me, but I can change him" phase."
Jay Nordlinger
blames the American people, as do I.
As I blame the Egyptian people for their election choices.
They voted for this because this is what they want.
Egyptian decline is what the Egyptian people want.
So it must happen.
And American decline is what the American people want.
So it must happen.
Men went for Romney 52 to 45.
Whites went for Romney 59 to 39.
Married men went for Romney 60 to 38.
Since I am a white, married man, it is no wonder Obama does not represent me!
See full size.
From here.
Note how Obama is the candidate of the young
and single and childless
and urban.
While Romney is the candidate of the grown-ups with jobs and families and children and mortgages.
Note also the racism of American blacks, versus
the non-racism of American whites. (*)
93 percent of blacks voted for the black candidate.
Only 6 percent voted for the white man.
But a massive 39 percent of whites voted for the black candidate.
(*)
OK, I am being provocative.
Despite how it looks, the 93 percent figure is not
proof of black racism.
Blacks in fact normally vote
90 percent Democrat,
and this has been true for decades,
since the 1960s.
I'm making the point that the left - and especially the international left - should credit American whites
for their clear display of non racism in 2008 and 2012.
While American blacks should maybe take a look at their political uniformity.
See the
2000 and
2004 and
2008
elections,
where whites, Asians and Hispanics all have a diversity of opinion, but blacks do not.
These numbers are a bit embarrassing for blacks.
93 percent is not healthy enthusiasm. It is stifling conformity.
Barack Obama is re-elected, 6 Nov 2012
Shocking.
Americans re-elected Jimmy Carter.
Incredible.
I could believe that Americans made a well-meaning mistake in 2008.
But now I think something different
- that the America I knew has fundamentally changed.
If the last 4 years of Obama appeal to you more than Romney-Ryan,
and you want another 4 years like that,
then I cannot relate to you.
If you are the majority in America, then America is no longer the country I admire.
In 2008,
Obama got 69.5 million votes.
McCain got 59.9 million votes.
In 2012,
Obama got 65.9 million votes.
Romney got 60.9 million votes.
Note that counting all the votes takes 2 months!
Really clever American voters stick with Obama's failed status quo, Andrew Malcolm, 7 Nov 2012:
"Well, American voters have made their 2012 presidential choice, and now they get to live with it.
...
Two-thirds of Americans have consistently said the country is on the wrong track. So, naturally they opted to stick with a stinking status quo they've whined about for years now.
...
Thanks again, American voters."
The anonymous
DMartyr, The Jawa Report, 7 Nov 2012, expresses my shock:
"I admit, I'm in shock. I really believed the "Romney in a landslide" pundits. I, personally, didn't think it would be a landslide, but those predictions did give me confidence of victory.
I honestly thought most Americans had more sense.
...
Half of America voted for Obama. Half voted against him. Most are looking at the election as racial or political ideology divides. I see clearly now it isn't either. It is a divide between self-gratification and sacrifice. The half that voted for Obama wants to get something out of it - revenge, handouts, racial pride, political power, a "fair share" of someone's hard-earned wealth. The other half is willing to forgo those temporary consolations to build a better home for future generations."
Joel D. Hirst, 8 Nov 2012:
"President Barack Obama won a second term. He did not win by laying out a grand vision for the country. He did not win by being honest with the American people about our debt, our deficits, or our chronic unemployment well above 10 percent (in real terms).
... He simply won.
...
America today faces a bleak future."
Obama first appears on my website in
March 2007.
I am negative about him from the start.
Obama has always looked like this to me,
ever since he emerged in
early 2007.
Side note:
My first mention of Obama in 2007 is a link to
the then-anti-Obama but now-pro-Obama
Little Green Footballs.
It was a good blog to read once!
Before the election
I can't believe
that the Americans, the leaders of the free world,
chose a
left-wing defeatist as President in 2008.
I hope Americans get sense in 2012 and get rid of this guy
like they got rid of Jimmy Carter.
Come on Americans, choose greatness not decline.
See original.
"Morning in America",
Reagan's 1984 re-election ad.
Come on America, you've proved you're not racist.
Now you can move on, elect Romney,
and get rid of Jimmy Carter.
Irish Times leader, election day,
November 4, 1980.
They didn't see the Reagan victory coming.
Obama is destroyed in the first debate
The
first debate on 3 Oct 2012
shocked Americans with the contrast between Obama and Romney.
It may be the night that tipped the election.
This was perhaps the first time
Obama had to face a real tough opponent
who would take him on without mercy,
and Obama would have no teleprompter, partisan crowd or compliant media to help.
It was perhaps the first time
America saw
the real Obama:
"the 60 million TV viewers tuning in to the debate were no doubt surprised at what they saw: A thin-skinned, ill-prepared, smirking, at times bored president, who stumbled over his own words and didn't seem to have answers for Romney's laserlike ripostes.
...
And who is this real Barack Obama?
A man with a murky, leftist past who never ran anything in his life
...
A man who distrusts business, the backbone of job creation
...
In Denver, voters saw the real Mitt Romney go toe-to-toe with the real Barack Obama. It was no contest."
Victor Davis Hanson, 14 Oct 2012:
"The election is not over, but it is starting to resemble October 29 or November 1 in 1980, when, after just one debate, the nation at last decided that it really did not like Jimmy Carter very much or what he had done, and discovered that Ronald Reagan was not the mad Dr. Strangelove / Jefferson Davis of the Carter summer television ads.
