God Bless our President Elect.
Well, now we get to find out whether he is a socialist ideologue who has been plotting to “change” the best most productive country in the world to something less or just a canny politician who was, as an ambitious young man, able to grab the greasy rope net of affirmative action, clamber aboard the radical socialist pirate ship, rise to prominence among the America-haters and demagogues of the welfare state and, from there swing himself onto the deck of our ship of state ready to change into the uniform of and abide by the constitution of The United States of America. Count me as one of the ones who was, and still is, skeptical. I was certainly against giving him the opportunity to prove himself in this way; but if he turns out to be the latter, I confess I will be sorely tempted to forgive him his methods and wink at his pluck.
This is a particularly bad time for us to be taking this risk but he has the presidential seal now and he is my president. I take whatever cheer I can from the hope that he is not the ideologue but the ambitious politician and will, as others have in the past, be transformed by the grandeur of the office and the vitality of the constitution, which defines its powers and responsibilities.
As an American, I honor that constitution and the office. I wish Barack Obama well in assuming it. Americans are also called upon by our system to be vigilant and vocal and I intend to fulfill that duty too.
There are some things that are unalloyed good about this. Chief among them is that we have proven once again that, without question, this is the greatest land of opportunity on earth. As much as I regret what I perceive to be the character of the man and dislike his policies and despise so many of his friends and supporters, I can’t help but have a deep pride that he has been able to become the most powerful man in the world as a black man in America.
The other really good thing is that, if he is just a canny politician, the leftist radicals he used on his way up are in a no-win situation. If he lives up to the demands of the office, they will have lost what might be their only opportunity to have their kind of “change” in this century. If he doesn’t, I have faith that our system will flush him out the way it did Jimmy Carter and it will be a very long time before the American public trusts another candidate with those kinds of friends and associates again.
I pray for his safety and for ours. I pray that he will prove to have statecraft equal to the political drive he has shown and that he will govern with humility, wisdom, strength, compassion and, most important of all, understanding of and respect for the constitution, system and people that have given him this opportunity.
16 comments:
Yaacov --
Nicely done.
All this guy knows how to do is run for president. So starting January 20th or whenever, the 2012 campaign will begin. It's kind of like starting the football game in a prevent defense.
I feel "malaise" setting in when his supporters' high expectations are not met.
JHM from KY
Hear! Hear!
Yaacov: why not take this opportunity to clean up your blogroll. After all, it's a new dawn. Why be associated with remarkably vitriolic and bitter individuals like Kathy Shaidle and Pamela Geller. Both of them have absolutely disgraced themselves with their childish and hate filled responses to Obama's election.
Yaacov:
I have great respect for your wisdom. I would hope you will encourage some of your readers to be less sourpussing and give President elect Obama a chance to prove himself.
In Ethics of the Fathers, we are urged: "Make yourself a teacher; acquire a friend; and judge every person favorably."
Since a teacher, a leader, is not obliged to know everything, the advice focussed on the "make" rather than the merely "have" or find.
Finding a rabbi is not easy. Sometimes we find one who is adequate but flawed in some way.
Still, we make him into a rabbi by clarifying to him what we need him for, and then we state and show our confidence in him. We give him the respect and the freedom to grow and become the kind of rabbi, leader, we wanted in the first place.
We are all made of fragile clay, and we all need the support of others in order to be the best that we can be, if we are to be of any use for them.
Steve den beste
http://chizumatic.mee.nu/not_the_end_of_the_world
This is a good post. You summed up my feelings pretty well.
Yacoov:
I will not concede to Obama. I will not be like McCain and his poorly ran campaign (until Sarah came on board) and concede. This man does NOT represent me and never will. Truth is nobody knows him and we will get to know him while he IS a president. This presidency it's like getting a car from an used cars sales man and being sold to you as a new one. Obama started to back paddle on his miracles on the night of his victory speech... "not everything will be fixed overnight, in a year and even in 4 years" (already aspiring for a second term, I see...)... What? What? You mean to tell me there will be no milk and honey running down my street on January 21st? But he is the Messiah, he promised me miracles!
I want my miracles and I demand them now.
P.S. Mr. President, I will be waiting by my mail box for my check. I got my eye on a chique Coach bag, I will now be able to afford it, that Bush guy never wanted me to have it.
