Leslie Gelb seems frightened…
…as well as totally clueless about Obama.
Gelb is a liberal whose foreign policy credentials are impressive if you like this sort of thing. At the age of 77, his resume includes “former correspondent for The New York Times and …currently President Emeritus and Board Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations,” assistant to Jacob Javits, Carter’s Assistant Secretary of State, and plenty more that would warm the cockles of most Democrats’ hearts.
But Gelb writes as though he were Rip Van Winkle just waking up from a long, long and very deep sleep, one that lasted from January of 2009 till now and encompassed Obama’s entire presidency so far.
How else to explain this sort of thing?:
The failure of Obama or Biden to show up in Paris made clear that most of the president’s team can’t be trusted to conduct U.S national security policy and must be replaced””at once.
Republicans have been thinking that for a long long time—welcome to our world, Gelb. But we’re not delusional enough to think it could ever happen. The people Obama has place there are exactly the people he wants. They do his bidding, and he has no sense that he’s failed.
More from Gelb:
[Obama’s failure to attend the Paris march] demonstrated beyond argument that the Obama team lacks the basic instincts and judgment necessary to conduct U.S. national security policy in the next two years. It’s simply too dangerous to let Mr. Obama continue as is””with his current team and his way of making decisions. America, its allies, and friends could be heading into one of the most dangerous periods since the height of the Cold War.
I’m a bit puzzled as to why this particular inaction of Obama’s has riled Gelb so much; after all, I could list hundreds more things Obama has done that seem a great deal worse to me. Perhaps Gelb is incensed at this because he’s old enough to remember when all presidents, Democrat or Republican, knew what was necessary diplomatically on the world stage, even though they might have disagreed with each other on some of the details. And Gelb remembers a world when, for the most part, people actually recognized when things weren’t going well, admitted that they needed a change of personnel, and wanted aides under them who knew their stuff.
Obama—as we’ve discussed many times—wants people who don’t know their stuff in terms of world events, yes-men and yes-women who will not challenge him.
And Gelb cannot possibly be serious here, if he knows anything about Obama at all:
Mr. Obama will have to excuse most of his inner core, especially in the White House. He will have to replace them with strong and strategic people of proven foreign policy experience. He’ll also need to seed the Defense and State Departments with new top people serving directly as senior advisers to the secretaries. And he also will need to set up regular consultations””not the usual phony ones””with the two key Senate leaders in this field, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker and Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, two people who can really improve his decisions and bolster his credibility. Many will be tempted to dismiss these crash solutions as several bridges too far, as simply unrealistic. But hear me out. It can be made much more plausible than it seems at first blush. What’s more, if Mr. Obama doesn’t do something along the lines of what’s proposed here, he and we are in for unmanageable trouble.
Before I continue, I have to tell you that I’ve never made such extreme and far-reaching proposals in all my years in this business. I’ve never proposed such a drastic overhaul. But if you think hard about how Mr. Obama and his team handled this weekend in Paris, I think you’ll see I’m not enjoying a foreign policy neurological breakdown.
Gelb goes on to blame Obama’s staff for Obama’s non-attendance at the march (“oh, if only Stalin knew!”). Then he suggests the following:
First, Mr. Obama will have to thank his senior National Security Council team and replace them. The must-gos include National Security Adviser Susan Rice, Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, chief speech writer/adviser Ben Rhodes, and foreign policy guru without portfolio Valerie Jarrett. They can all be replaced right away, and their successors won’t require senatorial confirmation.
Obama fire Jarrett? Delusional, risible. Obama would be more likely to cut off his own right arm.
What struck me most about Gelb’s incomprehension was this line: “He’s first rate as an intellectual thinker, but he thinks about problems as an intellectual and not as a policy maker and a leader. Alas, that’s just too clear. He also doesn’t like to be challenged with give and take.” Does not Gelb know that one sign of a true intellectual is loving to be challenged with give and take?
This reminds me of Valerie Jarrett’s take on Obama: ““He knows exactly how smart he is. . . . I think that he has never really been challenged intellectually. . . . He’s been bored to death his whole life. He’s just too talented to do what ordinary people do. He would never be satisfied with what ordinary people do.”
