Is Charles Pierce Right? Have We Come to the End of Believing Obama's 'Illusions' About America?

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from Charles Pierce at Esquire:


The End Of Obama's Illusions

____ One day, when the final accounting of this presidency is made, anyone arguing that one of its major flaws was that the president relied too little on the rhetorical power inherent in his office is going to have to account for what appears to be the administration's imminent failure as regards its attempt to pass reasonable regulations to control this country's abnormal attraction to its firearms. Nobody can say that the president hasn't been out there pitching on this one. Nobody can say he hasn't used the full symbolic and rhetorical arsenals available to him. And yet the whole thing appears to be as dead as Kelsey's nuts.

Obama, speaking at the University of Hartford, said that date changed everything for families of the 20 children and six adults killed at Sandy Hook elementary school. "I know many of you in Newtown wondered if the rest of us would live up to the promises we made in those dark days ... once the television trucks left, once the candles flickered out, once the teddy bears were gathered up," Obama was to say in prepared remarks. "We will not walk away from the promise we've made." No major gun legislation has passed the U.S. Congress since 1994 and the current White House guns push is in trouble. "The policy window is either really close to closed, or closed entirely," said John Hudak, an expert at the Brookings Institution think tank. "In honesty, this is really a last-ditch effort by the White House."

Watching the administration's momentum fade on this issue is to see a president presented with the final, practical refutation of the speech that made him famous. It turns out there is a red America and a blue America. It turns out that there is a conservative America and a liberal America. It turns out that the things that divide us are stronger than the things that unite us. Or, at least, that the things that divide us are more politically salient than the things that unite us. The failure on guns is the last, final refutation of what Barack Obama said he believed about the people of this county.

It always depended on the notion that we were all together in the creative process of self-government. The fact is, most of us aren't. Most of us have checked out. At the encouragement of two generations of ambitious politicians, we have accepted the notion that "government" is something alien, and therefore that it is something we cannot influence. You tell me that 91 percent of Americans support background checks. Wonderful. Put them on the ballot. They'll pass, but only 40 percent of the eligible voters will bother to go to the polls, so where's the danger to anyone in acting contrary to the expressed public will? Who does Mitch McConnell really fear in this particular controversy? He knows that there is a solid, active core of support behind the work he's doing frustrating the expressed public will.

This is the fool's gold that this president has been chasing ever since he broke onto the scene. He staked his entire career — and certainly, his entire presidency — on the notion that the right person at the right time could heal the "divisions" in our society — which, he told us, were not the real products of our politics, but the temporary fever dreams of a country led astray. The fact is that those "divisions" are our politics. They're all we have, since we have determined as a political entity, that politics and government are a show, that nothing is permanent, that the scoreboard starts at zero every day. Who will win the morning?


read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/president-obamas-illusions-040913

[BeyondGeography]

1. Except we have a gun deal now in the Senate

Limited to background checks, yes, and with some family member transaction exemptions and whatnot, but a deal nonetheless. How hard was that? Pretty damned difficult, but Obama stuck with it, didn't he? His "illusions" will be intact for another week at least...

[bigtree]

3. I'm with you on that, to the point where I'm sitting on the edge of my chair right now

. . . wondering if this deal will translate into a Senate vote; or even a debate leading to a vote. It's not exactly a done deal yet. We've yet to hear from Baucus and a few other conservadems. It's close, but not there yet. Then, there's the House . . .

I'm an eternal optimist, though, when it comes to politics. Like Pierce says, 'every day the clock is set to zero.' Or something like that.

[BeyondGeography]

8. It was done by Toomey and Manchin so that takes care of the Senate

as for the House of Horrors as you note, who knows, but they will be like cornered rats on this one.

[randome]

2. Why is this article about Obama?

Is the purpose to state that we should stop trying? Give up? And at the same time hang it all on Obama?

That seems to be the overall point.

[demwing]

4. It's NOT about Obama

It's about us, and how Obama's vision of a united America was dashed against the rocks of our complacency.

[randome]

6. They're not "Obama's illusions". It's not "Obama chasing fool's gold."

They're our 'illusions' and we're not chasing fool's gold.

I think the author needs to take a long, brisk walk somewhere to clear his head.

[Newest Reality]

11. Yes ...

However, we can blame ourselves collectively or consider the momentum that we face and how it functions.

I can see no way for us to miss the rocks of complacency unless we have a deep and shared insight into what we are actually dealing with on anything more than a superficial level.

There appears to be a demonstrable naivety, generally, that is encouraged and manipulated. Most attempts to bring attention to the underlying mechanisms, groups and people who steer the ship and oppose opposition to the chosen direction are managed or rejected, prima facie, as conspiracy or radical.

Basically, we are living in a world that is now largely owned and directed by a small percentage of us who wield as much power and influence as the royalty of olden days. Their castles are the corporate headquarters where they hold court in boardrooms. Their Knights are legion, working to maintain and expand their empires.

Politics today is largely a facade and acts as camouflage for what is actually a cozy and lucrative, Fascist arrangement It works well an the proof is in the insanely obscene amounts of profit going to that few. They have captured the Kingdom, but would like you to believe that "government" is still yours, rather than a Ronald McDonald spokesperson who takes the heat and gives the illusion of choice to those who would rather believe, than know.

Now, complacency might just begin to dissolve when we get to the curtain and look behind it in a collective way. Until then, complacency may be the safest route for individuals when you consider the ramifications of opposing a well-organized gang of wealthy, manipulating controllers under the surface of Simulated liberty and cartoon justice.

[bigtree]

5. it's a big dish full of cynicism and frustration

. . . just happened to occur to him during this presidency, I suppose.

