Small Change
We will deliver for our children,
our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren
--Sen. Barack Obama
How such utter empty gas-baggery could sound to so many
people like the second coming of Pericles utterly baffles me
--David Frum on Barack Obama
__________
If America wants to elect an inspirational speaker, then Obama is their man. However, if qualifications for being President extend beyond the oratorical, then something is askance.
With books like, Today is Your Day to Win, and mottoes like, "Fill Your Life With Joy, Freedom and Inspiration," the field of black motivational speakers is a burgeoning one. Les Brown, Rene Godefroy, Tony Roberts. . . who better signifies triumphalism and Up From Slavery mindset than the successful black male?
It is the same redemptive promise that made Christianity so successful, appealing as it did to reward slaves in this earthly vale of tears with a better life down the road, if you just believe, and buy in to the party line, of course.
Obama's rhetoric in the Newsweek interview neatly parallels Christianity's appeal: I was not born into privilege, he says, and Americans cannot be stopped once they believe in something. It is as though he is the shepherd to herd the juggernaut that is American can-do.
The problem with this facile construction is that good old American can-do spirit is not what shifts policy, at least not directly. However, bipartisan political alliances can.
It is a fact that the Dems rode a wave of discontent to become the majority parties in the House and Senate by promising change. The undelivered change was to be the ending of wrong-headed, open-ended wars. If the Dems could not deliver on their promises for change in '06, so why should anyone believe Obama's more generalized rhetoric?
In 1992, Bill Clinton adopted Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" as a theme song, and of course, politics is all about promising change -- something better than the next guy can deliver. But that promised change must be realistic, achievable and politically sustainable. The same criteria that should be applied to war-making, or any public venture.
Clinton could not deliver on his universal health care agenda, a sobering reminder that regardless of how innovative or ideologically compelled a President may be, he is first and last reliant upon the cooperation of Congress to enact his initiatives, no matter how splendid they may be.
Here we are sixteen years on, and the same buzz words are being bandied about -- change, universal health care -- as though they are concepts created anew. Talk is cheap, but where are the finances to back up the words?
Politics may be about the promise of change, but the only constant delivered by both parties in U.S. politics is that the common everyday taxpayer will always bear the brunt of government policy -- folly, pork or otherwise.
our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren
--Sen. Barack Obama
How such utter empty gas-baggery could sound to so many
people like the second coming of Pericles utterly baffles me
--David Frum on Barack Obama
__________
I guess it's our great-great grandchildren what get the screw job.
Newsweek's cover this week hails candidate Obama under the Title, "Our Time for Change Has Come: Obama's Afterglow." The subtitle suggests a contented lover basking after an ardent interlude. It is an apt title, suggesting as it does the Frankie Valli Song which is almost as substantive in message as Obama's.
Newsweek's cover this week hails candidate Obama under the Title, "Our Time for Change Has Come: Obama's Afterglow." The subtitle suggests a contented lover basking after an ardent interlude. It is an apt title, suggesting as it does the Frankie Valli Song which is almost as substantive in message as Obama's.
If America wants to elect an inspirational speaker, then Obama is their man. However, if qualifications for being President extend beyond the oratorical, then something is askance.
With books like, Today is Your Day to Win, and mottoes like, "Fill Your Life With Joy, Freedom and Inspiration," the field of black motivational speakers is a burgeoning one. Les Brown, Rene Godefroy, Tony Roberts. . . who better signifies triumphalism and Up From Slavery mindset than the successful black male?
It is the same redemptive promise that made Christianity so successful, appealing as it did to reward slaves in this earthly vale of tears with a better life down the road, if you just believe, and buy in to the party line, of course.
Obama's rhetoric in the Newsweek interview neatly parallels Christianity's appeal: I was not born into privilege, he says, and Americans cannot be stopped once they believe in something. It is as though he is the shepherd to herd the juggernaut that is American can-do.
The problem with this facile construction is that good old American can-do spirit is not what shifts policy, at least not directly. However, bipartisan political alliances can.
It is a fact that the Dems rode a wave of discontent to become the majority parties in the House and Senate by promising change. The undelivered change was to be the ending of wrong-headed, open-ended wars. If the Dems could not deliver on their promises for change in '06, so why should anyone believe Obama's more generalized rhetoric?
In 1992, Bill Clinton adopted Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" as a theme song, and of course, politics is all about promising change -- something better than the next guy can deliver. But that promised change must be realistic, achievable and politically sustainable. The same criteria that should be applied to war-making, or any public venture.
Clinton could not deliver on his universal health care agenda, a sobering reminder that regardless of how innovative or ideologically compelled a President may be, he is first and last reliant upon the cooperation of Congress to enact his initiatives, no matter how splendid they may be.
Here we are sixteen years on, and the same buzz words are being bandied about -- change, universal health care -- as though they are concepts created anew. Talk is cheap, but where are the finances to back up the words?
Politics may be about the promise of change, but the only constant delivered by both parties in U.S. politics is that the common everyday taxpayer will always bear the brunt of government policy -- folly, pork or otherwise.
____________
contribute to:
contribute to:
Labels: obama's empty rhetoric
posted by rangeragainstwar at 11:35 PM
5 Comments:
Words cannot adequately express how sick I am of style over substance. Well, not any polite words. Lucky I have that other stock vocab, eh?
labrys,
Remember, style is not where we use our polite words. Think Versace, Valentino, et al.--it is a seriously catty and vicious arena. It is good you can discourse in the two worlds.
--Lisa
Every candidate out there is bantering about change. As far as I can see the only one that has a program for real change is Edwards. He says no lobbyists in his White House. That would be real change for the better and would effect just about everything, the economy, the war, healthcare, etc. Whether he could achieve it is another question but he sure has alot of politicians and businesses scared. The MSM has done there best to marginalize him and make this a two horse race. Obama and especially Clinton would never make that pledge. If either one of them gets elected it'll be business as usual!
tw,
"The MSM has done there best to marginalize him and make this a two horse race. Obama and especially Clinton would never make that pledge. If either one of them gets elected it'll be business as usual!"
It certainly does seem the MSM is complicit in maintaining the status quo. The money trail is always a key, and for the media, it is the advertisers.
Sad the voting public are such slaves to the media circus. They vote for who they are told will win, and seem as zombies going through their paces after Super Tuesday.
You think they'd want a new drug.
--Lisa
The one that really irks me are the people who say "I'd really like to vote for him but I don't want to waste my vote."
Post a Comment
<< Home