On Friday, I awoke to a pleasant surprise: The President of the United States of America won the Nobel Peace Prize. The media and the right wing were predictably apoplectic. Yesterday, upon my return to the land of the intertubes, I found another surprise: liberals were in agreement with the right wing about this award. Undoubtedly hundreds of people may deserve it more than President Obama, as he himself has said, but the negative reaction has been so swift and so shrill that Americans wouldn't even take a moment to reflect on what this means.

I thought winning the Nobel Peace Prize was a good thing, not just for Barack Obama, but also for the United States of America. I don't believe, as some have said, that this is a repudiation for the actions of the previous administration. If we were to use the standards by which people think the President doesn't deserve this award, then Martin Luther King was not deserving either since the Civil Rights acts was signed into law after his death. The same goes for Teddy Roosevelt. He did not by any means spend his life agitating for peace. He fought in the Spanish-American War as a roughrider, if you will recall.

A friend of mine posed a question, and it is one that I think should be asked of all Americans:

Have we become so cynical and spoiled as Americans that we can't enjoy a moment which recognizes that the American Dream can and has inspired people all over the world; but here in the U.S. we use it as another excuse to highlight our differences and exult in division and create controversy where there is none?

My first reaction to the question was "it seems so". I returned home to see a litany of everything he hasn't done, yet. These are comments from the left. I'm all for constructive criticism and rational dialogue around such criticism, but some of this "I want mine and I want it now" ranting and whining is beginning to make me wonder if there aren't some people out there who really don't want change so much as they want to complain about the lack of it. After 8 long years, this is a horrendous time for this country and instead of getting together and working even harder to make things right, people are throwing their hands up in the air and giving up. It didn't happen fast enough for them. In the meantime, the teabaggers, birthers, 9/12ers, white supremacists, right-wing media and the generally deranged & seditious have been taking potshots at the President and picking off chunks wherever they can find them, so some on the opposite end of the political spectrum have decided to take up arms against him, too. I'm not sure why, but it seems to me that television commenters made comments about a comment and a meme was born: The President was undeserving of this prize. I expected the right to do this, but it seems as tho the left has bought into it as well.

Criticism and dialogue are necessary. I am by no means advocating that we sit down and shut up regarding the issues at hand regarding our nation and it's role in the world. That said, I think a little common sense needs to be had now. For most people it takes a good while to get a basic handle on any new job. They spend hours just learning basics and details. It can be close to impossible to figure out what to prioritize, especially if you have been handed complete chaos. Imagine the President's situation. He did hit the ground running. He's had a few interruptions, such as Iran's elections, nuclear program, South Korea, etc. This has put off getting to what some think should be priorities.

Is this the job he wanted? Yes. This is what Barack Obama signed up for when he ran for President. Should we excuse him from not doing what we want? No. We should push harder to get things like HCR and DADT repealed, but we need to know that this simply is not going to happen right away. It won't happen at all if we give up or fight against him like the right has been doing. He asked for our help. He asked us to push him in the right direction. Instead, as a result of winning this award, I am seeing some very ugly words coming from many 'progressive' commentators.

Smears and insults are not constructive criticisms, and just play into Republican memes that Obama is an empty suit, a teleprompter president, an egotist, all talk and no walk, etc. It is in their great interest to frame every accomplishment as meaningless and every setback as a cowardly betrayal. The Republican goal is to make Obama a one-term president. The Nobel Peace Prize complicates that desire to marginalize him from history even before he has served out his term. Progressives shouldn't be enabling this behavior.

And -- they shouldn't be kicking him in the teeth for being given an award he did not seek nor know he had been nominated for. I am really shocked that progressives are demanding he disrespect the committee and the country who award it with a refusal. Supporting someone who has taken the helm of the most disproportionately powerful country in the history of the world, and has turned it's course 8 in months means a a lot to the 6 billion other humans on this planet. There are only 300 million of us, and we really need to learn to share better, because the reality is this: Our President belongs to the world now.

What is wrong with us? How could we turn our back so quickly on a man we ourselves elected and who inspired the whole world? Do we really want Hope and Change or do we just want to complain that we haven't got what we feel we're entitled to?


&
Raine