By Abe Greenwald at Commentary "What is America’s purpose in the world? At the end of 2016, with Barack Obama’s two term presidency coming to a close,the question seems almost outmoded. Not only does the United States currently have no national purpose; the very idea of a national purpose is now unfashionable. This is the logical result of eight years of American political leadership devoted to minimizing American global leadership.
"In our democratic republic, we choose presidents who reflect the national mood, and they in turn lead a nation that becomes a reflection of them. In 2008, Americans were tired of the war in Iraq and elected Barack Obama on his promise to end that war—but he had a far larger retreat in mind. Pursuing a staunchly progressive worldview, Obama would oversee the withdrawal of American power around the globe. Yet as his vision of a better world lost out to the reality of a much more treacherous one, he refused to change course. Responding to the new threats would have distilled for the country a new sense of national purpose—something Obama expressly feared. In exacerbating and then downplaying a rising global wave of theocratic and secular tyranny, the "President has left our sense of national purpose in a shambles. And having done so, he will depart the White House with the free world at great risk." . . .
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