Of all of the irritating and intolerable things about the Left, perhaps the worst is their smug self-confidence that they are on “the right side of history.” The assumption that history has a “right side” that can be easily determined in the current moment is part and parcel of the liberal delusion.
We were treated to this sad spectacle yet again this week by President Obama, who, while visiting Angela Merkel in Germany, went out of his way to laud her for her pathological altruism that led to an uncontrolled flood of more than a million Islamic migrants from unstable countries into Germany, setting off a disaster that has only now been reduced in scope after ordinary Germans rose up against it.
While Obama praised Merkel as being on “the right side of history,” he was quick to criticize Germans who would like to live in a country more resembling Germany than Syria:
“She is giving voice to the kinds of principles that bring people together rather than divide them,” Obama said.
So for those of you who need translation into the latest Newspeak: Letting your country be overrun by an uncontrolled migration of more than one million unvetted foreigners from a profoundly different culture, who profess a religion with large elements that are hostile to Western freedoms — and then forcing your citizens to pay for it. That is “uniting.” Demanding that your country exercise its sovereignty, enforce its border regulations, and pursue the interests of its own citizens first — that’s “dividing.” Thanks for clearing that up, Mr. President. Actually, on second thought, Merkel did unite the country, as right and left came together to question the insane desire of their country’s elites to immolate Germany in the name of political correctness.
I don’t mean to be smug about what is undoubtedly a humanitarian tragedy with complex causes and effects (though it seems that many recent arrivals were economic migrants rather than refugees), but only a Democrat (or a Merkel) would be unable to grasp the idea that one of the biggest ways to stop unnecessary migrant deaths is to make it clear that you will not allow unauthorized entrants. Australia did that, and the illegal migrant boats stopped.
Perhaps Merkel was hoping to boost Germany’s population, since Germans, having largely taken up the fashionable leftist cultural trends, have decided that having kids is so 20th-century. Germany currently has a birth rate of about 1.4 children per woman (an amount boosted by immigrants — the birth rate for natives is 1.3), and so without immigration, Germany’s population would be crashing. What could go wrong, though? Just ask the French and Belgians and they’ll tell you how outstandingly their immigration policies have worked out.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Obama if the moral sanctimony weren’t also heavily tinged with hypocrisy. “It is a pity that the chancellor could not turn to (Obama) when she needed help with the refugee crisis,” the influential German weekly Der Spiegel wrote on its website. Obama, of course was quick to scold Republicans for being mean and awful about their desire not to admit large numbers of “Syrian refugees,” but when it came to expending his own political capital, he was nowhere to be found. Come to think of it, perhaps compared to his own hypocritical behavior, Merkel’s was praiseworthy after all.