I can't leave Obama's reaction to the Mass. election alone. Some people think he is being true to himself. Yesterday in a New Yorker blog piece, Larissa MacFarquhar wrote an inciteful piece on Obama's character and its role in our present situation. She said, among other things,
....Obama’s belief in bipartisanship is not just about cordiality and tolerating different viewpoints—it goes deeper. When I interviewed Cass Sunstein—who knew Obama when they were both law professors at the University of Chicago, and who now works for the administration—for a profile of Obama early in the campaign, Sunstein said: “I think with Obama it’s like Learned Hand when he said, ‘The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.’ Obama takes that really seriously. I can’t think of an American politician who has thought in that way, ever.”
It’s now clear that there’s a reason for that. In his attempt to change Washington, Obama has failed. For the most part this failure should be blamed on Republicans, but it has also become clear that one of Obama’s crucial flaws is his overestimation of his ability to bring people together....
In his second book, “The Audacity of Hope,” Obama wrote: “We must talk and reach for common understandings, precisely because all of us are imperfect and can never act with the certainty that God is on our side.” It’s rare for any sort of person to think this way, and for a politician it is radical. Maybe it’s politically stupid. It certainly hasn’t worked out too well during this past twelve months. But it’s a profound creed and a noble hope. And don’t say he didn’t tell you.
The thing is, it's almost like he's enchanted with who he THINKS he is rather than who he is. He seems all too certain of the rightness of whom he consults and what he takes from those discussions. I wish he'd SAY why he thinks that Republicans with big bucks from health care industries who represent small populations are so able to show him where he's mistaken and where they''re right. I wish he'd EXPLAIN this to the rest of us.
Obama I think has twisted his own ideals. It feels like that at worst he is using them as some sort of weaponry against the very people he should be listening to and helping. Or at best he is just not following his stated ideals at all but is really your standard deal-making politician with connections to big business and other establishment types.
Or is he a hopeless snob who is under the delusion that he is listening to everyone who counts?
Or is he a supremely manipulative man who likes to hurt those closest to him?
Why isn't he acknowledging health care practices like those in community clinics in Vermont? Why isnt he looking to people who are involved in them for advice?
Why isn't he listening publicly to the concerns of people as diverse as physicians with concerns about malpractice costs (it may not be a big deal in the big healthcare reform budget, but it is to individual doctors and wouldn't be that hard to remedy)
Who did he listen to on Haiti? Okay, okay, we're being generous, but why did he think it necessary to send heavily armed troops when there seems to be a minimum of violence (amazingly)? How much money could have gone to food and water and medical care that's going to pay for unnecessary security? (The Mexican military sent unarmed people as I understand it.) My GOD didn't we look like ugly AMericans landing on the front lawn of the government palace. ho did he ask about how to give aid to Haiti?
What's going on in agriculture policy domestically and as part of foreign aid? What's up with the Monsanto folks he seems to be hiring for the dept of agriculture? Why doesn't he try to visualize the kind of world a Monsanto-seeded food supply would create vs. one in which local economies matter? Why doesn't he talk with international experts from countries involved as well as to those involved in US food matters from a non-industrial point of view?
Why isn't he talking to the citizens of the country about climate change and TALKING and EDUCATING them about possible links between good economic policy and good green policy?
Why doesn't he encourage town meetings, blogs, facebook groups, dedicated to discussing issues and then have someone present summaries to him? Why doesn't he have discussions directly with the American people? Surely he has the technology to do this in a variety of ways.
Why isn't he trying to do something to connect with people and assuage their fears and address their prejudices?
It's like he's in some kind of weird fog. His people have definitely done some good stuff, but the government, Democratic and Republican is off on its own planet. He's adding to the problems.
Read more:
It's great when someone acknowledges that a "The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right."