Obama, the Savior?

Obama, the Savior?

By Josef Joffe

We western Europeans wish for nothing more fervently than Barack Obama leading the USA. But he would be president of a very strong superpower, and that usually means trouble. A commentary.

The spirit of the times blows for Obama – if more softly in Asia, Africa and Latin America than here in western Europe. For us, it may be an optical illusion that sticks in our minds: that comforting picture in which it isn’t America that’s the problem, it’s George W. Bush. Out with the cowboy, in with change and hope, and we can again love America.

Why is that an illusion? First because anti-Americanism pre-dates Bush Jr. As early as 1999, a poster appeared during a demonstration in Vienna reading “USA = Nazi” after the nice Mr. Clinton bombed Serbia. Further back: Hans Magnus Enzensberger recalls how the protesters in 1968 called out “USA-SA-SS.” (Trans. note: The combination of letters called out in German sounds very rhythmic and links the United States with the Nazi Sturm Abteilung, or Storm Troopers, and the SS elite guard). For them, the CIA was the Devil.

Second, because Obama (perhaps) arrives, but the superiority remains. To peaceful Europe, power is basically suspect; whoever uses it (all US presidents since 1945 have done so abundantly) is, in fact, the Devil. But Obama is no Savior. He has written that America must dare to be the world’s policeman even if reluctant to do so. It must be able to act unilaterally against anything that “threatens to attack American goals.” The UN Security Council cannot have a “veto over our actions” in advance. Sounds somehow “Bush-like” – or worse, because Obama would even attack al-Queda inside Pakistan.

Third, because America, this modern steam hammer, basically upsets things. What did Marx write in 1848? “Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, eternal uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier.” If we substitute “America” for “bourgeoisie,” the phrase fits like a glove. Or through “globalization,” whose vanguard is America.

In Old Europe, we would prefer something more leisurely – no wonder after the catastrophes of the 20th century. So we don’t want any “American conditions.” We also don’t want any American impositions, for example, an increase in German Army troops in Afghanistan or heavy sanctions against Iran or civilian assistance in Iraq. Obama and McCain would both request something like that.

But Obama gets two extra demerits. His party is playing with the fire of protectionism against goods and people; that’s why Asia and Latin America are so skeptical of the Democrats. Then there’s Obama’s idealism, something that provides a pretty projection screen for Europeans. Lofty human rights politics belongs there, something that Bush didn’t discover but that belongs rather to Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. Helmut Schmidt got on our nerves with the mantra of human rights during détente politics with Moscow. Obama stands solidly in this tradition; from McCain the refined Republican we may expect more realistic than idealistic politics. Our Steinmeier (the current German Foreign Minister) would appreciate that.

But the election is in America, not in Europe. According to the latest polls, the candidates are even, both with 45 percent.