President Dangerfield

“I tell ya … I don’t get no respect.” —Comedian Rodney Dangerfield (1921–2004)

Barack Obama is our President Dangerfield. In world politics, he gets no respect. But the derision is earned. And as a consequence, the world is falling apart, and the resulting evil is spreading to America like wildfire to a California suburb.

Convinced that his predecessor in office, George W. Bush, had brought disorder to the world and shame on our nation by making us an international object of hatred, Obama has sought from the start to earn the world’s love and trust. He began his presidency with an international apology tour. From there Obama followed a policy of “leading from behind.” He looked the other way when the Green Revolution in the streets of Tehran had the chance of toppling the Mullahs in Iran. He talked tough to Syria President Bashar al-Assad, drawing a red line on the use of chemical weapons, then stood down from it. In all this, Obama succeeded only in earning the contempt of rogues and tyrants who have stepped forward to fill the void.

Despite former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s reset button with Russia and Obama’s assurance to the Russian leadership of his second term flexibility, President Vladimir Putin presses his advantage in Ukraine and the Baltic states, challenging NATO’s resolve.

Despite concessions to Iran that include a pathway to nuclear armament and the return of $150 billion in frozen assets with no deductions, the Islamic republic continues to hold several American prisoners and recently fired rockets provocatively close to an American warship.

Now the latest. In December 2014, Obama ended the more than 50-year isolation of the Castro regime in Cuba, gifting Havana with reestablished diplomatic relations. But this overture of friendship has not moved the Cuban government to release one of our Hellfire missiles it mysteriously acquired. The Hellfire is a powerful weapon that contains sensitive technology our enemies would pay handsomely to obtain. But the disgrace is that Obama granted the coveted new relationship knowing that Cuba had our missile and would not return it.

In The Prince, the notorious 16th century classic on political strategy, Machiavelli wrote that a ruler should seek to be both loved and feared, but “it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one has to lack one of the two.” The reason for this, Machiavelli explained, is that “men have less hesitation to offend one who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared; for love is held by a chain of obligation, which, because men are wicked, is broken at every opportunity for their own utility, but fear is held by a dread of punishment that never forsakes you.” This is bad counsel for one’s personal life but simple prudence in international affairs that are ungoverned by any enforceable law. God gave the power of the sword to governments for good reason.

After the disastrously naïve Jimmy Carter years, Ronald Reagan pursued a foreign policy of “peace through strength.” In November, the presidency will go to whoever can convincingly promise to earn the world’s respect abroad—from friend and foe alike—and so secure peace at home through the prudent exercise of American strength.