Beck: Division Equals Unity, Rage Equals Love, Freedom Equals Ideological Alignment, Jesus Equals Howard Roark

Glenn Beck, following his 8/28 rally, which represented an unfinished, somewhat loosely constructed attempt to mix symbols that create emotional arousal and the implied sense of their being threatened--religion, military strength, pride in country--contrasted against the need for a single "drummer" who would awaken the masses in this time of Socialist threat, a call, framed in terms of the "Divine Providence" that led him to make it, for a Moses, a Jesus, who would rally the threatened country against catastrophe, never quite reached Beck's clearly imagined apotheosis.

Beck is clever enough to rouse an audience, uninformed by both fact and his technique, to a satisfying sense of suspicion, one which brings a certain sense of special knowledge--to rouse Neustadt's paranoid style.

However, in an attempt to use a call for "unity" to in fact divide, Beck failed. The structure of the attempt, which he and others have attempt in lurching steps over the past year, was clear: "Unity" is to turn away from the divisions that minorities, with their demands, have brought upon their majoritarian victims. Therefore, "Unity" represents a rejection of the apotheosis of this--Obama's desires to take over America, in the name of these angry minorities, and to cast majoritarian Americans into a form of socialist "slavery".

"Unity", in other, remarkably and blatantly Orwellian terms, is the extreme of divisiveness--as is often the case with the paranoid style, a mass projection, detached from fact, a delusional syllogism based on framing others as a threat, which, with threat removed, creates the wished for (and coincidentally, ideologically and economically consistent) unification, through a removal of the desires and ideas of the other, through the vehicle of the imagined and trumpeted threat of the other:

Delusional Framing Assumption A: The Other threatens to take us over, overpower and control us;

Delusional Framing Assumption B: Therefore, we call for unity--through the other ceasing all action that we impute;

Delusional Framing Assumption C: We define which actions should be regarded as representative of these threatening, anti-unification actions on the part of the other

Outcome: We control the other via the response to the imagined threat of the other. Hence, unity.


The trick here was an attempt to create a fundamental split, and to provide a language and behavior to put that split into broad public action: to contain the pervasive resentment at racial claims and perceived privileges, threat by a paranoid assumption of racial vengeance, anger at imagined incursions and Beck fueled fear at invented attempts at racial, or religious (e.g. Muslim) takeover by the President beneath, stoking them through implication, while using the language of religion to frame their intentions as filled with peace. The translation goes something like this:

A. We are aware that a Muslim president is taking over the United States; that he is unleashing angry minorities to claim rights that they should not and do not have.
B. This is dividing our nation. We must unify the nation by preventing this, and returning the nation to the unified Christian values that represent the "true religion" of the nation.
C. Everyone should want this unity, as it is best for the nation. We love those who embrace this unity.
D. But for those who turn us away from this unity, there is a need for a Moses, a Jesus, a drummer, to return to these necessary unifying principles for our nation.
E. We are filled with love for those who wish for a unity based on these principles.
F. We must remove that which is inconsistent with these principles--today, namely, the Socialist, oppressive, minoritarian President and those who support him.

Unity therefore equals what has, in the past, been called gleichschaltung--a splitting away, division, demonization, and targeting of any ideas which do not equal one idea of American ideals.
All in the name of love. And voice--yet to be fully named--who can deliver us.

The thinking here--I hesitate to call it "logic"--leads to innumerable absurdities. Just a few examples:

1) True American freedom can best be delivered through a repression of ideas that disagree with our own;

2) The free speech that Beck and his supporters relied upon and selectively promoted endangers us if it does not agree with our ideology--that ideological difference is the equivalent of shouting "fire" in a crowded theater

3) Jesus is a free market individualist, against any idea of collective social justice--e.g., the Jesus of "Love thy neighbor as thyself" is somehow not Beck's Jesus, who would be cast more as a
Howard Roark figure.

And so on.

Beck said that America is being cast down by the angry demands of minorities, led by a anti-American President. Having been described as such, he could then simply ask them to embrace the mantle of love and equality, as his audience had--feeding a deeply satisfying, self-justifying need in his audience. Our rage is just a desire for equality against the catastrophic threat you pose to the nation. Then--with you now disempowered, non-threatening, in place, we would love you, as Jesus intended.

