Irony of Obama's Opposition
posted by: Marc Seltzer 165 days ago
By my calculation, we elected in Barack Obama, a leader who is expert in reasoning. He distinguished himself academically to get into Harvard law school, and there, he competed in talking and writing about law and society to become editor-in-chief of the Harvard Law Review.
He went on to teach others to learn, analyze and debate at the University of Chicago Law School, a critical-thinker’s heaven.
More recently, his presidential campaign included a vision of bringing more reasoning to governance: Rules against conflicts of interest and restrictions on lobbying aimed to insulate decisionmaking-by-reasoning from special-interest influence.
And now, as President, Mr. Obama consistently speaks of solving problems by using "what works" rather than employing ideological approaches. This too is reasoning and judgment, rather than resort to theory without consideration for the facts on the ground. It does not mean that the President will not consider free-market economics, on the one hand, or government intervention, on the other, but he looks for solutions that take into account the myriad of consequences rather than simply going with a principle, results be damned.
What is ironic, although maybe karmicly inevitable, is that this king of reason is being confronted with logic's nemises -- emotion, belief and intentional deception.
Take, for example, Mr. Obama's first acts as President. The economy was diving into a deeper recession. The financial industry was frozen. The President supported a huge rescue program.
He was branded a socialist revolutionary -- taking society in a new direction. Honestly, what would have been truly radical would have been to do nothing. What he did was big and risky but not radical. Radical would have been allowing the chips to fall where they may. It would have been emotionally satisfying, and some would have preferred to risk economic depression, international bank failure, destruction of real estate, stock and who-knows-what other markets to bailouts. Mr. Obama could have stood firm and said, "I am a man of principle, and being responsible means paying the price for your mistakes." Many a man-on-the-street was calling for this approach, but it would have had radical consequences.
And to health care. President Obama says, let's fix the system. A liberal vision would be the single-payer model, successfully used in Canada (see first-hand "comments" to blog). It cuts costs and delivers excellent universal health care. It is tax-payer funded and not connected to employment. But the President seeks no such leap of faith from the American people. He simply wants to adjust the current system, to bend the cost curve so that public systems he inherited do not go bankrupt in ten years, and so that more people can afford health care. He doesn’t have to do this. Medicare will not go bankrupt on his watch, and any action taken to solve this problem will be unpopular in some circles as excess is taken out of the system. But acting now, instead of waiting for a crisis, is prudent. In truth, President Obama's approach is again quite cautious.
Yet look at the arguments stacked against him: "Citizenship," "Socialism," "Nazism," "government takeover," "revolutionary policies," "health care for illegal aliens," "death panels for grandma," and “take back our country.” Lively conspiracy theories, expressions of fear and its anger, and political taunts, but hardly addressable through reason.
Insecure times have brought anger and fear to the fore. Humans project their dislikes onto suitable targets, whether reasonable or not. If we do it to our relatives, colleagues and celebrities, we certainly do it to our presidents.
If President Obama were publicly casting blame on the Muslim fundamentalists or communists in our midst, or stoking up anger and fear of some enemy, he would channel the feelings bubbling up. Instead, he is playing the technocrat, using logic to solve problems and avoiding the messy emotions spewed about. In areas like climate change, health care and the economy, where real-world concerns need to be addressed, the work of the government is finally getting done.
But feelings of fear and anger may be unsatisfied and may exacerbate if the economy fails to improve quickly enough. Is the President, who reasons so well, who almost never shows anger, able to deal with the unreasonable?
Is reason itself an antidote, or is this like the dark forces bringing Kryptonite to Superman?
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Read more: emotion, politics, opposition, president obama, opposition to obama
comments
How we are seen overseas? I think this is worthy of another posting sometime soon, inviting people to share their experiences. I find people in other countries so gracious and respectful. Their hospitality makes me embarrassed for myself and for the U.S. where we are not as likely to offer a meal or a place to stay to everyone we meet from out of town. I have never hesitated to be American in Europe, West Africa or Vietnam or China. Sometimes people express their opinion about a current or former administration, but they like "America" and want to visit. They also like Americans and like "freedom." I found it no different working in Muslim Africa than China. I agree, you are most likely to run into heated commentary in Europe where Brits and others are angry about U.S. military interventions. The Europeans have strong traditions of civic discourse and they feel comfortable giving their opinion. But never fear to go abroad. There is so much to be gained from seeing how others live and learning from their perspectives.
