Silent Revolution by Barry Rubin

Author:Barry Rubin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-03-11T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

Obama at Osawatomie

We have seen Obama’s ideological formation, which was parallel to millions of other people of his generation. But how was this expressed in argumentation and rhetoric, as well as implemented in the course of his policies?

Certainly, the Third Left was ambiguous in presenting its basic view of America. When more candid, the Third Left’s cadre said that it had “never worked,” that the system was fundamentally flawed, was designed and controlled by a tiny rich, racist, sexist, white male minority. Capitalism, unless systematically restructured, could not give the overwhelming majority, and especially minority groups, a fair chance.

In every way, Obama’s approach contrasted with this traditional liberal approach. And nothing laid out his worldview as president more systematically than his December 2011 speech at Osawatomie, Kansas. A close analysis of this presentation should put to rest any notion that the dominant ideas of the day were those of traditional liberalism.

A recession that could have been dealt with far more easily with traditional remedies was presented as a collapse of the middle class. The proposed remedies, however, greatly deepened the crisis because the proposals were based on an ideology that opposed capitalism, the due process of law, American exceptionalism, and U.S. international leadership.

To justify this position, especially in the context of historical liberalism, the Third Left hinted that at one time the United States was a great place, but then something went wrong. What that was and when it happened were deliberately left vague. Why were institutions functioning effectively until a certain moment at which they suddenly became ineffective? What had changed to require a completely different role for government and its subordination of the private sector to an unprecedented extent?

Obviously, the immediate problem was the economic downturn begun in George W. Bush’s last year in office. Obama was helpless to fix this mess and seemed to make it worse. If Obama had the right answers, why was he so unable to cope with the economic crisis? Perhaps that had something to do with policy choices that put restructuring the American system as a higher priority than addressing the immediate effects of the depression.

Temporary recessions have been a feature of American life since the early nineteenth century and the country bounced back stronger in each case. If Obama was a normal liberal president, he simply needed to apply methods used by predecessors in such circumstances to get the economy going again. A pragmatic liberal politician like Bill Clinton would not have hesitated to pursue that kind of policy, if for no other reason than that he knew it would be necessary to succeed. Obama either did not understand this necessity or put ideology over both personal and national interest.

These steps would have included tax cuts; eased regulations; creating a business-friendly environment so people felt secure in investing, hiring, and starting small businesses; helping the existing energy industry expand; and so on. Under these circumstances, such a president could have secured concessions from Republicans for things he wanted. The result would have been relatively quick recovery, universal approval, and easy reelection.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.