I also live in the rural midwest, and yes there are plenty of Obama supporters here, but also plenty of people who are dumbfounded and amazed that anyone could support him. We are polite to each other (small town people have to live which each other’s differences) but it’s clear to all of us that the only thing that we are agreeing on is to disagree. Joe Y — I think that what we are seeing is less a liberal-conservative thing and more a big-city vs country thing. Big-city liberals are not clueless because they are liberals, but because they live in big cities and actually have the numbers to successfully ghetto-ize themselves.

Heh.

Instapundit’s daughter is BTW is Halachically Jewish.

soccer dad’s last blog post..If you do it for us, we don’t have to

But what happens when the most serious wrongs you can come up with are mostly non-issues, or cases where we still do better than most of the rest of the world? I think that what happens is that the protesters keep on protesting, always looking for a new ’cause’… and sometimes live in willful disbelief that their latest ’cause’ is meaningless.

(Think about it. What are the burning social issues facing America today? Gay marriage? Health care? The increasingly fragile ‘glass ceiling’? These may require attention, but THEY ARE NOT CRISES — certainly not compared to how most of the rest of the world deals with these issues.)

I’m glad the progressive mentality exists, because sometimes we really do need them; sometimes conservatism holds us back from going where we need to go next. But there are times for looking for new causes to fight, and there are times for holding on to what we have — particularly in the face of an enemy determined to take away all we have, regardless of whether or not we have universal health care or gay marriage.

Traditional Jewish teachings do tend to lean in a liberal, or progressive, direction — think tikkun olam, a Jewish obligation that literally means “repair the world”. But some American Jews have lived in comfort in the United States for so long that they’ve forgotten how dangerous it can be to be Jewish — and the importance of keeping one’s powder dry. (Or, in the case of Glenn’s anonymous correspondent, they are so frightened that they have given up completely — and will be sitting ducks for the next Hitler that comes along. As several have pointed out here, Hitler didn’t care if you consider yourself Jewish or not. Neither did the Entebbe hijackers; neither do Islamist terrorists worldwide today. If they target you, not having gone to Hebrew school won’t save you.)

respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline

At least, not all faiths.

Progress gives us longer, healthier lives, healthier children, efficient commuter trains, blogs, facebook and BlackBerry Curve 8900’s with 3.2 MP cameras. It’s not all bad.

I forgive you, my son.