I can’t think of a worse intellectual condemnation of someone than that he is (supposedly) brilliant, but can’t be bothered to do anything because he just too gosh darn smart and it’s really boring to have to think and study and that stuff that other people do.
Gelb really hasn’t been paying any attention at all.
Joe Y:
Obama’s brilliance is the myth that will not die. I have yet to see any demonstration of it, except that he is very smart politically and strategically in his use of power to get his way, and to smear opponents.
I wouldn’t call that “brilliance.” But it requires a certain amount of intelligence.
It’s interesting that just this past November, Gelb was not greatly in favor of Obama replacing staff, and he was actually much tougher on Obama:
Why the switch now to pointing his finger at Obama’s “team” as the most responsible party? A cynic might think it’s just one more lame attempt to protect Obama.
He does not understand that not going to Paris sent exactly the right message to the people he wanted to send a message to: those people who own the future who are NOT prophet Mohammad slanderers. He also does not get the fact that it will get much worse from here. Valerie Jarrett (aka Rasputin) will probably live next door in Hawaii. They will most likely share a moving van.
Ever the cry of feckless liberals: “If (Uncle Joe, Ho, Fidel,…….Barack) knew what was going on, he’d put a stop to it” What a “bunch of maroons”, the lot of them.
When I read or hear about people like Gelb, I am reminded of the people, usually women (wives, mothers) who wrote to Comrade Stalin during the Ukrainian famine or the Great Purge, to inform him of what was going on and ask his help for their starving villages or their unjustly arrested husbands… because surely this is all a mistake, and if only Comrade Stalin KNEW…
In most people I find this attitude irritating; from someone of Gelb’s experience and stature, it is inexcusable and nausea-inducing.
What Gelb is calling for will not happen. I’m very happy to see that an old lib like Gelb would say such things. It’s a crack in the dam that is protecting Obama.
O.K. Leslie Gelb is a little worried, but he is just one old white man. He is not the future of the left. Perhaps as a Jewish man he can see that the people on the left that he has spent his entire life promoting are finally free to reveal their true inner bigotry. The clouds of Kristallnacht have already gathered and the first drops of rain from the coming storm have already fallen.
Perhaps because of Gleb’s article Rush talked about how “liberals” insiders are afraid of Obama’s foreign policy. So far I’m not convinced. When the Democrats side with the Republicans in reigning in Onama’s userpation of power, then I’ll be less skeptical.
Rather than rethinking their approach to Islam the American left seems to be energized by the success of ISIS and are redoubling their efforts to help Muslims in their efforts to Islamize our country.
Obama’s failure in Paris was too obvious to ignore or make excuses for. That’s why Gelb is freaking out.
The real question is: why do we care what Gelb thinks, when he’s disqualified his own judgment?
There is little to be gained from paying attention to the clueless.
Here is something worth paying attention to:
“The Belgium Jihadist Raids: Why They’re Important”
“They show that ISIS has increased the threat it poses to western nations.”
January 15, 2015
The reason why we are going into a centuries long dark age is the blindness toward the Gelbs.
Yes, the man may have a degree of incoherence on top of his irrational belief system.
That is no reason to grant him the benefit of the doubt when he alights on something approaching the truth.
This is why we are going to lose. Even perceptive, fair, just and insightful folks, because of our heritage, cannot see what is there. They cannot see the Gelbian hatred, the Gelbian arrogance, the Gelbian temporary psychological mitigation which does not stand for what the Gelbian critics hopefully surmise.
We are long past the “Merry Christmas” moment.
Merry Christmas is over.
The vulnerability of Gelb died with Merry Christmas.
Gelb certainly seems delusional. It is as if it never occurred to him that Obama isn’t interested in preserving the same establishment-left order which Gelb wants to keep.
He’s admonishing the guy for failing to effectively do what the guy has no interest in doing. Comical.
Tonawanda has it right regarding Gelb’s curious mixture of arrogance and excuse making.
“Now now … all can be salvaged if my little disciple will just listen to Papa …” he said; moments before his acolyte turned on him and began to shred his flesh.
How can Obama fire Jarrett? She is his boss.
He’d more likely cut off Gelb’s right arm.
