As President Obama is proving every day, it isn’t an easy leap from cynic to democratic leader. A cynic can ignore freedom. The President of the United States cannot succeed without fanning liberty’s flame a thousand clever ways.
As the cynic, Obama could argue that Saddam Hussein was just another ruler, and that it was better to leave him alone. As president, he’ll find that the democracies are infinitely more cooperative and less dangerous than dictatorships, and that nine-tenths of the world’s deaths from war, famine and genocide are due to the abuses of despotic regimes.
As the cynic, Obama could look at the indefinite imprisonment of enemy combatants as an isolated problem, and oppose it. As president, he’s learning the logic of holding captured enemies until there’s solid evidence they’re done fighting, particularly in a war we must win against a powerful ideology of repression.
As the cynic, he could look at the U.S. steel industry by itself, and insist we “Buy American.” As president of the United States in a free market, he has to consider foreign trading partners, other U.S. industries and consumers, and suddenly he sees how little sense protectionism makes.
A cynic has the luxury of raising a selective problem without selecting a practical solution. A democratic leader, on the other hand, has to weigh a mountain of problems and then act reasonably to solve as many as can be solved without making other problems worse.
A cynic is too far withdrawn from the wider community to notice the creative, protective and healing power of freedom. A democratic leader recognizes freedom as essential to solving the problems of a city, the nation and the world.
Aristotle scorned the Cynics of his day. He said, “He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.” Aristotle might say the same of 21st century cynicism. The Cynics of 350 B.C. had less use for housing and hygiene than today’s bitter variety, but the ancients were just as likely to reject all rules and revere the outsider simply for being outside.
For President Obama, the difficulty is that once the cynic’s role is played, its underlying attitudes are hard to shake. It must be painfully awkward to embrace whole-heartedly the job as Leader of the Free World when your world view was shaped originally by a heightened awareness of political inequality and by a South Side Chicago subculture that regularly fed the sense that there is something cursed about America.
Until now, Obama hasn’t appreciated how freedom works its invisible hand justly, or how liberty is the one gift that truly keeps on giving. Until now, he’s had little time for such thoughts. That’s why his speeches on Abraham Lincoln hardly mention freedom. He has spoken of the Great Liberator as if nothing special goes on once the chains are cut. Obama extols the virtues of community service and building a more perfect union and defending some undefined Western way of life. But he leaves out freedom. It isn’t on his mind much.
That’s why, even after his historic election and inauguration as president, Obama could talk to his Arab television interviewers as if the America of the last eight years was someplace totally different from America today, as if President Bush had it all wrong and now we’ll have it all right. He talked to the “Muslim world” as if the United States had left the people of Iraq and Afghanistan in worse shape, with less hope, than under their former despotic regimes.
On al-Arabiya, Obama spoke repeatedly of American “mistakes.” He emphasized the imperfection, not the direction or unparalleled protections of American policy. Some of his apologies could be shrugged off as the vestiges of a long and aggressive political campaign. No doubt he also was trying to win the confidence of suspicious Muslims, telling them, in effect, that he understands why they’ve been suspicious of the United States. But his own stubborn cynicism was there, too.
That’s why he can say “I won,” but behave if that were impossible. It’s as if he’s thinking he couldn’t have won in the country he had heard about all his life. He also can write, “We inherited an economic crisis,” as if one country died on January 20th and left a problem that “we” innocent bystanders had no part in creating. Not only does that claim ignore his party’s central role in the financial collapse, it also misses the fact of democratic life that when he speaks now of “we,” he has to speak for all Americans.
As he wrestles with the old cynicism, Obama already has made important mistakes. In a diplomatic overture to Russia, his first instinct was to redress an artificial grievance. He signaled that he would abandon a missile shield in Eastern Europe if Russia would agree to reduce its nuclear arsenal. The proposal is in line with Obama’s long-held belief that the United States has no “standing” to deny dictators atom bombs if the U.S. keeps atom bombs. It’s a classically cynical stand, and it contradicts obvious reality. America can’t give up its nuclear weapons until it’s sure the tyrants have none. Moreover, the United States cannot be true to its liberal mission if it surrenders Europe’s new democracies to Russian imperialism in exchange for a largely symbolic gesture.
