Carl G. Pedersen Barack Obama's America (2009)

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.Romney painted an ominous picture of what lay aheadif the Democrats should win the election in November.Hemade it clear that if either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obamawere to become president, the US would surrender toterror.The choice for Romney was simple: a Republicanvictory in November would lead to victory in the global waron terror; a Democratic victory would lead to failure anddefeat.However, the war on terror was not the only chal-lenge facing the US.Romney spent the bulk of his speechtalking about what he saw as the most fundamental chal-lenge the threat to our culture [that] comes from within.These threats included a culture of poverty brought on bythe profligate welfare programmes of the 1960s, the attackon religion Romney didn t specify who was engaging inthese attacks the rise in sexual promiscuity and the weak-ening of the institution of marriage by unelected judges.The erosion of the cultural values that made the USstrong and the defeatist attitudes towards the war on terror,both promoted by the insidious forces of the left, portendeda grim future for the world s only superpower:We face a new generation of challenges, challenges whichthreaten our prosperity, our security and our future.I amconvinced that unless America changes course, we willbecome the France of the twenty-first century.141The prospect of the US degenerating into the pithy status ofa European nation was too terrible to contemplate:Europe is facing a demographic disaster.That is the inev-itable product of weakened faith in the Creator, failedfamilies, disrespect for the sanctity of human life anderoded morality.14289Obama s AmericaRomney s equation of cultural dissolution, demographicsuicide and weakened resolve with Europe comportedwell with conservative anti-European attitudes that haveflourished since 9/11.Fear of secularization coupled withimminent Muslim takeover in Europe pervade Americanconservative discourse in the post-9/11 era.Much discussion of what to expect from an Obamaadministration focused on whether he would initiate a newNew Deal for the US.Obama himself did nothing to dispelthis talk.Indeed, shortly after the election, he gave an inter-view with 60 Minutes in which he was asked what he wasreading at the moment.Obama replied that he was readinga new book on Franklin D.Roosevelt s 100 days.There wassome speculation in the media as to which book he wasreferring to, given that there were a number of new bookson FDR in circulation.It emerged that Obama was in factreading two FDR books Jean Edward Smith s recent biog-raphy and journalist Jonathan Alter s 2004 Defining Momentabout the first hundred days of the FDR administration.Acover of Time boasted a picture of Obama as FDR, repletewith trademark cigarette holder.Declaring in his inaugural address that the nation asksfor action and action now , FDR proceeded to deliver justthat.In the course of his first three months in office, FDRdeclared a bank holiday and Congress passed an EmergencyBanking Act and the Glass Steagall Act, which prohibitedcommercial banks from buying and selling stock.In a des-perate effort to provide immediate relief, FDR created jobsto help improve the nation s infrastructure and entered thehousing market to protect homeowners from foreclosure.While the first New Deal was primarily devoted to recovery,the second New Deal focused on providing Americans witheconomic security.FDR established the modern welfarestate by creating programmes for unemployment insuranceand aid to the poor.The Works Progress Administrationcontinued FDR s policy of infrastructure improvement,90Networkshiring millions of Americans to construct buildings, bridgesand roads, many of which stand today.The WPA alsofunded the arts.Woody Guthrie received federal fundingto write songs about the construction of the Grand CouleeDam.Authors were employed to write cultural and travelguides to the forty-eight states.143Unlike FDR, whose New Deal was hastily put togetherin his first months in office, Obama had the advantage ofhindsight.By reading about the New Deal, he could reflecton what worked and what did not.It was clear from theoutset that the improvement of the infrastructure wouldbe a major priority for the Obama administration.In 2005,the same year as hurricane Katrina, the American Society ofCivil Engineers (ASCE) published a Report Card for America sInfrastructure.Four years before Obama took office, theASCE estimated that it would cost a staggering $1.6 trillionto improve the nation s infrastructure.144The prospect of a new New Deal sparked a lively dis-cussion between conservatives and liberals.Most of theconservative arguments about the failure of the New Dealdrew from Amity Shlaes s book The Forgotten Man.GeorgeWill, conservative columnist for the Washington Post, whoinsisted the New Deal didn t work, quoted Shlaes approv-ingly in his column.Liberals, on the other hand, werequick to point out that the New Deal was in fact successfulduring its first years.An exchange between Will and liberalcolumnist and economist Paul Krugman, on the Sundaymorning programme ABC This Week in late November2008, encapsulated the two viewpoints.Will repeated theconservative line that FDR turned the depression into aGreat Depression.Krugman countered that the economyimproved between 1933 and 1937 and it was only whenFDR decided to cut spending in 1937 that the economy tooka downturn.145In The Age of Reform, Richard Hofstadter observed thatthe New Deal had given a social democratic tinge to the91Obama s AmericaUS.146 As Romney warned, European-style collectivismhas made a comeback.Bush was roundly criticized for hisslow reaction to the aftermath of hurricane Katrina in 2005.Leading figures in the Democratic Party, including SenatorEdward Kennedy and former Senator John Edwards, calledfor the establishment of New Deal-like initiatives such asjobs programmes and a Gulf Coast Regional DevelopmentAuthority to help in the reconstruction of the devastatedareas along the Gulf Coast.147 The failure of the Coolidgeadministration to react swiftly and effectively after theLouisiana flood of 1927 changed the way Americansregarded the role of the federal government.In the wake ofthe flood, many Americans felt that the federal governmenthad a responsibility to help individual citizens.This shift inattitude helped pave the way for the New Deal.148 The dev-astation of Katrina and the Bush administration s slow andwoefully inadequate response may well have had a similareffect eighty years later.Just how out of touch the Republican right wing was withshifts in public opinion towards the role of governmentwas abundantly evident in the response that Louisiana sGovernor Bobby Jindal, widely regarded as a possible GOPcandidate in 2012, gave to Obama s first address to Congressin February 2009.Jindal had turned down $100 million infederal funding to his state which ranks fourth in childrenliving below the poverty line and forty-sixth in high schoolgraduation rates as part of the stimulus package.He citedhurricane Katrina not as an example of the dangers of toolittle government, but too much.According to Jindal, it wasgovernment bureaucracy that prevented aid in reachingNew Orleans in time, not government incompetence.149Democrats as well as Republicans see health care reformas a wedge issue that has profound implications for thefuture of the US [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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