In Santo Domingo on her way to the Summit of Americas, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “Let’s put ideology aside, that’s so yesterday.” Really?
Shouts for freedom have become tentative whispers. The clarion call for human rights has faded. The values and impulse of idealism that animated United States foreign policy have flatlined. Fidelity to realism and pragmatism abroad has resulted in infidelity to our better selves. If this is “change” we can believe in, it certainly is not the change voiceless victims of repression and abuse around the world had hoped for nor what they have come to expect from America, the shining city on a hill.
The hesitancy, caution, and muted words of President Obama after the Iranian election irregularities and brutal crackdown are the most prominent example of America’s retreat from the frontlines of human rights protection and democracy promotion, but they are not singular. They are part of a troubling pattern of retreat.
Unquestionably, the American people made a decision about President George W. Bush and it was not kind. For more than three years, his approval numbers languished at historic lows. While time may recalibrate that judgment, the failure to find weapons of mass destruction and the mistakes in post-conflict Iraq, Katrina mismanagement, and the scandalous events at Abu Ghraib have left an indelible mark. It is easy to understand President Obama’s desire to distance himself from his predecessor.
In attempting to contrast his presidency from that of George W. Bush, President Obama is traveling a well-worn path of previous presidents new in office. Stylistically there is certainly a dramatic contrast between the two men, as there is in many policy areas such as healthcare, tax policy, and environmental issues—even as in areas such as the deadline for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq the policy is basically the same but with a new rhetorical ribbon. But, sadly, it increasingly appears, that when it comes to human rights and democracy, the Obama administration’s view is “that’s so yesterday.”
Fidelity to realism and pragmatism abroad has resulted in infidelity to our better selves.
President Bush’s second inaugural address eloquently laid out freedom’s call, but perhaps overshot its mark. The energy of the Orange, Rose, and Cedar revolutions in Ukraine, Georgia, and Lebanon, respectively, suggested that freedom comes easy and quickly. But it does not. It is a hard, difficult, uneven journey. Iraq and Afghanistan’s costly and uncertain futures, Russia’s retrenchment, and tyranny in Burma, Belarus, and Zimbabwe provide testimony to ample impediments to freedom’s march.
Events have reminded us that history, heritage, and habits are incubators of democracy. Democracy cannot be imposed onto a society. The forms freedom will take are different depending on the soil in which it grows, but all free societies are built upon the values of personal liberty, the rule of law, vibrant civil society, a free press, and self-determination. Liberty is the right and desire of all women and men, and often they need help to realize that aspiration: inspiration, solidarity, technical assistance, material aid, and political and practical support. And America’s history is one of recognizing those values, identifying with those oppressed seeking human rights and freedom, and embracing the opportunity and responsibility to support freedom’s march.
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