Barack Obama: American Tory

[URF8]

I like Walter Russell Mead's writing. Incisive and clever. Often profound. He's a conservative Democrat in the mold of former Senators Sam Nunn and Scoop Jackson.

He took an article by Andrew Sullivan and made his own take on Barack Obama as an American Tory...defender of the status quo and gentle decline. Enjoy:

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/08/29/president-obama-american-tory/

[coolwalker]

Yeah I read that and he is somewhat close, but not exactly. A Tory would be a step up from Obama.

[Mainecoons]

Interesting read but some of the statements are nonsense:


he is an instinctive believer in compromise and “one nation” solidarity between the rich and the poor.

Hardly. He has neither compromised nor encouraged solidarity in America. Instead, he has failed to lead and been divisive from the get go.

And to suggest that Obama isn't for radical change is pure nonsense.

[URF8]

Imo Obama wants to maintain the status quo of the Blue Model of Govt. and Society. To that extent he resembles traditional Tories who seek to avoid change.

[Mainecoons]

IMO he wants to expand the "blue model" far beyond the previous iterations. That makes him a radical to me.

What is totally false is to suggest that Barry is in any way a conciliator or compromiser.

[URF8]

IMO he wants to expand the "blue model" far beyond the previous iterations. That makes him a radical to me.

What is totally false is to suggest that Barry is in any way a conciliator or compromiser.

Obama does want to expand the Blue Model, but international forces are going to prevent him from doing so successfully because America is becoming relatively poorer in terms of its share of the international economic pie.

The left sees Obama as a moderate conciliator. Remember Walter Russell Mead is a Democrat, albeit a conservative one.

[Carygrant]

Imo Obama wants to maintain the status quo of the Blue Model of Govt. and Society. To that extent he resembles traditional Tories who seek to avoid change.


Today life is greatly influenced , and in a way marked , by the degree of successful change , re-invention and "progress" that is not only assumed to have been achieved but is demanded .
Unfortunately , at the same time Society has become overall more transparent -- computers , Internet , Facebook , Twitter etc , and because of this , the slightest poor judgements can be manipulated to look like monumental blunders .
The need not to make mistakes now seems important than the need to get things right , which is partly why so many are happiest with trivial matters -- it saves on the resulting stress of making bad decisions and having "the whole world " know . This Forum is a wonderful very small example .
So may be smart people are refusing to be seen publicly in making big system changes because of this all consuming vitriol when things go wrong .There are few remaining carpets to hide anything under .
This is why I think Obama's Foreign policy has been so masterly . It's not so much that he has done something amazing and history changing . It's because he has made no significant blunders and keeps all areas of the ultra sensitive issues as secret as is possible --- destabilisation through proxy is a giant of a new approach .
More conventionally he has dealt cleverly with Iran , Israel , Russia in particular , even the EU , but most of all with his ultra secret dealings with Bejing which might one day be his undoing . The seas are smooth and violence is never nearer than just around a few corners .
This can be easily confused with indecision .
Britain is at its best when it guards its institutions closely and refuses to make decisions too quickly and without endless deliberation . Hundreds of years messing about with wars , an Empire and competing international strains have shown us the it must always be less speed and also less haste .
If Obama has learned that , he has saved America a couple of centuries of hard labour .
That is where his genius lies . And also ironically in his assumed inability to put right a broken economy which cannot be mended until formal bankruptcy is admitted and its inevitable consequences worked through .But rather accepting the impossibility of this economic task and secretly constructing the best possible exit strategy when Government is seen to be completely and utterly bollock naked .

[coolwalker]

Britain is at its best when it guards its institutions closely and refuses to make decisions too quickly and without endless deliberation . Hundreds of years messing about with wars , an Empire and competing international strains have shown us the it must always be less speed and also less haste .
If Obama has learned that , he has saved America a couple of centuries of hard labour .


There is it...Obama always has to have everything done now, not later. He wants to rush headlong into the darkness hoping for a change for the better. He needs a flashlight because he is now lost in that darkness and so are we.

[Carygrant]

There is it...Obama always has to have everything done now, not later. He wants to rush headlong into the darkness hoping for a change for the better. He needs a flashlight because he is now lost in that darkness and so are we.



You are an SM poet
And you didn't know it .

[GrumpyDog]

Interesting read but some of the statements are nonsense:

Hardly. He has neither compromised nor encouraged solidarity in America. Instead, he has failed to lead and been divisive from the get go.

And to suggest that Obama isn't for radical change is pure nonsense.

Which means Obama is a Revolutionary, like our forefathers were, only slightly more tan complexion, and not a slave owner.