After the rally, on Fox News Sunday, Beck renounced his claim that Obama is a "racist" who has a deep seated hatred against White people", using his overused technique of a false humility--one that, like much of what Beck does, seems oddly self-demonstrating, theatrical, at once feeding the flock who understand the meta-message (Yes, Glenn is just claiming to be a fool, but he really knows) and at the same time, as many such figures have done, feeding himself with his own words, watching himself as he listens to himself in order to try to believe what he will say next, even as he understands its impact.

This was understandable and likely, as this claim stood directly in the path of the technique described above. Such claims must be inferred, stoking hate and rage, to be addressed by a return to the unity of religious fundamental--a sole ideology.

However, his rally never came together quite as I think he imagined--an open, yearning calling, a powerful outwardly seen and activated longing towards a unified goal.

That is because the goals beneath are built on factless rage, on contained anger, stoked by illusion. This is recognized in part even by many who were there that day--those who one could see were confused, as the images flashed by, the narrators voice intoned in a melange the many symbols of American emotional reaction--flags, liberty, freedom, religion-- as to what the actual message was, what they were supposed to do.

As was plainly clear, Beck did not know. Other than to be against. And to say that clearly, the hinge upon which the confused effort rested was broken, and the rally would be over--the secret, disappointingly revealed, self-satisfaction openly displayed as hatred, and it would be time to go home.

Liveblogging the Beck Rally

10:03 Where are the searchlights and the gold standards?

They had to put a scrim with a picture of the Lincoln Memorial in front of the Lincoln Memorial because the symbolism wasn't enough.

This introduction has the sound of a 1950's film strip.

10:06: Shots of the crowd. Pure White. Lots of shaved heads, American flag shirts.

You can feel a seething "against"

Boy Scout leading the pledge of allegiance. This is truly a nationalist rally.

The first people of color--as singers of the national anthem. Two and two. You can imagine the conversation--1 will seem as if it is too little, three too threatening.

10:10 Beck enters. Slightly messianic.

America begins to turn back to god.

For too long the country has wandered in darkness. Darkness again. The slight inference.

Possibly running for office.

Invoking Moses.

God and god's law.

He may have pulled his bolt too soon. He's not quite large enough for the occasion. Did he overestimate his own effect?

Behind him, meanwhile coming up behind him were a rabbi, a naive American and a pastor.

"I would like to introduce the rabbi (said with a slight note of triumphalism--proof)

A rabbi, a native American, a pastor and Glenn beck walk into a bar...

Each speaks. The Pastor first.

Every crowd shot. All White.

A self-satisfied, slightly aggressive Pastor combining nationalism and religion. "It was you the Pilgrims knelt to..."

Where is the black religious representative? This would be too touchy--over the line for the audience--combining religion and race. The audience would be confused, it would dampen the rising of the spirit--what is Beck saying?

They will come later--separately, alone--e.g., in their place.

This guy is likely taking more time than expected--going for his moment in the sun. Right now, this is a fully Christian rally.

Are they not going to have the other representatives talk?

Unbelievable--makes them second--supporters of the majority, "actual" voice of religion--the pastor. This must be the idea of unity--acceptance of the "truth".

10:21 Beck continuing. "Where are the Heroes?". Perhaps the other religious representatives will be interspersed...

Introducing the President of Special Operations Warriors Foundation, a Wounded Warriors group, John Carney.

This is bringing the sacrificing Colonel forward--rousing the sacrifice and strength of the Military, to build in that component into audience response. The nation we know. That is true America. Thus far: Jesus, Nationalism, and others that are on the same stage continent if they quietly know their place.

I'm embarrassed for the Rabbi and Native American couple.

10:25 Deb Argel-Bastian, a mother of a special forces tactics officer killed in Iraq, Capt. Derek Angel.
Red polo shirt with an emblem, blond hair. I'm getting angrier as I see Beck using the emotions of tragedy, death, to shape the nationalist message in a form known so well.

This is a tragedy. What is the message? That concern about such tragedies has been lost? That we should be angry that concern about such "honor" is not occurring? The pain of a mother who has lost a child is being used as part of the pageant, the emotional rousing of such feelings lost, transsubstantiating the origins of the loss of that very child from its origins in the war in Iraq to a blended emotion of rage at those who would build mosques, and not care about this. So now we have Nationalism, Jesus, the acceptance of Jesus by other religions, tragedy.

