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The idolatry of Obama
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Nuss
I’m dodging shopkeepers along Canal Street on the edge of Soho, Lower Manhattan. Their suggestion unanimous, I need an umbrella; this particular model – found in most shops – apparently becomes more valuable as the rain gets worse… to the seller, anyway.
More apparent than the dreariness of this weather is the extent to which Americans have beatified Barack Obama, the senator from Illinois and Democratic presidential nominee.
Iconic representations of Obama are on every T-shirt, window, backpack, coffee cup and brick wall in the city. It’s marketing genius, and it has probably helped him become the front-runner in this election.
Whether his saintliness is projected or deserved seems irrelevant at this point – Obama-mania is just so damned fun.
As a Canadian though, the concept of an "exciting politician" seems paradoxical -- Harper is no Barack -- and I can’t help but envy the election excitement. In Canada, federal politics spells apathy.
Charlotta, a Swedish immigrant living in New York City who can't be fully identified because of a visa issue, shares my feeling of bewilderment. She finds the reverence with which Obama supporters hold their candidate unusual, if not problematic.
She should too; according to Charlotta, it got her dumped.
After an election speech, she criticized Obama's style, and her then-boyfriend “got pissed because I didn’t share his excitement for Obama.” They broke up shortly afterwards.
In her home country, the election process is much more demure and policy-based. American elections are more character-driven, she said, and excessively passionate.
“The election campaign here is more about the person. In Sweden, it is more about the parties,” she said. "Americans have very insecure lives right now, which make their passion stronger."
She's right, and that's a problem.
If fierce optimism has helped Obama during the campaign, then it could hurt him if he is elected. When expectations grow, so does the potential for disappointment.
Democrats should remember the fate of Viktor Yushchenko, sworn in as the president of Ukraine in 2005 on the heels of the Orange Revolution. After leading a peaceful protest that forced Ukraine’s Supreme Court to acknowledge that the recent election had been rigged, Yushchenko assumed office in dramatic fashion.
The combination of a heavily corrupted ruling class – evidence of which was literally etched into his face, which was scarred from dioxin poisoning – and his soaring rhetoric gave Yushchenko's political inauguration a tone of transcendence.
Once in office, however, Yushchenko’s public support plummeted to single-digit figures, and his tenure has been characterized not by revolution, but by a bitter power struggle with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Recently, he dissolved Parliament and called a snap election.
Politics is politics.
There is evidence though, that an Obama administration would be effective. The polls are projecting a firm majority in the Senate and House of Representatives for the Democrats, and Obama seems capable of being bi-partisan with a large camp of Republican support and his style of highbrow politics. But Democrats should sober their expectations and realize that Obama, if elected, will be inheriting a mountain of problems, which won't dissolve overnight.
Whether Obama is the patron saint of the American dream, or just a damned good example of it, we wish him well.
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