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How Can We Not Love Obama?


Posted: Jul 14, 2011

 

http://www.esquire.com/features/thousand-words-on-culture/loving-obama-0811

How Can We Not Love Obama?

Because like it or not, he is all of us

By Stephen Marche

Before the fall brings us down, before the election season begins in earnest with all its nastiness and vulgarity, before the next batch of stupid scandals and gaffes, before Sarah Palin tries to convert her movie into reality and Joe Biden resumes his imitation of an embarrassing uncle and Newt and Callista Gingrich [FIG.1] creep us all out, can we just enjoy Obama for a moment? Before the policy choices have to be weighed and the hard decisions have to be made, can we just take a month or two to contemplate him the way we might contemplate a painting by Vermeer or a guitar lick by the early-seventies Rolling Stones or a Peyton Manning pass or any other astounding, ecstatic human achievement? Because twenty years from now, we're going to look back on this time as a glorious idyll in American politics, with a confident, intelligent, fascinating president riding the surge of his prodigious talents from triumph to triumph. Whatever happens this fall or next, the summer of 2011 is the summer of Obama.


FIG. 2: Left, the original master of mass-media performance art. Except his performance was one-note. And Bill Clinton, who said about Obama in 2008: "A few years ago this guy would have been getting us coffee." Now he's bringing the legacy policies that eluded you, Bill.

Due to the specific nature of his political calculus, possibly not a single person in the United States — not even Obama himself — agrees with all of his policies. But even if you disagree with him, even if you hate him, even if you are his enemy, at this point you must admire him. The turning point came that glorious week in the spring when, in the space of a few days, he released his long-form birth certificate, humiliated Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and assassinated Osama bin Laden. The effortlessness of that political triptych — three linked masterpieces demonstrating his total command over intellectual argument, low comedy, and the spectacle of political violence — was so overwhelmingly impressive that it made political geniuses of the recent past like Reagan and Clinton [FIG.2] seem ham-fisted. Formed in the fire of other people's wars, other people's financial crises, Obama stepped out of Bush's shadow that week, almost three years after taking over the presidency.


FIG. 3: The original American, Whitman: "In [Obama] I see myself, none more and not one a barleycorn less. And the good or bad I say of myself I say of [Obama]."

But even that string of successes cannot fully explain the immensity of his appeal right now. Reagan was able to call upon the classic American mythology of frontiersmen and astronauts and movie stars; Obama has accessed a much wider narrative matrix: He's mixed and matched Jay-Z with geek with Hawaiian with Kansan with product of Middle America with product of a broken home with local Chicago churchgoer with internationally renowned memoirist with assassin. "I am large, I contain multitudes," Walt Whitman [FIG.3] wrote, and Obama lives that lyrical prophecy. Christopher Booker's 2004 book The Seven Basic Plots, a wide-ranging study from the Epic of Gilgamesh on and a surprisingly convincing explanation for why we crave narrative, reduced all stories to a few plots, each with its own kind of hero. Amazingly, Barack Obama fulfills the role of hero in each of these ancient story forms.

While Obama's story is ancient, it is also utterly contemporary, perfectly of the moment. His gift — and it is a gift that makes him emblematic — is that he inhabits all these roles without being limited by them. He has managed, miraculously, to remain something of an outsider while being the president of the United States of America, the most inside man in the world. He's African-American, but he's not African-American. He's from Chicago, but he's from Hawaii. One month he's bailing out the banks, the next he's keeping Gitmo open. He pushes health-care reform through with an unimpeachable heave of will then extends the tax cuts. He walks smiling through the newly opened White House garden on his way to announce renewed efforts at oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, his "balanced" approach to the economy has led to a slower recovery than other industrialized nations and the war in Libya has been half-assed at best, which is exactly what war cannot be. For two years, he seemed disingenuous and defensive, pushed into roles that his predecessors had scripted, alternately playing savior then monster. But no more. We can finally see who he is, we can finally understand the reality: In 2011, it is possible to be a levelheaded, warmhearted, cold-blooded killer who can crack a joke and write a book for his daughters. It is possible to be many things at once. And even more miraculous, it is possible for that man to be the president of the United States. Barack Obama is developing into what Hegel called a "world-historical soul," an embodiment of the spirit of the times. He is what we hope we can be.

