Some Defend-President-Obama-no-matter-what-folks here will do anything to divert,

[Skidmore]

116. This.

I have never understood why there is this insistence that something as unwieldy as the ship of state go from zero to mach 10 in less than a minute. Change does not occur in that manner, but in fits and starts. People are slow to adopt change and quite often are fearful of it. The great and sudden changes in our history have sometimes resulted in backlashes that were just as intense.

I fully agree with you that we engage on two levels in the "real world." First, the ideals we set forth are where we collectively wish to end up at some point. However, people being what they are, must be brought along and I'm a firm believer that browbeating and insulting those are not good ways to gain the support of those who don't yet ascribe to the ideals or work with you toward common ground to accomplish them. I also am realistic enough to realize that not all ideals are achievable by the collective. We simply strive to get as much accomplished as we are able to in an imperfect world.