Kulturkampf or win? pt 1

If the people of the country focus on the election, we allow the politicians - especially the neocon/right - to choose the battleground. In a real sense, we allow them to choose the weapons to be used by each side, too. Do you think pitchforks can stand against modern tanks?


Vietnam

Bismarck and the Pope

Gen Westmoreland commanded one of the most powerful military forces on Earth in Vietnam. Arguably, the US forces won every battle. But they failed to capture the hearts and minds of the people of the country.
The US was especially effective against the North Vietnamese Regulars.
Remember the embassy evacuation? American journalists were running around frantic to go to the sounds of battle. They wanted to cover the battle for Saigon. There just wasn't much noise anywhere. There was almost no heavy weapons fire. Why? 
Because the South Vietnamese Army weren't fighting. They surrendered the city. The South Vietnamese Army and the city police were as glad to be rid of the Americans as the Viet Cong and NVA.


America won all the battles and lost the country. If we focus on the election, we lose the chance to influence the hearts and minds of the country, and can win or lose the election - this battle - but lose much more. 


Obama Administration

I can imagine the Obama administration experienced something very similar.They focused on winning the election. The promise of 'Hope and Change' resonated across the country and around the world. They promised to open the doors, build new bridges and highways. They won the cultural war on the populist level.
But when they got in, they found someone had taken the handles off the doors. The only doors left with handles led to gaping chasms with sand and political minefields. Cheney had hand picked industry representatives in every department of the Executive Branch and at all levels. And the Cheney shadow government, still well funded and organized, was still in place just down the street to support the Cheney appointees.

• The country was facing a financial crisis that could have been worse than the Great Depression, and the only 'solution' was set to plunge the currency into an inflationary spiral that could have made early 1930s Germany look like a cake walk.
• They had to bring the enormous off budget debt for the Iraq and Afghan wars on budget. That made their first budgets show enormous debt spikes, along with the TARP debacle.

True, 85% or so of the Cheney appointees resigned after the first year. They did their job before they left though. They opposed on the governance level any attempts at transparency and change. And when they left, they left gaping holes in the departments. The new administration didn't have hundreds of on-side names to recommend to fill the positions. There was no precedent to even allow them to be prepared for that.

Because the new President insisted on it, the TARP funds had to be repaid somehow. The loans were too huge to look right, but at least they could be collected with interest. Nothing was going to make the government taking equity positions look good.
There was no time or energy left to put all the handles back, much less build the bridges and highways. They must feel lucky the whole country didn't just fall apart. They won the election, but lost the governance - the hearts and minds of government.
And the Obama administration has spent the last 3+ years trying to dig themselves out of the hole. Arguably, they haven't yet.

I can't help but wonder if the Obama people are going to try to win the cultural war again, or have they been too badly burnt? It's really not up to government to change national culture though. That's something people and citizens have to do.

Barack Hussein Obama is the President-elect

America has elected a President, and people are celebrating in Kenya, Indonesia, Hawaii, and Harlem. These are groups related to the new President.
There's even a few who claim to be related in Ireland!
Parties are erupting across the US, France and Germany.
It's wonderful to see.

There is a sense of something lifted from one, something to smile about, all across the world.

When I was a child, I'd never see a black President in my lifetime. They also told me I'd never live to see the end of the Soviet Union too...

The ironies of life will never cease to amaze me.
America the Great Satan, commonly dismissed as incurably racist, still apparently ruled by fear and loathing of all things Islam or Muslim because of the fear of terrorism, -- has elected the son of a Muslim whose middle name is ... Hussein.
I don't know whether to cry or sing. Or both.

People are celebrating Obama's victory in many ways.
A man from Belfast living in Australia is roaming the streets telling everyone he meets that this is a victory for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and citing the US Constituion: "Government for the People; of the People and by the People."
He says the whole thing send chills up his spine.
The same man showed his bullet wounds to a young man saying, "I took those for this day."
We spent a couple of hours telling the young man about the silent, unsung heroes of past wars. Not many will remember the Murmansk run. His father was one of the few sailors who survived.
The old man would have been proud of America today.

Another man went to see his 4-year old grandson for the first time. He thinks his daughter has never been better. - To him, that 4-year old cuddling close to his neck is far more important.
But he's still glad Obama won.

