President Barack Obama didn’t just greet Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, he gave him the hood handshake and the warmest smile he’s managed with any foreign leader. It’s not just that he shook hands with a socialist leader who is currently bankrupting his country, destroying the economy and cozying up to dictators and tyrants around the world, it’s that he pulls him in for the the thug hug.

In street parlance, our President is giving the world tyrants all sorts of respect while dissing our allies with lame gifts, protocol mistakes, diplomatic foolishness and mixed messages.

A genuine, fully joyful greeting to a 3rd rate wannabe dictator reveals everything a person needs to know about President Obama’s philosophy. He relates to the guy with a persecution complex. He relates to the guy who blames everyone else for his (or his country’s) personal failure. He relates to the guy who believes that the way to help the underdogs is to punish the productive–because, of course, they didn’t work for it, like President Obama himself, business leaders and the successful just got really lucky or were born with a silver spoon and don’t deserve it. He relates to the class resentment and social isolation.

And it’s with this distrust, resentment and “big and successful” loathing that President Obama governs. The irony is that President is now big and successful and powerful.

Not only does President Obama want to level the playing field in America–no rich and poor. He wants to level the playing field amongst the world. There is no better or worse government. Iran and Venezuela deserve the same, if not more, respect than loyal, strong democracies like India, Poland, Israel, Britain and France (well, they’re kinda loyal).

It’s a perverse egalitarianism that puts murderers, extortioners and general evil doers on the same moral plane as those who believe in freedom, the rule of law, and individual rights. Rather than being an incentive for the bad guys to do better, the good guys see no reason to be good–they’ll get the same respect either way. Just as the guy not working sees no reason to work harder when his neighbor gets the respect of a paycheck one way or another.

This is not going to end well.

Cross-posted at MelissaClouthier.com

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