Posted by
Zentrist on Sunday, May 03, 2009 12:59:09 AM
I am one "centrist" trying desperately to justify in my own mind how Obama could be doing what he is doing. It flies in the face of every fiscally conservative bone in my body. Here is the best I've come up with to date.
Without a list of examples to "prove" my point, let me just assert that there are probably precedents for Obama's request that we be patient--for indeed our own experience tells us that "a journey of a thousand miles begins with that first step." Clearly, Obama and his advisors have thought this thing through. Their numbers don't add up, but in general the "plan" appears to be an intellectually plausible one. Moreover, the collective wisdom of the American people, thus far, has said, "OK--let's go for it." And we might well say that. I mean, we voted for the guy. As he reminds us, we knew what he said he was gonna do. Now, he is doing it. As Daniel Hannan writes in a recent blog, democracies get the leadership they deserve.
My bottom line point is that Obama is correct when he reminds us that hard (monumental) things require sacrifice. We know this from experience. Marriage requires a lot of hard work; working one's way through school while bringing up a family requires nothing short of heroic virtue; just paying the bills on time requires enormous discipline and self-abnegation. "Nothing worthwhile is easy," a now deceased teacher once said. But I never dreamed that an American president would actually call upon the nation in these "soft" times...to really sacrifice.
"Woodrow Wilson is a president about whom not enough bad can be said." So opines, in more or less those words, Dr. Michael Scheuer, in his recentmost book, "Marching Toward Hell." Idealism of that kind, for Scheuer, Pat Buchanan, Robert Novak, the Realist School of Foreign Policy...Idealism of that kind--for Nietzsche--is beneath contempt. (Well, for Nietzsche, liberalism was beneath contempt; it smacked of mediocrity.)
Nonetheless, Obama's "idealism" impresses. I am not yet totally convinced that it is lacking in Realism. There are too many ranters on the conservative side, and too many rational-sounding apologists on the Obama side. Are these exceptional defenders of the Administration dreaming? Or do they in fact have reason to believe that these plans will more or less work out as planned?
The Clinton Machine, once upon a time, had "reason to believe" that their plans for success would "work out as planned." But "events" had other ideas. One big event that came along and stayed put was the amazing Barack Obama backed up by an extraordinary team that gravitated to him. David Axelrod, David Plouffe, Rahm Emannuel, Paul Volker, Warren Buffet, Richard Holbrooke, Dennis Ross, etc.
Nor has the factor of "events" been eliminated. This is what worries me and just about everbody with a thinking pulse. Just as "events" screwed Hillary and McCain, so "events" will probably screw Obama. Obama was the adversary and now he will encounter his own adversary--"events." What Hamlet called "a sea of troubles."
That is, unless his Midas Touch continues on.
Today's readings included something from Nietzche's "Human, All Too Human." He talks about the "genius." In reality, says Nietzsche, the "genius" is really a fortunate, gifted man who is and always has been, "day and night," a "craftsman." Nietzsche did not see himself as a "divinely inspired" man. He saw himself as a "craftsman." If you read his biographies, you will see what he means by this. The "artist," be he or she a politician, a writer or a musician--builds upon the fortunate gifts with practice, continuous, "day and night"...practice. He gives as an example the "short story writer." Such an artist is no "genius." I suppose, not even a Nathaniel Hawthorne. Rather, a budding Hawthorne or Flannery O'Conner is one who started with "two page stories," max, written with blood, sweat and tears, no, not tears in Nietzsche. The point is, one builds upon the gifts--and works continuously at the art. Until something is ready to "appear." One has carefully observed "a thousand" different human "types." (Was he thinking of Shakespeare or Goethe?) And one writes, alas, "with no unnecessary words." You do this in obscurity "for ten years," which I take it is how long it took Nietzsche.
It took Obama, too, ten years for him to develop his craft. At the "town-hall-gymnasium" meeting the other day, not to mention the extraordinary press conference, he made it look easy. But what we didn't see was the "ten years" of determined, disciplined, self-confident and always-thinking, always pushing PRACTICE. Practice with people (he really does not like people that much, and neither do I). Otherwise, he would not have been able to do what he has done. And practice at the art of American Politics. Even as a boy, he IMAGINED THIS.
Someone first had to imagine...fire, the wheel, strong arrows, gunpowder, print, jets and nuclear weapons.
Someone first had to imagine..."cap and trade," "millions of green jobs," "living within one's means," "sound infrastructure," "sound banks," an honest market system not based on false "bubbles."
The imagining of these things is not Obama's forte. His real strength is manifold: sound intelligence; common sense (believe it or not); "well spoken"; integrity-in-context; deep-down faith and hope and desire to help others ("I'd die on a cross for mankind--it's people I cannot stand," said a character in Dostoevsky). (Obama's roots appear to be not so much African as Russian.)
Secretary Gates pointed out recently that the American Tradition, "speak softly, but carry a big stick," still obtains. President Obama is going around the world. His popularity around the world, as Mark Shields pointed out Friday night, is "off the charts." Yet, as Gates reiterated, "people know we still have that big stick."
In my opinion, they should respect President Barack Obama. I'm convinced he respects them and will continue to do so.