The celebration of the victory of the annointed one yesterday involved a great deal of flag-waving and jingoistic caterwauling by a cast of characters that one rarely finds associated with such tomfoolery, that is the loopy left. It is, of course, somewhat troubling that these folks are only ‘proud to be Americans’ when their side wins.
This attitude also informs their notion that they have 'taken their country back'. Taken it back from whom? Are they suggesting that anyone who did not support their candidate in the past and any candidate who they did not support in the past was/is illegitimate? If I recall correctly, the same process by which Mr. Obama was selected last night was used in the previous presidential election. That is to say, it was Americans who were electing other Americans to office. However, to paraphrase Orwell, some Americans are obviously more American than others.
Further, though the bien pensant types in the academy and the press seem to forget this fact, the Democratic Party has controlled both houses of Congress for the past two years (in fact, contrary to popular belief, the Republicans only controlled the White House and Congress for 4 ½ years of Mr. Bush’s tenure). Since the Dems still control Congress, I don’t suppose that ‘we have taken the country back’ from that particular set of party hacks.
By the way, the most interesting piece of exit poll information that I have seen thus far suggests that Obama won the racist vote. Of the people who responded that race was an important or very important factor in their decision, 58% voted for Obama. So, should we call Obama the first affirmative action president?
EPISTEME: December 2023
2 days ago
2 comments:
I'm trying to contextualize the international reaction of Obama's victory. It relates to your blog about fair weather friends. It's difficult to describe the elation felt internationally. Unprecedented from what I can remember. Like the rebels watching the Death Star explode. My brother sent me a series of texts from Portuguese government officials that might have been scripted by the Obama campaign. Absolute bathos. And these are our friends; according to Dave, the staunchest supporters of Bush policies everywhere but Australia. As for me, I do really feel I've taken the country back. And while I'm glad Obama won, I think I would have been equally relieved with a palin-less mccain victory. Why? Two reasons. One: I really don't think the self serving mob in power represented the view of the majority of Americans. Do most Americans (including yourself) really want a militaristic theocracy that not only owns all the country's financial infrastructure, but legislates its morals? Two: the concept of service to the nation - I suppose it started with the Clintons, but the Bush administration took government for government's sake to a new level. Bush I and reagan were true servants of the people. And there's the yet to be vanquished hope that Obama will be the same. There's a separate discussion about internationalism. I don't like the current government of the united states. I don't live there. There are probably millions of "Americans" with similar views. The mobility, not only of labor, but of allegiances. I'm also experiencing a huge sense of apostasy as regards the "free" market. You've got to remember, i'm the guy who spent 5 years touring the ex-soviet bloc. If there's someone who understands the dangers of socialiasm, its me. But I'm having trouble thinking that the liberal financial policies of the last 25 years were truly "free." they were just government subsidies to a different, and not necessarily deserving, class. You give free food to poor people. Or you give free money to rich people. And that,s what it was - free money. I saw it from the inside. Greenspan and his "free" marketers created an enormous welfare system for bankers snd real estate developers. I know the government does a terrible job of allocating investment, but could they have done a worse job than the "market?" that's a separate discussion. For now, being the party of Lincoln and reagan back to its senses and I will be its supporter.
Being a fellow ex-pat, I have experienced the same celebration here in Canada. I don't feel any exhilaration myself, though I haven't cared for the current Bush crowd since it went off the reservation and started trying to remake the world in its own rather frightening image.
I can't say that I completely agree with your assessment of the economic meltdown, though I'm certain that you know more about the interior rot at the heart of it all. My response would be that the deregulation of the banking industry was a bi-partisan effort from the start, and that the encouragement of the sub-prime lending industry through the creation of Freddie and Fannie and the Fed's continued efforts to keep interests rates at Japanese levels had nothing to do with market principles but everything to do with the meltdown. I do agree with your assessment of corporate welfare, however, and I see no reason to continue it at any level or in any form (except perhaps to keep a national defense industry).
In terms of the Bush's theocratic tendencies, I don't share your apprehension. The evangelicals constitute a fairly small percentage of the American population, and a miniscule percentage of the American managerial class. I lived among them for the past five years, and, though they are obnoxious in all sorts of ways, they are politically naive and have the attention span of a small child when it comes to the policies which don't immediately affect them.
As for Bush's militarism, I'm with you completely. I would certainly be in favor of making the US a great deal more like Switzerland. (Of course, this also means that I have no interest in promoting human rights, democracy, or any other such nonsense in the world, nor do I care about what the world thinks about the US. The leaders of specific countries, like Russia for example, are a different story. They should be cultivated as long as it is in American interest to do so, and it is right now.)
As for the mobility of allegiances, everyone has multiple personae and with each persona comes loyalties and obligations. I'm with EM Forster on this. If it comes down to betraying my country or betraying my friends, I hope that I would betray my country.
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