He does try and smooth it out at the end:

"This process predates Barack Obama by several decades and it is now a permanent feature of our politics that will long outlast him . . ."

[loyalsister]

12. I think the point is has he had to give up on this?

If you want to understand him, read his books. You can see how his experiences shaped his beliefs about this country. He had been talking to people in rural and urban districts as he was running for senate. Maybe he didn't understood the difference between person from rural Illinois and one from Mississippi until he ran for president. Talk about giving people the benefit of the doubt.
I have read a bit of the book about his mother. She wrote that there was some conflict in the grandparents household, as well as between his mother and her second husband. Maybe that is the source of his dislike of it.

I think must be heartbroken over what kind of hate and opposition he has had to confront. He meant this...

But my grandfather had larger dreams for his son. Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place, America, that shone as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before.

The day after Pearl Harbor my grandfather signed up for duty; joined Patton’s army, marched across Europe. Back home, my grandmother raised a baby and went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through F.H.A., and later moved west all the way to Hawaii in search of opportunity.

And they, too, had big dreams for their daughter. A common dream, born of two continents.

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or ”blessed,” believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success. They imagined -- They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren’t rich, because in a generous America you don’t have to be rich to achieve your potential....

......there is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there’s the United States of America.

The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into red states and blue states; red states for Republicans, blue states for Democrats.
But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an "awesome God" in the blue states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the red states.
We coach Little League in the blue states and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the red states.
There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

In the end -- In the end -- In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope?

John Kerry calls on us to hope. John Edwards calls on us to hope.

I’m not talking about blind optimism here -- the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don’t think about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about something more substantial. It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a mill worker’s son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.

Hope -- Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!

In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead.

I believe that we can give our middle class relief and provide working families with a road to opportunity.

I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across America from violence and despair.

I believe that we have a righteous wind at our backs and that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us.

[loyalsister]

7. I bet he weeps when he is reminded of that speech

He really meant it. He was giving lot of people the benefit of the doubt, hoping that people cared more about the country than their personal agendas. Could he or any of us imagined that there would be a movement in opposition to expanding healthcare to get more people covered? I know it caught me by surprise.
I thought it was pretty shocking for a senator to say we want him to lose rather than we have to take the white house back.
I lived in MO and I have conservative family members who support marriage equality. I also have family members who don't. Sadly some of them still vote republican. I think Obama underestimated the rage people would feel over getting a Democratic president and even more having a black president.

Paul Ryan said something interesting once. He said he thought it was cool that we elected a black president, but I don't agree with him on anything. Translation.. It might make us look good if he lives in the white house, but we'll do the real work.

I'm sure Obama's idealism has been seriously challenged, as has mine.

[bigtree]

10. well, you start from a good place

. . . believing that Barack Obama is sincere about his faith in the inherent fairness and good in Americans; in the potential to fashion compromises that transcend the 'fights' and political battles of the past.

Yet. Pierce strikes an unavoidable note when he says 'those "divisions" are our politics.' They have been, for decades and decades. Fact is, many of those fights are over principles and values which aren't up for negotiation; which can't be split in two.

That's what elections are for. At many points, I believe this President has to decide to just stand firm, rather than surrender ground that isn't just some snit or some triviality. There are times when I don't believe he fully understands this. There is certainly a political landscape, but we live on real and solid ground out here.

[loyalsister]

16. Cynicism is oddly comforting sometimes

But, politics don't always reflect the real people Obama wants to advocate for. I'm sure he came across the same walking contradictions I have seen in my own family. I have relatives who believe in marriage equality. Yet, they are racist and don't believe they should ever have to pay taxes. I have Mormon relatives who would do anything for this atheist but whose religious ideology interferes with their ability to empathize with others.

From what I understand, his basic belief is that people (not politicians) generally want the same things. They want to live lives without a minimum of stress and for their families to succeed. His hope was that what we have in common would win out over the top down political fights. He did not count on a hateful highly vocal group who would protest the idea of their peers having health care. I was pretty surprised by that spectacle, myself.

[Armstead]

9. I see a big distinction

Whether or not he ultimately gets a lot or a little on gun control, I applaud Obama's staunch and consistent leadership on this issue.

I believe he should do more of that passionate advocacy from a liberal/progressive perspective on EVERY issue.

It was a gamble for him to push so hard on this. But it is always a gamble. And progress can't be measured by short term results.

Even if the actual legislative results are disappointing this time, he has seeded the ground for further progress down the road. And helped to amplify and unify the voices of all those what want to see something done.

But regardless, one thing is certain. If he either avoided the issue, or waffled, then it would be absolutely certain he would have not had any effect, or been counterproductive.

Personally, I would like to see him stand up on more issues that clearly. That's how presidential leadership ultimately gets things accomplished.

[madrchsod]

13. yes ......

the united states has always been divided and always will be. the most anyone can hope for is the country does`t have another civil war

[agent46]

14. I find it hard to believe

I find it hard to believe Obama could be so naive as to actually believe his own soaring public rhetoric and now is due a wake up call of some kind.

If so, it's as if he doesn't grasp the depth and nature of the corruption, the power of propaganda lies, and the baseline ignorance of the American people due to poor education and a failed news media.

Does he not know how things work in this country? If not, maybe he was never qualified to go from junior senator to POTUS in the first place.

[bigtree]

15. well, it's hard to deny

. . . that he has this political naivete; this insistence on political optimism when it comes to working with or around republicans.

I think that, before the midterms, we could use a little demonizing and shaming of the opposition to try and unseat them. I hope he clears himself of this before folks out here start rationalizing their republican just might, someday, come around.