MobileRJ | RSS TwitterTwitter FacebookFacebook E-mail Alerts
Home manage Las Vegas Review-Journal
  Jobs Cars Homes Shopping Travel Weddings Golf Best of Las Vegas Photo   Search:

RECENT EDITIONS
Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue

Opinion
Dec. 28, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JOHN BRUMMETT: From FDR to Rick Warren

JOHN BRUMMETT
MORE COLUMNS

Progress comes only incrementally. No one is perfect. Don't insist on perfection at risk of undoing the incrementally good. Inclusiveness is better than judgmental polarization. Tolerance of disagreement is a good thing.

We must set the right priorities. Saving our very country -- its failed economy, its failed health care system, its failed schools, its besmirched international standing -- must come first.

Most Popular Stories
  • J.C. WATTS: Bad dog food for the Democrats
  • EDITORIAL: Leaving Las Vegas -- alone
  • VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: Exposing the 'secure our borders' lie
  • LETTERS: President delivers another blow to Las Vegas
  • THOMAS MITCHELL: The audacity of hypocrisy
  • LETTERS: Mayor doesn't deserve to be labeled a 'racist'
  • LETTERS: Death of Yucca Mountain not worth a news release?
  • LETTERS: Suspend sports, reorganize district to save money
  • EDITORIAL: Hiking permits
  • LETTERS: Yucca Mountain presents an opportunity




    • These are words to live by as we ponder Barack Obama's calling on pastor-author Rick Warren to say a little prayer at the inauguration.

    Strident liberals and gays and lesbians are outraged. They feel betrayed. They think they elected a supposed friend who has now turned around and sold them out to a man who has no tolerance of them.

    They insist the line should be drawn on inclusiveness when you embrace and publicly validate a man who likens homosexuality to pedophilia and preaches the subjugation of some people's rights, meaning those of homosexuals to marry, mainly.

    They argue that no politician on the right ever asks his base to put up with a left-wing radical in the interest of some vaunted inclusiveness. They complain that it's always the left being asked to hold its nose for the polar-opposite foes, the troglodytes of the right.

    But that can be explained simply: America remains a country that tilts center-right. A man from the left who gets elected president does so in spite of his being on the left. Perhaps the opposition was weak and the country in collapse and crisis.

    So for the liberal then to be able to govern -- especially at such a vital and trying time, one requiring unified effort -- he must make overtures to the center of his constituents' political gravity, which is to his right.

    Liberals remain generally less valuable as American political allies than conservatives. That's just the way it is. Beyond that, let us ponder the words to live by in the beginning paragraphs.

    Since progress comes only incrementally through imperfect people, and since we shouldn't insist on perfection at the risk of undoing the incrementally good, consider this: Rick Warren is better than Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson.

    Warren preaches some measure of inclusiveness himself. He has insisted that religious principles do not fall along American party boundaries. He says we need a new and less mean American politics.

    Yes, Warren is opposed to abortion and he thinks the Bible teaches him that homosexuality is a perversion. He is entitled to those views. Others are entitled to deplore his views.

    That doesn't mean it hurts a thing in the world for Warren to say a prayer at the inaugural and stand as a symbol of new alliances, if still tenuous and superficial.

    And remember this: After the "amen" is said, Warren will go back to the pulpit and to write books while Obama will go the Oval Office, taking a modern and enlightened view of gays and lesbians with him. He wants civil unions, to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and to undo the military's policy of not asking and not telling.

    Consider the earlier reference to setting the right priorities: Our country faces essential challenges reminiscent of the Great Depression and Franklin D. Roosevelt. History records Roosevelt as a great president for advancing an agenda that is credited with helping lead the country out of that.

    FDR was good, but he was not perfect. He had American citizens -- those of Japanese heritage -- imprisoned for no reason other than their lineage.

    Not quite 80 years later, Obama is letting a preacher with some fundamentalist theological beliefs lead one prayer.

    That's incremental improvement since FDR's time, if you ask me.

    If Obama rounds up homosexuals and puts them in camps, then I'll need to write a retraction.

     

    John Brummett, an award-winning columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock, is author of "High Wire," a book about Bill Clinton's first year as president. His e-mail address is jbrummett@ arkansasnews.com.

    Newsvine Digg Fark Technorati reddit StumbleUpon del.icio.us Slashdot Propeller Mixx Furl Twitter MySpace Facebook Google Bookmarks Yahoo! Bookmarks Windows Live Favorites Ask MyStuff myAOL Favorites

    Leave Your Comment 11 Reader Comments
    Terms & Conditions
    The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsiblity of the authors. The reviewjournal.com does not review comments before publication nor guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by the comment policy. If you see a comment that violates the policy, please notify the web editor.

