The great masses of the people… will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.
Sounds familiar? Those words –Die großen Masse von den Leuten… mehr wird leicht Leidtragende zu einer großen Lüge als zu einem kleinen Ein fallen.– came from the very mouth of Adolf Hitler himself.
I can’t help but compare the words of Barack Obama in his Acceptance Speech to those of Adolf Hitler’s; they could very well be all lies. Obama, after all, is very fond of using big words and rhetorics (which he uses to the general applause of the great masses of Americans), and even has the audacity to compare himself with great figures like JFK and Martin Luther King Jr (let me impress upon you that he made his Acceptance Speech on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr’s I Have a Dream speech).
CHANGE is a big word, everybody. Especially when you apply it politically. It was the promise of change that Hitler used to lure the millions of Germans to rally behind him. Germany in the pre-Hitler era or before the rise of the Third Reich was in shambles. Or at least, not well-off compared to its previous power. Its people were desperate for change of course, for the better. You all know what happened after that. Today, the United States is experiencing the worst recession since the Great Depression, and its people are weary of war, of oil, and of the economic slide-down (which is really a global phenomenon and not unique to the US!). These make perfect ingredients for acceptance and support for rhetorics bearing the promise of change… of course, who wouldn’t want a break from all those terrible things that have been happening to the economy, right?
What most Americans don’t see, or what most people don’t see, is that Barack Obama is just another traditional politician, oh yes. I would have to give it to him, though, because he is among the best politicians around, and considering his age… he’s a really good one. Take note: politician, not statesman. For one thing, he is very populist. His recent flip-flop is on the issue of oil drilling and exploration which he previously opposed and now supports — because polls show that majority of Americans are willing to do it (even though they don’t realize that offshore platforms would account to less than 1% of oil production in the US, and the real effects of drilling would be felt only at least after 20 years). Obama also has at his arsenal the advantage as challenger to the incumbent (party) which unfortunately shoulders all the blame for everything negative that has happened to the country be they responsible for it or not (like the high prices of fuel). I am surprised that whenever I ask Americans why they support Obama, I would get the same rhetorical, stupid, or general answers: Change. He’s cool. McCain is too old he might die in office.
Yes, Obama has the great talent of getting to people and reaching them, and he gets his way through rhetorics and idealism (just like Hitler!). The people, of course, are ready to swallow everything he promises them, because of the comfort of accountability at the back of their heads. But sometimes, however, we need to step out of idealism (politically speaking) and become realists. President Bush with all his plumetting public ratings has never been held seriously and concretely accountable for the state of the economy. Indeed, the presidential system is designed to have a really strong executive, too strong to be held accountable. One simply cannot traverse the political sphere (much more of international politics) bearing idealism, because reality is that cultures, traditions, and peoples have different notions of what is ideal and what is compromise, and currently placed structures in international relations are operating in this principle. I have serious doubts that Obama is taking note of these realities too important to ignore; I seriously doubt his foreign policies regarding Iran, Iraq, and North Korea, as well as Venezuela. The reason why cooperation among different cultures and peoples with different ideals and beliefs is possible, Mr. Obama, is not because of any sort of transcendence, but beause they share a common interest be it market driven or development driven. Detente and Rapproachment, Mr. Obama, were conceived bearing in mind reality, and not idealism.
Come elections, Americans, just be careful whom you vote for. Change does not happen in a single presidential term or two, and a lot more insitutions and structures and external powers are at play that shape the realities of your everyday lives even one man cannot change. Then again, choose and swallow that blue pill — at your own risk.
