Everyone remembers Barack Obama’s bluster and pretend red-lines along with his expressed intention to keep ISIS “contained”. Americans knew at the time that it was a pile of crap. They knew Obama would never oppose a Muslim cause, then you know full well that ISIS and rogue nations like Iran and North Korea did not fear Obama. But thinking Americans did fear Obama’s passive attitude toward those and other nations who have sworn to kill Americans.
On the subject of domestic dealings, Obama’s pledge to Fundamentally Transform America terrified every thinking American who heard his words and took them seriously. Obama would not stand up to our enemies and try to destroy them, but he would do everything in his power to destroy America from within, and this destruction from within was good news to those nations who hate America.
So if my analysis is accurate, and I believe it is, thinking Americans feared Obama and foreign enemies loved him.
But now we have a president who has reversed the tables. Donald Trump’s promise to Make America Great Again is thrilling to American citizens because it means a return to those policies that made America the most wealthy and free nation in the world. And his policy of launching military action when he has warned a bad actor of retaliation for attacks on innocent persons (Syria is a good example of a rogue nation who now takes Trump seriously) is already gaining America more respect from our enemies.
When a government is feared by its own citizens, it’s a bad government. But when a government is loved and respected by its citizens, it’s a good government.
Your last line says it all, Mr. King.
If Americans feel better about themselves as Americans, while the rest of the world fears out strength, we can only see good come from it. For too long we have lived under the burden that as Americans we need to apologize to the rest of the world for our abundance. We sweated, bled and died for that abundance and it is time we accepted our exceptional form of government as the reason we have done so well.