I just had a great week with Derrick, Shawn, and Berg in Chicago, but sadly they are all gone now. Derrick mentioned that I should link to where I've been writing columns for my school newspaper for the past couple of months, so here it is: www.dailynorthwestern.com - you can go to the 'archives' tab on the left and click on any Wednesday since the beginning of April, and then go to the Forum page within that. In addition, to save you and me time and energy, I am just going to post an entire column I wrote here about what I think of Obama's trade policy:
Profiles in Political Expediency
Many American progressives, stumped by the similarity between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have suggested a tiebreaker: Hero-worship of dead presidents. Just as Republican candidates deify Ronald Reagan, Ted Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, and other auspiciously-surnamed individuals have endorsed Obama because he reminds them of that zenith of Democratic presidents. (I'll give you a hint: It's not Jimmy Carter.)
The assertion that the best candidate will remind us of Reagan or John F. Kennedy is seriously flawed. Kennedy's legacy was cemented when he was shot. But if we believe that what happened during a presidency is more important than the manner of its end, we can more effectively evaluate Kennedy's term in office. While his minor failings (like installing a Baathist regime in a little country called Iraq) are well-known, Kennedy-ites shrug these off, saying that Kennedy's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis easily excuses his blunders. But was the Crisis really Kennedy's finest hour, or did he take the world to the brink of nuclear war?
Kennedy, a brilliant Harvard grad, author and senator (remind you of anyone?), was the ultimate Cold Warrior, continually criticizing President Eisenhower for the "missile gap" caused by supposed legions of Soviet missiles hidden throughout Siberia. While campaigning in July 1960, Kennedy was briefed by CIA director Allen Dulles on the realities of the situation: it was estimated that the US actually had more missiles than the Soviets. By 1961, satellite imagery fully disproved the "missile gap."
But rather than make a profile in courage, Kennedy still stuck to his Cold Warrior rhetoric once he had won the White House. He stayed true to his virulently anti-Soviet image by installing ballistic Jupiter missiles in Turkey within range of Moscow. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev responded reasonably by installing similar missiles in Cuba. Kennedy was only able to avoid armed conflict by removing the Jupiter missiles that had catalyzed the situation. But the escalation leading to the Crisis should be blamed on Kennedy's hubris, not Soviet aggression.
The comparison to Kennedy only rang true once Obama's campaign reached Ohio, where he stepped away from his usual vague policy assertions to attack the North American Free Trade Agreement. Despite Obama's obvious intellect, he decided to defy centuries of economic thought going back to David Ricardo, who showed that free trade brings long-term benefits to all participants. If American manufacturing jobs leave, it is only because we ought to be producing something better. Repealing NAFTA would hurt everyone - most notably by drastically increasing gas prices as tariffs increase on oil imports from Canada.
Obama has shown that, like Kennedy, he can inspire with lofty words and ideals. Also like Kennedy, he can steadfastly stick to popular platforms even when they are wrong. He has not, however, proved why on earth these are good reasons to vote for him. Kennedy inspired his way into an ideologically flawed presidency, and Obama is following in his footsteps yet again.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
First of all I think its way too early to determine that Obama will be like Kennedy considering he's not even president yet.
Second, in response to saying that Barack can inspire, you're absolutely right. And with the way the country is right now, we need some damn good inspiration, and I seriously doubt that the tired old man or the crusty, sleezy ex-First Lady can inspire this younger generation that's making such an impact as Barack can.
Oh, and we don't know how good Kennedy would have been as president considering he only had about 2 years in office. Granted he made some bad decisions during those 2 years, but there hasn't been one president that hasn't made some bad decisions.
I'm going to go ahead and just say that I agree with what Shawn said above.
Listen, I'm not a politician and I'm not going to pretend that I know a lot about politics. I know more now than I did two or three years ago. But I'm not an expert. That being said, I believe in Obama. Braxton, you can say that he hasn't shown you any reason to vote for him, and that's fine. But that's you.
Obama has millions of supporters. And millions of those supporters are much more intelligent than I am when it comes to politics, and they are supporting Obama. People have different opinions and beliefs on how the country should be run, and who they think would do the best job. Right now its down to Obama, McCain, and Clinton. Pick your poison, because they are all politicians.
If you aren't impressed by Obama, then fine. Don't vote for him or support him. But Obama isn't president yet. So while you are trying to compare Obama's time in office to Kennedy's time in office, let me remind you that Obama ISN'T in office yet. So at the moment there is no reason to complain.
I like that so many people are afraid of Obama's public speaking abilities. Like, "Oh my God! He knows how to inspire and talk to a crowd! Surely having a skill like that means that he's going to fuck the world, right?" He has a talent for talking. Get over it.
And I don't think that discussions regarding politics are going to attract people to this blog. Perhaps we should make the conversations more appealing to a broader audience.
I'm just trying to keep things going, Derrick. Once a blog slows down, it's hard to rebuild momentum.
*Uses his best evil Anakin Skywalker voice*
"You underestimate my power!"
There was a line in my Star Wars musical that went "but as it turns out your estimation of my powers was quite accurate." Its not an interesting anecdote, but it makes me think of simpler times.
I really wish you would've finished that musical Berg
I have waited too long to comment on this post and I apologize. Maybe someone will read this...
I concur with Mr. Boren 100%.
I'll also make the point that, like candidate Kennedy, Obama is misguided about certain foreign policy issues. Kennedy preached the missle gap, Obama preaches the lost cause in Iraq. Despite his "inspiring" rhetoric, he has yet to go to Iraq or even meet personally with Gen. Petraeus to evaluate the current situation. He will make his first visit soon, and will hopefully open his eyes to what has been an extremely successful campaign lately. Obama's promise to pull the troops out of Iraq is a recipe for disaster and an absolute insult to the folks who have served and died to make Iraq a better place. If we were indeed losing, if the violence was not decreasing and civil war was engulfing the nation, then perhaps Obama would have the right to make such promises. But such is not the case. Perhaps Obama should break his promise to pull troops out of Iraq just as he broke his promise to only use public campaign funds. But he won't. Too many of his supporters back him because of his promise to pull out. If he decides to retract that promise and proves himself to be above party politics (which he most definitely HAS NOT), then he will have my respect, and perhaps my imaginary vote (I'm not voting in the real election because I don't feel comfortable voting for my future commander-in-chief- another topic for another time perhaps).
Post a Comment