Obama's Shameful Submission

President Obama’s recent bow to Japanese Emperor Akihito is nothing more than disgraceful.

Of course, we have seen this before.

Remember the president’s bow before the Saudi king in April?

The very idea of a man bowing before his leader, or any other man, seems completely outrageous.

Such is more in accordance with the theoretical underpinnings of the divine right of kings than with natural rights philosophy.

The United States was founded upon the principal of natural rights.

In fact, the opening line of the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” is a direct rebuttal of the notion of the divine right of kings.

If God directly empowers rulers, they certainly deserve to be bowed before.

However, if, as the Declaration of Independence claims, God gives certain rights to all individuals, it is up to them to give authority to rulers.

Fortunately, the Declaration of Independence tells us “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

As such, government officials deserve respect but not our complete reverence.

As far as his first bow is concerned, the president claims it was in fact no bow at all.

The most recent embodiment of bowing before a foreign leader was explained away as attempt to show cultural sensitivity.

Regardless of his claims, the act of bowing inherently shows more than cultural sensitivity.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “bowing” refers “to bend[ing ] the head, body, or knee in reverence, submission, or shame.”

So, was the president showing “reverence, submission, or shame?”

I can’t answer that, but I can say that bowing for any of these reasons is highly inappropriate, especially for the president.

The recent actions of President Obama are almost unprecedented, with exceptions made for the shameful bowing of both Clinton and Nixon.

Other than these deviations from tradition, American presidents have generally followed a protocol of not bowing to foreign leaders.

Unsurprisingly, therefore, the State Department’s protocol office has long advised that U.S. officials not bow to foreign leaders.

In fact, The New York Times reported that “the ‘thou need not bow’ commandment from the State Department’s protocol office maintained a constancy of more than 200 years.”

At least sense the Revolutionary War era, an apparent tradition of Americans rejecting deference to royalty has been in existence.

This can be seen, in part, through Constitutional prohibitions of “grant[ing ] any title of nobility.”

This rejection of the idea of deference to nobility is borne out in “The Shoemaker and the Tea Party.”

This book largely tells of the actions taken by a shoemaker, George Robert Twelves Hewes, during the Revolutionary War era.

Hewes recalls a time before the Boston Tea Party when he was forced to humble himself in the home of an elite Bostonian. By the Boston Tea Party, Hewes found himself dumping tea in the Boston Harbor alongside John Hancock.

Hewes’ recollections are not dissimilar to those of other contemporary men of modest means. These extraordinary events effectively caused Americans, especially those of modest backgrounds, to reject the idea that elites should ceremoniously be shown any degree of reverence.

Hewes makes this point when, in the aftermath of the Boston Tea Party, he said, “I doff my hat to no man on the streets of Boston.”

On top of rejecting American tradition, the president’s bow before the Japanese emperor promulgates the idea that both he and the United States are weak.

An academic source, with both sympathies for the Obama administration and great knowledge of the Japanese empire, told ABC reporter Jake Tapper that “The bow as he performed did not just display weakness in Red State terms, but evoked weakness in Japanese terms. The last thing the Japanese want or need is a weak looking American president and, again, in all ways, he unintentionally played that part.”

Why has the president chosen to bow before both the Saudi king and the Japanese emperor but no other world leader? Why did both he and the first lady break every protocol when meeting with Queen Elizabeth of England?

Only the president can answer these questions. Still, the American people deserve to know why President Obama has chosen to continually break American tradition and be the only world leader to bow before the Japanese emperor.

Without question, all men, world leaders or otherwise, deserve mutual respect. However, no man deserves our “reverence, submission, or shame.” Samuel West, a Patriot preacher, said as much in 1776 when he said, “Unlimited submission and obedience is due to none but God alone.”

May President Obama heed the words of Samuel West today!

--As Appeared in The Daily Mississippian on Wednesday, November 19, 2009