One positive at least from the 'debate' was a questioner, Fred Kagan I believe, raisiing the issue of deteriorating US strategic relationship with Pakistan since the OBL killing and a query put to the candidates about whether the killing was worth it given this deterioration. I had come to the conclusion that the entire supposed national security intelligensia of the US had utterly missed this crucial element of the story so it was nice to see maybe not [although possibly this 'interest' merely response to recent memo from Pakistani diplomat to Joint Chief Mullen concerning dangerous instability afoot in Pakistan between the military and the gov't since the killing with looming threat of a coup - I mean this was the first thought through my head the morning after the kill so maybe then not so promising a thing that putative intelligentsia now only addressing the negative fallout from this highly questionable strategic 'victory']. But of course none of the candidates were willing to question the killing of Osama and all accordingly reached deep into their populist bag of jingoistic jargon for something satisfyingly better-dead-than-alive-like in its simplicity.
Complexity and an electorate do not fit well together - indeed, democracy demands such a thing because how would a plurality ever be able to agree on anything if faced with issues confounding in their difficulty? Problems arise when leaders see or embrace the simplicity inherent in what they covet as an end in and of itself. This is why, paradoxically enough, leadership is so important in a democracy - the leader is constantly in a position of having to bridge the gap between the simple framework an electorate is necessarily forced to operate from and the obdurate complexity of the real world outside that framework. This is why ideologically rigid leaders do not fare well in a democracy - freedom requires the phenomena of Reagan Democrats, Clinton Republicans, its nature demands such a thing - there will never be any 'Obama republicans' and that's why his presidency was doomed from the start - I know he and his followers thought themselves so cunning and his story so alluring that they could easily pull enough wool over enough eyes to make it work, but it never works - the system is geared to reject absolutist arrogance of that sort [or at least one hopes it is - the West continues its decline and who knows what doors will open - which is why I fear the dawning of an 'anybody,anybody would be better than Obama' moment in this election cycle - I mean, how else explain the popularity of such flawed candidates as Cain and Gingrich? When a democracy reaches a point of desperation that enables an 'anybody but the current body' kind of delusion, that's not good - in such a case the notion of thoughtful, informed choice is lost, the very idea of individual conscience itself starts to fade - and who knows what creatures may emerge from those shadows].
