OPINION:
Two months prior to the recent start of the G-7 summit in Cornwall, England, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, President Biden’s hand-picked ambassador to the United Nations, made disparaging remarks to the National Action Network about her country (“Biden U.N. ambassador blasts U.S., rips ’White supremacy’ within ’founding documents and principles,’ Web, April 14).
She said, “I have seen for myself how the original sin of slavery weaved White supremacy into our founding documents and principles.” Those remarks, alongside her recent speech to the United Nations General Assembly (during which she spoke about America’s history of racism and her family’s experience with racial oppression) will long be remembered by America’s enemies. They will surely be echoed by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping at moments of these men’s choosing.
By “founding documents,” Ms. Thomas-Greenfield was referring to the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, two truly revolutionary and historic documents long-revered as masterpieces of democratic values. These papers by no small means provided the philosophic and legal foundations for the United States to become the freest and most prosperous republic in the history of civilization — and a shining beacon of freedom and opportunity for oppressed peoples everywhere.
Presidential administrations have the choice of championing or disparaging their nation’s history and achievements on the world stage. Historically, most administrations, including that of Donald Trump, have chosen the former. The Biden administration has chosen the latter. But there will be consequences.
One can easily picture Vladimir Putin having chortled to Mr. Biden when the two met this week: “Ha! Who are you to be lecturing Russia? Go back and fix your own crime-ridden, disintegrating, oppressive social order which even your own party disparages as systemically racist. You bring way too much baggage from your own country to be lecturing Russia about anything, especially honest elections and human rights.”
Sad to say, the strongman from Russia would be correct.
KEN BECKERT
Abingdon, Md.
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