After, Beck asks the crowd to text to SOWF 85944.

10:33 He is talking about stained glass windows of Martha and Mary, that when the sun hits them right, their chests glow red.

So far, mostly symbolic rousing of emotions, no message really.

In a sense, he is being stripped bare--there is nothing at the heart of him. Introduces Sarah Palin

Big shouts, screams.

10:35: Palin: "Aren't you proud to be an American?"
"We stand at the symbolic cross roads of American history"
Invokes King. All men are created equal.
The one true--emphasizes true--god of justice
Then makes the shift to men in uniform--nothing to apologize for.
Involves Lincoln's mystic chords of memory.
"It is so humbling to be with you here today, Patriots...knowing to never retreat"
We must not fundamentally transform America as some people want--we must restore America and restore her honor. Biggest applause line of the day perhaps--hits the note of what the internal conscious of the crowd is about--THEY want to take away OUR America and they ARE TRYING but we will not let THEM we will RESTORE it. An electoral, divisive message and the core one, fusing rage.

"Honor was never lost--you will find it in those who wear the uniform." And the others?

10:44: Palin introduces Petty Officer Marcus Latrell. She seems to get genuinely excited in introducing these. Ret. Marine Sergeant James Eddie Wright, "once a Marine always a Marine". The hug, just slightly long...

Tom Kirk, Air Force Combat Commander in Vietnam and POW for 5 years. So we have a touch of Swift Boating emotions being roused before the election. I wonder is some of the same people had a role?

McCain invoked. Tepid slow rising applause.

She does get genuinely excited by the idea of love of country and patriotism.

The crowd rises with each named person.

He embraces her a bit too long, a kiss on the cheek. She's slightly taken aback by the degree of it for a millisecond.

Crowd chants "USA".

She hits the note perfectly--let's restore America and God bless America--in a way that Beck, whose inauthenticity, his acting shines through, he always has a slight sense of the slightly crazed, careening--cannot.

There's a crazed subtext if you listen to it "broke into a cold sweat...screamed in his ear..." it's a way of clearing listening room with a slight craziness

It was about 4 months ago that we were still lost--we didn't know what we were going to do when we got here. Revealing because you can see the lack of driven ideological message at the center--rather utilities. He's clever enough to create a kind of humor space to take his crowd. But there, he has nothing else really. He may be just not smart enough to trip himself up as he has his presence for awhile. (Maybe the end)

10:57: Announces that he will award three "Restoring Honor" medals. Faith, Hope and Charity.

It's already a bit long. The hit of a powerful world changing event, the rise,

11:01: The Chief gets to award the Faith medal. Goes to Pastor C.L. Jackson. A quick Google search lists that Jackson is Pastor of the Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Houston, TX, apparently shares with Beck speaking on talk radio, on KCOH AM, and has appeared on Beck's show, where he compared Beck to Jehosephat, king of Judah in the Bible.

11:22: Tony LaRussa, Cardinals manager. Hope award goes to Albert Pujols. "I just want to thank God for giving me this platform as a baseball player. "

11:29: Charity. Jon Huntsman. "A successful and wealthy industrialist." Huntsman was interviewed by Beck for a hour-long program back when Beck was on CNN. Huntsman, according to Wikipedia, also had a political career in the Nixon Administration:

"Mr. Huntsman joined the Nixon Administration as Associate Administrator of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and later served as Special Assistant and Staff Secretary to President Nixon."

He also appears to be a major philanthropist. Indeed, according to Wikipedia, "the Chronicle of Philanthropy placed Mr. Huntsman second on their 2007 list of largest donors."

11:42: Clearly, the rally organizers had a certain dilemma here. Without a genuine, fully expressible rallying theme--e.g., the fight for civil rights in the face of systemic inequality against minorities--they could not depend upon that single animating theme to keep the crowd fully motivated, driven by a single, known goal. As a result, they had to try to construct a message without one, and the time it takes to do that is long. Let the rally go on too briefly, and the audience would wonder what happened--where was the full bread and circuses experience? But try to build an emotional message without a single, actual animating goal, and it goes on too long, a diffuse, warming, but not a unifying drive towards an actual known outcome.