The DB commenters are not very pleased with Gelb. He even gets called a “neocon.” I can’t think of many neocons who came out of the Carter Administration, as did Dr. Gelb. Some of the comments are of interest. Take this “call and response:”
Do we inhabit the same planet with someone who believes that Obama’s governing indicates he is a “first rate intellectual thinker?”
From the same commenter:
No, we libs don’t condescend very much!
Well… this is so messed up and topsy-turvy that beginning to put a handle on the spin of spin for spin to spin is… Well… I will give it a try.
First, attending the Paris dhimmitude rally would have been supporting a farce. The march included islamists who had wanted Charlie outlawed, and others who are actively attempting to eradicate Israel. Why the Israeli PM went is… a sad state of politics.
On the other hand, the reason Zero and crue didn’t attend was because they support terrorists and terrorism. They always have. Communist, socialist, “independence” movements, right on into islam, it is the m.o. of the left. He couldn’t attend with a straight face while releasing terrorists that end up being killed in anti-terrorist strikes or being wanted by the FBI with millions of dollars per head.
So… does not making a mistake because of being horribly mistaken even… mean anything here? Seriously. Look, if you have a way to straighten that crooked twist of events, be my guest. I’ll be here all week. Try the meatballs, they are great. Or… summit like that.
Neo,
You write, “Obama–as we’ve discussed many times–wants people who don’t know their stuff in terms of world events, yes-men and yes-women who will not challenge him.”
There’s a brilliant management book titled The Entrepreneur’s Manual, wherein we find: “First rate people hire first rate people; second rate people hire third rate people.”
Obama- so smart he is a moron.
Old Les is living in the past, he does not realize that the world has changed, irrevocably. He’ll never get it.
The White House flack claims no one asked Obama if he wanted to go to Paris. He claims no one asked the Secret Service what they could handle. The jokes about Obama wanting to watch football are beginning to look plausible. Did he even know there was a march?
Gelb has figured out we have an empty suit in the White House or a Manchurian Candidate.
Doom:
I agree that it was a farce. Nevertheless, it was the strongest statement Europe has made so far of resolve against Muslim extremist terrorism. As such, it needed to be attended, if only to show solidarity with that sentiment (whether or not the reality matched it).
If Obama had failed to attend and said why, and the reason was that it was a farce and not a strong enough statement of actual resolve followed by action against terrorists, and that he himself was determined to demonstrate that action—well, then, that would still have been offputting to our allies, but it would have been for the right reason.
What he did was the wrong thing (failing to stand with our allies) for the wrong reason.
Bill West,
I suspect first rate people hire first rate people because their focus is upon the goal and purpose of their organization. Second rate people hire third rate people because they fear being exposed as second rate.
Gringo,
Condescension, rationalization and stereotyping are the refuge of those afraid of factual examination.
DNW,
Gelb’s curious mixture of arrogance and excuse making are necessary to maintain denial.
Tonawanda,
How else are those like Gringo’s commenter, typical of the 40% of those Americans who self-identify as “solid liberals” but who frequently “feel proud to be an American” and who see “duty and honor as important qualities” going to awaken to the hatred and arrogance of Americans like Gelb?
The indoctrination into the Left’s memes and narrative by the schools and mass media has been so thorough that only an extended visit from hard reality will awaken them.
Lincoln had the right of it, “Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”
Democracy is a two edged sword, groups can make consistently bad decisions as easily as do individuals. And when the majority of a republic’s citizens have become immoral and irreligious (there is no good and bad, everything is subjective) consistently bad decisions are certain.
These Leftist zombies need to obey their orders and stop shaking in their boots.
Gelb still thinking that Obama can be saved by replacing his staff is just pathetic. He’s moved into the useless,/i> idiot category at this point.
Wonder if he noticed that Obama managed to find the time to tweet congratulations to the two guys who successfully scaled El Capitan (complete w/thumbs up photo in front of a painting of the peak) and yet has not found the time or inclination to either make a public statement in support of France’s Je Suis Charlie rally *or* provide an explanation for not attending (hint: sending out uninformed spokesmen like Earnest and Harf don’t count).
Dear Mr. Gelb, he’s not only snubbed our European allies, he’s snubbed you, the press, and us, the American public, with his continued silence.
