Sharansky asks: when did America forget it was America?
I’m not sure whether the question is rhetorical or not:
The Obama administration apparently believes that only after a nuclear agreement is signed can the free world expect Iran to stop its attempts at regional domination, improve its human rights record and, in general, behave like the civilized state it hopes the world will recognize it to be.
As a former Soviet dissident, I cannot help but compare this approach to that of the United States during its decades-long negotiations with the Soviet Union, which at the time was a global superpower and a existential threat to the free world. The differences are striking and revealing…
Imagine what would have happened if instead, after completing a round of negotiations over disarmament, the Soviet Union had declared that its right to expand communism across the continent was not up for discussion. This would have spelled the end of the talks. Yet today, Iran feels no need to tone down its rhetoric calling for the death of America and wiping Israel off the map.
Sharansky seems to know the what, but not the when or the how or the deeper why:
I am afraid that the real reason for the U.S. stance is not its assessment, however incorrect, of the two sides’ respective interests but rather a tragic loss of moral self-confidence. While negotiating with the Soviet Union, U.S. administrations of all stripes felt certain of the moral superiority of their political system over the Soviet one. They felt they were speaking in the name of their people and the free world as a whole, while the leaders of the Soviet regime could speak for no one but themselves and the declining number of true believers still loyal to their ideology.
But in today’s postmodern world, when asserting the superiority of liberal democracy over other regimes seems like the quaint relic of a colonialist past, even the United States appears to have lost the courage of its convictions.
For those unaware of who Sharansky is, see this for his history as a noted Soviet dissident and current Israeli. He’s someone who knows a great deal about the value of Western democracy and culture. It must be very puzzling to him how the West managed to stand up to the Soviets and yet a mere quarter-century after the USSR’s fall cannot even stand up to a nation like Iran, and is capitulating voluntarily rather than being forced.
Or maybe he’s not puzzled. Maybe he has noticed the slow but steady (and steadily accelerating) Gramscian march through all the institutions that used to be the bedrock of Western civilization both here and in Western Europe: the schools, the church, the press. Maybe he recognizes the hand of the left, but can’t bear to acknowledge it. After all these years and all these fights—and all these victories—to surrender? His entire being must cry out: why?
It’s not an accident. And its crowning achievement was the election of Barack Obama, and particularly his re-election in 2012—which freed him up (as he told Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev in March of 2012) to have more flexibility. Obama is showing that “flexibility” now.
American voters showed their own lack of discernment and judgment when they supported Obama’s abandonment of traditional attitudes about our place in the world and how to negotiate with sworn enemies, as well as the use of force if necessary. But the vote was very very close (even closer if you think there was substantial cheating).
Did America vote for the Obama it sees now? I contend that most voters did not. I think most people feel shocked and powerless to stop Obama, however, and that’s part of the problem. To rely on Congress for that purpose is not exactly a winning proposition, but for the moment it’s the best we’ve got.
Washington DC must be an echo of Paris, circa 1938, at a time when the French legacy of victory in WWI caused that polity to think that a massive military reverse was just quite impossible.
Lest we all forget: in the Spring of 1940 the military consensus of the world was that France had the strongest army on this Earth.
(!)
I know, I know.
France, as a nation, had lost its mind — its imagination of just how badly superannuated military leadership could be.
Famously, both in WWI and WWII American presidents turfed out ALL of the old Army hands — to get young blood for the fight to come.
Pershing went from two stars to — ultimately — five.
Marshall went from one star to — ultimately — five.
When Marshall was promoted to four stars — in ONE bound — everyone senior to him headed for the door! (September 1, 1939 as it happened. Yes, the balloon had already gone up. WWII really started with the Stalin-Hitler pact — and ALL of the players knew it. That’s why the Royal Navy immediately went to battle stations…..)
In our case, in this time, Washington (the Senate) just can’t wrap their minds around the necessity of ejecting the boy-king.
They are waiting for the atomic roof to glow in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6G3nwhPuR4
Wish you were right about American voters. The Won still has a 45% approval rating at RCP.
I contend that most voters did not. I think most people feel shocked and powerless to stop Obama, however, and that’s part of the problem….
But … TWICE!
Liberals were sure they could fix the world if they just did everything opposite of what a GWB would do. Its akin to thinking you can set a new baseball slugging record by gripping the bat at the other end.
G6loq:
Yes, twice.
