THE WORLD IS WATCHING OBAMA

It is sometimes difficult to get into the heads of Republicans like my TV host friend “Right Wing, small government conservative, Joe Scarborough. It was not difficult this morning when he said of the president, “He has the authority, so why go to Congress?” In Joe’s narrow focus is simple, hate Obama so say something that he thinks will hurt him. Second and this is a little more profound, if you have authority that is all you need. Once elected you have political capital, so spend it. As examples of this kind of right wing mentality, we saw George W. Bush stand on the stage after the people barely elected him president and say that he had the authority to spend his capital on privatizing social security. We saw Republican Governors Scott Walker, Rick Snyder, and John Kasich destroy public service workers right to collective bargaining. And to go back to my favorite example of abuse of power, Ronald Reagan, he had the authority so he fired Air Traffic controllers. As an aside, his colleagues had the authority so they named the airport after him.

I say this to Joe. President Obama is a real President. He believes in the voice of the people means something. He knows that the war powers act is intended to give him the right to protect the country form attack without going to congress with its inherent turtle speed before the fact. As everyone knows, Syria is not that kind of situation. Obama is not that kind of president. As long as this is a democracy, the debate in congress is essential. I have made my decision but the congressional representatives have yet to decide. They knee jerk hate Obama people and the love Obama crowd have decided. Although, I am a great supporter of Obama, my decision was based on somethin more fundamental than that.

I have been trying to point in my series of blogs about the Middle East that the question the president is asking of congress is not about “just” an attack on Syria; it is about changing American Foreign Policy in a fundamental way. Changing our stance in the world from being respected out of fear to being respected because we are fair and honest.  This will be difficult for conservatives who see themselves as John Wayne types or the Marlborough cowboys who will climb down off there big horse and whip you if you don’t behave. As George Lakoff explained, it is a change from the moral authority figure to the nurturing figure: from an authoritarian father to a caring mother. They different types of morality; however, it is morally wrong to is misbehave in either case; it is the   correction that is different. Do we beat them into submissiveness or try to correct their behavior? Do we shoot rockets at them for a few days to punish them or do we invade their country.  The whole world is watching not only what we do but also how we arrive at that decision. They know it matters to them, all of them.

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