Neo,
Fair enough, as your offering. It isn’t something I hadn’t considered as well, but rejected for overriding reasons as I see things, as I expressed. We just have slightly *cough* differing world views, on some things anyway. Which is good. I am for diversity, at least of thought. Up to a point. You are within the boundaries, for what it may or may not matter. Then again, like our opinions matter… in one sense. But they do matter to us, to principals, to those reading and searching.
It’s the quest, quite often… the hope… not always the fulfillment. Sometimes.
Lizzy:
“Wonder if he noticed that Obama managed to find the time to tweet congratulations to the two guys who successfully scaled El Capitan (complete w/thumbs up photo in front of a painting of the peak) and yet has not found the time or inclination to either make a public statement in support of France’s Je Suis Charlie rally *or* provide an explanation for not attending.”
We know that Obama likes his sports. A month or so ago he mentioned that he watches ESPN two hours a day. He watches basketball, he tweets and greets champions, he fills out his NCAA Tournament brackets, he golfs (and golfs, and golfs), he shoots pickup hoops, etc., etc. Last weekend was a big NFL playoff time. Two games each day. Was he gonna miss that to march with some other heads of state? Naw! Now, if they had offered him a chance to make a great speech under le Arc de Triomphe de l’é‰toile, he would have moved Heaven and Earth to be there. Marching like at Selma? Not his cuppa. Speechifying – yeah baby! My opinion: He really is lazy and uninterested unless it’s about him.
Obama is not stupid but aside from not being anywhere near as smart as he and his acolytes think he is *incredibly* shallow. He is in his 50s but he is still like a college student who thinks he knows everything even though he hasn’t done anything.
If
If the Lord had mercy,
He’d lay me down
and find love where
I found none.
The Lord, though, has no mercy,
only purpose, power and claim;
and so here, I, on a table,
am marble meeting clay.
but the skies, they are a parting,
meet the most that I could dream.
If I do merely chose to
I’m among the lasting stream.
sing, now, sing
oh sing, now sing
if you sing
if you sing
FOAF:
And Obama made that abundantly clear before he was elected in 2008. America wasn’t listening, though, or didn’t care.
“The Lord, though, has no mercy, only purpose, power and claim;”
I’m sure that Jesus is appreciative of being straightened out on that matter. Obviously he was confused as to God and mercy.
People argue using their Authorities, but it’s not like their Authorities are alive or here to actually speak the mind of the proper chain of command. It’s merely human interpretation.
How else to explain this sort of thing?
he didnt realize the goals of the organization he is a part of, as the power is in the guest list and who you put together, not in any actual plan… its like an infection, not like a conspiracy… you only need to infect people with the ideas, and for that you only need to expose them to liberal celebs to be fawned over by academics, journalists, etc…
the true believers lead, and people like Gelb follow till they wake up and are not useful any more… but dont worry, their contribution to the whole of the thing that helped increase it is a done deal, and they cant take back what services were provided. and from then on, they are of marginal benefit to either side, and so like an old soldier, just fade away… being replaced by the next young dupe who will work in service till they wake up and then end up on the margins.
funny how a head of the council of foreign relations a soviet style and created thing, would give that old academic totalitarian comment that “we must” do such and such… including remove someone from office… and ignore all due process, and all other things as if there is this great totalitarian force they are pretending to appeal to who will set things right..
we must save the planet, we must have windmills, we must remove windmills, we must control eating, we must, we must, we must… it gets freaky reading science papers as it would be unusual to find one that has no scare story with a “we must” clause..
Neo: “I’m a bit puzzled as to why this particular inaction of Obama’s has riled Gelb so much”
thats easy… gelb is formal… those other things had nothing to do with NATIONAL SECURITY… which meant that they would never come around to affect him… but national security, could indanger his life, and those he knows… and once again, if it happens to others, we dont care, but the second it may affect us, suddenly its a problem. see harvard academics and their ACA deductibles for an example, niemoller for the classic in poetry, and projection of selfishness by the left..
