Religious people are often chided for believing in "fairy tales". No such derision is attached to die-hard Obama supporters who believe everything will begin to right itself in America, once the Illinois Senator is elected as US President.
After designating him "
Le Candidat Global" in an earlier issue, this weekend
Le Monde published the deafening stats of Europeans who favour him over his rival.
82% of Germans. 84% of the French. 74% of the British. 72% of Spaniards.These are not quite W. Virginia (or African-American) percentages, but nevertheless, they're pretty conclusive:
The world wants Barack Obama as US President.
Why is there such an obvious disparity in viewpoints, between what foreigners want, and what the polling numbers show Americans want (i.e., that Obama has had a very mild upsurge in support, after Senator Clinton "suspended" her campaign)?
What is it that they are seeing, or they believe they see in him, that the US public doesn't to that extent? Is it race? Is it ideology? Or is it something else --something metaphysical?
Let's examine the first attempt at an answer.
In 2005, when
Pope John Paul II died, people all over the world decided they wanted a non-white Cardinal to be elected Pope.
Do you recall that? Everyone was hedging bets it would be
Cardinal Maradiaga of Honduras, or even better,
Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria.
The ironic part of this (apart from the fact that those people included a lot of non-Catholics or non-practising Catholics, and therefore had no stake in the outcome) is that they were overwhelmingly of liberal world view...and yet they were choosing Cardinal Arinze as their go-to-guy simply because he was an "other". He was black.
Never mind that he was almost as conservative (some say more conservative) as the hated front-runner, "God's Rottweiler"/"The Panzer Cardinal",
Joseph Ratzinger.
What mattered is that Francis Arinze was not white. To paraphrase the Clintonian slogan, it was...the statement, stupid.
So race is no doubt a reason why the world wants to have Obama be "their" President. He's the "other" in
this election too.
But what of ideology? Is the world more comfortable with a Democrat than a Republican in the White House, even a "maverick" RINO like Senator John McCain?
During the past few years, Europeans have ousted leaders who were anti-American, and put pro-Americans in their place.
The Big Euro Three still includes Labour ally British PM Gordon Brown, but it now welcomes Nicolas Sarkozy of France, and before him, Dr. Angela Merkel of Germany. Even if Gordon Brown is defeated by David Cameron, surely a Tory premier wouldn't hit a sour note on this chorus of approval.
Americans reading this blogpost, then, might be forgiven if they think the most important European players are now Right-Wing, and therefore, so must the public who elected them be.
They're not.
The overwhelming world view of continental Europeans is still endemically pro-Leftist. No matter who is in power, the EU countries will always favour more socialist policies than the US will, not only because of
their post-feudal traditions -- but also because they believe that is the fairest system around.
Americans do not.
That is, some do, a lot do in fact, but most don't.
They believe nationalised health care, and government handouts weaken any economy, and makes the State act as parent-surrogate. Neither sentiment jibes with American notions of individuality, and deep-rooted antagonism to federalism.
So whilst the Old World may be turning to the Right, Europeans are firmly committed to the Left's view of the world. And what are the
3 most important factors in Leftist ideology?
Peace
Tolerance
Equality(The Right's being Freedom, Security, and Values, of course)
It's not difficult to see which candidate of the two running for President, most aligns himself with the first ideology.
What, though, if it's deeper than ideology? What if it's to do with perceptions of how a President Obama would handle the world's only remaining super-power, at its very height of power? In other words, what if it's metaphysical, rather than the grubbier reasons of race and ideology?
To answer that, one must pose the question: what does the world want from an US President? Let's provide some random answers.
- An immediate pull-out from Iraq- Nationalised health care- To repeal the death sentence- To ban firearms- To allow same-sex marriages- To raise taxes for government programmes- Get a clue about geography and world culture- To adopt the Metric System- To make Americans less fat
Despite the obvious tongue-in-cheek, these are not answers so much as
metaphysical demands.
