Re: Mythbusting the Obama Magic

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed () reed com>
Date: January 3, 2010 9:35:27 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Mythbusting the Obama Magic

Here's a different thought:

A democracy is not about electing Kings.  Far too much of 2008 was focused on the idea that all we needed was a new 
kind of King - not Martin Luther King, but the traditional sort of King or Queen that the UK still seems to think of as 
a key symbol of their national pride.

By promoting the idea of a celebrity King, one abandons completely the idea of a Government of the People, by the 
People, for the People.  Instead, it becomes a game with a "winner".  Far too many Americans focus on "winners" vs. 
"losers", and justify the power of the winners by disparaging to an extreme the failures of the losers.

Obama is not chosen by a singular deity, he is not by any means the most capable leader in America, nor is he the most 
savvy politician, general officer, legislator, or anything else.

I would think that was *obvious*.  Yet some kind of strange cognitive failure identifies this ordinary (somewhat better 
than average) human being with the kind of wisdom that rarely comes to any human being.

When we want a better health-care system, would we really expect a person who spent his whole life as a politician and 
lawyer to invent it?   That's so sad it is almost laughable.   We wouldn't even expect such a person to know who is 
expert enough to ask!

So I have to admit that I find the idea that Obama has "failed us" to be the kind of sad commentary on Amercian 
thinking that fits in with the idea that 70% of Americans don't know where Myanmar is.   Obama is probably as "expert" 
as those 70% on about 99% of the questions that concern Americans greatly.

Perhaps it would be a LOT smarter if Americans would stop looking for Kings to elect, or Queens for that matter.

Instead, perhaps just organizing to solve problems would be a good plan.  Perhaps we could solve the problem of 
unemployment among our fellow citizens by recognizing that "doing stuff for each other" is a great way to increase the 
GDP (rather than trying to do so by "injecting money into some sector of the economy" - a magical way of thinking about 
economics that confuses the cart with the horse - printing money doesn't create wealth).




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