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Unmaking my day
I turned on the tv Sunday morning to C-SPAN. Prime Minister Berlusconi of Italy was addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress. The very first thing I heard him say, in English, was, “When I see your flag, the flag of the United States, I do not see just the flag of a great nation. I see a universal symbol of freedom and democracy.” I’m sure this made the likes of William Kristol and Roberg Kagan titter with happiness; it made me turn off the tv in disgust. However, evidently unable to resist further punishment, I turned the tv back on a few minutes later, and Berlusconi was saying, in Italian, about 9/11 and other terrorist attacks, that “This is not a clash of civilizations. This is not an attack by Islam on the West. The terrorists are also attacking moderate Islam.” Then he said that because of the rising population in the Muslim world, the West must lift Muslims out of poverty. He constantly used Bushite expressions such as the “spread of democracy.” He must have said the word “democracy” about 8,000 times in the speech. With a European “conservative” touting “universal democracy,” “moderate Islam,” and a Western project to lift the world of Islam out of poverty, who needs liberals?
Listening to Berlusconi, I realized how profoundly the rhetoric of the president of the United States influences the whole world, for good or ill. President Bush speaks global-democratist claptrap, and the leaders of all countries well disposed to us automatically fall into step behind him. Imagine what the world would look like if there were a U.S. president speaking the language of traditionalism. Email entry |