there is also the point that so many of these people dont actually pay attention to things outside what they enjoy… their lives are molded to increase the past times and social actions they like… like research for academics, teaching for teachers,social parties and administration for people like Gelb… they seldom pay much attention outside of those things as to do that is a bummer and a downer… so in essence, unless the crowd is yelling loud enough in the court calling for their heads on a platter they are oblivious to whats actually going on, and they are completely insulated from someone tapping them on the head and saying, WTF, take a look…
that is until things are so egregious that it pierces their bubble, and then what? they break out the commentary dotted with “we musts”, brush their hands off, and go back to the bubble pretending that what they did actually matters…
Neo,
I am not sure the march was a total farce. I think, for instance, that Merkel was probably happy to use it as a wake-up call for the Germans who love Snowden and who have a simplistic feel-good view about radicals in their midst. She also probably wanted to counter Pegida, which is both an outpouring of legitimate concern about immigrants and a vehicle being used by neo-Nazis and disgruntled East Germans who still believe in extreme socialism. Intelligence people throughout Europe are well aware of the dangers facing them, but it’s hard to get political support for better policies, especially since national situations differ.
Obama’s presence might have been a way to show people that we are all facing the same problem and are finally showing some resolve. It might have caused a few second thoughts about the need for NSA type work.
Given the arrests we just seen in Belgium France, and Germany, it does seem that the intelligence communities are trying to take their case to the public.
One major obstacle to academic achievement is the challenge of shielding academic goal pursuit from unwanted distractions. Because academic success requires continuous striving in the face of distrac-
tions……..
Two approaches have been suggested to shield goal
striving from distraction: ignoring the distraction (i.e., by forming temptation-inhibiting plans) and amplifying the desired behavior.
Not only do they do this, but the best (most successful) learn to builid a world around themselves in which their only idea of what is in the real world is what they read that gets through the slot in the door.
Gollwitzer (1993, 1999) proposed that individuals can improve rates of goal attainment by planning out their goal striving in the form of implementation intentions. Implementation intentions are highly elaborated if — then plans that include both a relevant situational cue (e.g., if I hear a distraction) and a concrete response (e.g., then I will ignore it).
button washers and bottle sorters…
ultimately, it becomes a way of life, a way of dealing with the world, combined with the politics of who to pretend to pay attention to.
by the time they are full fledged, they have a wealth of skills related to avoiding reality so that they can delve and get into what they really want to do vs being a whole person (like the smart men of the past who brought us here).
ultimately they even claim that they are putting aside the pleasures of the world to work, but in truth they are addicted to their work and are using avoidance skills to maximize their addiction, while using the putting aside pleasures thing to protect their image as being a martyr is a lot better than being an academic addict who gets off thinking and being rewarded with the right answers for pulling a lever in the limited areas that they find appealing.
so they live a ticky tacky life..
going from the prek box, to the kindergarten box, to the grade school box, to the junior high box, to the high school box, the two year box, the 4 year box, the graduate school box, the university box, the academia box… whereby they are all the same ticky tacky people with ticky tacky ideas… they buy houses that are copies of others and live their ticky tacky lives.
they live their lives in “little boxes” in which they plug up all the outside world, and read what they get in their slots, and try to fix the outside world from that limited space… what thye know of muslims is what comes from the slot which gives them politically correct information that is like a block of swiss cheese, full of holes, holes they dont know are there and have no way of percieving are missing… (such is the quality of missing).
they apply very eroneous methods and cry from their little boxes that someone outside their world should do something… they cry to the collective of box sitters “we must”, in hopes that others will get out of their boxes and act to fix the problem BEFORE they have to get out, and BEFORE such things force their way into their ticky tacky lives..
Gelb did not care what was happening, because it was not happening to jews… he did not care he was siding with anti semites, because he was told socialism and antisemitism are not one and the same… he never learned the real nature of things, because who feeds the slot finds him useful as an athorityh for others to use as a means of affirmation of their ideas.
And the people in the houses
All went to the university,
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same,
And there’s doctors and lawyers,
And business executives,
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same.
