Political Revelations and Maturity

Back on July 30, I posted a personal revelation, I had an epiphany, or you could even say, I grew up (odd to grow up now, why not when I was 20).

I do not do personal revelations easily, as I explained in Obama and Civil Liberties and My Awakening.

I re-post it, in light of recent events in Georgia, concerns about the Ukraine, Poland, Chechnya, questionable actions within Russia's government and control over its media, serious questions of corruption and a failure of the government in Kyrgyzstan to accommodate its citizens - all of the above revolve around or involve Russia and its former satelite states.

Perhaps it is Pakistan - the country Obama said he would invade and start World War IV and V - where Musharef may be impeached or removed, an army left without a control mechanism, in control of the nuclear weapons, which in turn is controlled by the ISI (Cheerleading Squad for Taliban).

Perhaps it is India - between July 20 and August 13, a series of bombs went off, scores dead, and certainty that the killers will be or are linked to extremist Islamic groups and or the Pakistani ISI.

Perhaps it is, again, Pakistan and India in the Kashmir, where fighting has again erupted, on the Indian side. Kashmir may well be the place that ignites the nukes.

In Somalia, divisions between hardliners and moderates within the Islamist opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia threatens the peace deal signed in June. The African Union said that the new AMISOM force was incapable of stabilising the situation.

Perhaps in Mongolia where post election violence has spread, or in Tibet, where the Olympics cover for Chinese brutal suppression.

Perhaps it is China, where the repression of the athletes and media as to what they can access via the Internet and or send via the Internet, was approved by the Olympic Committee. Perhaps the stabbing of two members of a family related to an American coach of an Olympic team - in a country where everything is illegal and there are more police and security than civilians ...

Perhaps it is Russia where government control of the media is complete. Nothing is uttered that the Kremlin does not approve or write.

And some fools want a man with 18 months experience to sit in the White House and make decisions!

Oh dear Lord, how shall he make those decisions - using tarot cards or magic cube. he has utterly no experience and that is where the revelation portion comes into the story ...

Without hinting at age, I could not have any memory of President Kennedy, nor his administration, nor anything that happened for a decade or so after, but I did grow up hearing his name. My parents and or teachers, films, songs, a punk group in the 80s, a German female singer in the 80s - all of them propelled his name into the public sphere, in addition to the myth that would always be, of a young president killed before his time. His brother and his children helped keep the myth alive - and I was caught up in the myth. I knew nothing else, but the myth.

In college, I had a professor who had a charcoal drawing of President Kennedy on his wall, and a lithograph of Robert Kennedy on an adjacent wall. The myth continued. The ideals, the dreams, the aspirations of a generation I was not part of, but it appealed to me because it was an aspiration all generations hoped for, wished for, dreamed of - wanted. Kennedy was our Arthur and it makes perfect sense the association White made with Camelot. Arthur would leave, but in Britain's darkest hour, it was believed, he would return. Kennedy was taken, but we kept hoping and praying another would rise to finish what he had started.

Kennedy was brilliant, he read nearly 1200 words per minute, he loved the arts, and his family - he was strong, courageous, brave - he stood up to the Soviets and led us through crisis after crisis.

He stood up to the Soviets. He stood up to communism. He stood up to Nasser and De Gaulle, he was a formidable leader who steered the Ship of State toward a New Frontier.

Kennedy stood up to prejudice and hatred, he stood up for the black man, the Indian, the immigrant - he was our advocate, our defender, our friend.

He started the Peace Corps - to give back to the world and help where needed.

He awakened in us a desire to be better, to dream the impossible dream and make it possible.

It was all a lie.

Kennedy didn't read 1200 words per minute. Decades later we find out it was exaggerated to make him appear more erudite, more academic. He could muster 200 or so words a minute, and often grew tired of reading due to whatever ailment afflicted him at the moment. He was not brilliant - he was a C student. He hated opera, loathed Robert Frost and poetry, and he fell asleep through most of the musical performances at the White House.

He had no dream nor did he truly care deeply - his was a learned interest, events dictated what he believed and when - not the other way around. He entered the White House with very few solid ideas, and no clue. He was overwhelmed, and out of his league - and that inexperience led us into the crisis of 1000 days we endured with Kennedy. One crisis after another. He did get us through, but remember, the government is another 400+ people, not just the president.

