Israeli Blockade Updates

We’re going to do this! We dumb Obamabots know damned well that trying to be the most aggressive at the table is not the way to get things done. We also know it’s not easy getting past years, decades and even centuries of built up animosities and insecurities. It’s not easy getting past entrenched positions — either. That applies to domestic as well as foreign policy issues.

Loud and aggressive is a conquering tactic. Around the world — there has been more than enough conquering. We need assertive calmness, rationality, empathy, and wise diplomacy.

When I tell you I read everything I can get my hands on politicians I think show promise — I mean it. Obama wrote a paper when he was still quite young — 20 or 21 I think — with a theme summed up with a line from a reggae song. “Everybody’s calling for peace — nobody’s calling for justice.” That sums up international politics for a very long time. That paper reflected a maturity and wisdom beyond that of many politicians several times his age. I certainly wasn’t even close to him at that age. Of course — I hadn’t had his diversity of experiences — either — so — maybe I might have been had I had his life — I don’t know.

Very recently some of our former Hillary supporting “allies” have restarted the primaries — so to speak. There’s this sentiment appearing in posts on Dkos and DU to the effect that Bush made Obama possible — that Bush screwed up so bad that an unproven black man was able to become president. They look for different kinds of proof — I suppose. They look at at resumes to see how much you’ve done that’s similar. I look at what people say and so to see how much knowledge and understanding they display.

The kind of “change” I expected and wanted wasn’t merely a changing of the order — a new aggressive sheriff in town. I wanted to reshape policies and set foreign and domestic on a new direction — permanently. You don’t do that by aggressive battles for temporary domination. You do that by skillfully moving policies and ideas in that new direction — by changing things in such a way that as many people as possible feel like they’re choosing that path rather than being forced down that path. That’s not easy — it’s not quick. You don’t get big immediate results — but you gain smaller and lasting results over time.

Some people apparently think we are destined to remain in a cycle similar to a lion pride or something — with change they can believe in amounting to believing in the strength of a particular male. No — that’s temporary — that change lasts only until another lion comes along and kicks his butt. Changing the behavior of the pride such that we are no longer dominated by the best fighter is real change — change the entire pride can believe in (barring people who like watching the neverending fights for domination I suppose).

We won’t have genuine peace without justice. It’s long past time we realize this and stop asking people to sacrifice justice in the name of peace — and stop confusing justice with vengeance — inside and outside this country. We have to find ways of addressing issues that are respectful and just to all parties concerned.

(Oh — and I haven’t bothered to tell any of those former Hillary supporters that if Obama sucks so badly that he could only win after following somebody who was amazingly bad — then what the fuck does that say about Hillary then? The other side of that coin is that even after a screw up like Bush — the amazing Hillary couldn’t beat an unproven black man. If they want to think of it that way — that would be a pretty sad commentary on Hillary.)