Remember that Obama didn’t win by all that much in 2012. In addition, much of the worst he’s done has occurred after that election. On purpose.
I actually think if the election were to be held today he would lose, and not by just a hair, either.
But it doesn’t matter, because you are correct that he was elected twice, even if some of the reason was that the public still didn’t understand in 2012 what he was going to do (and the damage he would cause) in his second term.
Neo often begins a post on Yeats’ The Second Coming. We are at the place and time where the center can not hold. Instead of anarchy, we face the blind to history and human nature, radical left once again seeking utopia built upon a foundation of the blood, flesh, and bones of many millions slaughtered in their twisted quest for the perfection of humanity. Keep your powder dry.
“Did America vote for the Obama it sees now? I contend that most voters did not.”
As has been alluded to already, I believe they STILL don’t see it. My God…his approval still is around 50%! Which to me means 50% of the country is beyond redemption. We are so an inclined plane helically wound around column (apologies to The Big Bang Theory).
physicsguy:
Actually, right now his approval rating averages 45%.
Think about it, though. How many Americans are on the left, either as the far left or completely dedicated liberals? I’d say it’s somewhere between 25% and 33% (between a quarter and a third). Self-reports are not valid, IMHO, because leftists will lie, and people have odd definitions of these things, anyway. So you have up to 30%, let’s say, who would never disapprove of Obama because of their politics. Then you have black people (some of whom are leftists, some not), who would also not turn on Obama. Black people constitute (according to this) about 13% of the population.
Add it up, and you get Obama’s approval numbers.
Now, of course, there’s some overlap, as I said. And I haven’t accounted for all the groups that support Obama. But I don’t find it surprising that his approval remains in the 40s. The times when it dipped lower are the times he wasn’t being leftist enough for the left.
Sharansky fails to appreciate two important factors; half of America has not forgotten that it is America and most of the other half have been duped into supporting America’s enemies… especially America’s domestic enemies.
America’s internal enemies have seized its academic institutions, its media and the democrat party. They have engaged in a subversive “March through the Institutions” and are busily using America’s institutions and laws to attack American society on every front. It is that which gives the impression that America has forgotten that it is America.
Disaster waits ahead and when push comes to shove… we will discover whether the duped have the fortitude to awaken to their foolishness or whether they are the descendents of those of whom Samuel Adams spoke, “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
Along these lines: everyone should read the horrifying account in the National Review of the STASI-style tactics of the Wisconsin Leftist cabal in the courts and police, in hounding and persecuting lawful conservatives, raiding their homes at dawn, trashing their homes, terrifying their children, and making off with all their personal computers, smartphones, etc.: and Ordering Them to Maintain Silence about the pogrom.
Here you go: this will turn your stomach.
“They Came with a Battering Ram.”
Cindy Archer, one of the lead architects of Wisconsin’s Act 10 – also called the “Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill,” it limited public-employee benefits and altered collective-bargaining rules for public-employee unions – was jolted awake by yelling, loud pounding at the door, and her dogs’ frantic barking. The entire house – the windows and walls – was shaking.
She looked outside to see up to a dozen police officers, yelling to open the door. They were carrying a battering ram.
She wasn’t dressed, but she started to run toward the door, her body in full view of the police. Some yelled at her to grab some clothes, others yelled for her to open the door.
“I was so afraid,” she says. “I did not know what to do.” She grabbed some clothes, opened the door, and dressed right in front of the police. The dogs were still frantic.
“I begged and begged, ‘Please don’t shoot my dogs, please don’t shoot my dogs, just don’t shoot my dogs.’ I couldn’t get them to stop barking, and I couldn’t get them outside quick enough. I saw a gun and barking dogs. I was scared and knew this was a bad mix.”
She got the dogs safely out of the house, just as multiple armed agents rushed inside. Some even barged into the bathroom, where her partner was in the shower. The officer or agent in charge demanded that Cindy sit on the couch, but she wanted to get up and get a cup of coffee.
“I told him this was my house and I could do what I wanted.” Wrong thing to say. “This made the agent in charge furious. He towered over me with his finger in my face and yelled like a drill sergeant that I either do it his way or he would handcuff me.”
They wouldn’t let her speak to a lawyer. She looked outside and saw a person who appeared to be a reporter. Someone had tipped him off.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/417155/wisconsins-shame-i-thought-it-was-home-invasion-david-french
All were ordered by the police NOT to contact their LAWYERS, even. The gag order being part of the John Doe law, which allows Wisconsin Gestapo (yeah, read it: same jackbooted thugs) to torment their victims behind closed doors, unable even to defend their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor in public.
