He's Right on Principle, But.....

I have already written twice about the discussion to build what is actually an "Islamic Center" as opposed to a mosque in downtown New York but the story just won't die.

My title is taken from a quote by an anonymous Republican consultant commenting on President Obama's decision to enter the fray. He goes on to say "but he'll get slaughtered on the politics". The same consultant continues with "A curious mix of ego and self-aggrandizement, albeit for the right cause."

I think we have the quintessence of the problem right there in this consultant's statement who interestingly but not surprisingly was adamant about maintaining his anonymity.

I had mentioned how the "mosque" discussion was crossing party lines and now I see more and more Democrats lining up behind the populist rhetoric of "yeah I get the First Amendment thing, but not on Ground Zero".

Our politicians are supposed to be leaders. They have to pay a certain amount of lip-service to the public mood in getting elected, but they are also required to stand up for what is correct and to make difficult decisions which are in the interest of the public at large.

Commentators are lining up to criticise Obama for (again) demonstrating that he represents an Eastern "elite", not the "average American". I could draw from a myriad of quotes from H.L. Mencken to highlight how dangerous this line of reasoning can be, but will suffice with one, which clearly links the political extremism these voices are advocating with that of other demagogic leaders of the not-so-distant past.

"The men the American public admires the most are the most daring liars; The men they detest most violently are those that try and tell them the truth."

Rather than praise Mr Obama for standing up and adding a voice where his advisers are certainly suggesting to him to keep quiet, they choose to highlight that he should be kowtowing to the mass of the American people, who I would maintain tend to be narrow-minded individuals who cite watered-down understandings of the Constitution to support whatever cause they deem to be important at the time.

We are fighting FoxNews at every corner. The thinly veiled racism and religious bigotry to be found in the comments isolating Obama from the "rest of Americans"-remember an outrageous percentage of Americans still maintain he is a Muslim-forget why so many Americans emigrated to the U.S. in the first place.

This "average" American voted for Mr Bush who has single-handledly done more to destroy America's standing in the world politically and economically then any other single individual in my lifetime.

Mr Bush failed to understand that oil as the energy source of the 20th Century-a domestic U.S. energy source-would become an external energy source in the 21st Century. He, and by extension the American people also failed to see how oil was also what kept our currency as the reserve currency. And he failed to comprehend that the tacit agreement for American support for pricing oil in US$ looked good in the 70's, but a lot less safe in the noughties as the levers of powere shifted.

Finally, he helped complete the degradation of manufacturing in the U.S. turning us into a nation in which almost 30% of our GDP is generated on Wall Street, leveraging America's public and private debt to totally unsustainable levels.

And yet all the commentators are screaming that it is this American public that needs to be heard, even followed, despite the fact that they are provincial to the extreme and are completley oblivious to the nadir that they have helped create in their willingness to close their eyes to anything that does not fit into their isolationist framework.

We are in need of leadership. From the Presidency, our lawmakers, our commentators, and yes, from an educated public. Then we will have a chance to reverse the decline of our fortunes and look forward to the future.