The weeks after Obama secured the Democratic nomination have made liberals cringe. They bitch and moan and yell "Treason!"...but only under their breath. Liberals do not want 2004 redux. They trust Obama will keep his liberal streak going when he is elected; they know he is just courting the center and a bit of the right just enough to secure a win. He's just playin', they tell themselves.
And it gets harder and harder to believe themselves. The most recent gasp-inducer was Obama's proposal to keep, and potentially expand, Bush's faith based initiatives. Nay!, they say, Separatin of Church and State!, they clamor. But they just don't get it. Obama is not your typical liberal. Is he a liberal, period? Yes. But instead of a period it is more of a 'w00t'. A new brand of punctuation.
Andrew Sullivan, of The Atlantic, wrote an enlightening article on Why Obama Matters. The key question all Obamaniacs have to answer for themselves. But Sullivan takes a pragmatist approach, not a trait typically assigned to liberals (I would know, I slowly went from liberal to pragmatic liberal, and like it here, thank you very much). In sum, he believes Obama is important because he is the one bringing the least amount of generational baggage:
It isn’t about his policies as such; it is about his person. They are prepared to set their own ideological preferences to one side in favor of what Obama offers America in a critical moment in our dealings with the rest of the world. The war today matters enormously. The war of the last generation? Not so much. If you are an American who yearns to finally get beyond the symbolic battles of the Boomer generation and face today’s actual problems, Obama may be your man.
That is the point most liberals are missing. Obama will not be like Ted Kennedy, will not be like Kucinich, like Edwards, or even like Hillary. He does not share their generational baggage. He was born after the 'silent majority' and the 60's kids clashed. He will not be a peacenik, not a welfare liberal, not a culture warrior. He is something else.
Bush's faith based initiatives, while they have been proven to work and help out those in need, are immediately dismissed by liberals because they tend to proselytize. True, but that is only part of the reality. This is enough to take them out, however, for the most militant liberals. Black or white answers are what people acting based off an ideology, theology, or tradition, prefer. Obama likes grey more. He is not bipartisan, or partisan, or party-none...he is antipartisan, which includes the liberal faction of the partisanship.
Obama will continue to disillusion liberals. And he will take the wind out of them when he takes his presidential oath. This, what you are seeing now, is the real Obama. He is a liberal, but is also a pragmatist. He will favor leftist policies, but he will also favor real politik. The ideological war Hillary and McCain represent is something foreign to Obama. Why does he matter? Because he doesn't 'get' the divides, the animosities, the loyalties. Good for him, and good for us.
lhp
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