Nonetheless, the effects are there. They sit together and are warmed. They see the crowd, and feel they are a part of a larger experience, allowing a greater degree of open belief. A more diffuse normalizing of these emotions--a subtle tilting towards the justification of Nationalism, can occur.

11:49: Angelica Tucker is singing.

He's set the stage for broadening his base slightly to a kind of conservative Oprah.

11:53 Minister is reading from the book of Ezra. Now, some gospel music. "Unity...unity". They are running out of gas. Getting a bit frayed around the edges, and trying to tie it up.

11:58 Speaker:"I've been asked to read a scripture...E pluribus unum...we stand together...in the name of Christ"

11:59: Alveda King.

12:08 Video. Almost a parody of propaganda.

Shots of the audience--they look confused--what's the message? A congealing of religion, images of the Founding Fathers--what are we supposed to believe?

A massive attempt at indirection. Carry this feeling to the voting booths.

A weak ending applause. Tailing off.

12:11 Beck again mounts the podium. Says 500,000 people there. "This is a day we can start the hearts of America again. And it has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with God."

It seems that he is feeling some of the weakness of the wrap up--a slight sense of desperation in his voice, recognizing that it's not quite coming together. A bit tired. He's lost his rhythm.

He's not quite an orator. An edgy presence.

He's going for the one internal message: "The right for everyone to have a dream".

Do we say "The experiment cannot work? Man must be ruled by someone?" Do we set up a straw man?

The message: Be angry at those in power.

Keeps trying to hit that high finishing note.

The essential dilemma is that he can't say what he's actually trying to say. So he keeps trying to find ways to rise to it, to complete it, by unifying different elements: patriotism, religion, inference.

He's analogizing himself to Moses. "They were just like you." i.e.--Me.

I think he doesn't want to stop because of how he will feel when it's over.

Iceberg metaphor + "one man can change the world" plus Moses references = He does think he's Moses.

"I asked you to do three things...The second thing I asked you to do"...this is getting to be too much. Images from Life of Brian are coming to mind.

How dare he equate this time as "failing with us" simply for his own opportunism. Deeply reckless.

OK, now he's ranting.

"Divine providence." Read your history.

Maybe he will just stay there forever.

A melding of AA philosophy with unleashed grandiosity. The connection of this to national restoration is unclear, however, and he seems to notice that leap.

"Human storm." "Global storm." Hmmmmm.....sturm. What's needed for a storm, after all? Troops.

Another crescendo incompletus. See above.

He now claims a representation of 180 million people, at least by partial implication perhaps.

Bagpipes with their many emotional overtones. "Amazing Grace".

Large applause for closing prayer.

And in this rally of unity--we close with Jesus.

Lipman's Tipsheet, 5-17-10

-President Obama will congratulate the NCAA champions, University of Connecticut woman's basketball team today. The ceremony has been moved to the East Room due to rain.

-Rising: Elena Kagan's seminal piece of scholarship, "Presidential Administration", from the June 2001 Harvard Law Review, which endorses an expansive view of Presidential authority--but over the activity of administrative and regulatory agencies, a la Clinton, not over declarations of war, a la Woo, Bush, et al. Expect this to be misunderstood.

-Jeff Sessions will be desperately trying to frame Kagan as keeping recruiters off of the Harvard Campus during her Deanship. Leahy points out, recruitment continued throughout her Deanship.

-BP gets a half pipe into the spill

-Quietly, GM becomes profitable.

-Bangkok is burning.

Change

Watching the word "change" being invoked with a tone of satisfied vengeance by Chris Christie in his Inaugural speech. "Change" has been turned to the spirit most known to the right--one of taking back from an usurper, to the traditional, the known.

4 Beers

Pool report from today's Rose Garden event (referred to yesterday in the briefing room variously as the "Beer Blast", "Beer Fest" by colleagues, to be gently chided by Gibbs that the event was a more serious one than that) notes that, unexpectedly, Biden was also present.

The thinking here, I believe was 1) to balance a focus of 2 men, actively engaged, and one President--e.g. to provide balance, and round off the numbers should the two become overactively engaged; and 2) To let Joe's loquaciousness take some of the steam and punch out of any arguments that could arise, draining it off with words, words, words, and deflecting some of the focus off of Obama, a key role for Biden since the start.