On my college webpage, I had a section that listed various presidents and my thoughts (brief word association) on each. About Kennedy, I wrote that he was one of the greatest presidents we have ever had. I removed that statement a few days ago. I took down a lithograph I have had on my wall for several years. I bought it 15 years ago and have had it on one wall, or another since that time. I liked it very much - it is really quite silly to keep it up now. I had a couple photos - one that he handed out during a stop at an aerospace factory in Los Angeles in 1962. I received it from a relative of someone who was at the factory that day and was given the photos from President Kennedy. It held two photos - one side was him, and the other was Jacqueline. I took it down, and put it in an envelope, and packed it away in a box in the garage. There were a couple others - one taken September 1963, during an interview at his Hyannis Port home. I took them all down, repainted the wall where needed, and put the paintings, pictures, and photos away.

It is very odd that it has taken me so long, at my age, to realize how foolish I was, how naive I was. Had anyone told me five years ago that I was naive or foolish for admiring the man, I might have punched them. Today, I would agree.

If I was unable to detach myself from the myth, I could very easily understand how I could support Obama. He is a replica of Kennedy, minus the wealth, and class.

That is not what we need - another person who has no fucking clue being president at a time when more than ever people wake up every fucking day and want to kill us, and those people ARE NOT POOR AND NEEDY WITH NO CHOICE, BUT TO HATE, AND KILL.

Of the hijackers who attacked the United States in 2001, all but a couple came from families of wealth and education, of opportunity and class. NONE were poor.

NONE.

The majority of people who lead terrorist groups come from wealth and or privilege, and education. Providing for them with food or books or clothing, will not redirect their hate nor will it turn it into love and respect.

It shows a fundamental failure to understand a culture and a cause. It shows naivete - dangerous for a president who wants to remove the causes of terrorism. Foolish and ignorant.

Kennedy at least understood you negotiate from strength - and you use the stick to get the enemy to negotiate. It makes my actions even harder, knowing that I believe he acted reasonably on some issues, but failed on the major issues.

Obama doesn't understand. He believes that if we just help Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Philippines, or whatever place, and provide them with money and food for the poor, that the poor will not flock to al qaida.

Naive. Foolish and wrong.

Rather than expending the time to explicate this further - very simply put: Europeans do not like us (generalization) and it is not because they are poor. People join al qaida, not because they are poor, but because we are who we are and we support Israel.

Obama does not understand this very simple truth.

That truth, is why he is too naive and therefore, too dangerous, to serve as our president.
We can't do on the job training, and cannot afford to have him make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes at a time when it will cost billions, and untold numbers of American lives.

It is very difficult to reach this point, where the man I admired most, and believed to be the single greatest or near greatest president, was nothing more than mediocre at best. That everything was myth and no substance existed - that we had all been lied to, including his children who led the crusade. I had to, however, reach this conclusion or face an irreconcilable position concerning my opposition to Obama. How can I have Kennedy on my wall, and oppose Obama.

The box is put away, as is the naivete of a someone who wanted to believe in an ideal that never existed. Johnny We Hardly Knew Ya - an appropriate title, even if the authors did not intend or mean it the way I believe it is most appropriate.

Obama is not moderate. He speaks to a group of mothers and champions all that mothers do, but supports abortions and he thinks he is consistent. You cannot tell people you care about what they do and on the other hand tell us that if your daughter got pregnant it would be a mistake and you would hope she would take care of it. There is an inherent contradiction in those positions, however much you would like to make them consistent. Do you honestly believe they are, or do you just hope people are stupid enough to believe you.

He is not moderate on the military - he plans to cut it. Simple enough. he will call it something very nice - Modernizing. Upgrading. Redefining. The US could until 1992, wage two world wars in two places on earth at once. By 1999, we couldn't. And Obama would continue the cuts to the point where we would have to ask Canada for help. Pathetic.

He is not a moderate when it comes to his closest advisers - from his minister to two close friends - former anarchists, now academics (which does not mean much has changed). His politics are not moderate nor centrist.

He has failed to understand the world situation, he is naive about what faces us and how dangerous it is, he talks of invading countries or signing treaties, he says he will apologize to countries yet which ones - it remains a mystery. He is inexperienced and reckless.

He is, very much like Kennedy, and we cannot afford another walk down the path toward nuclear war. Not now. Not ever.





Kennedy



Obama