The Wiz

Barack Obama, April 6, 2008 Private fundraiser at the Getty Mansion, San Francisco.

Speaking about unemployment in Pennsylvania.

"They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

This was said before a houseful of San Francisco millionaires, who understood what he meant.

His comment was the type a sociology professor might make to his students.

Obama was raked over the coals for this comment by both the right and the left, as an example of how out of touch he is with average Americans.

Hard times do in fact spur people to cling more fiercely to their faith, and become more nationalistic, militaristic, and more xenophobic.  The people in the room all understood that.  If Obama had phrased it that way, in a more academic language, he probably would have gotten away with it.

But Obama committed the unforgivable sin.  He let the people peek behind the curtain, and catch a glimpse of the Wizard of Oz with his hands on the levers.

People don’t want to know that they are pawns.  They want to think that they control their destiny.  They resent being shown the truth of how easily they are manipulated by those in power.  They resent being analyzed by the elite.

Any hint of this manipulation arouses their most reptilian fears.

Those who would rule have known this for millennia.  They don’t let on that they are exploiting the fears of the masses.  Quite the contrary, they claim they are protecting them from all the dangers that they and their ilk are only too willing to visit upon them.  

Hermann Goering to Gustav Gilbert, 18 April 1946 in Goering’s cell at Nuremberg Germany

“Why, of course, the people don’t want war.  Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece?  Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.”

Gilbert: “In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.”

Goering: “Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

We intellectuals (real and pseudo) all know this is how the world works, but the poor slob on the farm doesn’t.  After all, we all sat through Soc 101, and farmboy didn’t.  He thinks if he obeys the law, and works hard, tomorrow will be better than yesterday. Woe betide the person that argues with him.

Realpolitik or Machiavellian intrigue?

I think my favorite line from Primary Colors (a seriously underrated movie), is when campaign Manager Henry Burton questions candidate Jack Stanton’s hypocrisy. The reply.  “You can’t help anybody if you don’t get elected."

Part of Obama’s problem is that the dangers the Democrats warn us about are less immediate and tangible than the terrors that the Republicans have made into a political catechism.

Bush talked of the yellowcake that Saddam Hussein sought.  (A lie, but it worked nonetheless).

Condoleeza Rice warned of a smoking gun in the shape of a mushroom cloud.

Democrats warn of eroding civil liberties, foreclosures, cost of medical care, loss of world prestige, global warming, environmental catastrophe, etc.

Now, the latter may be more imminent, and more certain if the Republicans hold onto power, but the former, (nuked US cities) is so horrifying that it trumps the weak sister arguments of the Democrats.  If Republicans convince voters that President Obama's warnings about the dire consequences of Neocon policies are the results of simplistic elitist thinking, the abuses of the Bush administration will return with a vengeance.

August 21, 2008