Clearly this is not the way we're supposed to behave. Clearly this is not what we, as a formerly grumpy, petulant, first-world nation, expect from our president, from our attitude, from our typical chest-thumping, saber-rattling, kill-'em-all posture in the world.
See, what we do is, we stomp in. We huff and snort and make a portentous entrance full of cold swagger and terse, screw-you-if-you-disagree handshakes, ignoring the clammy mitts of those inflammatory commie jerks we don't like because they've called us icky names in the past but whose illegal narcotics we will gladly purchase by the megaton and whose oil we're going to go in and forcibly steal anyway ha ha sucker.
We say "screw you" to codes of courteous diplomacy whenever we damn well feel like it. We speak loudly and we carry the biggest stick and we don't hesitate to shove it where the sun don't shine. You got that, Hugo?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/04/22/notes042209.DTLYes, what we're supposed do is strut like an arrogant god into something like the 34-nation Summit of the Americas, a gathering most Americans know/care little about and which our media barely covers because it's so obviously teeming with a bunch of whiny, ungrateful little countries we could squash between our toes if we felt like it.
At such piffling events, we expect our president to do the usual macho dance, puff out his chest and shove our usual demands for compliance down everyone's throat, talk up military intervention and enrage those selfsame angry little countries even more by reiterating who's really in charge of this violent, overheated speck of a planet. Hey, it worked for Dubya, right? I mean, except for the global contempt and seething mistrust?
But then comes Obama. As usual, it appears he did not get the memo. He is clearly that most un-American of U.S. leaders, entirely dismissive of precedent and totally devoid of our characteristic bullying arrogance and openly disrespectful of How It's All Supposed To Go Down.
Here is an American president, participating in a conference of 'lesser' leaders, who nevertheless exhibits a Zen-like demeanor, is humble and respectful and quiet. Here is Obama, telling all leaders of every size and stripe that no one is above anyone else, that we must work together to solve the world's ills. What's more, it appears he actually means it.
WTF? Hey Mr. hippie community organizer! Don't you know these sleazeball thugs don't care about policy and playing nice? That they only want to rule the world and eat our babies and steal our Wi-Fi and buy our iPods and shoot nuclear warheads into our faces and say offensive things about us in their Twitter feeds? Or something?
Shockingly, despite not jamming America's boot into everyone's neck, our calm, deferential president came off, as usual, as a superstar. He deeply impressed nearly every leader present, owned the room, was the one everyone wrote home about -- not because of some sort of outsized Clinton-esque magnetism, and not because he overwhelmed the space with swagger and false bravado and superior firepower, while Dick Cheney snarled like an encephalitic shark in the background and flipped everyone off.
No, Obama was the leader to watch because he did that most rare of things among major world leaders: He listened. More than that, he heard. More than that, he did not insult, demean, degrade, patronize, scold. He shook hands and spoke cordially with everyone in the room, including supposed 'enemies' like Hugo Chavez, a clever pipsqueak of an America-hating media slut who is zero threat to the U.S. but who normally dominates the TV cameras anyway, but who was so disarmed by Obama's effortless, high-road calm that he suddenly had no footing, no audience, no stage from which to bluster and spit. Go figure.
As reported by the Miami Herald:
"[Obama] listened with an extraordinary patience, and he was intellectually elegant in his responses." - Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez
"I can't recall a U.S. president who has sustained such an open-minded dialogue with the region." - Argentinean Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana
Naturally, all this articulate, respectful diplomacy means one of two things.
One: We are blindly kowtowing to all sorts of scummy, evil forces of the underworld and undermining America's godlike supremacy, and soon will be overrun by drug lords and baby rapists and fat, sweaty, cigar-chomping socialists who love to coddle baby-raping drug lords. This is known as the "Fox News angle." Also known as the "Hysteria Special," and also, simply, "The Limbaugh."
Option two: We are about to make extraordinary progress in the world, as we set a new tone of intelligent cooperation in our foreign policy, restoring much of the respect and international goodwill Bush so grossly destroyed, as we finally step back up to the adult's table, not as the domineering father figure everyone fears for his drunken, violent tirades, but as the kind of elegant intellect and influential peacemaker everyone wants to emulate.
That last thing? About emulation? I think that's the most potentially transformative thing of all.
See, we all know the idea of how Obama's raising everyone's game. It's barely 100 days in and already people speak glowingly of the Age of Obama, how the calm, constructive vibe he exudes like a beacon is actually changing people's everyday behaviors, redirecting our attention from violence and rancor and overconsumption toward something a little bit lighter, smarter, less fear obsessed, more respectful or even just simply nicer. The bastard.
Upon which we can propose a slightly radical amendment: What if it's not just us? What if it's not merely most of America whose behaviors and attitudes will shift and lift accordingly?
What if, as evidenced by the Summit of the Americas, it's also various prominent world leaders, many of whom formerly loathed or mistrusted the U.S., who suddenly see this highly intelligent, hugely popular, peacemaking U.S. president as worthy of stepping up and emulating? These are massive, tremulous egos we're talking about. Most of these guys want what Obama has achieved so effortlessly: the deep admiration and trust of his people, near-instantaneous global respect, the power to transform the planet.
What if Obama's genuine, Zen-like example proves an irresistible lure, as various leaders of the world see that you actually can govern successfully, not via the Bush method of coercion, dishonesty, misprision, antagonism and megalomania, but instead by way of respect and intellectual engagement and minimal drama, by actually not speaking down to your enemies or your own citizens alike?
What if, simply put, many of these guys begin to raise their games, calm the hell down and rise to the occasion of the Obama Era? Is that nothing short of changing the world?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/04/22/notes042209.DTLI am not a Obama supporter, but this is a well written article and an opposing opinion.
I have a lot of respect for that.. The Writer makes some good points..
Too bad the world is such a nasty place with nasty people who will cut your throat and sit down next to your dead body eat your lunch.
jmho