In taking on the current economic recession, Obama again exposed disappointingly poor reflexes for a democratic leader. Instead of insisting that his stimulus plan do everything to unleash the power of freedom for the fastest possible recovery, he handed off the responsibility to congressional Democratic Party leaders, who demonstrated far too much interest in aimless spending and much too little concern for wisely crafted incentives to generate more work, more investment and more production. When Republicans offered some ideas, the Democrats cynically shut them out. Senator Specter won a few concessions for his vote; instead of 66 percent spending, the bill became 63 percent spending.
“Old habits are hard to break,” the president said this week. True. It’s change you can’t count on.
But there is hope. Obama is a fast learner when he wants to be. He’s hearing much more about freedom, and he already has shown sparks of understanding. In his inaugural address, he seemed to struggle at first over what America’s highest priority must be. He spoke obliquely of our values, our ideals, our spirit of service, our sense of duty, but he initially appeared unwilling to say what those values or ideals might be, what our service should serve, what our duty is to. Then he came around.
As if stripping off an old costume one piece at a time, Obama emerged looking like someone new. He recognized heroes the cynic seldom salutes. He paid tribute to “the risk takers, the doers, the makers of things” for carrying us up “the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.” He honored the “guardians of our liberty” who “fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.”
He concluded his inaugural speech in virtuoso style:
“Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.”
That is the language of an American president.
Obama should take more time to study the great gift of freedom. For if he is to serve America’s best ideals, if he is to solve problems, if history is to record him a success, he will have to demand freedom wherever it is denied, and he will have to tap the power of liberty at every turn. The insiders of democracy must serve the cause of freedom, because it serves the people better than any other power.
Tough as it might be, Obama also has to face a personal reality. He can no longer be the cynic on the outside looking in. In the Free World, as president of the United States, he is the ultimate insider.
Frank Warner
* * *
See also: For Obama in Egypt, one unexpected moment of silence.
See also: Obama on Iraq success: 54 ways not to say ‘democracy’ (at Camp Lejeune).
See also: Obama in Camp Victory: U.S. troops won Iraq a chance for ‘a democratic country.’
See also: Freedom Count in Bush’s farewell: 12, high.
Obama has to follow the Constitution of which he knows nothing about. Since he knows nothing about the Constitution, freedom is a four letter word to him. His handlers will tell what he will and will not do. He is only a puppet of the New World Order. Even more, he is a Kenyan citizen. He was not born in American and is not the President according to the Constitution.
Cancer Recovery and Fitness Specialist
Trainer of Personal Trainers
Posted by: George Pragovich | February 28, 2009 at 10:29 AM
Don't you think he might have learned at least a little about the Constitution in Harvard Law School. And even if he were a Kenyan citizen, which is ludicrous, he must have spent enough time in the US to pick up the basics. I'll bet he even knows the difference between adduction and abduction. ... You have to admit that his English is pretty good.
Just as fitness is not fostered by extremes, political evaluations should make at least a nod toward moderation.
Posted by: jj mollo | February 28, 2009 at 05:36 PM
I personally have not seen his actual birth certificate. And, so far, he has proven he can't be trusted with his word. So...
Posted by: CJW | February 28, 2009 at 10:26 PM
Sounds like a lot of losers blowing off steam to me. For my 21 years of helping bust druggies, protect the environment and saving people's lives (which I actually did) there were plenty of armchair atheletes waiting to critize every possible move we made in the wind, waves and dark. So that makes me wonder who writes garbage like the above three posts. It can't be one of us down in the trenches. My friends and I have had it up to here with all the posturing know it all millionaires bickering on how to save the rich people from paying a little more taxes and keep out of jail for robbing working class American's blind, while us working folk are taking it on the chin. Its time for Americans to take a long look in the mirror and decide if we are a bunch of selfish know it alls that are in it for ourselves, or American citizens trying to sustain our wonderful country.
Posted by: Coast Guardsman | February 28, 2009 at 10:51 PM
CG,
Can you be more specific about what exactly you are objecting to? Speaking for myself, I'm not sure I disagree substantially with what you seem to be saying, although I may disagree on the question of what we should do about it.
Posted by: jj mollo | February 28, 2009 at 11:13 PM