Steve Clemons: Thankful That Obama Has Helped Make Dissent And Debate Patriotic And Safe Again

[babylonsister]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-clemons/thankful-that-obama-has-h_b_371678.html

Steve Clemons
Publisher of "The Washington Note"
Posted: November 26, 2009 01:29 PM

Thankful That Obama Has Helped Make Dissent And Debate Patriotic And Safe Again

snip//

I am grateful that we have Barack Obama in the White House -- because he has changed the face of the nation - and altered forever the horizon of what is possible for Americans who don't have the Anglo-Saxon cosmetic veneer that every U.S. president before Barack Obama possessed.

I also am grateful for Obama's invitation for debate and fair-minded criticism. His decision to bring in policy practitioners who have divergent views from one another, his embrace of heterodoxy, and the manner in which these conflicts come right up to his desk reflect a profound self-confidence in our young president.

Obama's embrace of debate and political diversity can be both strength and weakness -- but in the long run, it's better to have debate than not in a time when the world is at a major punctuation point in history and when things tomorrow will be quite different than they were yesterday.

There are many things I'm not happy about.

I'm not happy about the policy choices of Obama's economic team that have produced a Wall street bailout while banks still dither in their loans and small businesses still find an economic noose around their necks as they try to secure financing. I don't like how the administration has underperformed on job creation. I'm not happy that the tens of thousands of gay and lesbian soldiers in the Armed Forces and National Reserve still have to live a lie as they put themselves on the line for the security and welfare of all Americans of every brand and stripe. The failure of the administration to secure a strategic leap out of the mess the Bush administration left in the Middle East and with Iran, Israel/Palestine, and Afghanistan is very worrisome.

But what a change in a few years.

It's "safe" again to pose uncomfortable questions to the president of the United States and his team. It is actually "patriotic". Barack Obama embraces this patriotism of those who challenge him and dissent from his core policy positions and decisions. This is a stunning difference with the political world America has left behind.

snip//

I have a lot of criticism that I direct at the Obama White House -- but I try to be civil and fair-minded, inspired by the President and how his team mostly operates (the Greg Craig situation being a major and disappointing exception).

But this White House embraces differences, rivals, and debate. This is extraordinarily important, and of all things this Thanksgiving -- I'm thankful that challenging the government's course and trying to put better ideas on the table are unabashedly patriotic again.

Have a good, old fashioned policy debate with someone you don't necessarily see eye to eye with this weekend -- and feel good about it. Shake hands when it's over, and agree to disagree if things end up that way.

That is what we have back again -- and that's something to celebrate.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

[jefferson_dem]

1. "I also am grateful for Obama's invitation for debate and fair-minded criticism."

Hear Hear.

Great essay. So true. Thanks for posting.

[Electric Monk]

2. Imagine if protesters were carrying AR-15s at anti-Bush rallies

re: debate and fair-minded criticism

[vaberella]

3. They'd be in Guantanomo, no questions asked.

Kind of weird that some of us didn't realize we were sort of under this martial law thing while Bush was around. IT's the way NYC was with Guilliani but on a national scale.

[HopeOverFear]

4. That's right n/m

[Cha]

6. Another thing those who don't

know how to appreciate what we have are clueless about.

[Cha]

5. And, that's what President Obama told the

Chinese.. that free speech makes him a better leader.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/11/president-obama-tells-chinese-students-unrestricted-internet-access-makes-the-us-stronger-free-speec.html

[Clio the Leo]

10. Dont you love how that fact got practically no attention here? NT

[Cha]

12. Need to start shouting it from

the roof tops!

[R. P. McMurphy]

7. k & r n/t

[Proud Liberal Dem]

8. He definitely seems to have made the Democrats in Congress feel safe to fight against him

I guess.............:eyes:

Don't get me wrong, I think that we need to have debate and accountability on all sides and I don't want lemmings for political leaders but sometimes it just seems......I don't know......like they are fighting against Obama on things that you would think they would be for- such as closing Gitmo. Health care reform should have been easy. Of course, getting health care reform, as we all know well, has been a nightmare and we have Lieberman, a once Democrat (now I have no idea what he is) is threatening to torpedo it over the PO. If we had had more Democrats standing up more strongly against Buscho, things might not have gotten so bad but they mostly rolled over and capitulated and enabled him to get whatever he wanted- for the most part.

[Raineyb]

9. And yet it's not so safe here.

I love irony

[Kdillard]

13. You omitted the part about fair minded. I don't see much

Of that in some of the nonesense that get leveled at him here. K and R for OP

[ShortnFiery]

11. Yes, that's all due to President Obama.

Gee, talk about delusions of grandeur. :eyes:

[babylonsister]

14. So you prefer this? From the article which you obviously didn't read,

or if you did, it didn't matter. Keep it up, your blind hatred towards everything Obama is very telling, and :boring:.

snip//

It's "safe" again to pose uncomfortable questions to the president of the United States and his team. It is actually "patriotic". Barack Obama embraces this patriotism of those who challenge him and dissent from his core policy positions and decisions. This is a stunning difference with the political world America has left behind.

Former Senator Chuck Hagel, who has become the co-chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board and who was awarded two Purple Hearts for his service in Vietnam, is someone who during the George W. Bush administration had his patriotism questioned. Vice President Cheney blasted Hagel for asking key questions about the solvency of thinking about the Iraq War and challenged his loyalty to President Bush, the Republican Party, and the nation.

This was outrageous -- and indicated how deeply a climate of fear and vindictiveness had taken hold in and poisoned Washington as legislators on all sides of an issue fought over the course of public policy.

That is over. There are ferocious debates today over health care, climate change, education policy, the budget and America's long term fiscal position, over Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine, Iran, China, and economic policy.

But these debates are raging in a climate in which it is OK and safe to engage in civil debate.

In the Bush years, the efforts at thought control were so severe that spear-carriers like Tom DeLay sought to get those of a different political make-up fired from private sector jobs. Former Oklahoma Congressman Dave McCurdy, now head of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, was one of DeLay's targets. Funders cut off think tanks that opposed the Iraq War. Hate mail campaigns were launched against those who expressed views independent of the Bush/Cheney machine.