Ilhan Omar Rallies Against Western Imperialism
Rep. Ilhan Omar stumps for Sen. Bernie Sanders at a University of Minnesota rally. Byron York of The Washington Examiner and Fox Nation Host Tomi Lahren provide perspective.
The United States of America has been perhaps the greatest force for good that the world has ever seen, but many Democrats believe otherwise. Their blindness to America’s virtues makes it impossible for them to utilize those virtues effectively.
At a Minnesota rally at which she endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for the Democratic presidential nomination, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., proclaimed that the socialist senator from Vermont would end “Western imperialism.”
Omar’s remarks are just the most recent incendiary anti-American statements to come from “the Squad” — the group of four far-left Democrats in the House of Representatives who are driving their party’s embrace of radical politics. The Squad’s downright disdain for our country is appalling, so receiving the endorsement of one of its most outspoken members should be more of a liability to Sanders' campaign than an asset.
Omar and the other members of the Squad consider America a force for evil in the world. As a result, they are working to undermine American exceptionalism at home and our standing abroad. When Omar says that Sanders will end “Western imperialism,” she means that he’ll unilaterally surrender America’s power and influence in the world.
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Throughout her tenure in office, and even before, Omar has made her anti-American worldview perfectly clear. Who could forget Omar drawing a moral equivalence between the United States and Al Qaeda? Or, when she wrote off the 9/11 attacks as “some people did something?” Or, the many times she sent anti-Semitic tweets evoking age-old stereotypes about Jews?
Omar recently gave another prime example of her blame-America-first attitude when she refused to support a resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide at the hands of Turkey during World War I. As she later explained, she just couldn’t bring herself to support a resolution that didn’t include criticism of the United States.
“A true acknowledgment of historical crimes against humanity must include both the heinous genocides of the 20th century, along with earlier mass slaughters like the transatlantic slave trade and Native American genocide, which took the lives of hundreds of millions of indigenous people in this country,” Omar said, exaggerating the number of Native Americans on this continent during the time of European settlement and American expansion. Such exploitative language clouds reasonable discussions about our history and denies the reality of American greatness at home and in the world.
Omar’s bogus rationalization for voting against the resolution was just an excuse to trash America, and once again it came at the expense of moral legitimacy.
In 2001, when I was governor of Arkansas, I signed a proclamation recognizing the Armenian genocide because it was the appropriate thing to do. The facts of the case are clear, and it’s morally wrong for Omar to deny the destruction of more than a million innocent people, especially while using it as an opportunity to attack her adopted homeland.
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Despite the bevy of public statements showcasing Omar’s deep-rooted anti-American sentiment, Democrats still refuse to disavow the first-term congresswoman. In fact, they consistently rally to her defense.
Omar boasts the support of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other prominent members of the party, who even went so far as to neuter a House resolution that was meant to condemn Omar’s anti-Semitic comments.
Democrats haven’t even tried to remove Omar from the House Committee on Foreign Affairs — the powerful committee that guides American foreign policy — despite her disparaging attitude toward our own country as well as many of our closest allies.
By accepting Omar’s endorsement, Sanders gave his imprimatur to the Democratic Party’s burgeoning anti-America faction. Of course, that shouldn’t surprise anyone, considering Sanders' own long history of cozying up to America’s enemies, which includes spending his honeymoon in the Soviet Union.
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America has been a beacon of hope to oppressed and impoverished people the world over throughout our history, standing against tyranny and delivering life-saving aid to the world’s poor without asking anything more in return than enough ground to bury our dead and respect for our rights abroad.
Sanders and Omar either can’t see or won’t acknowledge the tremendous amount of good that the United States continues to bring to the world as a beacon of hope and human liberty, and that alone makes them unfit to represent the American people. America can only continue to be a force for good in the world if our leaders believe we can.
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