A Man Apart

by Herbert I. London
October 29, 2009 at 5:30 am

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/884/a-man-apart

Albert Camus was expert at describing a man apart, The Stranger, who did not belong in the society in which he found himself. He did not have emotional roots; in fact, this character was haunted by shadows - the real and the metaphorical. He is the quintessential rebel, challenging normative standards.

Based on his performance so far, President Obama is a man apart. He seems to equate power with arrogance; pride with willfulness and exceptionalism with dominance. As a consequence, he has changed foreign policy perceptions: the America he leads is just a nation like any other - no more, no less. As a Nobel laureate, he is considered by the Europeans not merely a citizen of the United States, but a man of the world as a man of the world, not merely a citizen of the United States.

When asked if the United States is exceptional, President Obama said America is exceptional and England is exceptional and Greece is exceptional. That the United States is different did not cross his mind. How could it? He is pledged to a scenario in which America opts out of its traditional role as peacekeeper, the balance wheel in maintaining international equilibrium. Without America’s leadership role, the war against terrorists is over.

Unfortunately the war fatigue President Obama embodies is not embraced by our global enemies -- they read this shift in his policy as a sign of weakness and retreat. The President may actually think that unilateral concessions to our enemies will result in reciprocal responses. But as his overtures to the Olympic Committee demonstrated, gestures directed at multilateralism and his own celebrity status have not so far translated into favorable results. Real, or hard, power -- as opposed to soft power -- still has meaning on the world stage.

A man with roots would know that the wild and extravagant policy swings of the kind that we have experienced with healthcare, cap and trade and education proposals cannot possibly fly with the American people, even with those who voted for President Obama. Despite cultural shifts in the nation, the United States still fashions itself as a conservative nation. Only a man apart cannot sense that condition.

It is not that the president is devoid of conviction. His political tilt is decidedly to the left, the hardcore left. But I believe this president does not understand the rhythms, the pulse of the American people. He is not merely outside the mainstream. He does not even recognize it. He is a basketball player who has been asked to bat.

At first it seems as if his initial popularity would carry him through to a second term. But as each day passes and the false, almost inappropriate, gestures register, Americans are beginning to recognize this man apart. He is our stranger in a land he does not understand.

Americans are not war-like; imperial ambition does not fill their souls. They have done almost nothing for which daily apologies are necessary. Their blood soaks the beaches of Normandy, their graves litter European towns. And their fortunes saved millions from destitution. Americans might not appreciate a man so removed from their history, so out of tune with the American experience, that he reflexively expresses regret for the very conditions that should engender pride.

Perhaps this president will learn. But I am not confident that can happen. His life experience without a father in his home, and a mother seeking adventure abroad, is unstable. His closest associates vilified the nation he now leads. Is it any wonder his wife said she could take no pride in America until now? The past, to him, is to be rejected. Milestones in history are erased from memory as storage, and cast aside as unnecessary.

This is the only time in recent memory when our national instincts are being reconditioned. From a nation that was a model to the world, we are now told that superiority is unbecoming, a hindrance for the emergence of global egalitarianism.

President Obama, as a man apart, may attempt this recasting of America, America may not yet be ready for his experimentation and most likely never will be.

Herbert London is president of Hudson Institute and professor emeritus of New York University. He is the author of Decade of Denial (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2001) and America's Secular Challenge (Encounter Books).

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