As 2015 comes to a close, our president is improbably reborn. Although he has advocated moral and political relativism by elevating adversaries, demoting democracies, ignoring human rights, downplaying American principles, and questioning American exceptionalism, he appears to have had a change of heart. Formerly reticent and skeptical about such things, he is now energetic and sure when he talks about “American values,” and what makes America great.

President Obama’s fanciful epiphany is inspired by his belief that Syrian refugees should be welcomed into America without delay and without overblown concern about Islamist extremism. Republicans, he says, are out of step with America’s “tradition of compassion” and “scared of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America.”