The Moralizer in Chief

If Donald Trump's campaign uses the slogan "Make America Great again," Barack Obama's consistent message as president has been "Make America Moral again" – that is, assuming in his mind that it ever was.  As a result, Obama looks at his executive decisions through a distinct set of lenses: one that magnifies his self-interest, the other that reflects his own moral vision – or in some cases, revision – of the world around him.  But never let it be said that Obama views America through rose-colored glasses!

With less than eight months remaining in his presidency, Obama has the work of his moral imperatives cut out for him, even if it means riding roughshod over the will of the American people.  For example, between now and the end of the year, he is intent on bringing into our midst some 100,000 Syrian refugees – vetting be damned – because he sees it, after all, as the right thing to do.

This month, the president went to Hiroshima to mark the dropping of atomic bombs over seventy years ago on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The decision to do so was made by President Harry Truman in order to hasten an end to the long, horrific, and costly World War II, into which we had been provoked four years before by Japan's surprise attack on our military installation at Pearl Harbor that killed thousands, including some civilians, and basically destroyed America's peacetime naval fleet.

Before heading to Hiroshima, President Obama stated that his intent was not to apologize for what we had done.  Be that as it may, he seized upon his journey as an opportunity to hype the perception of himself as a better, more compassionate breed of leader, pledged to do everything in his power to see that such a tragedy never happens again.  And ever mindful of his impending legacy, Obama – a much taller figure than his Japanese hosts – gave the moral impression of all but walking on his knees.

Most glaring to those of us who were around during World War II was the omission of any explanation by the current news media as to why President Truman had, after much agonizing deliberation, decided to drop the bombs.  By then, the Americans had occupied Okinawa and Iwo Jima, but a Japanese army of over two million still guarded the home islands against invasion.

Allied demands for Japan's immediate and unconditional surrender had been presented to the Japanese government and rejected.  The communications included warnings of the terrible consequences to befall Japan if the war continued.  Well in advance, allied planes carpeted the cities with leaflets urging evacuation.

In the period before our ultimatum, over 3,500 Japanese bombing raids had wrought tremendous destruction and taken many lives.  Japanese fighters, who pledged total allegiance to Emperor Hirohito, willingly committed suicide in order to destroy their country's enemies.  And while comparisons of martial force lack relevance, the Japanese war machine was particularly brutal in its treatment of civilians around the globe.  It was estimated that, had the war continued, millions more lives would have been lost.

Nobody denies that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki carnage in August 1945 was horrific.  And as the first president to visit Hiroshima, Obama seemed to be ceremonially handed yet another opportunity to preside over our nation's historic flaws, as he has repeatedly with the issues of slavery and racial violence .

There's little doubt that Obama relishes his role as Moralizer in Chief, standing at the bully pulpit and wagging a sanctimonious finger at all things – such as gun ownership or keeping Guantanamo open – that fail to measure up to his moral expectations.  And so his trip to Hiroshima served the additional purpose of defending himself against overwhelming homeland criticism over the inequitable agreement he had struck with Iran "to make sure" (a favorite phrase of his) there wouldn't be a nuclear disaster equal to multiple Hiroshimas.

Obama has never concerned himself with a balanced presentation of facts.  We see this, for instance, in the way his enablers have cherry-picked arguments relating to global warming.  He is not even above using distortions and lies, as he did with Obamacare.  Once he decides something is the "right thing to do," all objections are invalidated and every means used to drive his will forward.  As a result, his overriding zeal for nailing down some kind of Iran nuclear "deal" enables him to live with its obvious shortcomings, as well as with his shortsighted decision to put the "treaty" in place for only about ten years – just long enough for him to be well out of office and beyond blame.

Public bathrooms have little to do with universal bloodbaths, but even they are under moral scrutiny by the Obama administration, all in the name of making us a more decent and humane people.  Thus, his Department of Justice has decreed that all school restrooms must accommodate students according to their "sexual identity."  Behind this edict lies the threat of withholding government funds for other school-related benefits, such as lunches for poor kids.  Apparently, the stick is more palatable than the carrot.

And then there is this administration's moralistic meddling that has resulted in a pitched battle between the State of North Carolina and the Department of Justice, which declared unconstitutional the state law requiring people to use public restrooms in accordance with their biological sex.

I am aware that every generation thinks it invented sex.  But this generation is actually the first to invent a way of changing it at will!  Multitudes of taxpayers' money will go down the drain before this bathroom business is finally flushed away.

However inane the issue, it's up for grabs in an election year.  And the leaders of the Democratic Party – from the top holier-than-thou dog down – believe in the infallibility of their moral credentials.  Liberals also expect that any matter dealing with perceived inequalities favors them politically.

Nobody puts the transgender bender up there with jobs, the economy, terrorism, health care, immigration, or the national debt as a major concern for most Americans.  But in the upcoming campaign, we can expect Democrats to exploit this issue, along with other social and moral ones, in a scramble to occupy the moral high ground.  After all, it's the right thing to do – even if it's done for the wrong reasons!

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/05/the_moralizer_in_chief.html

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/05/obama_at_hiroshima.html