Suddenly the Lone Ranger is Un-American

Nope, not our Lone Ranger but he is definitely on the endangered species list as living a dying way of life. Hard to believe but the Lone Ranger Approach to life is now "UNAMERICAN"...and imperils the US' place in the world... Here is an excerpt from a Jonah Goldberg article that basically lays out how it is that we are suddenly embarrassed to be ourselves...an epidemic these days either here or in Europe. He mentions that in the new Superman movie [which I have not seen] that Superman now says..."Truth, Justice, and All that is Good"... which is telling of a general feeling about how our trademark way of life can no longer be sold to the world. I wonder what will replace our Apple Pie...

One institution that has hopped aboard the cosmopolitan bandwagon is the Supreme Court, particularly the more liberal slice of it. Long before the Hamdan decision came down, the court was embroiled in various controversies about its increasingly cosmopolitan jurisprudence. When she was still on the bench, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor predicted that justices “will find ourselves looking more frequently to the decisions of other constitutional courts” because globalization is creating “one world.” Justice Stephen Breyer has defended his reading of Zimbabwean law to better understand the U.S. Constitution. Justices David Souter, John Paul Stevens, and Anthony Kennedy concur that international opinion in general, and the decisions of foreign judges in particular,may influence how the court should view our laws and Constitution. To do otherwise,warns Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, would be to follow a “Lone Ranger” approach.

There are plenty of good-faith arguments on both sides of the Hamdan decision, which invalidated the Bush administration’s policy at Guantanamo Bay. But it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the ruling holding that the U.S. mustbe bound by Article 3 of the Geneva Convention—even when dealing with terrorists who are not signatories to the convention—stems from a certain cosmopolitan embarrassment over U.S. unilateralism.

Working outside the Geneva Convention—even when legal—is apparently wrong because that’s the “Lone Ranger” approach. Of course, Superman has always changed with the times. During the New Deal era, he was a “champion of the oppressed.” What is disturbing is that “the American way” now seems to have become code for arrogant unilateralism that falls somewhere outside truth, justice, and all that is good.

What has our "American Way of Life" done to the world...in terms of daily living and the example of democracy...that we should suddenly want to shy away from its merits? Granted it is not the only way of life...but who are they kidding...living as we do just doesn't happen anywhere.

Reading those justices comments suggests What? "We are all full up here...having no good idea left to offer? Let's go see what they are doing in Africa and copy that."