Pool report notes that POTUS drank Bud Light--popular and unobjectionable; VPOTUS: Bucklers--need we say, a "near beer"; Gates: Sam Adams, a quality home brew, and Crowley: Blue Moon, which we might note is meant to appear different and a rarer brew, but is actually owned by Coors--although they don't like to advertise this.

Birth Pangs

National Review has an almost sane editorial today that, although enshrouded in a multitude of caveats meant to dispel any possible momentary belief that they may be approving of any of his actions, makes clear that they recognize that he, indeed, was "Born in the U.S.A."

The unsigned op-ed, which still manages to impute questions about his biography, letting the faithful know that even in that realm, their not giving away all of their cards, manages to get one good line in among the protective bombast (which even attempts to normalize the Birthers through citation of questions about Chester Alan Arthur's putative Canadian birth):

The director of Hawaii’s health department and the registrar of records each has personally verified that the information on Obama’s birth certificate is identical to that in the state’s records, the so-called vault copy. Given that fact, we are loath even to engage the fanciful notion that President Obama was born elsewhere, contrary to the information on his birth certificate, but we note for the record that his mother was a native of Kansas, whose residents have been citizens of the United States for a very long time, and whose children are citizens of the United States as well

In any event, the Review's action is only politically wise, as the patent iron clad conspiracy theories of the Birthers prevents their only slightly less distorted usual positions from being visible. This is a case of a typical technique (factual distortion that incites and draws the masses) done both too poorly--too easily seen as absurd even by the analytically unskilled--and too well, drawing attention away from the mischaracterizations and inaccuracies that can be more easily passed over on the public.

There's health care to distort and mischaracterize--let's not muddy the waters with the more obvious fallacies of the Birthers.

Iran: Bluster and Thought

Welcome back.

The outrageous, narrow, contradictory, self-serving position of those on the Right--such as Robert Kagan, who makes at least some attempt at casting a veil of intellectual coherence, or the bloviating Mike Pence, who only goes as far as enjoying the familiar sound of his words--is another example of the continuing simple-minded viciousness that lies at the heart of a large sector of those who identify as conservative.

The logic here is simple. They are itching for a fight. They want to draw Obama into "confronting" Iran, prodded by rhetoric that really comes down to no more than opportunism hiding behind the usual protective shield of patriotic boilerplate, so that Iran will then accuse the U.S. of meddling.

Obama can then be accused of "failing" in foreign policy--because of the conflict that they conveniently and typically encouraged. And Iran can be placed in the role which they find more comfortable and exciting, and which they are more accustomed to--the place that they can and should fight.

That this permits the Iranian government to have a critical distraction from the battle for freedom, focusing attention on an external enemy--that is, that it will serve to undercut the "freedom" that they declare is their purpose--is not mentioned.

Sad, hypocritical, tiresome...ah! A return to the feelings of the Bush Administration!

Where Rubber Meets Road

Today I received an email, as did many of you, from the Obama team about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

It differs from the many emails sent before in that, for the first time, post-Inauguration, they are asking for action. This is the turn--the first test of whether the enthusiasm for sacrifice shown during the campaign and post-election period will actually translate into the actions of a populace--one willing to act on what they enthusiastically endorsed, one that is committed beyond fulfilling emotions, brief, self-gratifying opinion-making and the next entertainment--the actions, as Obama has briefly tested the phrase--of a movement.

This is where we see if the pleasure people took in voicing opinions, and experiencing change translates into active behavior in the interest of the nation. Work--where the rubber hits the road.

I have to say that, from a psychological point of view, when we consider that this is the first time that American citizens will be asked to be so broadly mobilized for such an event, outside of a campaign's carrying enthusiasm, in more than a generation--and given their preparation for action and sacrifice by the last Administration--the email is short on agenda.

Without it, and with very little practice or preparation for doing this in the past, the very real risk is that most Americans won't know quite what to do--and in that moment, in such a situation, the best predictor of behavior is past behavior--e.g., watch TV, someone else will do it, not sure how to act, hope it works out, maybe I'll do something later--and a critical defining opportunity will be lost, while another one occurs: that email that asks one to do something that sounds nice, something that they never do, instead of the email that enables them to continue to carry forward their enthusiasm and commitment with clear action.

