Germany, Not America, Is Now The Leader Of The Free World
In 1987 President Reagan uttered the famous quote "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!", and tear down the wall he did. A man who admires President Reagan, President-Elect Trump rose to popularity riding a wave of populism and nationalist, anti-immigrant sentiment. Unlike Mr. Reagan, Mr. Trump doesn't seek to tear down walls, but rather to build them.
On Wednesday, Europe woke up to an election result few had expected or favored. They also woke up to the 27th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. November 9th, 2016, will also go down in history as the moment that Germany woke up as the clear leader of the free world, as the true defenders of liberty and freedom for all of humankind. Poetic and historic.
This sentiment began in late 2014 and continued to build throughout 2015 and 2016... Merkel was named by Time as Person of the Year in 2015 with the distinction of being "Chancellor of the Free World", surely the editors were hinting at something greater, but likely didn't want to feel the backlash of writing Leader instead of Chancellor. Fast forward 12 months, there is no argument to be made but to recognize her and Germany as the leader's of the free world.
2/20/2015 - Angela Merkel: The real leader of the free world
3/1/2015 - Articles: Will the real leader of the free world please stand up?
9/12/2015 - Germany, leader of the free world
2/23/2015 - builds on the Macleans article, Europe And Canada No Longer See America As Leader Of The Free World -- Now It’s Germany - Europe and Canada no longer see the US as the leader of the free world, they instead recognize Angela Merkel as the rightful claimant to that title.
There are many articles and my mind is racing, but I will leave this with two more articles and then respond to the impending outrage.
10/01/2016 - Trump Is Unfit as Leader of the Free World
11/09/2016 - Angela Merkel has given the perfect response to Donald Trump's unprecedented victory (on Facebook this article was posted with the headline Is Merkel now the Leader of the Free World? a question to which the answer is a resounding yes).
Russia's sphere of influence grows, as does China's. Britain has chosen to withdraw and tip its hat, unwinding what was once the largest empire on the planet. Turkey will shortly see a President transform into an absolute dictator with ambitions to restore the glory of the Ottoman empire.
France will likely elect Marine Le Pen in their upcoming election, and with her anti-EU sentiment, leaving behind Germany as the last beacon of hope for those that believe in absolute liberty and freedom for all of humankind.
With a victory in the '17 elections Merkel will be given a mandate to not only lead Germany, but to lead Europe, and the free world.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated the President-elect and offered “close cooperation”, but tacitly criticised Mr Trump in her speech. She told reporters in Berlin his election campaign featured “confrontations that were difficult to bear”.Ms Merkel stressed Germany's close historical connection with the US but added: “Germany and America are connected by values: democracy, freedom, respect for the law and for the dignity of human beings, independently of origin, skin colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political views.
“On the basis of these values, I am offering the future President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, close cooperation.”
Merkel, not Trump, speaks from the moral high-ground. They need us, and we need them, but the values for what we once fought viciously against Germany to defend, they are now defending, and we are the aggressor whom they are fighting. The sword of liberty has exchanged hands, and the leader who now wields it is Chancellor Merkel, god-willing she will be re-elected with a mandate to continue to lead in the coming German '17 elections, and continue to fight for what we once stood for.
This has gone wild on Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/5cc4e7/germany_not_america_i…
Then you should leave U.S. - take Lena Dunham with you.
So what do you mean by moral high ground? You mean the part she accepted the refugees?
The first responsibility of the government is to keep its citizens safe. Refugees ran havoc in Germany, if you haven't heard. This should not happen even once, if she is a true politician who is concerned about Germans.
And the part about Russians? Why do you think that is? Obama's "OMG I don't want any trouble" is why. And the part about Assad? Why do you think that is? Obama's "please don't cross this red line. I will be very disappointed" is why.
Stop saying moral high ground, liberty, etc. - those buzzwords that you use to convince people without offering something concrete.
So should we keep the illegal immigrants here and fuck those who are in line for years and years while illegal immigrants pay no tax and get benefits - in the name of moral high ground? Would you be willing to donate 50% of your salary for that cause?
So should we bring in more Syrian refugee when we cannot really vet them in any way? Would you put the refugee family in your apartment and feed them?
Unless you can say yes to both and will do for both, you shouldn't say anything.
This is true. Did you also hear what she said to the young women who were getting assaulted and raped? That's right, she said that they should not walk alone at night and watch their attire. She essentially victim blamed the young german women getting assaulted and raped by the refugees.
