Bipartisanship (is) for DummiesYou hear a lot of talk these days about the necessity of bipartisanship. But Democrats and Republicans in Congress can't seem to agree on the meaning of the word. For Democrats, it apparently means compromising on everything and watering legislation down until a few Republicans are willing to vote for it. For most Republicans it means finding unity in opposition, threatening to filibuster, constantly contradicting yourself and generally being assholes. For Judd Gregg it means doing a highly partisan back room deal on Monday afternoon and denouncing bipartisanship Tuesday morning.
Paul Krugman is absolutely right:
Obama may be able to get a few Republican Senators to go along with his plan; or he can get a lot of Republican votes by, in effect, becoming a Republican. There is no middle ground.
That isn't the change we were promised.'
De zwarte Amerikaanse auteur Shelby Steele schrijft in A Bound Man: 'Barack Obama emerged into a culture that needed him more as an icon than as a man. He has gone far because the need is great. But this easy appeal has also been his downfall. It is a seduction away from character and conviction.' Vervolgens vergelijkt Steele de positie van Obama met die van Tod Clifton, de intelligente protagonist in het befaamde boek de 'Invisible Man' van de zwarte schrijver Ralph Ellison. Ellison beschrijft in het begin van de jaren vijftig van de vorige eeuw een zwarte man die in een blanke maatschappij op zoek is naar zijn identiteit, iemand die na een succesvolle carriere het opgedrongen masker, die een kleurling heeft in de blanke maatschappij, afdoet en dan ontdekt dat er niets achter schuil gaat. In zijn eeuwige poging de ander te behagen, om geaccepteerd te worden, heeft hij zichzelf verloren. Steele schrijft: 'When he finally lurches away from this falseness, there is no self to guide him toward a meaningful life. Probably the greatest debilitation in black American life is that our history of masking -- once so necessary to our survival -- has caused us to undervalue the evolution of our individual selves. The challenge for Barack Obama is the same as it is for all free people: to achieve visibility as an individual, to in fact become an individual rather than a racial cipher. Today, he is in the same peril of falling "out of history" as the fictional Tod Clifton was sixty years ago. Unless we get to know who he is -- what beliefs he would risk his life for -- he could become a cautionary tale in his own right, an iconic figuren who neglected to become himself.'
Obama is een van de interessantere fenomenen van deze tijd, een in feite tragische figuur in de strikte zin van het woord. We zullen zien of deze icoon bestand is tegen zijn eigen imago.
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