The Obama Fad

As the painfully long primaries finally wind down, the Democrats are finally coalescing around Barack Obama to be their nominee for president of the United States. My own state of Oregon has backed Obama and he is huge on campus here at Oregon State. There are a couple of big thoughts that have passed through my mind repeatedly as I watch all of this unfold. The first is an honest bewilderment at why Obama is so popular in the first place, a question I think I have answered but am looking for alternative points of view on. The other is a fear; the fear of someone that is little known, inexperienced, and highly radical. I will deal with these two questions in order.

 

As a political scientist, I look at first glance at Barack Obama and wonder how in the world he became so popular so quickly. He was a little known first term senator from Illinois just over a year ago but now he is a household name throughout the developed world. Europeans are coming out in numbers in their own countries to follow the new phenom in American politics. He is popular among African Americans (no surprise since he is one also), upper-class whites, and students. There are various reasons that could be delved into as to how he rose to prominence so quickly, but I am not going there in this discussion. I want to focus on students.

 

Obama is pretty popular with students nationwide. Based on his policies alone it is difficult to know why he is so wildly popular with students compared with Hilary Clinton. Their overall stated objectives and platforms are very similar. They hold the same common beliefs. Personally, I think people like Obama because it is trendy to do so. He is young, his background relatively unknown, and his policies flowery and hopeful, yet so vague. He is a master orator, I mean no disrespect to him. He definitely knows how to give a speech and rally his base. He talks about "changing Washington" and making "new politics rather than politics as usual". But he says nothing substantive, which brings me to my next thought.

 

When taken over time, the Senator's words seem so vague and empty. He talks about hope, crossing party lines, bringing real change that will last instead of short-term DC political change. He talks about what he will do and it all sounds great. But what are his plans to actually do any of that? How is he going to change things? Even if he wins and has a democratic majority beneath him, that sweeping of change is highly unlikely. And what is this change anyway? You watch any single show on TV and you will see multiple ads by all kinds of politicians and you might wonder if there isn't some federal law stating that all political ads must mention the word "change" at least once in the course of their message. Obama's slogan is "Change We Can Believe In" but what exactly is the change he proposes?

 

I wish that my fellow students were better educated voters. I truly think that he is the next cool thing out there and so people are riding the trend like they do with just about any other fad. I feel this is dangerous because they know little of what his policies actually are (because he keeps everything so vague anyway) and no one knows his background. Every year a non-partisan group ranks all senators and congresspeople on how liberal or conservative they are. The rankings are based solely on quantitative data: how that person votes in their respective house of Congress. Low and behold the rankings this year have Barack Obama as number 1 liberal. That's right, Obama is the most liberal man in congress. If many people see Hilary Clinton and John Kerry as radicals, watch out, here comes Obama.

 

This ranking I believe goes back to his votes even in the Illinois state legislature. His entire political career has been spent working to push the agenda of the most radically liberal people in this country. I think that is a dangerous person to have leading the United States. I think many people who support him now do not realize how far off center he is politically. I would take Hilary Clinton as president long before I would take Obama. And besides the fact that he is extremely liberal, I do not think he is strong enough to lead this country. When he wasn't voting his liberal agenda, on other issues he simply does not take a side. There are few other Senators who simply vote "present" instead of yay or nay as Obama. He shows up, but won't take a side.

 

Working  with Republicans and Democrats? Reshaping politics as usual in Washington? Are you kidding me? If Obama is elected president, you will see polarization of the parties taken to new heights. You cannot take a far-left leader and expect that even moderate conservatives are going to want to work together on everything. Someone more moderate is needed. It will be a sad day for the United States if Barack Obama is ever sworn in as its president.