This week, Barack Obama delivered a long and thoughtful defense of liberalism, pluralism, and democracy against strongman populism. The themes, which in nearly all respects tracked the ideas he promoted throughout his presidency, came in pointed contrast to the contemporaneous spectacle of his successor’s embrace of his favorite strongman.
The former president’s defense of liberalism included a defense of universalism, in contrast to a tendency in left-wing thought to essentialize all thought by its level of privilege. “Democracy demands that we’re able also to get inside the reality of people who are different than us so we can understand their point of view … ” he argued. “And you can’t do it if you insist that those who aren’t like you — because they’re white, or because they’re male — that somehow there’s no way they can understand what I’m feeling, that somehow they lack standing to speak on certain matters.”
The way for conservatives to acknowledge the appeal of Obama’s speech was to insist it somehow contrasted with his behavior as president. “Of course … this is the president made Al Sharpton his ’go-to man on race’ and who said Latinos needed to ’punish’ their ‘enemies,’” writes National Review’s Jim Geraghty. “It’s great that Obama realizes that identity politics can be corrosive to civil society and that they can Balkanize a once-thriving, relatively harmonious society. It just would have been good to hear this wisdom from a president instead of an ex-president.”
In fact, Obama said the same thing many time during his presidency. (For examples, see here, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/11/obama-on-pc-a-recipe-for-dogmatism.html,
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/05/heres-obamas-best-argument-against-the-left.html
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Geraghty has imbibed the right’s caricature deeply. He quotes Obama saying, “It’s not just money that a job provides; it provides dignity and structure and a sense of place and a sense of purpose.” He snarkily replies, “Amen, Mr. President! How long have conservatives made this argument in various welfare-to-work proposals?”
You know who else made this argument? Barack Obama!
Giving poor people money so they could sit around and never work was what Republicans said was Obama’s policy, but it wasn’t actually Obama’s policy. So successfully did they persuade themselves of their own propaganda that, when coming face-to-face with the actual Obama now, they cannot recognize him.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence...ve-learns-obama-doesnt-hate-white-people.html
The former president’s defense of liberalism included a defense of universalism, in contrast to a tendency in left-wing thought to essentialize all thought by its level of privilege. “Democracy demands that we’re able also to get inside the reality of people who are different than us so we can understand their point of view … ” he argued. “And you can’t do it if you insist that those who aren’t like you — because they’re white, or because they’re male — that somehow there’s no way they can understand what I’m feeling, that somehow they lack standing to speak on certain matters.”
The way for conservatives to acknowledge the appeal of Obama’s speech was to insist it somehow contrasted with his behavior as president. “Of course … this is the president made Al Sharpton his ’go-to man on race’ and who said Latinos needed to ’punish’ their ‘enemies,’” writes National Review’s Jim Geraghty. “It’s great that Obama realizes that identity politics can be corrosive to civil society and that they can Balkanize a once-thriving, relatively harmonious society. It just would have been good to hear this wisdom from a president instead of an ex-president.”
In fact, Obama said the same thing many time during his presidency. (For examples, see here, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/11/obama-on-pc-a-recipe-for-dogmatism.html,
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/05/heres-obamas-best-argument-against-the-left.html
...
Geraghty has imbibed the right’s caricature deeply. He quotes Obama saying, “It’s not just money that a job provides; it provides dignity and structure and a sense of place and a sense of purpose.” He snarkily replies, “Amen, Mr. President! How long have conservatives made this argument in various welfare-to-work proposals?”
You know who else made this argument? Barack Obama!
Giving poor people money so they could sit around and never work was what Republicans said was Obama’s policy, but it wasn’t actually Obama’s policy. So successfully did they persuade themselves of their own propaganda that, when coming face-to-face with the actual Obama now, they cannot recognize him.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence...ve-learns-obama-doesnt-hate-white-people.html
