Paul Krugman, in his typically detatched and rational way, says the no-voters have committed a kind of treason against the planet. Nevermind that the case for allegiance to the planet is difficult to make in legal terms (though certainly not so hard in Gaia-worshipping metaphysical terms--'can you harm the mother that bore you?!?') and that the last time the United States had gumption enough to actually try and convict someone of treason against the United States was in 1952 (Tomoya Kawakita). I daresay there's been a good deal of reasonably clear-cut treason to be found since then (the Rosenbergs were executed for espionage--which has a minor technical difference from treason), but the only indictment since then has been Adam Yahiye Gadahn (2006).
But Krugman's quick jump to the T-word reminds me of something Chesterton wrote in his great polemic, Orthodoxy:
Darwinism can be used to back up two mad moralities, but it cannot be used to back up a single sane one. The kinship and competition of all living creatures can be used as a reason for being insanely cruel or insanely sentimental; but not for a healthy love of animals. On the evolutionary basis you may be inhumane, or you may be absurdly humane; but you cannot be human.Insane sentimentality has taken over if Krugman is any indication.
Meanwhile, even the famously nutty regimes in North Korea and Iran look sane in comparison to the irrationality that passes for American foreign policy these days. Apparently desperate to relieve the world of its worries about American proclivities for meaningful action, Obama has steadfastly kept the negotiating table clear and the chairs warm for Iran, even while the regime brutally crushes legitimate outrage over its blatantly fixed election. Well, it's clear that one facet of the policy at least worked: Iran isn't half so worried about the USA as it once was. The same goes for North Korea. Both of these bad actors share a peculiar rationality: they know what they want, and they know how to get it. America, however, knows what it wants (sort of) and goes about not getting any of it with great ingenuity.
While America may collectively be conflicted about projecting a strong image abroad, it is strength that the bad actors of the world respect. Cicero put it this way: "Oderint, dum metuant." [Let them hate so long as they fear.] When the regimes that threaten harm to their neighbors and to the interests of the United States no longer fear the world's lone superpower, they will seek without caution their own ends.
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