And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
There’s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
The prime minister of France, Manuel Valls, has emerged over the past tumultuous week as one of the West’s most vocal foes of Islamism, though he’s actually been talking about the threat it poses for a long while. During the course of an interview conducted before the Charlie Hebdo attacks, he told me–he went out of his way to tell me, in fact–that he refuses to use the term “Islamophobia” to describe the phenomenon of anti-Muslim prejudice, because, he says, the accusation of Islamophobia is often used as a weapon by Islamism’s apologists to silence their critics.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/01/french-prime-minister-manuel-valls-on-islamophobia/384592/
The United States’ missing appearance at the unity march in Paris was duly noted by the media. Secretary of State John Kerry finally made an appearance in France to “share a big hug.” In a press conference to express his condolences to the French people and for not showing, Kerry brought a friend with him: James Taylor. Taylor serenaded the crowd with an acoustic version of “You’ve Got a Friend.” Taylor performed the song as a tribute to the 17 victims of the terrorist attacks carried out last week.
[i hear he has booked kermit the frog to sing its not easy being green to make the keystone protests seem relevant… ]
expat:
I agree that the march was not a farce for those who are prepared to follow through. If Merkel does that, then great.
I also agree that Obama’s presence (or a high-ranking aide’s presence) would have meant something in symbolic terms—solidarity with the forces working against terrorism. His absence, however, spoke even louder.
Relying on America to save the world isn’t necessarily a good idea any more. America might just shoot everyone in the back and call it a day for Golf Time.
Gelb is a diplomat. I’m sure he knows Obama is also a large part of the problem, but he also knows Obama is a narcissist like no other, and more than happy to point his finger and blame everyone but himself.
The article seems to be a message giving obama a way out of the mess that is his foreign policy – unfortunately he fails to grasp that Obama doesn’t think there’s a problem. The Obama worship continues unabated.
artfldgr, regarding you posting of the lyrics of Malvina Reyhnolds’s Little Boxes, did you realize that Malvina Reynolds, according to her daughter Nancy Schimmel, was a columnist for People’s World? Not an accident that she later palled around with Paul Robeson and Pete Seeger.
But a good songwriter.
http://www.sisterschoice.com/mal-bio.html
Neo-neocon writes:
” Perhaps Gelb is incensed at this because he’s old enough to remember when all presidents, Democrat or Republican, knew what was necessary diplomatically on the world stage, even though they might have disagreed with each other on some of the details.”
I agree with all the comments upthread that point out there’s no evidence Obama is exceptionally bright. Even so, if Obama was just bumbling then even by accident he’d occasionally do what was necessary on the world stage. The fact that he consistently does the opposite means he and his “brain trust” do know what would be necessary diplomatically. That’s the only way he could have accumulated his track record.
She continues:
“And Gelb remembers a world when, for the most part, people actually recognized when things weren’t going well, admitted that they needed a change of personnel, and wanted aides under them who knew their stuff.”
But things are going exactly how he wants them to go. Why would he change a thing? He’s a second rate intellect, true. But he hired third raters not because he doesn’t want to be exposed, but because he is focused on the results. He’s achieving what he set out to achieve. If his policies are a train wreck at home and abroad it’s because he only wanted to be President to wreck the train.
The leftist Eurotrash understood that; that’s why the gave him a Nobel Peace Prize as a down payment.
Steve57:
I am in agreement with you.
But I was trying to understand how Gelb might be thinking, and why he wrote what he wrote.
Geoffrey Brittain: “Democracy is a two edged sword, groups can make consistently bad decisions as easily as do individuals.”
Actually Democracy is more of a one edged sword. It was well understood by the founders that Democracy would ultimately lead to enslavement as more and more groups of people would begin to vote themselves paychecks in a downward spiral of disenfranchisement that would ultimately gut the goose laying the golden eggs. This is why we are not a federal democracy, but a republic. For most people who attended high school before Jimmy Carter’s Board of Education kicked in, this would have been a basic lesson learned in American Govt. 101 class.
However, Gelb and his ilk have insisted for decades, subtly and otherwise, that democracy is the crowning jewel of our system. Then, they act all surprised when misguided “groups” of voters make the “consistently bad decision” to pack D.C. with people like Obama and his suicidal advisers.
But no matter, really – Gelb will be well-padded by his sweet retirement package earned by all the years he spent promoting democracy at the NYT and elsewhere, while the rest of us will be covered to some degree by the welfare checks he helped us get – so by all means, let Democracy reign – at least we’ll all have plenty of spare time to keep bowing toward Mecca for all those damned prayers.