bobbyw24
09-17-2009, 05:08 AM
http://www.thedailybell.com/BellPage.asp?nid=524&fl=1
Does white America hate Barack Obama?
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Ten months after the epoch-making election, Toby Harnden examines whether opinion really has turned against the new president. The election of Barack Obama (pictured left) was supposed to be the bright new dawn of a post-racial America. His swearing in on the steps of Washington's Capitol building seemed to represent a historical watershed, a full stop at the end of a chapter in United States history that included segregation and slavery. So what has gone wrong with America since that frigid January day? Turn on the news now and we are assailed with reports of disgracefully racist placards being carried at anti-Obama rallies nominally billed as opposition to health-care reform. - Telegraph
Dominant Social Theme: Its gravity, man.
Free-Market Analysis: This is actually a pretty thoughtful article from across the pond. Hamden makes the point that Obama's opposition is more likely rooted in his politics and mistakes than in any overt American racism. In fact, as Hamden points out, Obama's attractiveness as a presidential candidate was based on the way he managed to appeal to both blacks and whites, to people of any ethnicity, really. He seemed truly the first post-racial candidate. Instead of Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton pointing fingers at white oppressors, Obama kept socio-political rhetoric on a determinedly high plane. He did come across as center left, but not in any way anti-white - not personally anyway.
In fact, this part of Obama's personality is probably genuine. His character is seemingly not one of a zealous racist of any stripe. He is of several races himself and while the American black community has been proud to proclaim him their own, there is also something of Tiger Woods about Obama - a sense that he sees himself as multicultural and multi-racial as much or more than he simply defines himself as black (in America), whatever that is.
The reason for the increasing backlash against Obama in our opinion is because he basically pulled a con job to get elected. Obama is a purely leftist politician who does not believe in individual human empowerment but the aggrandizement and expansion of the almighty state. He is now preparing to ram through a health care "reform" that will further expand state power and is likely to be bitterly resisted by at least 50 percent of the US and perhaps more. If Obama does decide to pass his health care reform by simple Democratic majority, he will indeed set off a firestorm perhaps unwitnessed in American policy since the Civil War dealt with Southern dissent via military means.
One should not forget, as Obama's negatives rise, that President Bush eventually became wildly unpopular and for much the same reason as Obama is becoming unpopular. Bush was elected with the expectation that he was the second coming of Ronald Reagan who, in at least some ways - and certainly in terms of rhetoric - was nearly a libertarian president, especially when it came to domestic issues and the intention to prune the federal behemoth.
Bush eventually proved an unrepentant statist, someone who expanded the merciless reach of the federal government under the guise of "compassion." Obama who ran under the slogan of "change" is proving a similar statist. Yet overwhelmingly, surveys show Americans want fewer taxes, fewer regulations and more freedom. The political process and the American electorate are headed in opposite directions. The Internet with its instant access to non-state controlled information is crucial in fanning the waves of dissent that ultimately eroded the popularity of Bush and are in the process of doing the same to Obama.
Conclusion: The Obama backlash in our opinion is not one of racism. It is one of increasing frustration over how politics work in America. The United States is still in many ways a republic from a cultural point of view. Citizens have the expectations of private property, the freedom of expression and the right (not a guarantee) to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The federal government on the other hand is headed in the direction of the EU. But the United States is not Europe. Obama's presidency, in our opinion, will not generate increased racism but will, if he continues in this direction, create intense frustration. And something will probably have to give.
Does white America hate Barack Obama?
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Ten months after the epoch-making election, Toby Harnden examines whether opinion really has turned against the new president. The election of Barack Obama (pictured left) was supposed to be the bright new dawn of a post-racial America. His swearing in on the steps of Washington's Capitol building seemed to represent a historical watershed, a full stop at the end of a chapter in United States history that included segregation and slavery. So what has gone wrong with America since that frigid January day? Turn on the news now and we are assailed with reports of disgracefully racist placards being carried at anti-Obama rallies nominally billed as opposition to health-care reform. - Telegraph
Dominant Social Theme: Its gravity, man.
Free-Market Analysis: This is actually a pretty thoughtful article from across the pond. Hamden makes the point that Obama's opposition is more likely rooted in his politics and mistakes than in any overt American racism. In fact, as Hamden points out, Obama's attractiveness as a presidential candidate was based on the way he managed to appeal to both blacks and whites, to people of any ethnicity, really. He seemed truly the first post-racial candidate. Instead of Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton pointing fingers at white oppressors, Obama kept socio-political rhetoric on a determinedly high plane. He did come across as center left, but not in any way anti-white - not personally anyway.
In fact, this part of Obama's personality is probably genuine. His character is seemingly not one of a zealous racist of any stripe. He is of several races himself and while the American black community has been proud to proclaim him their own, there is also something of Tiger Woods about Obama - a sense that he sees himself as multicultural and multi-racial as much or more than he simply defines himself as black (in America), whatever that is.
The reason for the increasing backlash against Obama in our opinion is because he basically pulled a con job to get elected. Obama is a purely leftist politician who does not believe in individual human empowerment but the aggrandizement and expansion of the almighty state. He is now preparing to ram through a health care "reform" that will further expand state power and is likely to be bitterly resisted by at least 50 percent of the US and perhaps more. If Obama does decide to pass his health care reform by simple Democratic majority, he will indeed set off a firestorm perhaps unwitnessed in American policy since the Civil War dealt with Southern dissent via military means.
One should not forget, as Obama's negatives rise, that President Bush eventually became wildly unpopular and for much the same reason as Obama is becoming unpopular. Bush was elected with the expectation that he was the second coming of Ronald Reagan who, in at least some ways - and certainly in terms of rhetoric - was nearly a libertarian president, especially when it came to domestic issues and the intention to prune the federal behemoth.
Bush eventually proved an unrepentant statist, someone who expanded the merciless reach of the federal government under the guise of "compassion." Obama who ran under the slogan of "change" is proving a similar statist. Yet overwhelmingly, surveys show Americans want fewer taxes, fewer regulations and more freedom. The political process and the American electorate are headed in opposite directions. The Internet with its instant access to non-state controlled information is crucial in fanning the waves of dissent that ultimately eroded the popularity of Bush and are in the process of doing the same to Obama.
Conclusion: The Obama backlash in our opinion is not one of racism. It is one of increasing frustration over how politics work in America. The United States is still in many ways a republic from a cultural point of view. Citizens have the expectations of private property, the freedom of expression and the right (not a guarantee) to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The federal government on the other hand is headed in the direction of the EU. But the United States is not Europe. Obama's presidency, in our opinion, will not generate increased racism but will, if he continues in this direction, create intense frustration. And something will probably have to give.