The New Yorker's must-read endorsement of President Obama contains a powerfully elegant universality--one that so many voters are confoundingly missing, and has others pulling their hair out in prodigious agreement:
A two-term Obama Administration will leave an enduringly positive imprint on political life. It will bolster the ideal of good governance and a social vision that tempers individualism with a concern for community.
That says it all. Many voters admit to a certain fuzziness in their understanding of specific issues but lay proud claim to comprehending the broader swaths of presidential character and competence and leadership. On all three counts, Obama is nearly off the charts; and yet, that marginal but critical mass of voters who weigh generalities but seldom particulars remain, by and large, mysteriously muddled (even after accounting for the "race" factor).
The last four years are what "good governance" looks like. While the best of governance can persist only as a utopian ideal, to reject rather than bolster the realistic ideal of the good is only to promote an enduringly negative imprint on political life.
And that imprint's name is Mitt Romney. Again, from the New Yorker:
[W]hat is most disquieting is Romney’s larger political vision. When he said that Obama "takes his political inspiration from Europe, and from the socialist democrats in Europe," he was not only signalling Obama’s "otherness" to one kind of conservative voter; he was suggesting that Obama’s liberalism is in conflict with a uniquely American strain of individualism.
Even worse:
In pursuit of swing voters, Romney and Ryan have sought to tamp down, and keep vague, the extremism of their economic and social commitments.
Demagoguery, rightest populism, "leftist" bugabooing, rabble-rousing, scapegoating, distorted history, a twisted nationalism and, just before the election, a devious moderation designed to mask primal extremism ...
... I'll let you make the easily makeable historical connnections.
And as we remember the passing of George McGovern yesterday, let us also remember the guy he lost to by such a huge historic landslide. (and according to the book "Nixonland" even when he won he was in a foul mood acting as though he had lost) There were people who could see right through Nixon's pathological mendacity, yet the voters chose him overwhelmingly anyway, even with the Watergate scandal breaking. Now I fear that older Americans may have forgotten that time and younger Americans have no sense of history. They chose Nixon with devastating consequences to the nation. And Mitt Romney would be worse. He makes Tricky Dick look like Honest Abe.
Posted by: AnneJ | October 22, 2012 at 10:56 AM
I could wish that the endorsement of the New Yorker did not feature their emblematic logo of a top hatted and monocled upper class twit with his nose in the air. But I guess you can't have everything.
Posted by: Peter G | October 22, 2012 at 11:06 AM
Fascism -- or populist nationalism -- I know. Wish more people did.
Posted by: Ted Frier | October 22, 2012 at 11:15 AM
One other small point that I should like to raise as a foreign observer of America, hopefully without offense: in my more frustrated moments I would absolutely disagree with the very last word of that editorial endorsement. Some days I just don't think you do deserve that future: "one that progresses, however falteringly, toward social justice, tolerance, and equality". But I still hope you get it.
Posted by: Peter G | October 22, 2012 at 11:38 AM
The W Bush years were characterized by a smash-and-grab opportunism that they have now replaced with another kind of opportunism. Four years ago, we were in a panic mode that lasted for a year until we turned around from the bottom. Many people were financially hammered during that period with a second wave to follow. For the next year or so, many people juggled their finances until things fell apart.
Now many people are suffering from long-term financial stress. Even moderate stressors over a long enough period will break even the strong. Like the vultures they are, Romney and the GOP are circling the financially and psychologically exhausted just as much as W & Company manipulated the fears, come panic, following 9/11.
So, I am not surprised that so many people are usuceptible to a snake oil salesman offering a miracle cure - especially when Obama can only over the truth of more rehab and recovery.
FDR did not take office until 2.5 years after Black Friday and 1.5 years after the beginning of the bank panics (the real start of the Great Depression). Had Obama assumed office in January 2010, his political life would have been much easier, but that is not the case.
After he eeks out this win, he and the Dems will reap a political windfall.
Posted by: Robert Lipscomb | October 22, 2012 at 12:11 PM