July 22, 2008
How Obama Sees the World
Fareed Zakaria suggests that Obama is the real conservative on foreign policy in this race. More like HW Bush and miles away from the idealistic and ideologue-driven W foreign policy.
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I'm not surprised to find out that Obama is a fan of Niebuhr, who observed that it's the idealists who are first in line to throw around accusations of unrealistic idealism.
There are three kinds that he identifies: religious idealism that thinks love and nonviolence can reform the world, while largely ignoring the problems of ignorance and the impossibility of translating small-group agape dynamics to larger national and global populations; secular idealism that thinks proper education can reform the world, while ignoring the problem of selfishness and self-deception; and nationalistic idealism, which thinks self-sacrifice and allegiance to one's homeland can reform the world, which ironically transmutes individual unselfishness into collective narcissism and violence.
It seems that the Republican establishment has succumbed to the latter idealism, and the only reason they're even noticed is that their loyalty is less to the nation at large than to their own party.
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