...
millions of voters - quietly, on their own, without much communication - are becoming wearied by Obama, in a way that is quite miraculous. They are coming to the conclusion not just that it is now OK to vote against Obama, but that even if it is not politically correct, they don't much care anymore."
If even Obama worshipper
Andrew Sullivan
thinks he is losing,
then maybe he really is losing.
The spell is broken.
I don't want to get too excited.
I can't believe that 4 years after falling for Obama, the American public
is waking up.
Better late than never.
Obama and the war against Islamism
Poll, Sept 2012:
45 percent of Americans think U.S.-Muslim relations are worse
under Obama than 4 years ago under Bush.
31 percent say about the same.
Only 18 percent think Obama's "outreach" / apologies / appeasement / pandering
has improved U.S.-Muslim relations.
"Bow to Nobody",
an election ad from
"Special Operations for America"
(SOFA), a super PAC led by former Navy SEALs.
I guess they're not that impressed with Obama saying "Oh, alright"
to their request to kill Bin Laden.
Obama's Democrats prove they are patriotic with this display at the
Democratic National Convention, Sept 2012.
However,
I was amused to discover that
they put up images of
Russian warships
thinking they were American.
This is in fact Russia's
Black Sea Fleet.
The nearest ship (on the right) is the Cold War era Soviet warship the
Kerch!
Hilarious!
Fascinating comments from military veterans, including:
"I was a radarman during 1970-74 mostly in the Med and Atlantic. Seeing those silhouettes behind Kerry & Adm. Nathman that is the first thing [I] said to folks at my house. "Those are friggin Russian warships" and everyone laughed at me. Saying I was crazy."
The Obama worship has faded, but some people still believe
Foreigners still believe:
Global poll, Sept 2012,
of who foreigners would pick in the US election.
Among those who picked one of the candidates Obama or Romney:
97 percent of Germans picked Obama.
3 percent picked Romney.
An embarrassing 96 percent of Irish people picked Obama.
Only 4 percent picked Romney.
95 percent of French people picked Obama.
5 percent Romney.
94 percent of Italians picked Obama.
6 percent Romney.
90 percent of Australians picked Obama.
10 percent Romney.
88 percent of Canadians picked Obama.
12 percent Romney.
The only sane western country:
Only 35 percent of Israelis picked Obama.
65 percent picked Romney.
Global poll, Oct 2012.
Among those who picked one of the candidates Obama or Romney:
92 percent of Australians picked Obama. 8 percent picked Romney.
90 percent of British people picked Obama. 10 percent Romney.
88 percent of Canadians picked Obama. 12 percent Romney.
Even Poles prefer the candidate who won't support them against imperial Russia:
68 percent of Poles picked Obama. 32 percent Romney.
"One Term More!"
of the deranged cult of personality.
This is not a parody. These people actually worship Obama.
They are not making a parody of people who worship Obama.
Actor
Samuel L. Jackson's tedious, preachy, 2012 Obama ad: "Wake The Fuck Up".
Here, a brainwashed 10 year old girl worries about funding for Planned Parenthood.
Earlier she is worried about threats to gay marriage.
Whatever happened to innocence?
Of course, all these boring Democrat talking points are beside the point.
Samuel L. Jackson
himself declared that in 2008
he voted for Obama
because he was black.
Actor
Russell Crowe
still believes.
Tweet of 20 Oct 2012.
Paul Ryan
Paul Ryan
is announced as Romney's choice for Vice-President.
The Obama-loving
Irish Times, August 14, 2012, gets to work smearing Paul Ryan:
"It is a move that has delighted the party's conservatives - less concerned with electability than ideological purity
...
The Ryan selection moves the Republican Party harder to the right than at any time since 1964,
when the true believers got a nominee but ended up with only 39 per cent of the vote.
One analyst describes Ryan as the most conservative Republican congressman to be picked for the VP slot since at least 1900."
Sounds like the Irish Times is scared Romney-Ryan will win.
Paul Ryan:
"College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life."
Tim Pawlenty:
"I've come to realize that Barack Obama is the tattoo president. Like a big tattoo, it seemed cool when you were young. But later on, that decision doesn't look so good, and you wonder: what was I thinking? But the worst part is you're still going to have to explain it to your kids."
Amusing piece from
The Onion, 13 Aug 2012.
When even
The Onion
thinks the humour is in the discomfort of the Democrats,
we know Romney and Ryan have got a real chance here.
"You Didn't Build That"
Obama's instantly infamous
"You Didn't Build That" speech of 13 July 2012 attacking small business:
"look, if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. .. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something - there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business - you didn't build that.
Somebody else made that happen."
Obama's speech is spawning countless
images
and
videos.
Israel-haters and Jew-haters across the world
claim that American Jews vote for the pro-Israel candidate.
If only that were true!
In fact, the opposite is the case.
American Jews always vote Democrat.
They never vote for the most pro-Israel candidate.
Anti-counterjihadist
Reza Aslan
agrees that Obama is anti-Israel.
(He thinks that is a good thing.) Tweet, 4 Sept 2012.
In 2013, it was reported that
Obama's idiot Secretary of State John Kerry is now
learning about Islam
from Reza Aslan's book.
America is the greatest country in the world.
The leader of the West.
The heart of science and technology.
So it was shocking that Americans have elected this
naive, innocent and weak President.
The world does not need America to become like Europe.
A strong, assertive America benefits all mankind.
Americans,
you've proved you're not racist. (I never thought you were.)
So can we move on.
Can you elect a strong President, please.
