Love Is Blind

As far as I’m aware, no U.S. president has ever been as internationally popular as Barack Obama. Personally, I have seen my share of presidencies and I have never felt as strongly about an American leader as I do with this new administration. I want Obama to succeed, especially because of he is not just a man, not just a president, but he is also a symbol. Obama is a successful man of color in a world that caters to white men, that believes people of color are less intelligent, less creative and less productive and that it is in their best interest to be instilled with the values and beliefs of white men, through war and invasion or intervention, whatever is necessary.

Obama is a black man (although there are those that doubt his authenticity) who has proven that he is equal to white men and women in every way. He achieved the highest political office in this white-dominated world. He moved his family into the White House and set up a dynamic, diverse government. But after six months of rule, some are getting nervous about just how effective Barack Obama is going to be. We all saw his reign as one of possibility, of progress towards an international system less dominating and biased, governed by justice and righteousness. But now we are all having serious doubts.

Obama’s enormous popularity in and outside of the U.S. was initially an amazing phenomenon. We saw it in Egypt and in other places across the globe. The polls in Germany, for example, say that 93 percent of Germans believe that Obama will choose the right path in international affairs. But this number provokes several more questions. Didn’t Germany recently vote against allowing people of color to obtain German citizenship? Polls indicate that they themselves would not choose an advisor of color and despite this open racism, the German public came out in droves to greet a clearly black Barack Obama. We heard their cheers and their screams, saw them literally faint with excitement – it was a scene not too different from the crowds that once greeted Michael Jackson.

Around the world, men and women wore t-shirts with a picture of the new president, underneath which was written the words “the One,” a meaningful phrase with many connotations. Others wrote articles, spoke in churches, in schools and universities and on city streets. Obama, they said, was like a living, breathing messiah, active in society and devoted to serving the poor, unemployed and oppressed people of the neighborhood.

I read in awe, remembering George Bush, the most religious president of our era, a man who launched wars against whole civilizations, while pastors across the nation spoke of the “kingdom” Obama had come to bring to earth. We have heard, in Egypt and in other Arab countries, everyone from political thinkers to ordinary citizens likening Barack Obama to the awaited Mahdi, a savior who will liberate the Islamic Ummah (and even the Arabs, if possible) from their enemies, restore their usurped lands, return religion to its righteous place and realize our hopes and our dreams, and bring forth a bounty of wealth and sustenance that would make us the happiest people on earth. Man would have everything he could desire or ask for.

Barack Obama was no less generous or exaggeratory in the promises he made, in words from his own lips. He promised Americans millions of jobs at a time when we, along with Americans, were discussing the possibility of an economic crisis, financial anarchy and an extensive fall in the housing market. He also promised to find a cure for cancer, and to free the world of nuclear weapons. Obama put in place a plan for a health program that would insure universal healthcare for the American people despite fierce resistance from the business sector. He promised that university graduates in the United States would be at the forefront of productivity and excel internationally in the fields of math and sciences.

He promised lots of things that are normal for a presidential candidate to promise. But ordinary pledges were surpassed by impossible promises that went beyond the expectations of the people and placed great pressure on him and his administration, eventually forcing his popularity ratings to fall world-wide.

Mistakes made in governing are not just the responsibility of the leader but also of the followers. Take, for example, his rival in the presidential election and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She noted that he is both the commander in chief of the armed forces and commander in chief of the national economy.

In his recently published book “Cult of the Presidency,” Gene Healy says that the founding fathers gave the president three specific duties: defending the country against attack, enforcing laws and respecting the constitution. Being the leader of the economy, securing prosperity for their citizens, preventing disasters or providing help in a time of need; these are not part of the president’s duties. Nowhere is it written that the president should be the leader of the world or that he should act as a mediator between nations nor should he be a global policeman. The president of the United States is not bound to bring warring countries or, for that matter, warring factions within countries, to the table to talk peace. Nowhere is it written that it is his duty to monitor corruption anywhere outside his own administration.

Nowhere is it written, but these are duties just the same. These are responsibilities for the American president because the American people, and citizens of nations around the world, demanded it; because the president’s followers and supporters are convinced of their own importance, and, most importantly, because the leaders themselves want to be able to fulfill the demands of those that look to them for guidance.

The American government, like any other, looks for ways to answer the demands the people make, and, by the nature of the situation, most administrations will overstep their boundaries in that quest. Bush answered the American people’s request for security; he began wiretapping, spying on private citizens and breaching essential societal norms, allowing the American military to perform operations on American soil following the Hurricane Katrina crisis.

It is the people who create the monster of domination inside a powerful authoritative body, demanding the impossible or irresponsible. We, as citizens, give our governments so much love and adoration that they have permission to do for us however they see fit, whatever that may be. We have empowered President Barack Obama to solve the Middle East conflict, have instilled in him an unprecedented level of trust and yet we know that Obama, by nature of his position and his circumstances, favors Israel.

We are so impressed by his steadfastness on an issue that is partial, temporary, and of secondary importance (the halting of construction of settlements), that we don’t even need to hear his true feelings regarding the Israeli government and the people. We don’t protest the partiality of President Obama, but we so violently and angrily protested the bias of his predecessors. We didn’t protest, nor do I think we will protest against the stifled media or the suffering of the Arab people or the gaps in governance or the fatigued state of Arab politics and the poverty of the Arab people as a whole. Instead, we have set Barack Obama up on a pedestal. He is the all-mighty leader who governs, awash in love and trust and unprecedented power.

In his book, Healy says that with the adoration or worship of the presidency to such an extreme extent, if Obama cannot deliver, his downfall will be absolute and prolonged; he would most likely go down in history as the least popular president in U.S. history. The loss could be just as great for Arabs and, more precisely, for the Palestinians. We have learned that submitting to the will of the United States achieves nothing but loss and heartbreak. We also know that idolizing any leader, whoever or wherever they may be, only ends in disaster.

Unfortunately, we are still blinded by our passion, love and adoration for President Obama. We will continue to submit.