I liked This One

A comment I put on Roger L. Simon's blog:

Joeseph (formerly Samuel) -

I can be very long winded; everyone knows it, too. I'll try to keep the lid on.

My support for the Reagan strategy was political and personal. I was a part of the military for most of the eighties. During the years since I have participated in many a debate and sometimes outright argument on issues.

My political support for Reagan, and conservative leaning governance in general, is not about winning. I just figured that out after reading your post. Free people - citizens - should always remember that it's not about getting your way.

It's finding the best solution.

Your post crystalized the feeling that I have been trying to tie down all day long. I want a nation that works best for the greatest number of people. I believe that our founding principles and documents are not perfect but are the best tools available, bar none, of all the different flavors, styles, and colors tried by people thus far. It has turned out that this leader of ours has committed to making a WORLD that works best for the greatest number... and may just turn out to be right.

I think the Lebanese might just understand why we are bleeding for Iraq, and for Afghanistan.

They get it. Two hundred thousand (nominal - I've only got two blogs that may have same- sourced the number) Arabs - Shiite, Sunni, Druse, Orthodox Christian, even some Palestinians - are standing downtown and demanding to be heard. No bombs, no guns, no burning American flags.

Not in anger. Not enough anger to drown out the hope, at any rate.

They GET it. Elections in the spring in Lebanon. Spring is now. I looked at the faces of the (I assume) Lebanese troops that were mixed in among the edges of the crowd. THEY get it.

I bet the Syrians do, too.

Our best and brightest (the self appointed contingent) DON'T. They have the world at their fingertips even quicker than any of us here do but they refuse to see what doesn't fit in their version of that world. It is about winning for them. That's just (expletive)ing sad, too. We are an amazingly wealthy, blessed, fortunate, and robust democracy. Enough so that even our most powerful political fads or hacks cannot (has not - knock on wood) derail the true power that makes us all work as well as we have and continue to do.

It's not about ME being right. Nor winning any prize. Not even close. It's about finding a way in the real world of real people to make things work. I could give a rat's rear end about winning. Please just let freedom work for these folks. Even if they have judged "not ready" by the Elaine's crowd.


Keith_Indy -

"The real tipping point in the Middle East is going to be Iran. What happens there in the next 6-8 months is going to be what determines the near future of the region. And it could go either way, deeper into authorianism, or closer to democracy."

If this is in fact 1989 redux, I don't think that Iran has six or eight months. Read the MEMRI translations of journals from the mideast, especially the Emirates and Gulf States.

I feel like I did the night I watched Germans tearing apart the Berlin Wall with screwdrivers and carpenters' hammers. Or when that man in Peking stood in front of the tank column on its way to Tiananmen Square.

And I haven't won a thing. There is no triumph here in Utah. Just a lot more unforseen hope than I am able to process right at the moment.

What a beautiful day this has been.