People know how to act during a campaign--cheer and enthuse and enjoy the contest and battle of opinions, glorying in their superior knowledge. They don't know how to galvanize these thoughts and emotions for a bill--especially in a house meeting, something that will feel new and undefined itself.

Nevertheless--I'm in. I worked for this and I want it to work. So I'll provide the agenda:

INVITATION:

Talked the talk? Walk the walk. Come to the Georgetown House Meeting on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Agenda:

1) INTRODUCTION: Understanding the Act and its key initiatives.

2) CONGRESS: identifying and contacting key members of Senate; developing key arguments for vulnerable members

3) MEDIA: Broadcast (Radio/TV) and Cable: Identification and development of local and national stories/narratives describing how the Act will support families and communities
New Media: Development of Twitter and Facebook campaigns (Facebook app?), short-form video to support the Act

4) SUMMARY AND ACTION PLAN: Detail team and individual actions for the above and point persons for completion and follow-up


Where: Dr. Alan J. Lipman
1010 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W.
The Waterfront Center, Georgetown
Suite 320
Washington, D.C.

When: Saturday, February 7th, 2-4 pm.

The Waterfront Center is located along the Potomac in Georgetown, on the corner of K Street and Wisconsin. There is metered parking directly in front of the new Georgetown Park, as well as a parking garage.

Call to RSVP: 202-423-6153

Change and The EPA

From Reuters, via Yahoo News:

President Barack Obama began reversing the climate policies of the Bush administration on Monday, clearing the way for new rules to force auto makers to produce more fuel-efficient and less polluting cars.

The president told the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider immediately a request by California to impose its own strict limits on vehicle carbon dioxide emissions, blamed for contributing to global warming.

The Democratic Obama took over last Tuesday from former President George W. Bush, whose Republican administration had denied the request, prompting California and other states to sue.

"The federal government must work with, not against, states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Obama said at the White House, taking a stab at his predecessor's policies.

I recall watching the torturous testimony of former EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on this issue, as he went against the recommendations of his own agency staff.

Last Vestiges...

From Talk Left:

The Supreme Court issued opinions and orders today. Among them:

* Ruled that a man wrongly convicted and sent to prison for 24 years cannot sue the former Los Angeles district attorney and his chief deputy for violating his civil rights. The court said unanimously that decisions of supervising prosecutors, like the actions of prosecutors at trial, are shielded from civil lawsuits.

* Ruled that police officers have leeway to frisk a passenger in a car stopped for a traffic violation even if nothing indicates the passenger has committed a crime or is about to do so.

Trying to get as many in as possible before Obama will be able to shift the balance?

Hello Robert

By which we provide friendly advice to Robert Gibbs, who is very capable and well-experienced from the campaign--but who could not enjoy the benefit of a little friendly advice?

Larry Summers is certainly distinguished in many ways. And, in the swirl of internalizing broad swaths of information, managing egos, and getting one's wheels on the ground that is the growing job of Press Secretary, it certainly makes sense to protect that ego--particularly when someone else will (likely) be the Treasury Secretary.

But is it really necessary to refer to him as "Dr. Summers"--and Peter Orszag as "Peter"? Doesn't that establish/signify a bit of a listing coming together of the Cabinet--and suggest initial and future fractures?

A small point perhaps, but one that people notice. Best to keep the pragmatic, no- nonsense tone for all--and show the public that all of you have more important things in mind than ruffled feathers.

Kristol's "Work"

In November, Mr. Kristol told Portfolio.com, “I’m ambivalent” about the prospect of continuing to write the Times column. “It’s been fun,” he said, adding, “It’s a lot of work.”

~The New York Times, in reporting the "mutual" decision to end his column, January 26, 2009.


Thinking.

It's a lot of work.

Thinking about where we should go to war, dreamily touting Vice Presidential candidates.

It's work, I tell you.

And when you work, you're prone to mistakes.

Just look at the New York Times--they have to run corrections, why, most every day.

Fortunately, policy pieces and recommendations aren't followed by corrections.

That makes them--a lot less work.

Tom Friedman and "Jaws"

If Tom Friedman uses that "we need a bigger boat" metaphor from "Jaws" one more time, I will scream.

The Celebration is Over–The Work Begins

A talent at campaigning, as is well known, does not a priori equate to a talent for governance. The celebrations–full, moving–are over. Today the work begins.