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Need an example of how America is hated? How about September 11 2001, does that do it for you? During the last 8 years, when I traveled abroad I frequently pretended to be Australian, because when I told people I was from America. the response was none to positive. Once or twice, I even had incredibly rude comments made about America and Americans, once it was from an English woman. Additionally, this was in Europe. Imagine how much worse it would have been if I had gone to the Middle East, I would have been a target for God knows what. So, yeah, hated and despised.
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Rudy, if we are in danger of another attack on American soil, it will only be because we have been the agressor for many years. Our presence in other countries does not make them safer and it does not make us safer. We should take a lesson from Switzerland, among others, who stay out of other people's business. They are at very little risk of attack because they have not created enemies.
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Ruby,
Unsupported? Did you not read the examples of anti-American activities that I have witnessed? They were only very small examples of what is happening worldwide. Do you not see almost daily on T.V. places around the world where the Stars and Stripes are burnt in protests? It is distressing but true. Throwing money around does not win friends and actions speak louder than words. The vast majority of U.S. citizens are kept in pitiful ignorance of the crimes being committed in their name. The present Great Depression (it is no less) was caused by the voracious greed, monumental arrogance and abysmal ignorance of Manhattan and Wall Street, the most evil places on earth. (Why do you think that they were the primary targets of 9/11?)
I am old enough to have seen the 1929 fiasco too. Those of my generation have no love for the U.S.A.
The hopes of the world rest upon Obama, that he may at least check what has become a headlong rush to havoc that could engulf the world unless China and Russia are strong enough to check it - thankfully they may well be. He will need time, hopefully longer than four years, to eradicate the effect of four-hundred years of misrule. Give him a chance.
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Lionel Mann, "hated and despised?" Wow...and I'm certain you have zero documents to support that comment. America has nothing to apologize for. The amount of foreign aid and military support our good taxpayers provide for those countries in need of food, shelter, education, human rights, safety etc is extraordinarily a constant reminder of who we are as Americans. To suggest that America is hated and despised might be how you feel about America but I will never accept that other countries view us as such. We have made mistakes in the past and we will make them in the future but the core of America is good and respected around the world.
Shame on you for making such a wild unsupported statement about America!
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Well said Lionel.
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Ruby, please get wise.
From some of these comments it seems that very many of your citizens do not realise how much the U.S.A. was hated and despised until President Obama started to clean up your international image.
I live in a NATO country where the U.S. fleet used to visit until they bombed Serbia. The fleet no longer comes; too many of their sailors have been thrown back into the harbour by angry locals.
In the cathedral I was present then and at the invasion of Iraq. On both occasions the packed congregations rose to applaud and cheer the Archbishop when he vehemently denounced those actions as heathen. Later those days, while the police watched laughing, a large crowd surrounded the British Consulate (there is no U.S. representative here) hurling rotten eggs, tomatoes, oranges, until it was covered with filth. Every night for a week the approach to the English Church was liberally smeared with human excrement.
Not everyone here has T.V. On 9/11 our local inn was crowded with people laughing and cheering, watching the Twin Towers collapse and Americans at last running in panic from terror such as they have so often unleashed on others. In Town people were dancing in the streets.
That is what Obama has to wash away.. Are you going to help him?
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Lionel, even President Obama is EMBARRASSED to receive an award he knows he doesn't deserve. He hasn't accomplished anything yet. All he has done is run around the world apologizing for America. There were probably five liberal academics in Norway who made the decision. When Obama's name was announced you could hear the "gasps" in the room....as it shocked everyone....
I believe Obama should receive the Nobel Peace prize when he has earned it like he, himself, stated..and it had nothing to do with humility...even Yasser Arafrat received one. LOL The Nobel Peace Prize has been a joke prize for decades now. And that's a real shame.
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Judith, well, simply tell President Obama to pull out of the war in Afghanistan and to ignore Iran and North Korea in the future. Tell them "no way, pal, are we ever going to get into a war again!" Judith, how many terrorists attacks on American soil are enough for you? Five, six, eight, twelve? So, when you've had enough you have only yourself to blame. War is necessary to provide some semblance of democracies to other countries, safety and freedom of speech and the rights of women. Or do you think it is okay that women in some countries are treated like animals? How about female children who aren't permitted an education? that okay with you?
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Ruby..., in your reply you failed to mention the billions upon billions of dollars being spent on an unnecessary war. If we stop the war, we will suddenly "find" billions of dollars. Then we can use that money to do good. And I agree with Thomas about President Obama's response to winning the Nobel Peace Prize. It is a thing called humility. More people should try it sometime. It is actually a good quality.
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