In response to immigration in the US, universal healthcare and open boarders are in strict contradiction with each other or should be. You can't want free healthcare for all and then have millions of people immigrating into the country, the economics just don't work. While I personally am not in favor of "free" healthcare, look at the countries that do have it. They are the most insular of people and homogeneous with THE strictest immigration laws. You can't have your cake and eat it too, so take your pick do you want open boarders or do you want free healthcare?
Well Germany has both, as Sweden, and the list goes on
I don't say this lightly, but you sir are out of your titties.
Said with a few beers and the caveat you re-engaged me to have a civil tete-a-tete.
We are the world, the world is strength. America is the only hegemonic power, our influence is felt far and wide both economically and culturally. At the end of the day who cares what Europe thinks, Europe has been in decline since the Peace of Westphalia and more rapidly since WWII. Have you ever been to Europe, there is only the rich and everyone else...and gypsies but that's another point.
Deporting millions of people, not a fascist policy. Deporting millions of citizens is fascist, deporting millions of people who have come into America ILLEGALLY, well that seems morally fine to me. With foresight and age, there will be no register of muslims, there will likely be no deporting of illegals on a mass scale I believe the cost would be too great. That's not even why the average voter voted for Trump. I think it is a huge assumption that that's what his whole platform was for, so I argue why that out of all his saying is the crux of his presidency.
To quote a passage you quoted
"Ms Merkel stressed Germany's close historical connection with the US but added: "Germany and America are connected by values: democracy, freedom, respect for the law and for the dignity of human beings, independently of origin, skin colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political views."
This is political rhetoric, I get it. But this sounds like a statement the TSA made 5 years ago when people complained that they stop and frisked their 80-year old caucasian grandmother. It is great to be color/race blind but to use intelligence to discern that maybe some Muslims coming from Syria might have a penchant and cultural disposition to abuse women well that is stupid. It's not seeing the forest for the trees.
There is a political elite. They like socialist policies, they hate white people because they think that white people are racist. This political elite was 100% wrong about this election. I read the National Review and The Weekly Standard, and never thought Trump had a chance. Do I like him, NO. Am I tired or being chastised for wanting family values and to not have a word police and thought police, yes.
Now granted you didn't ask all this but I answered the question I wanted to answer.
Rational immigration policies are not only not fascism, the federal government's authority over immigration is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. I understand that Marxists, such as yourself, are not familiar with the U.S. Constitution, but it's the antithesis of fascism.
Everyone needs to relax. Let's just wait and see what Trump does. We can judge him based on his actions when he's in power. At the moment, all of this panic is achieving nothing.
TLDR.... but skimmed. Fuck off. This is Trump's America.
Not yet....
The nation is far from being a beacon of freedom and liberty that foreigners claim it is.
So you can imagine the situation regarding freedom in a lot of those other countries.
I feel that the Greeks beg to differ.
set yourself a reminder to bump this thread in September 2017 when Merkel loses to populists.
Merkel is awesome for keeping the EU together, no question about it, but Germany just got rid of communism during my lifetime, let's wait a few more decades before declaring their chancellor the leader of the free world.
If you Google leader of the free world, this is now a first page result. This page was mentioned on a local radio show in NYC this morning.
so because the mainstream media or Google says it, it's true?
also, Putin was the person of the year in 2007, Ayatollah Khomeini was the person of the year in 1979, and the runners up for 2015 were (not making this up)
-black lives matter -Uber CEO -Caitlyn Jenner -Putin -Trump -Hassan Rouhani (Iranian prez) -Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, which if you didn't know is the leader of ISIS
I'll make my own judgments, TIME magazine clearly isn't saying "BE THIS PERSON" when the appoint a person of the year
wake the fuck up people
Hahaha, some really rich threads today
Germany is close to a failed state. Merkel will be voted out at the next opportunity. If you think Trump is bad (I don't) wait until PEGIDA takes the majority in Germany.
Close to a failed state under what metric? I am genuinely curious as to how you came to this conclusion.
Hyperbole, bored at work. Also don't think PEGIDA will take majority.
But there is mass unrest in Germany and in Sweden over feelings of betrayal from their government. Exact same populism as Brexit and Trump. They have an immigrant crime wave and the only response from government and media is to admonish the citizens not to be Islamophobic.
