Anti-American Leftism in Practice: Norman Podhoretz on Barack Obama’s (Failed) Presidency

Of Barack Obama’s apparent failure as president, Norman Podhoretz, writing in the Wall Street Journal, traces it to President Obama’s anti-Americanism, which he defines as follows:

[H]is unshakable strategic objective . . . is to turn this country into a European-style social democracy while diminishing the leading role it has played in the world since the end of World War II.

Even though I’m a liberal, I must say that Podhoretz’s theory as to what animates President Obama is probably correct. We’ll see if he can reboot himself into a more libertarian and foreign policy muscular political mode, and so narrowly win reelection, but we’ll see.

But here’s one thing that is certain: if the Tea Party had not pushed back against President Obama hard, even hysterically, the country was trending toward a larger federal government and a weaker military position in the world.

But it’s not now.

And that’s actually a good thing. The Tea Party, for all its shrillness and ignorance, really has played the role of a contemporary Paul Revere waking a sleeping citizenry. Here’s how Norman Podhoretz concludes his opinion piece:

I disagree with those of my fellow conservatives who maintain that Mr. Obama is indifferent to “the best interests of the United States” (Thomas Sowell) and is “purposely” out to harm America (Rush Limbaugh). In my opinion, he imagines that he is helping America to repent of its many sins and to become a different and better country.

But I emphatically agree with Messrs. Limbaugh and Sowell about this president’s attitude toward America as it exists and as the Founding Fathers intended it. That is why my own answer to the question, “What Happened to Obama?” is that nothing happened to him. He is still the same anti-American leftist he was before becoming our president, and it is this rather than inexperience or incompetence or weakness or stupidity that accounts for the richly deserved failure both at home and abroad of the policies stemming from that reprehensible cast of mind.

I wish I could say that Podhoretz is simply spouting bigoted anti-liberal nonsense, but—if you pan out to the big picture—I think Podhoretz’s diagnosis of Barack Obama’s presidency is basically correct.

And I must say that I felt a sense of relief when Rick Perry announced his run for the presidency with the following words:

I’ll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can.

That’s change to hope for. And if that line works on me, as an Obama voter and sympathizer, then, unless he finds a way to recreate himself, Obama’s cooked.