Making America Small Again
Nothing illustrates the degree to which America’s standing in the world has been devalued under Donald Trump than the stern and frankly humiliating scolding our country received today from one of the lesser-known beacons of Freedom and guardians of Democracy, North Korea:
North Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned President Trump for pulling the United States out of the Paris agreement on climate change, dubbing it a “shortsighted and silly decision.”
In a statement published Tuesday on Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and attributed to an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman, the isolated country warned that “global warming is one of the gravest challenges humankind is facing today” and praised the Paris accord for its attempt to stop it.
Unlike the U.S., which now joins only war-ravaged Syria in repudiating the painstakingly crafted 195-nation climate pact (encompassing every developed nation on Earth; Nicaragua only refused to agree because the agreement did not go far enough), North Korea welcomed the global agreement, pledging like everyone else to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions for the sake of the rest of the world. In its statement concerning the Trump Administration’s action, North Korea’s much-vaunted free press checked its usual whimsical and gregarious impulses to issue a somber reflection on the serious threat the Trump regime’s action presents to the future of humanity:
Noting that the Trump administration had announced on June 1 that the United States would leave the landmark agreement, the unnamed official attributed the decision to Trump's “America First” policy and to ignorance “of the fact that the protection of the global environment is in their own interests.”
“This is the height of egotism and moral vacuum seeking only their own well-being at the cost of the entire planet,” the statement said.
Spokesmen for the North Korean regime tend (with good reason) to follow a fairly pre-approved script, so the reference to a “moral vacuum" is not a throwaway. Now that the United States has effectively abdicated its leadership role in the World (an action which, at least theoretically renders the Korean War a historical nullity) the fledgling nuclear power of the East clearly aims to fill that vacuum left in the former superpower’s wake. North Korea is sending an unmistakable signal that it is prepared to shoulder the difficult burden as the world’s moral compass:
Warning of a “dangerous ideological trend” that has emerged in the United States with Trump's election, North Korea warned other nations not to follow suit.
“Whoever chooses to blindly follow the Trump administration overpowered by its bravado should be fully aware that the judgment of history shall take them all as one,” the statement said.
Unlike Donald Trump, his counterpart, Kim Jong Un, can also tout himself as a leader whose government was elected with a huge popular mandate. As Danielle Wiener-Bronner, writing for The Atlantic explains, the elegant simplicity of the North Korean electoral system puts the fickle and apathetic American voter to shame:
[Voters] are presented with a single candidate in the district where they live. These candidates are chosen by the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, the governing coalition, which is controlled by the Workers' Party. There is only one box to tick. Abstaining or voting no would be a dangerous act of treason, given that voting takes place in booths that do not provide any secrecy, and dissenting votes must be posted into a separate ballot box.
As a result of these initiatives combined with an overwhelming public enthusiasm by the North Korean people for the democratic process, voter turnout and participation in North Korea often exceeds 100%. With numbers like these, it’s not hard to imagine why Kim Jong Un considers himself the rightful heir to the mantle of liberty that Trump has unilaterally discarded for us.
With the United States under Donald Trump’s supervision kneecapping itself into an afterthought on the world stage, it’s only a matter of time before the planet’s multitudes begin to train their gaze upon those leaders who can claim by their country’s actions the moral authority and determination to stand up for rest of the nations. Kim Jong Un is simply showing us what that will look like.
It seems Americans are just going to have to get used to it.
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