This is something too long coming. America has shown itself again as a light to the World. A light of Hope.

Obama has so much Hope to live up to. All we can do is pray, and offer what we can of ourselves to help and support, that he is able to live up to half of what's expected of him.
You have our prayers, Mr Obama. You have our Hope, and Faith.
May God bless you and keep you. And all who are there with you.

The NYTimes put together a list of the top 25 blogs about the election. Click the slideshow link and drink it all in.

Moral Insurrection - Self Sacrifice

When I was a young man trying to find my niche in the professional world, I was the turning point for a moral insurrection. I remember the sense of astonsishment I felt. And the sense of responsibility.
Half of a corporate sales force walked off the job at a sales seminar because one owner decided to play politics with the attendees. He fired me to allow his protege to collect the sales. I had put half the attendees in the seats.
The next thing I knew, I was sitting with my sales manager and about a dozen others. All had walked off the job out of respect for me. (There's more to the story, but also little point in blowing my own horn.)

Reading the story of these telemarketers who left their seats because they would not say divisive ugly half-truths about Barack Obama makes me proud to be an American. No matter to which side of the political fence a person sits, this sort of moral courage is something that should make any American proud.
There's no question the rhetoric in that phone speil was unnecessary. The underlying motivations of these people may not be right. Barack Obama may turn out to be the anti-Christ. Who knows? If he is, even the Scriptures say no one will know.
Right now he looks like a legitimate political backlash to a miscreant administration that will bring more good than harm.

One thing I am certain of though: If more people act in their personal and professional lives based on their moral convictions, America will only be better.
Yes, I believe in America. I believe that 1000 years from now, what America stands for will be talked about as legendary. As my country is now a light of freedom and democracy to the World, that legend will only grow more powerful and more bright over the rest of human history - no matter what happens to America.
There, I've said it. It's not the first time. It will certainly not be the last.

Living outside the US places an American in the position of constantly having to explain and excuse every sin my country commits, real or imagined. It's painful to know the real courage of the American people, the heritage of my history, and the overwhelming generosity my country has shown, yet know that so many hate my country. I only wish these stories of individual moral insurrection and courage were what I heard more often.

Travelling Road Shows

I've never seen 1268 political cartoons. That's how many Yahoo has on just the presidential campaign in America.
And you can't help laughing.
The humor of the campaign tells much more about the mood of the country than any poll. Humor reflects people's rage and frustration. That's why it's a release. And why it must be accurate.

John McCain would have made a great President - 10 years ago.
Now McCain is just trying to avoid being accountable for his own history, and his party.

Sarah Palin just ain't got the right stuff. But she is soooo funny! (- or is that Tina Fey?) It's hard to see Tina Fey for Sarah Palin. Uh, .. Sarah Palin for Tina Fey, sorry...

Barack Obama is so iconic, you gotta wonder if he has any idea who he really is. But he is the great leader of this campaign. He is inspirational. He is exciting. He is full of Hope and Wonder.
With any other VP but Biden, I'd find Obama irresistable. I'm too much of an idealist, and I know it.

The Feminists would fund Obama's assassination just to have Joe Biden as President.

We got two old men, one rock star, and a second place beauty contest winner.
Sheesh. - This is the leadership of the greatest nation on Earth? - the economic hyperpower?

These people make you wonder about the whole democratic process in America.

Obama doesn't come across as full of hate and revenge like so many other black candidates. But when you look at the people who support him, it's all there. He's never really experienced prejudice. The rage doesn't poison every look and smile.

It looked like Hillary would be the Democratic candidate until Oprah threw her weight behind Obama. That must've been a tough decision for her: whether to choose Hillary, a white woman, or Obama, a black man who had little of the black experience.
I can only imagine the deal to make Joe Biden the VP was done even then. Hillary, an obvious feminist leader but her own woman, as opposed to Obama who would owe his political soul to the Cause. And to cement the deal, Joe Biden.
You have to give Joe Biden credit. He can push through a bill in Congress even if it is illegal, immoral, and unconstitutional. He so believes in himself and his destiny, the words of his oath of office mean nothing.
Biden is the hidden time bomb in the Obama camp.

What happened to Bill and Hillary? I want them back!

I guess if it comes down to it, you go with the better leader - and hope for the best.