I hope all of you read this article and pass it on to every single person you feel even Might be reachable, Might have some American spark lingering in their soul.
It’s horrifying. And yes, it’s the United States now. America, as we knew her, exists only in our hearts.
Ace of Spades did a post on the John Doe reign of terror in Wisconsin, and Maetenloch also put up an excerpt (all from the National Review article linked in my comment above):
— For the family of “Rachel” (not her real name), the ordeal began before dawn – with the same loud, insistent knocking. Still in her pajamas, Rachel answered the door and saw uniformed police, poised to enter her home.
When Rachel asked to wake her children herself, the officer insisted on walking into their rooms. The kids woke to an armed officer, standing near their beds.
The entire family was herded into one room, and there they watched as the police carried off their personal possessions, including items that had nothing to do with the subject of the search warrant – even her daughter’s computer.
And, yes, there were the warnings. Don’t call your lawyer. Don’t talk to anyone about this. Don’t tell your friends. The kids watched – alarmed – as the school bus drove by, with the students inside watching the spectacle of uniformed police surrounding the house, carrying out the family’s belongings. Yet they were told they couldn’t tell anyone at school.
They, too, had to remain silent. The mom watched as her entire life was laid open before the police. Her professional files, her personal files, everything. She knew this was all politics. She knew a rogue prosecutor was targeting her for her political beliefs.
And she realized, “Every aspect of my life is in their hands. And they hate me.”
The problem is that in America, as in Europe, the truth is no longer a value. The opposite, in fact.
Lying has become the default position for political leaders and the Media that supports them—see
http://neoneocon.com/2015/04/18/obamas-lies/
No society can continue to function successfully with levels of lying at totalitarian (and/or third-world) levels.
Clearly, this is what the current American administration is aspiring toward, and has in no small measure succeeded in achieving.
No wonder Sharansky has trouble recognizing the US.
Most of America’s former allies—and most cognizant Americans—don’t recognize it either and are surely as troubled as he is.
1963, when the American elite lied to America about Oswald.
Culture wars can not be won on political battlefield, they should BEFORE it won at culture front – in churches, campuses, schools and media. Conservatives must take some pages from Alinsky playbook and organize countermarch to undo Gramshian assault on institutions, win them to themselves. That was how Communism was defeated in USSR – by dissidents like Sharansky. Almost all media here in late 1980 was won by anti-Communists, and regime fell.
Sergey Says:
April 21st, 2015 at 6:44 am
Conservatives must take some pages from Alinsky playbook and organize countermarch to undo Gramshian assault on institutions, win them to themselves…
Here, Gramshian assault on institutions!
More lies:
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-21/obama-kept-iran-s-short-breakout-time-a-secret
File under: Obama lied; nobody surpised
The activist game is the only social cultural/political game there is.
To get you started:
http://doingdemocracy.com/
I hope all of you read this article and pass it on to every single person you feel even Might be reachable, Might have some American spark lingering in their soul.
It’s horrifying. And yes, it’s the United States now. America, as we knew her, exists only in our hearts.
And where are the Democrat moderates that GB likes to proclaim are innocent little sheep that I should not attack? They must have been informing the pseudo death squads of where the targets are, as usual, and as I said years ago. Don’t worry, the death and rape squads are coming. This is just “training”. The brown shirts.
There are other aspects of the election that explains Obama’s victories. First there is a subclass in this country that normally does not vote, mainly because they are too stupid to know there is an election going on. This includes the poor, welfare recipients, and the young. Obama got them to vote by turning his campaign into a messianic movement. Second, as Bernie Goldberg noted, there is a suicidal right that will not vote for any candidate they perceive as being inadequately conservative. It should also be noted that Romney was perceived to be weak and that McCain was winning until the economy tanked. Finally many Ohioans were convinced in 2012 that Obama’s economics saved their state.
That last aspect is the classic methodology of fascism; create a false economic boom, earn the trust of the masses and hope they do not care, notice or understand the eventual price they will pay.
Note that it seems unlikely that Hillary will be able to turn her campaign into a movement although there seems little doubt that thanks to the electoral college any democrat could now defeat any Republican.
I almost forgot the most important aspect of Obama’s victories; the electoral consists of morons.