The world demands that Americans be less aggressive; be more concerned with the rest of the world; in short, rethink, reshape and reform themselves, both systemically, but also personally.
My God, it's a total
INJUSTICE that the world can't vote for the US President.
For ill - or for good - it's out of our hands: both are Americans and nothing can be done about it. We start from the fact that if you're not American, you don't have the right to vote and to choose between the two in November. This is a great injustice because the 44th president of the United States will decide things that could affect foreigners more than his own compatriots.
Quel dommage!
America would be so different if only the world could vote.
Well, the next closest thing to being able to vote, is at least to choose a candidate which is most likely to change America into one's ideal America.
That's what foreigners see in Senator Obama. The signals he sends are just as blaring as his international poll numbers. And if they don't hear it from his own lips, they are culling information from those who might serve in an Obama administration.
On Tuesday,
Richard Danzig (the most likely choice for National Security Adviser according to observers) made it perfectly plain that President Obama's geopolitics will be nothing short of
bearable.
Literally.
Mr Danzig told the Centre for New American Security: “Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.” [...]
Mr Danzig spelt out the need to change by reading a paragraph from chapter one of the children’s classic, which says: “Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming down stairs. But sometimes he thinks there really is another way if only he could stop bumping a minute and think about it.”
Mr. Danzig also referenced Luke Skywalker, but I confess, even I have my limits about quoting this geopolitical theatre of the absurd.
General De Gaulle once dismissed Brazil with these few words:
"Brazil is not a serious country".
And I'm here to tell you that Senator Barack Obama is not a serious candidate. Not for the US Presidency, he's not. It doesn't matter if the world wants him, academia want him, media want him, even his Kenyan grannie wants him.
Americans don't elect Presidential candidates whose associations are anti-American, and whose pronouncements are not tough, and realistic. They just don't. On the rare occasions when they have, their administrations ended as utter failures and that's why there have only been 3 Democrats elected to second terms in all of the 20th century. Only FDR's can have been considered a success -- and he waged war, okaying the nuclear bomb, ushering in the American Century.
However, if they do this November, and this Winnie the Pooh fairy tale strategy is put into place, America will be weakened structurally beyond belief.
Ahhh.
Maybe now we have the real reason why the world wants Obama.
They want a weaker America; which ever candidate comes closest to delivering that wish, they will be in his or her favour.
Well, apparently Obama can
deliver that wish, down to the pots of hunny, hugs, and multi-coloured rainbows.
...sorry World. America
is a serious country. Now close your eyes and if you're good children, we'll read you another fairy tale in 4 years. Promise.
UPDATED: There's even a website:
If the World Could Vote. So far:
Hey, World. How'd the
last vote turn out for ya?
IN THE COMMENTS: Ruth Anne Adams writes she actually took Holy Communion from Cardinal Arinze's hands! Moreover, in 2005, you can see she was hugely in the
Arinze-for-Pope camp, in this well-written blogpost.
Ron reminds Sundries' readers that maybe Thailand's unusual pro-McCain support (97.3%) might have something to do with his Southeast Asian experiences...
Alcibiades goes one further and says that Thailand is a major US trading partner, and McCain represents pro-free market trade than Obama does.
JSU definitively says:
"I bet Iraq would pick McCain in a landslide, though." Heh. True. But think about why that is true.
Madcynic interjects with the lone European voice in the comments:
"The current administration did a very good job of making an enemy out of large parts of the European populace though. Noone wants that to continue and people believe Obama to be the better choice to prevent further enmities and misunderstandings...". Though his viewpoint, I think most of us can agree that's true.
And thanks to
AmeriDan, as ever!
RelatedSenator Obama May Not Win, But Colonel Obama WouldIt's the Arugula, StupidThe World Wants Obama CoalitionLabels: Eurostyle, France, Germany, Ideological Impasse, US Presidential Election, World Culture