We love Obama — even those who claim to despise him — because deep in our hearts and all over our lives, we're the same way — both inside and outside our jobs, our races, our cities, our countries, ourselves. With great artists, often the most irritating feature of their work is the source of their talent. Obama's gift is the same as his curse: He's somehow managed to be like the rest of us, only infinitely more so.

The Seven Stories of Obama

According to literary scholar Christopher Booker, every narrative in the world, from Gilgamesh to War and Peace to Water for Elephants, can be reduced to one of only seven master plots. Amazingly, the story of Obama contains every narrative.

Plot 1: Quest

Take the one issue that impacts every American, and that famously eluded Clinton, and bet your first term on it. Passing health care was a "big fking deal," to quote our vice-president.


Plot 2: Comedy

Message to Trump: If the president makes fun of you, laugh.


Plot 3: Rags to Riches

Born into nothing, the guy made $1.7 million on his book sales last year. He's money.


Plot 4: Tragedy

The man's grandmother who raised him dies days before he is elected president. You couldn't make up a more moving story twist.


Plot 5: Killing the Monster

Bush couldn't kill Osama. It took the black, liberal peacenik from Chicago who favors death panels to do it. Or something like that.


Plot 6: Voyage and Return

Here he is in Ireland, reconnecting with his lost lineage. The man claims he wants to put the apostrophe back in O'bama.


Plot 7: Rebirth

Remember that night in New Hampshire when the campaign hit a brick wall? It's also the night he told us, "Yes We Can." And he did.

;

I literally threw up in a mouth a little. - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
.

Obama didn't kill Osama - specialty military forces did

[ In Reply To ..]
Can we please elect someone else for the next 4 years? "Yes We Can." Worst....president...ever (and that says a lot)

Obama's been a breath of fresh air after 8 years - of that weasel, George Bush.

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Agreed. - NM

[ In Reply To ..]
no message

Ditto! - nm

[ In Reply To ..]

I disagree - Democrat leaning

[ In Reply To ..]
I am no fan of Bush. Don't understand how he even got in there, however, Obama has not been a breath of fresh air because I and my family and friends and the country is worse off than we were under Bush. More of my family is unemployed, losing their homes, can't afford the things they need for my nieces and nephews. It's worse now no matter how much we didn't like Bush and wanted him out.

With that said there are other democrats I wanted in. More qualified, more experience, more everything. Now we've got someone in who doesn't know what he's doing and has surrounded himself with people who are destroying the country. No, Obama is not doing it, it's the people he surrounded himself with. Why can't other democrats understand that. There are plenty of qualified and experienced democrats who would have done a better job. I didn't want McCain and certainly not Palin, but why not another democrat who will do a better job.

This has not been a breath of fresh air. It's been a nonstop struggle.

Agree. Country definitely worse off under Obama. - He simply doesnt know what he is doing.nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Obama is an embarrassment to the USA ! - I regret voting for him.. big-time! nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

I think the whole USA is an embarrassment to the - whole country. A nation of weenies.

[ In Reply To ..]
You could always feel free to go somewhere - that is less embarassing to you.
[ In Reply To ..]
I'm sure that you won't be terribly missed. Obama has somehow made people think that it is appropriate to be embarrassed by this wonderful country that, even still, offers more opportunity than most others and certainly more freedoms. If you think that the grass is greener elsewhere, feel free to go to that place.
Of course. It's all Obama's fault. Everything is. - What a hateful, hideous, horrible,
[ In Reply To ..]
arrogant, elitist, racist, radical leftist, socialist, terrorist-loving, war-mongering, black liberation Christian separatist, Muslim, lying, dictator, failure of president we have. Worst political leader in the history of the universe and the most despicable man on the face of the earth.

If it weren't for Obama, it would all be sunshine and lollipops, we would live in a blissful paradise and be in a state of nirvana morning, noon and night. Our lives would be A-OK, peachy keen, jim-dandy, and just swell....and American patriots from far and wide burst with pride every time they remind us of just how evil he is, what a WONDERFUL country we live in and by golly, those of us who don't agree don't belong and should just get out.

