Obama And Putin Got It Wrong: Why The U.S. Is Exceptional
PHOTOS.COM
What a wonderful brouhaha Russian President Vladimir Putin
stirred up when he (or one of his PR flacks) wrote an opinion piece for
The New York Times earlier this month
.
Much of the piece was pretty much what you would expect from the
Russian strongman and former KGB thug. He denied that Syrian president
Bashar Assad used chemical weapons against his own citizens. “No one
doubts that poisoned gas was used in Syria,” Putin wrote. “But there is
every reason to believe it was used not by the Syrian Army, but by
opposition forces, to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign
patrons.” If you buy that one, he has a bridge is Vladivostok he’d like
to sell you.
And don’t assume that his remark about “powerful foreign patrons” was
a sly reference to Russia’s relationship with Syria. No, no, not a bit.
After all, Putin wrote: “We are not protecting the Syrian government,
but international law.”
Yes, I know. It’s hard to keep from laughing out loud at some of his
absurd protestations. Here’s another one: “We must stop using the
language of force and return to the path of civilized diplomatic and
political settlement.” Like you did in Chechnya, comrade?
But nothing stirred up more response than Putin’s parting shot. In
his final paragraph, he said he disagreed with President Barack Obama’s
comments regarding American exceptionalism. The Russian near-dictator
had the unmitigated gall to lecture his American audience on the
subject, writing: “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see
themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.” And he concluded:
“We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must
not forget that God created us equal.”
I doubt if Putin himself believes what he wrote in that final
sentence any more than our own President really believes in American
exceptionalism. Oh, sure. Barack Obama has used the words a few times,
such as in his address to the Nation that Putin referenced, but never
with any real conviction.
Four years ago, for example,
Obama answered
a reporter’s inquiry on the subject by saying: “I believe in American
exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British
exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.” Doesn’t
that fill your heart with patriotic fervor?
Yes, America is exceptional. And it’s exceptional for a reason that
neither Putin nor Obama will ever admit. America is unique among all the
countries that have ever existed for one simple but profound reason:
The United States was founded on the principle that our rights come from
God, not from government.
One of the most majestic phrases in the English language is the one
Thomas Jefferson included in Declaration of Independence expressing that
thought. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit
of Happiness.”
It was our Creator who gave us our rights — rights that are
unalienable. That means they cannot be withdrawn or transferred. At
least, that’s the theory. I have no doubt that the Founding Fathers
would be shocked by how powerful the Federal government has become
today. And dismayed at how much it encroaches on our liberties (not to
mention our wallets).
By the way, the Declaration of Independence not only opened with an
acknowledgement of God, it also ended with the same recognition: “And
for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the
protection of a divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our
Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
Yes, this country was founded on the principle that our rights come
from God — and that governments exist not to grant them, but to
protect
them. The Declaration also said: “That to secure these rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed.”
The men who drafted our Constitution worked very hard to craft a
document that would limit what a central government was allowed to do.
They wanted to “bind it down” with the chains of a constitution.
But even that wasn’t enough to satisfy the leaders of our new
Republic, who were very aware of the lessons of history. They knew that
governments, always and everywhere, tried to expand in reach and power.
Even before the new Constitution was submitted to the 13 States for
ratification, they added a list of Amendments, to make even more
specific what the new government was not allowed to do.
The first eight Amendments in what became known as the Bill of Rights
enumerate a whole list of things that the new central government cannot
do. The 1st Amendment begins: “Congress shall make no law…”
And just to make sure that the people’s rights shall not be
infringed, the framers added the 9th and 10th Amendments, basically
saying that if they overlooked anything, government can’t do that
either. They made it as clear as they could in the 10th Amendment: “The
powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively,
or to the people.”
While government in this country was limited, the ability of our
people to prosper was not. America became the freest, the wealthiest and
the most powerful nation on Earth. It made us the hope (and the envy)
of the world.
That is why the United States is exceptional — or maybe I should say why this country
was
exceptional. Because there is no question that our central government
has become a bloated monstrosity, bearing almost no resemblance to the
very limited government our Founding Fathers envisioned.
One of the charges against King George in the Declaration of
Independence was: “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent
hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their
substance.”
Let’s face it: Those colonists had it easy, compared to all the ways that our present government “eats out” our substance.
I wouldn’t be the first to suggest that it’s time for a new American revolution.
Until next time, keep some powder dry.
–Chip Wood
P.S. There was one more comment in Putin’s opinion piece that merits a
rebuttal. He said, “No one wants the United Nations to suffer the fate
of the League of Nations.”
Wrong again, Mr. President. There are many of us who believe one of
the greatest things we could do for freedom, peace and prosperity in the
world is to get the U.S. out of the U.N. and the U.N. out of the U.S.
And our numbers are growing every day.
The journalist is the one in the hijab
