When idealism crashes head-on into reality

Every now and then a story comes along that perfectly crystalizes the gap between what some of the idealists on the far Left believe about reality, and actual reality.

Let me introduce you to the story of Kirsten Brydum.

Kirsten was a utopian radical from where else but California. And Kirsten got it into her head that she would travel the country in search of other like-minded radicals who would use their passion and idealism to literally change the world.

Ultimately, her quest took her to New Orleans.

Before I tell you what happened to Kirsten take a minute to look at a photograph of the place in New Orleans where she decided she would stay.

For those of you who don't know New Orleans, that's the infamous Lower Ninth Ward, which despite the amazing comeback much of the city has experienced, remains a ghost town. There is still no power or water, many of the residents have not returned and may never return. And the only folks you're likely to run into are, shall we say, extremely dangerous.

But Kirsten wasn't concerned. Why should she be? She was here to bring down the very Capitalist system that was oppressing these people. She held the poor and downtrodden in her heart and mind. She only wanted to show them the way to a better world. Surely anyone she ran into in this awful place would be able to tell that there was something different and special about her. Why should she fear them? And so she rode a bicycle into the Lower Ninth at 1:30 in the morning wearing a bright sundress and flip flops.

Her body was found a week later. Despite all her idealism and her belief that he passion and willpower could change reality... someone shot her in the face four times.

So why am I posting this story here? Because it makes me think about Obama's foreign policy team. Remember the guy who got eaten by the Grizzly Bears he was studying? Or Tim McCanlies... the back-to-nature minimalist memorialzed in Jon Krakauer's book INTO THE WILD? All these people refused to acknowledge fundamental realities about the world they lived in... and all of them were killed because of it.

Obama and his foreign policy team seem set to make the same mistake. They seem to genuinely believe that the only reason why we are at war with radical Islam, or in an oil-related tiff with the Russians, or battling the space and nuclear ambitions of the Chinese and North Koreans is because those enemies have not been approached with a big enough smile, or pure enough intentions, or a long enough list of concessions, or a big enough Harvard-educated vocabulary.

What I fear is that they are going to learn the same lesson Kirsten learned. That when you roll into a dangerous neighborhood with nothing but flip-flops, a smile, and a heightened sense of your own importance... reality sometimes punches you in the neck.

And the problem is, if Obama does turn out to be a Presidental version of Kirsten Brydum, it's not Obama who will wind up paying the price... it's us.