Obama's political rhetoric, and more particularly the intellectual synthesis behind it, is both different from and better than the political leftist culture that nurtured him. I have some idea- I graduated from his alma mater in 64 and worked in Chicago's black community from 68 to 70. Until he acts we wont know if that new synthesis is just a facade or represents the real man. Given his background and associations one would expect another Sharpton, Wright, or Jackson and their politics of grievance. I find I feel much the same skepticism as you do Moshe, but because I know something about his background I feel pretty confident that he will do better than his associations would predict. I voted for McCain with no hesitation, but given how the politics of personal destruction has played out with our last two presidents I will support him and only disagree with him within the bounds of civil society. I'll add this. I think a lot of votes came Obama's way from those who lived through the sixties because of the idealism of that time which was cut off by the Kennedy assassinations. Having lived for 30 years in a more socialist country - Australia - since that time I am much more skeptical of Obama's very similar idealism. RFK was a tough little Mick who had gone eyeball to eyeball with Khrushchev and the mob. Obama? No comparison. But this is not the 20th century and Obama is not RFK. It is a whole new situation and I think Obama will shake things up for better or for worse and we may end up getting our bearings more quickly by taking this gamble on an unknown.
I'm very disapointed in your last essay. I came by chance to this blog and I liked the vision, but you have spoiled it right now. Hailing the new poritz will not do any good to Jews, he still is a friend of Farakhan, Jeremiah Wright, Rezko, Ayers and many others we don't even know because of the media secrecy. Kiss and make up will not work. I don't live in USA but never the less what happenes there will impact the whole western world especially Israel. So all I can say HaShem brought Obama for a reason and it doesn't abode well for us. Trying to convince ourselves that he has changed his spots because he is in power is just self delusion.
".. he still is a friend of Farakhan, Jeremiah Wright, Rezko, Ayers "
Is this a statement of knowledge, or belief? We have seen Obama publicly distance himself from the lot of them. He repudiated them many times. What you mean to say, I think, is that you don't believe he was speaking the truth. If he was not speaking the truth, then we will know in the coming months that he is a liar and not to be trusted. Until and if that happens, don't you think you can practice a little charity by not attributing to him the worst possible motivation and mendacity?
"Hailing the new poritz .."
I was thinking about that. The new prez has been elected in a democratic process. A "new poritz" is a local feudal, an aristocrat who has no business and no right ruling over other people. The closest analogy I can think of would be a sheik landlord in some backward middle eastern country. Or a mafia don.
Can the author of this bilious formulation truly equate the one with the other?
It seems the commenter is somewhat hysterical.
To the "contentious centrist",
It really bothers you that your new mesia (without the h)has a whole lot of ghosts in his closet, so much so as to resort to name calling. As I said I'm not an American and hysteria has nothing to do with seeing reality. You are trying to split hairs in "was" or "is" regarding his friends. Well I don't look at what was, and whom he threw under the bus when it was convenient (even his beloved white grandmother), what I see is a man who collected his steps to power by associating with shady characters (to put is mildly), and again: Rezko (an Arab thief with connections to Sadam Hussein), Farakhan and Wright Jew and white haters (can you immagine a Republican connected to people like that?), Ayers the former unrepented terrorist? So where is the judgment and morality of a person like that mr. centrist?
Anonymous and Centrist: Both of you stop it this minute and go to your rooms. How dare either of you suggest conservative blogs, right of centre, slightly left of middle centre, or right to the centre of just left of the middle, ought to be anything other than a place for name calling. The Beast bears the right to breath anyway he likes. Through his mouth, out his Hershey highway, whatever. It's a free country. Why, even a black man can become the President. Have you not heard the news?
Beast: I shall darken your blogway no more. Of course I have been a rude guest, a real dick head, and you will understand, I trust, that my pronouncements about your writing, or Neo Con's writing, was just puff and pride. I did not even have thirty visitors yesterday. On weekends I get, sometimes, less than 10.
It's humiliating. I am going, now, to end it all. See you in the comic books.
Yer favourite writer
Shane O'Rourke
I fully expect the newly elected Mr. Obama will receive a lot more of the respect due his office than the newly "selected" Mr. Bush ever did, or than Mr. McCain would have.
I do not think this difference reflects much on Mr. Obama because in truth he not only hasn't done anything yet, he hasn't even said what his plans are. Rather it will be almost entirely due to the fact that conservative type like Yaacov have 100x more class than the cheating, lying, violent bastards who make up Mr. Obama's core supporters.
We shall see what the future brings. I hope to be proven 100% wrong in my expectations. I also hope to win ten million in the lottery. I figure the odds are better in the lottery.
Desperate Shane,
The interesting speculation for political bookies is what are the odds that Obama will be the first President to commit suicide when his inability to deliver the miracles, or his ability to mess up world events in potentially catastrophic ways, comes to a head with his own less-than-complete struggle to find a coherent and confident and relaxed identity that can make fun of itself publicly.
Would it depend on whether he really does have a meaningful relationship with a forgiving and loving God?
Obama has all but promised the moon. If he delivers of 5% of what he promised I would be amazed. I will support him by doing no more than laugh at his inevitable missteps, even though they will cause misery to millions.
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