Sometimes the most cliché sentiments carry a weight of truth:
For I am much ashamed of my exchange:
But love is blind and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit;
Modern medical science suggests Shakespear might have been on to something:
A research study in 2004 by University College London found that feelings of love suppressed the activity of the areas of the brain that control critical thought.
Love is Blind ... Really!
So I guess I don't feel at all guilty for being uncomfortable when people talk of "loving" a politician.
More below the fold...
Oh, believe me, I get it. It was a great feeling of relief to all rational people in the US when "The Decider" stepped down and was replaced by an intelligent, well-spoken and generally likable Barak Obama.
(Of course, many people have stopped reading at this point, and proceded to flame away in the comments ... which will prove that, if love is not blind, it is at least impatient).
But our current president is (1) a human being and (2) a politician.
So I come to dKos for rational discussion of policies he is following, or failing to follow, or deeper insights into what's happening in the political world.
But lately, I am more often than not finding it more like a "Twilight" fan site.
Love is also unconditional. Frankly, no politician gets my unconditional anything .... and unconditional support of someone with the power of the POTUS seems to me to be anti-democratic, and somewhat frightening.
Of course, the opposite of "love" is "hate".
We love without reason, and without reason we hate.
Jean-Francois Regnard
So ... if you don't love our President (according to the "logic" displayed by a few here) you must be an Obama-hater.
For me, personally, I don't hate or love Obama.
He's not my boyfriend - he's my President.
He's 'hired' (by our votes) to do a job.
I can love or hate the job he's doing.
Right now, it's neither - I'm disappointed, and at time even angry.
So, I guess it's "tough love" to point out - like one would to a friend in a bad relationship - that devotion verging on blind adoration is not healthy.
It's not healthy for individuals, or for the body politic.
And it is a barrier to actually dealing, realistically, with the faults and deficits that all of us have as human beings, in our struggle to improve our world (both personal and political).
However ... as Jonathan Swift put it:
There are none so blind as those who will not see.