"Our Country!
In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right;
but right or wrong, our country!"

    --Commodore Stephen Decatur

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Liberty, Not Democracy

Winston Churchill famously quipped, "Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried."  In the Revolutionary War, our founding fathers realized this.  They fought for liberty, not for democracy.  Too many nations in the world have been founded on "democratic" principles, but without any respect for liberty and human rights.  Democrats seem to be equally confused about what makes America special.

Today, we hear that internet giant Google is going toe-to-toe with China over internet censorship.  The Forbes article quotes a representative of the Obama Administration as being, "disappointed that Google and the Chinese government could not reach an agreements [sic]."  In last year's Iranian protests, it was another American technology company, this time Twitter, which was on the front lines of liberty.  Again, the President Obama expressed disappointment and "concern."

As the Washington Post reports today, other American companies are increasing pressure on China citing intellectual property violations and unfair business practices.  Internet domain name provider GoDaddy just announced they will stop selling any new .cn domain names.  In the wake of Obamacare, President Obama is too busy either admiring himself in the mirror or high-fiving Rahm Emanuel to issue a public statement praising these businesses for their courageous defense of liberty.

The Commander-in-Chief would do well to remember the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. who said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."  Whenever we allow the forces of tyranny and oppression to squash freedom in the world, we send a message that we are no longer strong enough to defend our own liberty.  Private companies can only do so much.  Great presidents like Reagan and Truman understood that ultimately, the forces of freedom around the world look to our President for moral authority.



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