44 And The Democrazy Train

All Aboard!

Zooming out a bit from the contest for a new Libya betwixt brigades of people armed with small arms, rocks and twitter facing off against cats driving panzers and flying Sukhois - a more bigger quiz pops up it's pointy little head:

44's Bystander In Chief mode (here's a tip - when surrounded by academs in climate controlled environs like a classroom - it's far more better to use 'voting present' as a safe term).

Pacifically, why cause 44 is so afraid of hopping on the democrazy train?

Great Satan's delightfully divine Daemoneoconic avatar intelligentsia pointedly points out 44 has

"...stuttered and fumbled and sometimes fallen strangely silent. What can explain this from a man whose manner has always been smooth and whose oratorical gifts propelled him from utter obscurity to the White House in just four short years?

"...As the candidate of “change,” it was natural that Obama would want to distinguish his policies sharply from those of President George W. Bush. But there was a more obvious way to do this than to jettison democracy-promotion altogether. Obama might have said, in effect, “Bush had a good idea, but he made a botch of it. My administration will show how to do this right.” Such a stance would have resonated with Americans and with the inhabitants of the Middle East.

"...Instead, the president threw out the democracy-human rights baby with the Bush bathwater. This choice was doubly odd because on other subjects Obama presented himself as the most soaring of visionaries. Upon winning the presidential nomination, he had declaimed: “[T]his was the moment when … our planet began to heal.”

"...In contrast, in foreign policy Obama encouraged his administration to be described as adhering to political “realism.” The president’s number-one goal was to improve the image of the United States after the damage done by Bush’s policies. But true “realists” do not care much about image."

So if 44 is not a true realist, the quiz is - why is it the guy and his Admin seem so allergic and ice blood cold to hot democrazy in the ME? 

"...He's allergic to American triumphalism. This may be in reaction to 43 and to neoconservatism. Or it may have deeper roots in the president’s youthful radicalism. We got a glimpse of that, in the rear-view mirror so to speak, when his wife, Michelle Obama, declared that the first time in her life that she felt proud of her country was when it chose her husband to become its leader.

"...Deplore 43 all you will, you cannot be a cheerleader for democracy without in some sense celebrating Great Satan, the original model. The United States has been good for democracy, inspiring and sometimes directly impelling its spread around the world. 

And democracy has been great for Great Satan giving her many allies and a safer world - and to push a few 'realist meds'

"...More dictators will fall in the months ahead. Difficult though they may be to overthrow, the harder job will be to construct democracies in the aftermath of their removal. The United States should seek a partnership with Europe and Japan in ramping up assistance, mostly in the form of training programs to help newly liberated peoples develop the “human capital” to sustain their democracy.

"...The United States has know-how that can be shared. In countries where the press has been subservient to government, Americans can help teach journalists the methods and canons of independent reporting. Where “parliaments” have been rubber stamps, the U.S. can teach legislators and their aides the arts of crafting legislation. Where elections have been rigged, U.S. can share some of the tricks of campaigning (hopefully not the dirty ones).

"...In countries where police methods consist mostly of torturing suspects until someone confesses, the U.S. can offer to train officers in how actually to investigate a crime.

"...The train of Arab revolution has left the station. However belatedly, Obama should jump on with both feet – and see if he can bring Netanyahu with him.

  
Pic - "Track 44"