The Weekly Roundup

On this Good Friday, roughly 2000 years since the original day of regeneration, I figured it’s a good time to get back into the realm of politics and culture with a little roundup of the week’s events. Maybe it will become a regular feature on the Grind, but then again I’m not the best when it comes to carrying through with plans, not that that will stop me from continuing to make them, the same way I love to make out to-do lists and then proceed to put off or ignore half of the items on them. But enough about my shortcomings, on to the political scene.

An American President in London
This last week or so marked the triumphant procession of American leadership throughout the old world, and with it at least a good measure of our nation’s respect and esteem in that world. I am admittedly a Europhile, but I think even those who aren’t as predisposed to the land of our cultural, and for many of us ethnic ancestry can agree that what Europe and Europeans think of us matters.

It has become fashionable in recent years to bash the Continent, especially among political and social conservatives. Britain has been spared to a degree because Tony Blair followed George Bush, the Pied Piper of unnecessary warfare right off the bridge to Baghdad, and so the neo-conservatives so supportive of war as a first option tend to spare the Brits from their derision. But from Rumsfeld’s bashing of what he referred to as Old Europe, to the anti-French sentiment that hit a crescendo at the beginning of the war, it has become fashionable in certain circles to show patriotism by being anti-European.

This is as ridiculous as it is counter productive, and it is nice to see our president being so well received, and by association the American people who finally got one right by electing him. The groundwork is being laid for a renewal of an alliance that has served our nation well and in a world with numerous bad actors and powerful nations such as Russia, China, and Iran that are certainly not as hospitable towards Western values, we need all the friends we can get.

Mission Accomplished-Part Two
President Obama made a surprise visit to Iraq to meet with our troops earlier in the week, and was well received by the men and women to which he spoke, surprising considering he wasn’t wearing a leather bomber jacket and didn’t appear to beat his puffed out chest as he spoke. No big signs of proclamation behind him either, but in his words could be heard the message so infamously proclaimed by his predecessor more than a few years ago.

Having already announced plans for a major, if not total withdrawal of the fighting force from Iraq, Obama proclaimed that our soldiers have indeed done what was asked of them. They have brought about the removal of Sadaam Hussein, which despite some revisionist history being bandied about is a positive consequence of the invasion. Some believe that it is better to have a tyrant ruling over people than to have an ineffective government, I certainly am not one of those, and while overthrowing Sadaam was not a proper justification for going to war, it is a positive result that came about from it.

Obama also proclaimed that our soldiers have done much to create conditions that will allow for the Iraqi’s, of their own accord, to develop some sort of workable government and society to replace the one which preceded it under the old regime. This is as much as can be expected of our military, and they should be able to leave this part of the Middle East over the next year and a half with their heads held high and the pride of knowing that they performed admirably in an often confused and always dangerous situation. Obama’s address gave them the validation that they so richly deserve, and while it may have gone largely unnoticed by the public at large, I don’t imagine that his words will escape those who are affected most by the war, the troops, their families, and those of us who truly admire and appreciate the sacrifices they have made over the last six plus years.

Getting Back on Track
New polls are showing that the percentage of Americans who answer polls and that believe that our nation is on the right track are on the way up. While still below half of those people that respond to these polls, one of whom I’ve never met by the way, are of the mindset that we are going in the right direction, the proportion is much higher than it was when our former president was doing his best Kasey Jones impersonation as conductor in chief. (Drivin’ that train, high on cocaine… for those of you non Deadheads in the audience)

The main point here is that there does seem to be a palpable sense that while we are still in a pretty deep hole politically, socially, economically, and culturally, we are at least starting to dig ourselves out. While the work must be done by common folk, the inspiration and motivation provided by leadership, first and foremost President Obama should not be overlooked as a vital factor. When people trust their president and believe that he has their best interests at heart, when they feel that he will work to come up with solutions to pressing problems and will maintain flexibility in developing new solutions when original attempts inevitably fail, people are more likely to feel better about the overall direction that the country is headed.

There will always be those among us who stubbornly cling to discredited ideologies and failed leaders, these are the people that are still driving around with their W ’04 stickers on the back window, but this crowd is becoming smaller and more marginalized as time goes by. We won’t know for sure for a couple more election cycles, but their ability to influence elections may well be a relic of the past. They are potentially being replaced by a more moderate and pragmatic electorate, and Obama appeals to this crowd, and gives us hope that we are indeed back on the right track.

Go Hawks
I can’t leave the weekly roundup without a much deserved kudos to the Hawkeye State, which now boasts something that neither so-called bastion of enlightened social liberalism, California or New York can boast, that being the legalization of same sex marriage. The Iowa Supreme Court has validated this important social and civil right, and while it may well be overturned by a plebiscite, much as it was recently in the Golden State, for the time being Iowa is once again on the cutting edge of social progress in this country.

I say once again because it was Iowa that gave Obama his first major electoral victory back in January of ’08, and which made him a viable candidate in the eyes of many voters who beforehand had figured that a Black man could never be elected president. So once again, we are all indebted to Iowa, the heart of the heartland, an area that often takes a bashing at the hands of the coastal elites. Go Hawks!

There were a couple items I wanted to mention, but will have to wait for another week, or perhaps a separate column. One is the Newsweek article that came out this week proclaiming the downfall of Christianity, no doubt being cheered by those whose sentiments run toward anti-clericalism and/or agnosticism, and lamented by those who are more devout. I haven’t read the article yet, but I plan to and have some opinions on the matter that I will make a note to share. And who knows, maybe it will even be one of those items on my list that I do actually get to.