Obama in Bush's Wake

How to be original when such an earthquake has affected the entire planet…maybe one should re-baptize it “Planet Obama?” On one point, there is unanimity, from John McCain to the European extreme left…the segregationist sin of America has finally been purged. That is the reason why, whatever one thinks of Obama, of the man, his program, or maybe the absence of one; one can only render homage to the politician’s courage and to the talent of the orator who brought about this miracle. But, in all fairness, the ascent of a black President of the United States was first anticipated by a plethora of Hollywood screenwriters and whites, who for twenty years conferred upon blacks the roles of bosses, leaders, fathers..in a word having them occupy the symbolic place in American society that had long been denied them.

Then came the enlightened conservatives, who, conscious of the depth of the problem, did not want to see a regressive communitarianism imposed upon them by street demagogues, spellbinding antisemitic speakers a la Jesse Jackson, intellectuals and hateful artists in the style of filmmaker Spike Lee or Harvard historian Cornell West.

To ward off the power of these sad-faced knights, it was necessary, and quickly so, to select blacks of exceptional talent whose ascent would be due to merit, even if it was recognized a bit prematurely. It was left to military leaders, then to politicians like Kissinger and Carlucci, the savior of Portuguese democracy, and to Soares in 1974, to whom one owes the promotion of Colin Powell, first as the head of United States Army, and then, according to the wishes of the Bush clan, head of diplomacy in 2000, where he achieved, despite everything, successes in efforts in Pakistan, in China, and in Korea. Then came Condi Rice, who Bush wanted for his second diplomatic leader, and who shocked the world by her mixture of charm, firmness, and wisdom in the State Department. The same wisdom was found in the private sector, where large companies like Time Warner, American Express, and Merrill Lynch in turn chose African Americans to lead them, largely to general satisfaction.

To be precise, one cannot discount the merits of the progressive wing of the Republican Party, of George W. Bush in particular, when speaking of the upward current that led to Obama’s chance to deploy his exceptional talent. The Obama presidency opens in a detestable climate, with deep financial and strategic problems that need to be resolved. But is this a reason, without great nobility or charity, to attack George W. Bush as one is doing today? The President seems to me to be, much like many personalities in times of transition, a sort of Janus-like god, who represents in turn the past and the future, which live inextricably linked within him.

George W. Bush, certainly, multiplied sectarian and narrow reactions that led to the acceleration of the erosion of Republican hegemony, which was installed by Reagan in 1980..let’s cite his refusal of a national union, even with very moderate and patriotic Democrats in the wake of September 11; his immoderate annoyance with Putin’s Russia, which initially proposed a sort of alliance; his pitiful inattention to the the internal equilibrium of American society; and finally the insufferable prolongation of an unjust state of affairs in Guantanamo, which had the effect of transforming bloodthirsty fanatics into victims of such oppression that one could quickly forget that there was an abominable crime committed.

All of this is sadly true, but we are too quick to forget to defend and recognize the great courage of the President in a moment of truth, his determination to strike hard at the enemy plan in Iraq; his uncynical engagement in the search for Middle East democracy, a cynicism which would have thrown Iraq into the Iranian camp and Palestine in the hands of Hamas.

Apparent gaffes included, this democratic strategy, very Wilsonian, led to errors but also gave the Orient new hope. In the last stages of his presidency, Bush finally started to marginalize the Rumsfelds and the Cheneys who often pushed him to do the wrong thing, and to give more attention to General Petraeus and to the Secretary of Defense Bob Gates, who Obama considers keeping in his post.

So it is not necessary to treat Bush like a pariah. He, like his successor, Barack Obama, is the product of a historical process which goes beyond them, that of the United States’ return to its vital space and a deepening of American democracy that one will say, retrospectively, began the moment when Bush began his second term in 2004.