I can't help feeling a little crabby about Obama. The Obama Inauguration yesterday was certainly stirring, and deeply gratifying on several levels:
- Bush is out of there.
- The fact that we have a black president. When Toni Morrison poetically described Bill Clinton as the nation's "first black president," who would have ever thought that the second president after Clinton really would be?
- Obama beat the Republicans and won the presidency, you've certainly got to be thankful to him for that.
- Obama is clearly a very intelligent and thoughful individual. Halfway through his inaugural address, I found myself thinking, "I can't believe this guy really is our president!" I never watched Bush's speeches because a) you know he didn't write any of them himself, so they did not shed any light on his state of mind, b) they bore no relationship to his policies, so they were no guide to the future behavior of the administration, and c) they were always terribly delivered and generally unenjoyable. Clearly (a) and (c) no longer apply; we'll have to see about (b).
That said, amid all the Obama mania that has surrounded me this week here in Washington, I just can't let go of the fact of some of my skepticism about him -- the fact that a lot of this "hope" remains very short on substance, that Obama has never clearly demonstrated that he's a political progressive, that a number of initial signs have not been good.
Don't get me wrong, I'm very very happy to have Obama in the White House; a pall has been lifted from this city. And I'm cautiously hopeful that he will accomplish some really great things. I just find myself reacting to all the hype, which seems a bit naiive and over the top.
It is also possibly a sign of an unhealthy maybe even slightly authoritarian political culture. When push comes to shove, presidents rarely stray far from the center of where the American people are. To bring about real change you have to change where that center lies. True, Bush did depart from that center (albeit in the wrong direction), but he and his party also paid a steep price politically. You just can't expect that. By focusing their hopes so intensely, liberals and progressives may be making the mistake of excessively personalizing our politics and looking too much for a "great man" to step in and save the day. I may be guilty of this as much as anyone.
Well, regardless, good luck President Obama, go get 'em!
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