Ruminations

Blog dedicated primarily to randomly selected news items; comments reflecting personal perceptions

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Hope Deflated

But not aspirations. It was a truly amazing social and political phenomenon, to be caught up in the drama of a highly intelligent, resolute, self-confident bi-racial politician prevailing over the best attempts of his white, establishment challengers for the presidency of the United States actually winning that Golden Grail. He became the Great Black Hope.

He inspired his listeners - who swiftly became his dedicated supporters - with his vision of a new America, one that the vast social-conscienced public could reclaim for themselves, angered by the machinations of a Republican government whose chief executive hauled his country and that of its allies into a bloody war whose morality many questioned.

He told his supporters that their vision of America was his, and he was prepared to bring about the changes that they yearned for. He would restore the United States to its position of international respect, which experienced severe slippage in the past decade. He would be fair, he would be accountable, he would be their executive-advocate.

And he meant what he said, and those who heard him believed what he said. He was an accomplished orator and a passionate, albeit calm speaker whose self-confidence and quiet demeanor betrayed not one hint of hyperbole or of the charlatan. Barack Obama won the confidence and the hearts of Middle America.

Something inevitably happens on the way to the forum...it is pre-destined, it is part of human history, and cannot be forestalled.

Battling two foreign wars is immensely costly. Giving free rein to the nation's free-enterprise capitalist great financial houses to do the bidding of two presidents, concerned with inadequate home ownership for those who simply could not afford it created the whisper of an eventual nightmare.

President Barack Obama never did intend, despite his charismatic appeal, to appeal to people as a political mastermind, a necromancer capable of communing with unseen forces for societal good who would quickly and decisively heal the nation's ills ... from rising unemployment, to homelessness and hunger, and an exclusive medical-insurance establishment.

It soon became clear to his detractors that this rational man was not a great student of human nature, nor knowledgeable about the great divide between reasonable people and those tending toward psychopathy, so numerous within any society, and particularly weighty in the administrations of some nations and societies. Where he felt extending a hand of friendly co-operation would elicit the same, events proved otherwise.

And those who tended to weary of his ubiquitous speeches and declarations of intent which repeated again and again those erstwhile-magical words of comfort, began to notice and to complain of style lacking substance. Began to notice as well, how much of himself-as-unique was invested in his unique position.

Public perception of his capabilities, his direction, his lack of awareness, his propensity toward making decisions that benefited Industry, Corporate Business, Finance to the detriment of the little man, dipped his popularity levels to dismal depths. Very little seemed to quite pan out for his man with his indestructible sense of self-sufficiency.

He could, literally, take the Nobel Peace Prize to the bank, however. But this investment of the Nobel-awarding committee in his future prospects and the overarching achievements that would result from his perceived extraordinary exceptionality in understanding and grasping his role and acting decisively, seems, in the short run, elusive at best.

He spoke magisterially, tantalizingly challenging doubters: "I campaigned on the promise of change - change we can believe in - and right now, I know there are many Americans who aren't sure if they still believe we can change - or that I can deliver it. ...when I ran for President, I promised I wouldn't just do what was necessary. So, no, I will not give up on trying to change the tone of our politics.

"The spirit that has sustained this nation for more than two centuries lives on in you, its people. We have finished a difficult year. We have come through a difficult decade. But a new year has come. A new decade stretches before us. We don't quit. I don't quit. Let's seize this moment - to start anew, to carry the dream forward,and to strengthen our union once more."

Successfully formulaic, silver-tongued promises for the future. And why not? What has he to lose? Much to gain, on the other hand.

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