The Nobel Peace Prize

I've been thinking a lot about the Nobel Peace Prize going to President Obama, and getting a little pissed off by the many criticisms coming from the left. Here's the way I see it: Barack Obama almost singlehandedly turned the most powerful country in the world from a big dumb bully to a thoughtful member of the international community.

After seven years of a "war on terror" that looked an awful lot like a war on Islam, he went to Cairo and made a big public effort to engage the Muslims of the world rather than alienate them.

Breaking from the previous regime's simplistic and damaging approach of "with us or against us," he has pledged to negotiate with those who disagree with us, like the current government of Iran, rather than going for the guns at the first opportunity.

He has publicly stated that he wants to live in a world without nuclear weapons!

To me, it comes down to this: Arguably the most powerful person in the world has consistently refused to simply throw around the weight of the United States' money and military, and instead has insisted on negotiation and engagement. He has chosen to manage conflicts peacefully. So yeah, I think he deserves the respect of the world for that.

I've been repeating this to myself and to my friends for the last few days. And then I had a realization: President Obama has been doing the same thing domestically, and I've been criticizing him for it.

I am really upset about how most of the domestic policy issues have turned out since January. The stimulus package was way too small, so now we're likely to have years of high unemployment, which means huge suffering for millions of people. Whatever health care reform eventually gets passed will probably not include a public option and will probably still leave millions of people uninsured. Don't Ask Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act are still the law of the land, with no end in sight.

All of these shortcomings are the result of concessions to the right-wing minority in Congress, largely because of ridiculous rules in the Senate that mean we can't really do anything without 60 votes, which we don't quite have. Don't get me wrong: this pisses me off, and I stand by my anger at the Republican and "moderate" Democratic lawmakers who put corporate profits and bigotry ahead of fairness and compassion at every opportunity. But I have also been upset with the president and the rest of the Democratic leadership for hesitating to throw their power around as much as I would have liked. We won the election, and we won big, so we should be able to do what we want, right?

Well, maybe not. Didn't I just say that I think President Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for refusing to simply use his (our) power as he sees fit, and instead engaging with the rest of the world? I really do believe that searching for commonalities and treating people with respect, even when they're acting hatefully, is the peaceful way to manage conflict. If that's the right way to deal with Ahmadinejad, maybe it's the right way to deal with the GOP too.

I still believe that he has let down LGBT people by refusing to put our rights on the agenda. And I still believe that he could be pushing harder for better health care and better economic policies. But maybe I'll ease up on his tactics for a while.

Shalom aleichem

As-salaam aleikum