The moral high ground doesn't mean shit when it doesn't represent the views of the people of that country. Have you looked at the views of the German people today? Something around 60% of the population is said to support the opposition party in this upcoming election that is running on a platform of leaving the EU. Same can be said for France, people love to push this idea that Europe is just a bunch of people who are all holding hands and singing happy songs. The reality is that the people that live there have been royally fucked by the globalists that have been running the European continent for the past 25 years and the populations are standing up to take their cultures back.
You can call them racists, bigots, homophobes, zenophobes, etc. But, you do not understand their points of view because you have never even attempted to have a conversation with any of them.
can someone explain to me how globalism has "fucked" Europe? I mean I understand how the disconnect between fiscal and monetary policy b/w individual countries and the EU is an issue but that has nothing to do with immigration. I would seriously like some color on this.
The same way it has affected the USA, a larger part of the population have seen their prospects go away not only for them but for their children as well. Europe has an even higher rate of youth unemployment than the US does. Not only are the identities of the individual countries under assault from the EU, but the European culture itself is under assault from people who are cool with bringing in tens of millions of people who hold zero views that are on the same page as western liberalism.
Europe believes that when common sense and a careful approach to differences in culture opposes liberal values, common sense and care and long-termism is morally wrong.
While a lot of what Trump says deeply disturbs me (which is why I did not vote for him), I understand why people voted for him, and I certainly understand Brexit.
If humanitarianism isn't pragmatic, if it doesn't think about the long run, its outcomes aren't sustainable and its results are decidedly anti-humanitarian.
Think I touched a nerve with this... 950 comments on reddit, 1400 upvotes, delisted by the mods after 4 and a half hours... the Irish Times published a piece that pretty much used the same open I did today - http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/angela-merkel-becomes-leade…
Many other sources are now questioning if the US is still the leader of the free world and nearly all are proposing Germany as an alternative.
This is likely Merkel's gift from the gods, she may be able to ride this to a victory come next years election.
Merkel acts after the Frankfurt School. I don't think she actually fight for the freedom. She probably fights for the freedom portrayed in the French Revolution. Freedom, Equality and I don't know what more exactly. Well, she's a Democrat, if she lived in UK, she surelly would not leave UK to take America and she would not fight in a Civil War for her real Freedom.
As she does, she simply leave straneous people invade her country. And she'll complain even more about them. She want's to be part of the EU, but I doubt that she wants to pay the bills from Greece.
So, she is only talking bullshit. That's what democrats do this days. They talk bullshit and that's why they make polls and they don't even win anymore.
Philosophycally, it's a world-wide phenomena. People don't believe traditional stuff. Politicians who have popularity in social-network are winning votes from real people, who work real hard. They're fooling polls, they're fooling the lies from conventional media. And they're fooling liars who say stupid fallacies to try to convince people of their bullshit.
Fact is, Merkel will lose. You see tv/cinema stars from the 90's finally stopping being spoiled by reporters, musicians going broke because nobody buy their music, porn actresses making more money than professional movie authors. The world got done of the bullshit.
Just stop looking at this coloured world, get real. Or you'll too be left behind.
I don't think it's really a big issue. America is still the world's leader. Whether or not it's a "free" world in your view is largely irrelevant to the country that voted differently than you did.
Is the OP fucking serious? Just this year the German government threatened prosecution of journalists for criticism of the Turkish president. Defender of liberty and freedom? Really??
And further, Germany has virtually no offensive military. You can't lead the free world without the ability to actually fight for freedom and liberty and oppose dictatorship. And further, Germany just got humiliated by Brexit in June, a complete rejection of Merkel's de facto leadership. Further, Germany is under siege by social unrest. Germany is the leader of nothing but a dying European Union.
Do you get your facts from breitbart?
"Germany is the leader of nothing but a dying European Union"
This is the dumbest thing I have heard in a while !
The 2nd largest economy in the EU just voted to leave. The next 5 years will likely see referendums in Italy and France. The EU's deathblow is just a matter of time.
Gotta love a guy championing for a 4th Reich also saying how Germany leads the free world
Germany ain't doing shit.
Germany invited all the refugees and money hungry people from Africa into Europe, now how is that a country that you could describe as leader of the free world? A true leader of the free world should've known that inviting in leeches isn't going the keep the free world free for long.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/11/21/how-angela…
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