Here’s a video clip that’s been making the rounds: President Obama ‘saluting’ his military honor guards with a disposable coffee cup in his right hand. It has sparked enormous anger among conservatives and patriots.
Here’s why. It’s a small thing, I realize — a perfunctory, narcissistic non-salute pales in comparison to the truly grievous harm this president has done to this nation, and still intends to do — but it is deeply revealing of Mr. Obama’s utter disdain for, and disconnection from, core American principles of honor and heritage. What rankles most of all is that it violates the sacred, reciprocal obligations of the hierarchical ordering that sustain an organic society.
These men — these Marines — stand ready, at any moment, to die for that society, and for the man they salute. The members of this consecrated Männerbund place themselves, as a living sword, in the hand of their Commander in Chief; it is only this forswearance of their sovereignty over themselves that protects and guarantees Mr. Obama’s sovereignty of the nation.
In return, the President is bound by duty — and if nothing else, by simple self-interest! — to honor his end of this bargain. Even though he is the commander, with the power of life and death over these men, they deserve his respect, every bit as much as he deserves theirs. (Far, far more so, in his case, but that’s beside the point here.)
This vertical binding, by sacred reciprocal obligations and mutual respect, is essential to the life of any organic, non-coercive hierarchy. This has been understood since ancient times; it was as important in feudal societies as it still is in successful corporations. When the stakes are not mere profits, but the life and death of a nation and people, it becomes a matter of honor.
And that is the problem: for Mr. Obama, and for the Left generally, neither a military Männerbund such as the Marines, nor the American heritage and cultural tradition generally, are suitable objects of honor. For that matter, the very idea of ‘honor’ itself seems quaint, in that it is antithetical to the core ideas of the post-Enlightenment Left: corrosive skepticism and radical non-discrimination.
Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn understood this very well:
The leftist mind is driven by two conflicting characteristics — an impractical utopian idealism and a lack of a sense of honor. As a rule, idealism and honor are joined. Don Quixote was not practical, but he was a man of honor. Sancho Panza scoffed at honor, but he was a realist. The typical leftist is a dreamer without honor, and that is a troubling combination.
Troubling indeed.
10 Comments
Malcolm,
Prepare for a shitstorm of dishonorable Leftist mockery. The only salute they have any use for is the bird-flip.
They don’t need no stinkin’ honor — they got Obama.
I agree with the thrust of your piece here, but I think I want to go back to the time (before Ronald Reagan) when Presidents didn’t salute the Marines, or any other serviceman attending him at the White House. I understand Reagan felt “awkward” receiving the salute of the Marines and not doing anything to respond. But, perhaps we should return to the time when the President acted like a civilian and gave a nod to the Marines but didn’t salute.
For what it is worth, the President should at least have an aid who’s job it is to think about the “optics” of any situation and ask to hold the President’s latte.
I want to go back to a time when a president could think for himself and was concerned about honor rather than “optics”.
I think I’m closer to what Max-Leader’s sentiment is – qualified somewhat so to opine any Prez never to have served ought not salute at all but actual veterans may do so at option.
(I’m somewhat doubtful that, in what the actuarial tables indicate my probabilities of lasting through many more Presidential cycles, we’ll be enjoying anybody who’s “peculiarly appreciative” of what The/An Oath actually calls for and will not think “follow through” is referring to actions on manicured grass and decisions on the strategy of which club will be his(her) most momentous and weighty.)
Other than that, pre-election debates should be legislated so to ask any aspirant just what, militarily speaking, he/she thinks a salute actually means. Some might say “it’s to honor” while others may say, “it’s to show I’m unarmed.”
I have an opinion as to how the current occupant would’ve responded, but, he’d have been wrong: (presumably) hot latte is potentially dangerous, as anybody ever got same at a McDonald’s drive-through should know.
Good points. Technically there is no requirement for a president, or any civilian, to salute at all.
That’s fine. Any respectful acknowledgement is appropriate. What’s revealing here is the dismissive, perfunctory manner in which the gesture was made; it shows that actual respect for the men he was saluting never entered the president’s mind.
Too, and I realize it’s just picking nits but, I’ve always been troubled with Presidents saluting when uncovered.
http://www.uscgaux-ocnj.org/ Training/ Military%20Protocol%20Saluting%20WORD.doc
(Of course I realize eared as our currently is adorned, were he wearing a cover (cap/hat) exiting a helo in any situation where the Beaufort Scale is higher than 2 or so, he’d likely need to be tethered.)
Hmm. George Bush regularly saluted Marines while holding his dog Barney. Just google “George Bush saluting with dog” for lots of images.
I don’t recall howls of indignation from the right wing. Do you?
On a day when President Obama assembled a broad international coalition, including five Arab countries, to fight ISIS, all one heard on right wing media was the sounds of heads exploding because Obama had a coffee cup in his hand while saluting a Marine.
You can’t make this stuff up,
The military loved George Bush. He admired and respected them. Everybody knew this. His demeanor when interacting with them made this obvious.
That he occasionally had something in his left hand while saluting with his right is hardly a withering rebuttal. And “on a day” when your guy is sending our troops back into harm’s way, is it too much to ask that he show a little respect? To put down the goddam coffee cup? What pisses everyone off, Peter, is that it never even enters his mind.
Are you seriously still hot for this president? Even Chris Matthews isn’t feeling the tingle any more. At this point I think it’s down to just you, Cher, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the cast of The View, and 87% of black people.
I doubt he was ever hot for or serious about this president. He is hot for being a useful idiot to the so-called progressive worldview. He could never face the possibility that he has been wrong all his life.
Oh, I see. Holding a dog while saluting is A-OK. Holding a coffee cup while saluting is the imminent death of the Republic. Got it.
Everyone is not “pissed off.” Those in the hermetically sealed right wing bubble are pissed off, because everything about the President pisses them off. The rest of the world could not care less.
We had the same outrage a few weeks ago when Obama gave a press conference wearing a tan suit. A sign of Presidential weakness! Forget that Reagan wore tan suits all the time. Because … Obama.
Organizing a broad coalition, including five Arab countries, to fight an emerging threat is an example of Presidential leadership. However, since this doesn’t fit into the right wing narrative, the right wing media obsess over a triviality instead, and their gullible and excitable followers lap it up.
As for Obama’s popularity: his approval rating in the RCP poll-of-polls has been constant at 42-44% for over a year. The notion that he is an unpopular President with declining popularity exists only within the right wing bubble. It reminds me of Pauline Kael expressing astonishment that Nixon was elected, as nobody she personally knew supported him.