Miss Popularity

La Mona (Charen, no Jiménez) reflexiona sobre la nueva obsesión de los demócratas: restaurar la imágen del país en el mundo. Su conclusión: "we do not need to reintroduce America to the world, we need to remember that the world’s moral focus can be strangely distorted."

A new poll commissioned by the BBC World Service will doubtless give Democrats more fits. Questioning respondents in 34 countries, the BBC asked for opinions about 13 countries — Brazil, Britain, China, France, Germany, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the U.S. — and the European Union. The U.S. didn’t fare very well. On average, 47 percent of those questioned had a “mainly negative” view of America’s influence in the world, versus only 35 percent with a “mainly positive” view. Unsurprisingly, Israel was second to the bottom, below everyone except Iran. The European Union did well with a 52-percent positive rating Germany and Japan clocked in with a 56-percent positive rating.

I wonder whether Democrats ever indulge the suspicion that “world opinion” may be bunk? Let’s contrast, for example, the popularity of Israel (19-percent positive, 52-percent negative) and North Korea (23 percent positive, 44-percent negative). Israel is a fully functioning democracy with a free press, an independent judiciary, one of the highest standards of living in the world (including for its Arab citizens, who enjoy a far higher standard of living than the average Arab in any Arab country), full civil rights, and the rule of law — all of this despite being under relentless terrorist attack.

...And the United States? Well, we’ve conducted a difficult, frustrating, but essentially benevolent five-year effort to liberalize and democratize two very tough customers: Afghanistan and Iraq. And we’ve imprisoned several hundred known and suspected terrorists — giving them medical care, culturally sensitive food, prayer rugs, a Koran, and a dental plan.

Actually, these international polls may not mean much. If the U.S. were truly unpopular, would we be building fences to keep immigrants out? Would the U.S. be the world’s third-most-popular tourist destination? And would the world’s people be glad to not have the U.S. available when another catastrophe like the Asian tsunami or the Bosnian crisis looms?