Barack Obama, The Greatest Yuppie of All Time

Upon watching this video I couldn't help but feel what has been the writing on the wall to for many Obama supporters since the end of his first year as President; that ultimately he is a deceiver like all other politicians and that politics is an outdated and crude way of solving human problems. Though it is my understanding that the current governmental gridlock is not entirely his fault, I do know that the platitudes and twisted logic he uses in his soaring awe inspiring speeches only adds to the problem of America's backwards cultural psyche.



Obama has a way of melding seemingly good logic over bad policy ideas so that the American people are still able to somewhat support him even if they otherwise disagree with the policy. As someone who majored in marketing in college, I try to pay close attention to exactly how people present their ideas. Many times in this past year Barack Obama has seemed to me like a more well-spoken version of George W. Bush. Here is a clip from the Rachel Maddow Show that highlights my point:



Barack Obama is so effective at getting people to believe in him through his speeches because he uses emotional stories as the platform behind his policy initiatives. All throughout the 2008 campaign he invoked the American Revolution and the Civil Rights Movement. He talked about the work ethic of Americans pulling themselves out of the Great Depression and the valor of the American soldiers who fought in World War II. The problem with this method of political speech is that capitalizes off of peoples' feelings of elation in a way so that they are not able to rationally evaluate the true nature of the policies being debated. Even though the campaign is over and one year has passed and his approval ratings have fell since he took office, President Obama is still very adept at getting people to believe in his cause. For instance, in his Nobel Peace Prize speech President Obama over the first twenty minutes outlined why war is necessary giving emotional historical stories of "just" battles that were won. During the last half of his speech he only briefly highlighted the non-violence efforts of Ghandi and Dr. King and did not include any historical examples expounding on his ideas of how peace can be maintained. He did not speak with the same inspiring tone about his prescribed methods of keeping peace and it was clear that the speech was designed to maintain global support of America's wars while at same time appeasing those in the international community calling for peace.

This say-one-thing-mean-another approach is inherently detrimental to any discussion aimed at solving human problems. If someone were really concerned with the problem of war and violence they would give a speech examining the psychological reasons for why people fight and offering solutions that would not hesitate to criticize the institutions that make war seem necessary, in particular our capitalist economic system that inevitably leads to hegemonic behavior. Barack Obama exemplifies exactly what an effective politician is, someone who keeps people complacent but hopeful:



When looking at the healthcare debate it should be obvious that President Obama is either uninterested in ensuring effective reform or completely incompetent at brining about the health reform millions upon millions of Americans desperately need. While it should be noted that he is not alone in this discussion as he has to worry about the will of 100 senators and 435 representatives, one also has to take into account the fact that the President still sets the agenda and larger political narrative. It seems suspicious that the team that so beautifully managed to market the idea of a mixed race African American with a Muslim name becoming president can not manage to successfully navigate the politics of passing effective health care reform with only a decrepit Republican party and a few largely corrupt and already unpopular Democratic senators standing in the way. The popular conclusion that Obama believes in his proposals is even more problematic than the belief that he is legislatively apathetic because either way he has proven to be great at getting people to believe more fervently in the ideals that support an establishment culture that is largely detrimental to the well-being of the public; and when someone truly believes in what they do they are usually more destructive. Although President Barack Obama is an example of a few good aspects of political activism bringing about equality, he exemplifies everything that is wrong with political thinking and the use of politics as a means of addressing problems:



In an ideal world, our handling of issues would be arrived at objectively through the evaluation of experts in the particular field pertaining to the problem, not arbitrarily debated through the emotional opinions of those seeking to maintain power. One can not even think to effectively fix the absurdity posed by the system currently in place if she or he believes in the institutions upheld by that particular system. This is at the crux of Obama's and the liberal community's overwhelming ineffectiveness at changing the world for the better.

Sincerely,
Aurora