    Some comments may not display immediately due to an automatic filter. These comments will be reviewed within 48 hours. Please do not submit a comment more than once.
    Current Word Count:

    Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.

    Johnathan L. Abbinett wrote on December 28, 2008 10:15 PM: "tj" until you grow a set of cahones and have the courage to post using your real name no one is going to respect you calling anyone a coward - and your rant is delusional dude!


    tj wrote on December 28, 2008 07:19 PM: Poor Brian, you poor misguided thing,

    Hating George W. Bush is not only dull and unoriginal, but it shows a complete lack of understanding of the world in which we live in. President Bush is neither as bad a president, nor as bad a man, as you and America's frustrated and increasingly rabid taxoholic collectivists pretend. President George W. Bush is much like Harry Truman, who developed the sinews of war for a new era (the Department of Defense, the CIA, the NSA), expanded the powers of the presidency, established a new doctrine for active intervention abroad, and ultimately engaged in a war, (Korea) also absent an attack on the United States, that proved highly unpopular. So unpopular that Truman left office disparaged and highly out of favor. History has revised that verdict. Have no doubt that Bush will be the subject of a similar reconsideration.
    However, your empty suite of a coward, who knows it, will be relageted to the poor forgotten Carter backwaters of history. But Jimmy will be so pleased that he is now only the second worst President in History.


    Mac wrote on December 28, 2008 01:47 PM: Sorry John, but FDR did not pull us out of the depression with his alphabet soup list of unconstitutional agencies. The war did. FDR was not a great president, but he was socialist, just like Obama. Taking from the productive and giving handouts to the rest is no solution for a weak economy.

    And I would also disagree that Obama's view of homosexuality is "enlightened".


    Johnathan L. Abbinett wrote on December 28, 2008 01:18 PM: "Liberals generally remain less valuable as American political allies" - you are joking right?

    "America remains a country that tilts center-right" - are you really that deaf, dumb and blind?

    The truth of the matter is that we've evolved beyond the old labels of left, right, liberal and conservative - and America is now a country of moderates that lean left on social issues and lean right as environmental and fiscal conservatives (fully committed to the seperation of church and state)!

    I'm an example of the majority who are proud All-Americans and very independent Nevadans (that happen to be registered as a dedicated Democrat). I have many friends that feel the same way (and are registered as Republicans and Independents)!

    Let's get real! It's way past time for some serious changes!

    We, the people, are fed up with the federal governmnent meddling in our private lives and wasting time, money and resources on issues that can not (and should not) be legislated - like who loves who!

    Now that the lying, cheating, thieving, racical, right-wing, neo-con, nut-cases have nearly broken the backs of our military and created an endless black hole of horror in an Unjust War in Iraq and brought us to the brink of bankruptcy, maybe, just maybe, we'll learn some hard lessons and stop the insanity of rude, mean, nasty, greed!

    I don't want the government even crossing the curb of my street, not in my yard or driveway, not in my house, not in my bedroom and, most certainly, not climbing up inside a woman's womb - and, with so little love in the world, as a straight man I support the gay community in their fight for equality and civil rights!

    That's where most Americans put themselves politically!

    Warren has a right to his opinions - but not in American government!


    Fausto wrote on December 28, 2008 11:41 AM: "He will go down as the worst president in history."

    So did you block out the years 1977-1980 in your mind...or just not live through them?


    RHG wrote on December 28, 2008 10:51 AM: "He wants civil unions, to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and to undo the military's policy of not asking and not telling".
    -----------
    Yeah, Obama might say all the right politically correct things to appease the leftwingers. But, whether he actually does something is another matter. This guy has already shown he is as adept as Bill Clinton at saying one thing and doing another.


    Brian wrote on December 28, 2008 10:13 AM: TJ,

    Please, who is dumber than King George? Just look at the damage he has done to this country and to the world. He will go down as the worst president in history.


    Charlie wrote on December 28, 2008 07:47 AM: Frank:

    Is Obama a "bigot" too?


    Frank wrote on December 28, 2008 07:35 AM: Mr. Warren is a bigot. The fact that he professes to feel bad about being a bigot sometimes, does not make him any less of a bigot.


    tj wrote on December 28, 2008 07:18 AM: The One is coming to the White House and the depths of American stupidity are about to be plumbed like never before.


    Read All Comments