No shame in that game, huh?
Did I say that everything was Obama's fault? - Feel free to project your
[ In Reply To ..]
theories of who I am on someone else. I am patriotic and think that despite this president who is, by the way, the worst president we have ever had (hard to do, I know), that there is something still to be proud of in this country. Again, if you hate it so much, why not go somewhere "better" and be happy?
OP addresses shame of partisan division. - Nothing unAmerican about that
[ In Reply To ..]
or believing we can do better. If everyone who had a criticism of the government, leaders or culture wars were to leave, the US would implode all over itself for lack of tax revenues. Free speech and the right to redress grievances is about American as it gets. That includes feeling embarrassed when America or Americans get it wrong. Hey, it happens more often than you might imagine. Obama had nothing to do with either creating or promoting this reality. It is impossible to solve problems you cannot admit you have. Give it some thought next time you feel like playing the America, love it or leave it card.
There's a big difference between admitting that - we have problems and saying
[ In Reply To ..]
that the whole USA is an embarrassment. And, there is absolutely nothing un-American about party division. Isn't it one of the checks and balances that our country was founded on? Not in the least embarrassing in my book. I am proud that we have a country in which we are free to have such a divide.
Not really. Its just a question of degree. - If you are
[ In Reply To ..]
OK with someone saying that Obama is an embarrassment to the whole country and with hurling intensely personal insults as the OP illustrated (hateful, hideous, horrible, arrogant, elitist, racist, radical leftist, socialist, terrorist-loving, war-mongering, black liberation Christian separatist, Muslim, lying, dictator, failure of president we have. Worst political leader in the history of the universe and the most despicable man on the face of the earth)....insults we have all come to tolerate and even expect...then
you should have no problem with a blistering indictment of our country and its rude, dumbed-down, sound-byte, lowest-common-denominator, reality-show-worshipping cultural mind set.

If extremism is to be tolerated on the one side, it must be tolerated on the other. That's equality under the law. The OP did not say these things are un-American, so perhaps you should take your own advice when you admonished her and stop projecting your theories on who someone else is and is not, ESPECIALLY when it comes to the love-it-or-leave-it mentality. Who are you to say who should stay or leave?

Personally, I think it IS shame that our divisions have been taken to such an extreme that such rude rhetoric and rampant disrespect for the president has become par for the course, but there it is. That's where we're at. I have just as much of a right to feel that and say it as you do in taking pride in it all, and it does not make me or others who share my viewpoints any less American than you are. There are all kind of ways to experience life as an American and you are not in charge of judging how that can and cannot be done. N'est-ce pas?
The wonderful thing about this country is that - I am perfectly within my rights to feel
[ In Reply To ..]
however I want about the president, you, or anything else. I can feel that if you hate our country, you should leave. That's okay. You are within your rights to feel that our entire country is an embarrassment, yet you still want to stay here. I can still think that, perhaps, you would be happier living somewhere else. I said nothing about any of that other stuff that she attributed to me, just that I do not find Obama to be a good leader and that if the OP is so unhappy, perhaps this is not the place for him/her. I was simply suggesting that the OP change his/her life for the better and find somewhere to live that he/she does not find embarrassing. I am just as qualified to judge as you are, am I not?
Now that you have repeated everything that was said - in the last paragraph
[ In Reply To ..]
it would appear we are in agreement about one's right to think and feel whatever, whatever. Beyond that, you still don't get it.

You are assuming that the OP is expressing personal feelings rather than making a rhetorical argument. For example, you never said a word to refute that "other stuff" you claim was attributed to you (it was not), which the poster used rhetorically to illustrate and contrast views equally as offensive as you found in those embarrassed folks still living here. This would imply a certain degree of tolerance toward the former views you are not willing to extend to the latter opposite extreme, a double standard worthy of note.

Your repeated love-it-or-leave it sentiments identifies the main thrust of your message. These directives were called into question but you still justify this by sayng it is your right to feel that way. That it is, we can agree. Where I take issue with you is where you think you are qualified to "judge" and with your parting shot where you insinuate I do that too. Yes you do. No I don't, EVER, presume to have the right to judge ANYONE'S patriotism or citizenship or to tell them where they should or should not live, regardless of how deeply I may disagree with their views. I find that form of smuggery and the underlying double standards highly offensive and will call them out every time I encounter them.

BTW, surely you must recognize the folly in expecting anyone to believe you were "simply suggesting the OP change their life for the better" as if you had the least bit of concern for their happiness. The love-it-or-leave-it mentality is a distinctly destructive and divisive partisan mindset that seeks to assert patriotic superiority of tea-toters and their kin over the kool-aid crowd. To pretend otherwise is downright ludicrous.

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