Obama has indicated a willingness and intention to hit the ground running. He has prepared for this well. The work of preparation has been detailed, based in realities rather than fantasies and vindictive ideology. There is an intention to hew to the needs of this nation, and to use factual indicators rather than long-held spiteful or self-deceptive illusions as a basis.

Now the work of translating those plans, and imposing them upon a moving world begins. Geithner sits now, taking the questions of the mildly impaired Jim Bunning, with the knowledge but also the clear uncertainties before him.

Each cabinet member, each agency head, awoke with the awesome, largely unknown task of the work before them, uniting members and through them the public before plans that, gratefully, have begun to take substantial form before today, but which cannot be fully formed, and which then must be brought to an expectatant public.

Yesterday, during Obama’s inaugural speech, the largest response–although this may have been an artifact of media placement, was to Obama’s line about a father who 60 years ago would have been turned away from a lunch counter. This is both a promising and an auspicious sign for the work ahead.

After we take pride in the first African American president–there is work to do. The recognition of the one does not immediately translate into the commitment and dedication required of the other. This is a difficult turn for the public to make, fed as it has been on easy entertainments and self-satisfactions, which they are all to ready to reach for and then walk away, all to unfamiliar with the task of sacrifice and volunteerism, day upon day, that Obama called for. He tried to make that turn–staying, as he does, within limits. We will see if a nation, gilded with the fragile protections of comforting distractions, will step up in the greyness of each day, to make this turn with him–and whether the Administration, in the face of recalcitrance and need for learning how to shoulder a burden, will stand to the task of consistent inspiration.

We begin.

7th and D Streets, N.W., 8 A.M.

Crowd awaits at 7th and D to be let into Mall area:


In the building above, police watch:

6. A.M., January 20th

At about 6 A.M., I could hear cheering directly outside of my window. It seemed much too close to be coming from the Capitol, and was clearly a very large crowd--hundreds, perhaps a thousand or more. It was too early for a pre-Inaugural concert, too late for a late-night party, and too large.

I went to the window. Directly below was a gigantic throng, wrapped in overcoats, scarves. They were standing before a gate, that had been set up to channel traffic to the Mall. They were shouting, cheering with excitement, with the desire to get there, to be there. People ran down the street like streaking flares, to join and become part of the crowd. One girl dropped her scarf, and in her excitement, just ran on, then came back to grab it.

The joy was palpable, the excitement of being part of it and wanting to be part of it, of milling before a nation that they felt they could finally belong to. They wanted to run towards it and be free.

I've never seen this kind of enthusiasm about politics in 10 years in this city.
Obama is carrying the enthusiasm of a world today. It is not clear what it will become. But the excitement, the joy in a new and freer world, is extraordinary.

An Inauguration Speech

My Fellow Citizens:

We gather here today as citizens of a great nation. We have arrived from all parts of this country. We arrive awakened to both the necessities and possibilities of freedom. We arrive inspired by the hopes and aware of the challenges of our shared future. And we arrive with a solemn task--yet one that can bring us the greatest joy; the responsibility that can bring the greatest satisfaction to ourselves, our families and communities. To join together with strength of hope, knowledge, determination and unity to rebuild this nation.

In recent years, as we have been buffeted by attack and crisis, many have been imbued with fear, distracted by division and polarization, made distant from the values that in their hearts they knew lay at the core of this nation.

Yet from this darkness, the force of life that we have seen emerge, time and time again, from this great nation has arisen, moving us together, towards the unity and freedom that, from the core of this land, provides a beacon of strength and hope that can light and inspire the world. From the cities and towns across this country, in the face of division and disunion, in the face of foreboding and fear, we found together our unique American capacity for hope--and for a willingness to rise above that fear as one to make that hope a reality.

One nation that is determined to demonstrate its strength by realizing its values. One nation that can face its challenges as reality, not illusion, by fully recognizing and employing the talents, desires, strengths and aspirations of all of its people. One nation that has refused to continue to live under shackles of fear and darkness. And one nation that will join together, black and white, young and old, rich and poor to create, as was said so long ago, a more perfect Union--one strengthened by our knowledge that as each of us is equal, each of us must contribute--and that will face the challenges ahead with the knowledge that the person beside them shares that responsibility and commitment.

