Book: A Promised Land

My BIL gave me Obama's new book for Christmas. I was wary of buying it for myself -- 750 pages, and only the first volume of a two volume set -- and as I've mentioned my attention span had narrowed to 15-minutes since the ORC was elected.

But I finished the other two books on my table, and a couple of big CD projects, and I really want to get myself back to "normal" whatever that means. So yesterday I started the book.

Wow, what great writing.

I've always loved the idea of Barry more than the manifestation. What he stands for, more than what he accomplished. His administration was for me a series of disappointments, of promises unfulfilled, of compromises unnecessarily made. And he admits this in the early chapters. Modest and realistic, unlike most politicians.

I think I'm going to like this.

Here's a representative quotation.

Barack Obama wrote:

In classroom discussions, my hand kept shooting up, earning me some well-deserved eye rolls. I couldn't help it; it was as if, after years of locking myself away with a strange obsession --like juggling, say, or sword swallowing--I now found myself in circus school.

Halfway through, and enjoying it shamelessly. I'm up to the point where, just after inauguration, he's finally gotten his American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed, averting a total meltdown of the economy after Bush crashed it. He describes, in withering detail, the "horse trading" he did to get 4 Republican senators to vote for it. He describes the total war Mitch McConnell and John Boehner declared on him, announcing their only goal was to make sure he would be a one-term president. He describes the ideology of the GOP that cared nothing for the country, and only worked to please Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. How his "hopey changey thing" was widely mocked on the right, making his mandate from the voters null and void.

Joe Biden has said he's not going to fall for that shit again.

I certainly hope he's true to his word. A lot of Donald's victory, I believe, was due to disaffected Democrats and moderate Republicans who were disgusted with Obama's pathological need to build consensus. Donald represented uncompromising change.

Not in the ways we hoped for, unfortunately.

In the section just after the ARRA passed, Obama meditates on the origins of the Tea Party that sprung up as a result. He makes the good point that, since our nation's founding and the documents that established it, the role of government has broadened. There was no such thing as a "social safety net" in 1776, unless a man's friends and/or church pitched in to help. Nobody thought it was the government's role to prevent a farmer from losing his farm, or a colonist from losing his house, or paying the costs if somebody got sick. These things were voluntary, provided by concerned neighbors if at all, and not government mandated.

Republican originality orthodoxy would probably have us return to such "frontier justice."

Meanwhile countries like Sweden and Norway provide guaranteed income if you lose your job, and everyone pitches in to pay for it. Which is more civilized?

Obama talks about the icky business of approving assassination of suspected terrorists. Not his favorite part of the job, but considered necessary since there was no negotiating or battlefield capture possible. He talks about trying to clean up after Cheney's "extraordinary rendition" torture program, and the damage it did to America's reputation.

Never once though does he talk about holding Cheney criminally liable for violating international law. He should have. Just as Ford's pardon of Nixon paved the way for future malfeasance in office, Cheney's extralegal actions damaged America's standing and the fact that there were no repercussions made that damage permanent. Damn shame.

Obama talks about his disagreements with Stanley McChrystal and William Gates and Mullen and Petraeus over putting 40,000 more troops into Afghanistan to stabilize it, with no clear exit strategy.

Quote :

I think that the episode illustrated just how accustomed the military had become to getting whatever it wanted during the Bush years, and the degree to which basic policy decisions -- about war and peace, but also about America's budget priorities and diplomatic goals -- had been steadily farmed out to the Pentagon and the CIA. It was easy to see the factors behind this: the impulse after 9/11 to do whatever it took to stop the terrorists, and a public that rightly saw the military as more competent and trustworthy than the civilians who were supposed to make policy.

Wow. Hard hitting commentary, Barry.

Obama's term of office was so full of misinformation, spin, right-wing propaganda, negative press, made-up outrages and "alternative facts" that it's sometimes hard to remember exactly what did happen. This book is proving to be a ironclad recounting of the reality, warts and all, with very little bias. It will go down in history AS history, the true accounting. Other accounts that twist,, ignore or make up different events are shown to be fabrications. This could become a textbook, required reading for American history students.

The other takeaway, from the book, is the divided loyalties of congresspeople. They worked for their constituents, but only when it didn't cut into their financial support from special interests. It was impossible to get Senators from oil producing states to vote for climate legislation, it was impossible to get House members from farm states to vote for export tariffs.

Campaign finance reform is the only way to fix American politics. Politicians need to be freed from sucking the dick of whomever supports them.

Quote :

I hate to say it, but the worse people feel right now the better it is for us.

- Mitch McConnell to President Obama, just before the mid-terms, in explaining why he was blocking so many popular legislative agendas

Surprisingly, after 700 pages I can't wait for Volume Two. This one cuts off just after the bin Laden raid, as Obama is gearing up for campaigning for a second term. Lots more to the story.