Wild About Writing

An interesting pattern is emerging in the wave of criticism being heaped on President Obama for his assumed past associations with extremists and his alleged sympathy for socialist (or worse) solutions to the problems that confound the United States.

A highly critical column this week in Canada’s National Post — you can read it here – is typical of what is becoming a widespread attempt to “take down” Obama so as to render him impotent to carry through the kind of change he promised.

The degree to which Obama’s presence in the White House drives his opponents into fury is truly remarkable. In many instances, the attacks are joined with an implied defence of the Bush administration.

Writing in The Post, Lorne Gunter laments the fact that Barack Obama is getting “a free ride” for his sins while George Bush, “on far less evidence” was presented as “the most dangerous, illegitimate president ever.”

This conclusion represents such an egregious misreading of history that it’s difficult to keep the debate on a rational level.

Whatever ethical or moral missteps Obama might (or m ight not) have been guilty of — such as tolerating a racist as his family pastor or serving on a board whose members included a former Weatherman — the president’s sins are so infinitesimal in comparison to Bush’s that they are hardly worthy of comment.

The mass death of hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of Iraqis can be laid directly at Bush’s feet, along with the deaths of several thousand American soldiers after his administration lied its way to gaining support for the war.

By all the conditions of international law, Bush and the United States were (and are) guilty of war crimes: first, for waging aggressive war on a nation that posed no threat to it; and (second), using torture to gain information from its enemies captured in the resulting combat.

The furor over funding healthcare has sharpened the tone of the attacks. As a Canadian, I’m aware of course that the battle is really not about healthcare, but about the profits of health insurance, something we brought under control forty years ago.

For those who think Obama’s too radical, I’ve gone news: He’s no radical.

President Obama is likely to end his time in office, whether after four or eight years, as one of the most conservative presidents in American history. Like FDR’s efforts in the 1930s, Obama’s attempts to reform the financial system will end up not bringing on socialism, but strengthening capitalism. 

Where the President would have been fully justified in ordering a thorough investigation into how George Bush led America into an unjust war, he has wisely refrained, knowing that the outcome would tear America apart. Even the timorous inquiries into CIA torture techniques are unlikely to result in any meaningful retribution.

Then there’s the matter of Mr. Obama’s color. In 2007, he told a Newsweek magazine writer:

Solving our racial problems in this country will require concrete steps, significant investment. We’re going to have a lot of work to do to overcome the long legacy of Jim Crow and slavery. It can’t be purchased on the cheap. I am fundamentally optimistic about our capacity to do that. But these issues aren’t just solved by electing a black president.

In recent days the White House has gone out of its way to deny that attacks on the President have any connection with race.

Former President Carter probably spoke accurately, but not too carefully, when he told NBC News that “I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man.”

Meanwhile, the solid signs of hope remain. Cancellation of the missile shield in eastern Europe is a rational decision. The stimulus funding — a lot of it yet to reach Main Street — is helping to shorten the recession. Whatever healthcare plan comes out of Congress, it will help to bring down costs while extending coverage.

Against these successes, the critics of the President are likely to become louder and more extreme. But they cannot deny the successes.