Reply #41: he is a politician [View All]

[Two Americas]

He may turn out to be a good one; we shall see. He got more people involved in politics, and everything else being equal that is always a good thing for the political Left and the people.

I don't agree with those who are engaged in hero worship and a cult of personality, but I don't agree with those who are writing him off, either. Both are easy ways to escape our responsibility and duty. He is a politician - he is neither a saint nor the devil incarnate. All politicians are subject to being influenced and controlled by the wealthy and powerful few. All politicians are conservative, relatively speaking. They will only be as liberal as we force them to be through public pressure. That is always the case in politics.

The very fact that he is vague and a blank slate is not a bad thing, that can make for a good representative of the people. However, that can never happen if we stay passive and silent, as some are demanding that we do, and merely trust that he or any other politician is smarter than us and knows what they are doing.

Surrounding himself with insiders and conservatives is not a good sign, and I think we are right to speak out about that - for his sake as well as ours. I am also absolutely convinced that the ideas of "post partisan" and "including" the ideas of bigots and conservatives will not work and is a very bad and dangerous approach.

But if he is as brilliant and transformational as his most zealous partisans claim him to be, perhaps he is floating these right wing ideas for the express purpose of waking us up, getting us to speak out, so that public pressure and consensus can form around left wing political positions and so give him support and cover for moving that direction.

It destroys the political process when people in effect say "we love you and whatever you say or do we will support you no matter what" to politicians, and I think that is what is happening.

Nor does it make any sense to say that he "is" a conservative - of course he is - and so therefore we should oppose him at all times and on all things.

We should be skeptical and critical toward all politicians at all times. That hasn't changed with the election of Obama. What has changed is that we now have a group of people who are demanding that for this one politician at this time, we should not be critical and skeptical.