America, Go F$%^ Yourself!
Leon Wieseltier is a columnist for TNR who, frankly, I don't usually care for. Among other things, his writing style is a bit too verbose for me. But I really respect him for some of his views. And he's been more critical of Obama than most columnists I've read in that publication or even the MSM (Main Stream Media). I think his Reagan/Clinton voting record at the end of the last century sounds pretty good to me. I wish I had voted that way too.
Leon finally makes his "endorsement" in this column.
He lays out a great case for how he believes (which may be close to your thoughts):
Politics should not provide the most complete or the most profound of life's satisfactions. Voting is not an expression of the soul. Anyway, my convictions do not add up. I like taxes and I like the military. (The only thing Obama said in any of those dreary debates that delighted me was his muffled admission the other night that "I don't mind paying a little more" taxes. Taxation is a strong sign of membership in a polity; and the many calamities of recent years have confirmed to me that the government needs my money, because there are emergencies, within and beyond our borders, with which only it can deal.) I want universal health care and I want an interventionist foreign policy. I believe that the American president should help people in distress, at home and abroad--not all of them, but a lot of them. I like capitalism, but not religiously, and I feel the same way about diplomacy. I do not trust bankers to understand American values and poets to understand American interests. Taken together, these are political inconsistencies, but they are not intellectual inconsistencies.My favorite part:
McCain feels with his heart, but he thinks with his base. And when he picked Sarah Palin, he told the United States of America to go fuck itself. I used to think of my dilemma this way: Obama's conception of America is better than he is, McCain's conception of America is worse than he is. But McCain is looking more and more like his America, which is Bush's America: a country of capitalists and Christians.He goes on to list a litany of things he doesn't like about Obama, but in the end basically says he's voting for him.
How about you my Virginia Republicans?! Time to vote Obama? Or time to accept McCain's proposition? :)
posted by chewie at 1:33 PM
6 Comments:
I read the post this morning as well and completely identified with much of his logic. In addition to the points you summarized, his arguments for voting for the man versus issues might be the first compelling one I've read: summed up by this statement, "When it comes to the president,...character is fate: his character, our fate." Not only do I think Obama's policies are superior, but with this argument I can somewhat justify voting for the character of the candidate in addition to the issue. Wrt character, Obama has clearly and repeatedly proven to be superior over McCain throughout the campaign.
2:43 PM
I wonder if this character issue is so prominent w/ our office of president since our president is really both prime minister and head of state (king!).
9:21 AM
I've had a chance to read your blog on occassion since it is linked from blogs of past acquaintances of mine(Rex, Mandy, Joel etc...). My thoughts. I look at it this way, Barack Obama is a deep thinker who ponders great things. And the thing that Barack Obama seems to ponder most is his own greatness. He doesn't write biographies, he writes only autobiographies. He gives peeches which he declares to be historic. He recognizes his place in history long before he has created history. This nation is but a stage upon which Barack Obama creates his life story, and it's all about him. He's the smooth talking lawyer on TV who will get you "the settlement you deserve." But he has no credibility where it counts because done anything (i.e. he hasn't beaten the insurance companies at trial). He is a paper lawyer who fools only his own clients (and obviously a lot voters). So Barack Obama can promise "tough diplomacy" with the likes of Iran, but he hasn't fought the tough fights that could cause such dictators and tyrants to take him seriously and this is very concerning to me.
Barack Obama has never been in one place long enough to make a real difference, or to fight the hard fights. He was a community activist for a few years, then a law student, then in private practice for a little bit, then a state senator for not too long, then a United States Senator for not too long. The paint was barely dry in his Senate office when he began running for President. Barack Obama's career is a series of not-too-long positions, each
one more grand than the one before it.
Ask yourself, What great achievement has Barack Obama obtained other than his own political advancement? What historic law did he author, what historic court case did he argue, what historic battle did he fight, what cause greater than himself warranted more than a passing interest in his historic life? If my life were on the line, I wouldn't hire Barack Obama as my lawyer. I'd be concerned that he'd be up late at night working on a draft of his book about how my case affected his life.
Barack Obama loves this country, in his own words, because nowhere else could his story be possible. John McCain loves this country just because. And that's why I'll be voting for John McCain.
9:14 AM
Thanks for your thoughts, Anonymous. I disagree w/ your point that Obama ponders his own greatness more above all else. I've never heard him talk about his own greatness... The one possible reference that may come close ("we are the ones who we've been waiting for") is a twisting of words that comes out of the dishonest right; however, I'm glad we agree that he is a great thinker and ponders _anything_ unlike the current president, who appears not to ever take new input into consideration on any decisions, nor the republican nominee, who has been a chaf blowing in the political winds for the past decade!
Even if I were to grant you that point, a great thinker, pragmatist, and leader who is most interested in his own story is far better than either a hack who is most interested in loyalty [to himself], which is what we've had with Bush or a politician who is most interested in getting elected at all costs, completely reinventing himself 3 or 4 times in the process.
4:30 PM
Thanks for your response. It's always interesting for me to see other viewpoints. A few post election thoughts...
1. I'm going to give Obama the benefit of the doubt. I'd like nothing more than to say that I didn't vote for him the first time but did the second -- that would mean he managed to run this country well, and ultimately I care about my country more than individual political parties.
2. Having said that, remember that "dissent is patriotic." That comes from the dear leader himself.
3. I'm not happy that Obama won, but a) I am proud of how far we as a country have come in terms of race relations, and this takes the wind entirely out of the race baiters and hustlers like Jackson and Sharpton; and b) I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt and let him try to get this economy and country going again before I judge his administration. We can treat him the way the left treated Bush, or we can hold ourselves to a higher standard.
11:45 AM
I apologize for the delay... I'm not used to people actually commenting on my blog! :)
I agree more w/ your 2nd post... and it is good to see some positive overtones about the election coming from both sides. It's cool to note how far we've come racially, but I'm glad that wasn't what the campaign was about and I doubt that's what the Obama administration will be about.
As a side note, Here in Raleigh, I've had the local R&B/hip hop station on my presets (mainly because I CAN after 6 years in SW VA!). They were very politically involved during the election on getting the vote out. One interesting note came from an african american speaker who basically said "Barack won't just be Our president... he's everyone's president; white people voted for him too!" Kinda interesting to get a different perspective, as you say.
I'm hopeful, but Obama is being handed a pretty lousy hand, so you have to keep that in mind in judging the next 4 years. It's further compounded by the fact that Bush has now basically stopped governing and it's questionable if he's going to do any more for the ecomony... And a lot of what I'm reading is saying that it's going to be too late on Jan 20th if more isn't done b/w now and then.
I agree... I hope Obama does well and wins over people like you. That will be great for the country. Bush had the opposite effect on me... I voted for him in 2000, but changed my tune as a result of the damage.
I think it was more than just the left that treated Bush poorly, especially this last term. If anything, the left really treated Bush well in his first term, especially after 9/11. But the Rove team squandered that.
I agree w/ you on dissent. My favorite dissenters are the intelligent ones that make good arguments! If Obama completely goes against expert opinion and starts doing things out of political expedience at the expense of our future, I'll be with you in 2012, voting him out! But I doubt that will happen... dare I say that I actually have some hope of good leadership?!
3:05 PM
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