A Caveat.

[richardf8]

level_head has a post worth contemplating, regardless of its slant, called Unpatriotic.

It's noteworthy to my mind because it points to a way in which we, as Americans, have gotten sloppy in our thinking, especially over the past eight years, but going back farther than that even. We have become accustomed to an us and them style of thought. The right and the left alike have spent the Bush years assimilating the "if you're not with us, your against us" mentality. And here is my warning: any lefty who brings this framework to the Obama presidency is going to be disappointed.

What we have in Obama is someone who grasps realpolitik. And that tends to mean compromise. If the last 8 years have had any effect on our culture at all, it has been to make "compromise" on either side of the fence a dirty word. The partisanship that has been brewing since Nixon, that saw its full flowering in the "Republican Revolution" and the Bush administration have torn this nation limb from limb. Getting us to where we are now demanded that Franken take on Limbaugh, that Maddow deconstruct Coulter, but the battle is now lost and won, and its time for reconstruction.

I think that Obama's ability to blend that which I agree with along with that which I find distasteful speaks volumes about his ability to reintegrate a nation that has been separated as if by a centrifuge. To those who are seeking ideological purity, he will seem a sellout, but to those who want a nation at peace, he may just the ticket.

You can't always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need.


[Edit: bluerain notes: "I actually think it's grossly unfair to cast anyone who is angry at the selection of Warren as displaying an "if you're not with us, you're against us" mentality." This assessment is correct and just, and I have therefore removed the reference from the body of the post. Thanks to her and orv for helping refine my thoughts on that.]

Comments

[bluerain.livejournal.com]

But there was something that bugged me about what you said on the matter, so I will make this plain: you do not have the market cornered on having people trying to kill you because of who you are.

Not the point.

The point is, if an anti-semite had been selected to give the invocation and you were angry about it, I would be angry about it along with you. I would not lecture you pompously about how you needed to make nice with anti-semites if they happened to agree with you on some unrelated matter.

You know not of what you speak, in this case. Seriously.

[jesterstear.livejournal.com]

Damn right.

I was talking with my brother about this the other night, and how I'm really disappointed with the selection of "America's Pastor."

The man is a hate-monger. I can understand reaching out to those that disagree with you on a level of how to fix the economy, etc... but you do not reach out to people that actively encourage others to treat fellow Americans as lesser beings simply over the fact that they were born different. It's wrong, and it has no place in our politics. As Americans, these people have the right to believe what they want - no matter how ignorant and misguided and hateful. They do not, however, have the right to be given recognition by the government.

But that's Democrats for you. When they win, they seem to get guilty and bend over backwards to appease everyone they just defeated.