Well, I thought I'd shift gears a bit today and talk about politics. Afterall, it's been a year now since Barack Obama began his run as President, and everyone therefore feels the need to evalute his first year in office ad nauseum. So anyways, I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring. Well, sort of. This being an entertainment-centric blog, I've wanted to talk about the job that Obama is doing so far ever since that lame SNL sketch from several weeks back. You know, the one where the whole "joke" was that they had Fred Armisen as Obama list off a bunch of things that he has *not* done yet as President. Not only was that sketch not funny (what was the joke, exactly?), but it just seemed like a pretty awkward attempt to turn the tables on Obama and criticize him for the sake of being "fair and balanced." Do I think that Obama has had a perfect first year in office? No I don't. But am I still incredibly proud and happy to have him as our President? Yes I am. But one of the big lessons here is that no one man is a savior. We as a counrty can't just expend all this energy to help get Obama elected, and then stop caring. And the Republican party ... if their entire focus as a party is simply trying to help Obama fail, then, well, that's a pretty steep obstacle for our President to overcome.
I've talked about health care previously here, but the debate still makes no sense to me. Republicans talk about the need for reform, but at the end of the day want to preserve the status quo. And that to me is a microcosm of the entire Republican mindset -- instill fear of change or "the other," and demonize your opponent in order to rally the people against them. The entire GOP agenda, as of now, is one of opposition.
But back to Obama, I don't think you can underestimate the power of ideas. And I think that's reflected in his Nobel Peace Prize win from several weeks back. Obama has opened new channels of communication with the Arab World. He's put the US back in the mix of the international conversation regarding the climate crisis. He's addressed the internaitonal community with a level of respect and positivity that had been missing during the Bush years.
The problem is that many of these larger global problems are longterm problems. There are huge issues in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and there's basically no easy way to handle those situations. For example, whether Obama approved another "surge" in Afghanistan or withdrew the majorty of US troops - both paths are riddled with a lot of question marks.
Even domestically, issues like the still-struggling economy are unfortunately, again, long-term issues. But at the least, we are headed on a path that gets us away from the crazy tax cuts and other problematic policies of the Bush administration. On this one, I think we're on the right track.
Do I wish that Obama would have really thrown his weight around in Year One and done a bit more to address certain things? Sure. The biggest example is probably the environment. While Obama is certainly a step up from Bush in terms of being environmentally-concious, it still feels like we are treading water when we should be going full speed ahead with clean technology and new, innovative ways of creating more environmentally-safe energy and products. A lot of these innovations will ultimately be driven by the private sector, but it does still feel like we aren't moving as fast on these things as we should be.
I also know that there are those who still feel that Obama is somehow not sympathetic enough towards Israel. To this I say: get real. This issue is basically a whole other column, but the fact is that a peace process between Israeli's and Palestinians is pretty simple on paper. The first key is a Palestinian leader who genuinely wants peace and can unite his people behind him. The second step is a recognition of this by the Israelis and a willingness to follow up with some concessions of their own (ie halting settlements). But is there much Obama can do other than affirm his support for Israel and be there to help moderate if the Palestinians ever get their act together? Nope - there's not that much he can do in the meantime.
But again, Obama has come at these problems with, mostly, the right mindset. I think his biggest problem was, initially, underestimating just how hard the Repbulicans would work to dismantle his Presidency. Democrats and liberals can often be a self-loathing bunch, and they also tend to be too soft. Obama has done a nice job though of rallying public support for his health care plan. But what you have is the President of the United States having to compete ideologically with the Rush Limbaughs and Glenn Becks of the world. Sure, they and their ilk tend to be bat$#%& insane, but they have just enough followers to make a dent in the popular conciousness.
That brings me back to the whole SNL thing. It's easy to adopt a Rush Limbaugh mindset and talk about things in broad, ideological, and largely negative, terms. It's why I got pissed off when I saw Newsweek's cover from last week, saying, about Obama, "Yes He Can! (But He Sure Hasn't Yet)". I was surprised to see Newsweek buy into that notion. What, exactly, hasn't he done yet that was actually possible to do? A health care bill hasn't passed yet - but was that Obama's fault? We aren't out of Afghanistan yet - but how could we have been? The environmental crisis isn't solved yet - but we all know that is a longterm issue. So how about we talk about actual issues and solutions instead of generalities. How about we not demonize Obama (like all of those crazy parents did - you know, the ones who wouldn't let their kids go to school to hear his "welcome back" address), and actually support our President? You know, the guy who is actively working to do what's best for the country, as opposed to simply supporting an agenda of helping the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations and appeasing the right-wing conservative base? It's sad that our country is still in this place where everyone is "for" or "against" without any real reasons why. We should be smarter and better than that.
Our country is better off now than it was a year ago, and weare headed in a positive direction. There hasn't been a techtonic shift quite yet, but let's be vocal in our support of a President whose desired endgame is a better country. That is worth supporting, I think.
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