The days ahead will be hard. None of us can or ever should claim perfect knowledge. But what we can face and shoulder together, we can and will achieve together--with the joy of contributing to our lives, the lives of our family and community, and to the future of this nation.

Our time, as always, is short. And, with this knowledge, we begin. Within each of us is the recognition that we can share this burden--if we know that each of us is dedicated to the tasks ahead. There will be doubts. Crisis will breed the narrow temptations of cynicism and division. We know: These are but small and momentary distractions from the reality of what each of us, each day can create and contribute. With our hands, with our hearts, with out persistence in the face of division and distraction, with our determination to forge ahead through both the familiar and unknown barriers that lay before us, we will bind together the strength of this nation. With the strength of a citizenry bound by a true patriotic unity--beyond race, beyond Party, together--with the strength and dedication of the fullness of our talents, and freed and full measure of our devotion, we will meet those challenges, and fulfill our promise beyond measure.

Watching

We should all be very proud of what we have done.

He Means It

I never thought that I would be thrilled by the appearance of Ray LaHood at a podium being announced for an appointment.

In the past, "forming a bipartisan administration" and "choosing the best person for the job" was typically a verbal signifier for being less viciously and openly partisan than prior Administrations, appointing members of your own party to your Administration while being willing at least to appear to hear some of the positions of the other side--a slightly more centrist position, while remaining firmly based in partisan self-interest. Any movement whatsoever from such self-interest was greeted with a momentary surprise, quickly followed by the recognition that this was a change of relatively meaningless degree, more game than qualitative shift.

This time, it's different.

A central--perhaps the central--foundation of Obama's approach is one of uniting people across philosophies and towards action. It was imbued within him from his earliest days as a guiding principle. He learned how to implement this, along with many of its difficulties, in his years as a community organizer. he was able to implement it within what is a typically fractious and bitterly polarized environment at the leading law review in the nation. And he is doing it now.

It will be difficult to contain the egos and ideologies; there will be sharp bursts and tangents of positioning, attempts to gain power, and narcissism in the name of policy that are characteristic of all Administrations. I believe Obama is aware of this, having experienced it in the past, which is why such an emphasis was placed on a campaign team without drama. There will also be elements of self interest throughout, as there should be--if one believes in what they are doing, they should act to protect it.

The problem in the past is that this last rationale has too often become the leading one--power for its own sake has been the goal, with action and ideology the supporting rationale for continuing power. I believe that, for the first time in recent memory, the reverse is finally, actually the case.

We see this perhaps most strongly in the choice of Rick Warren–who I disagree with on most issues–to give the invocation at the Inaugural. Obama is making the issue clear, not merely in soothing platitudes, but in action–we will have to face and work with those with whom we differ in the days ahead. In soundbite form–in the past–that has provided a moment’s self-satisfaction, before a return to the status quo. Today, the time calls for exactly such cooperative effort, and difficulties inherent within it.

There will be efforts to chip away at this by degrees, to stain and mar. Americans recognize genuine action, and they certainly recognize the self-serving pose. Obama is building a team that is aimed towards constructive change. As he moves forward amidst what hopefully will begin to seem anachronistic methods of twisting and distortion, let us hope that we--and he--remember and stay upon this path.

Wake-up Call

One of the qualities I enjoy in Obama is his combination of humor and intellect, his ability to use his competitive basketball instincts in a way that reflects humor, yet still a disciplined judgment and choice.

He is a competitive man. He has learned to restrain it--to control it and to decide wisely through it better than most that I have seen. Yet he is intelligent enough to be able to throw in the element of humor--even as he makes sure that he is making the wisest choice.

Witness his selection of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. The calculus is this--she can do the job. You wanted to show that you could take the call at 3 A.M.? Well, now you can--a wry choice that places her in the position to live up to her own words, for him. Yet he also has evaluated that given such a challenge, she has the personality and skills that cause her to rise to the task--as she did when doubted in the Senate. He will have this power over her--I have given you the power to do what you said you could do--all the more reason not to err, and also one upon whom mistakes can be reflected. She is levered into a position where all forces are directed towards ensuring that she does the best job that she can--to show that, as she said, she could; to demonstrate that her best interests are the nation's, for the benefit of his Administration, and for the nation.

Smart, funny, yet done with a disciplined evaluation of its impacts.