Barack Obama: Book Review: The Audacity Of Hope. Chapter Four: Politics. (Pluses And Minuses Of Political Life.)
SENATOR OBAMA: WASHINGTON; IN THE POLITICAL
FREY.
Obama discusses the problems and joys of political life. He doesn’t pull any punches in this chapter so if you are thinking of running for office read carefully.
He says his favorite activity as a Senator is a town meeting where he gets to meet with the voters and discuss issues with them. However if you are running a state wide campaign the only efficient way to reach the voters with your message is by television. Running for a state senator cost about $100,000; running for U.S. Senator requires a state wide campaign and that means television of necessity. When he first ran for Federal Senator, David Axelrod, his political advisor, told him in a state like Illinois that would cost $5,000,000 for the primary and ten to fifteen million for the main race at a minimum.
You cannot raise this kind of money by cold calling prospective donors for $2000.00. It requires backing by large interest groups like unions for him or the Chamber of Commerce for Republicans. Their support usually comes with strings. If what they want fits with your beliefs, fine, if it doesn’t then problems arise and you may be a one term Senator when they throw their support to someone else in the next election. (In this chapter Obama doesn’t discuss the impact of the internet on fund raising although the prior campaign of Governor Howard Dean, who ran in the primary for nomination for Presidency, relied almost entirely on internet generated funding. He raised over 50 million dollars as well as organizing his campaign through internet groups like Meet Up. We also know John Kerry raised a substantial a amount through the internet. Yet big donors were the major factors in both Bush’s and Kerry’s campaigns)
After winning the primary Obama was lucky enough to run against a deep pocket Republican who looked like real trouble but had to drop out because of a scandal. The Republican Party pulled a last minute candidate from another state whose views were so off point that Obama coasted to victory.
Once you are a Senator the narrower your interactions become. Instead of town meetings you meet with lobbyists, heads of PACs or representatives of interest groups because of time considerations and these are the people who can raise the kind of money needed to stay in office. Also you need the backing of groups that have organizations in place that can help you campaign; for Democrats it means the unions, pro-choice groups and the environmentalists; for Republicans it is the NRA, anti tax groups and chambers of commerce.
Thus politicians can be held captive, if they are not careful, by big money contributors or interest groups.
The most influential group is the media, left right and center. They reach millions of people every day and a few disparaging reports can severely damage your reputation and chances for re-election. Further the press likes to stir up controversy and the demands of the 24/7 news cycle doesn’t give them much time to analyze or investigate the ramifications of your votes or activities. Thus things may get misconstrued and the news may move on before you have had a chance to explain. Then the bloggers take over and the misconstrued fact is repeated million times and becomes embedded in the public psyche as true.
The spin put on a story either by the media , your opponents or perhaps your own public relations people can soften or harden a story in your favor or against you.
Voting always is difficult. No matter how you vote there will always be someone who is hurt and dissatisfied with the vote. Frequently many bills reach the floor for a vote but interest groups have petitioned Senators to add clauses that have no relation to the bill but will benefit something contrary to what the bill was intended to do. Thus you vote for the bill because you perceive it as mainly for the good which outweighs the thorns necessary to get it passed. Later this can be brought up that you voted for the thorns without being able to explain that 90 percent of the bill was for a good cause.
Also the way you voted can be turned by a skillful media agent into a negative ad making you look like you are against motherhood, apple-pie and the flag.
(This book was written during Obama’s first term as a U.S. Senator from Illinois. He thought he had luck on his side in getting elected and it appears he did. The strongest Democratic contender dropped out of the primary and then the strongest Republican candidate had to withdraw.)
Despite all the pitfalls and chaos in the system Obama thinks it is still the best and with a few slight modifications it could be made better
In the end the citizen who votes responsibly is the most important person in a Democracy despite all the tricks and shenanigans of the professional groups seeking leverage and power.
Barack Obama: The Audacity Of Hope. Chapter Three: Our Constitution. ( Majority Rule With Minority Rights.)
Barack Obama Taking Oath of Office On January 20,2009
I, Barack Obama, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Obama in this chapter discusses the Constitution and the ways of interpreting it. Looking to the intent of the Founders is difficult because the Framers of the Constitution were often divided on the way the Constitution should be interpreted. A strict interpretation of the Constitution dismisses two hundred years of experience, history and change in applying the Constitution. We are a technological society of over 300 million people and no longer an agrarian based society of three or four million people. Obama believes the Constitution is a guide as to how to think rather than a document telling us what to think in a modern society undreamed of at the time it was adopted.
Despite this some would interpret the document literally. If it doesn’t clearly say it then it can’t be implied although reason and experience tells us the Framers probably would. Obama states that the Framers knew at the time the Constitution was adopted it was not a finished document. The first ten amendments, The Bill Of Rights, applied to white property owners only. It took later amendments and cases to apply these rights to rich or poor, black or white, male or female and eliminate any racial limitations. The Fourteenth Amendment made them binding on the States. Other amendments were needed for things like income tax, term limits on the Presidency or the abolition of alcohol, ratified and then repealed.
Recently however Constitutional rights have been weakened by anti-terrorist legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by the Chief Executive. (After writing this book Obama himself became President and one wonders how he would write this chapter now. What about using a drone to summarily kill an American citizen in a foreign country for expressing beliefs alleged to cause others to commit acts of terrorism? War and other emergencies often seem to trump the values expressed in the Constitution. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus so Northern troops could safely pass through Maryland to protect an undefended Washington D.C.)
The Constitution doesn’t talk about Filibuster but the Senate recognizes the procedure and it was used to perpetuate Jim Crow laws for one hundred years and is often used by a minority to block laws, judicial and other appointments supported by a majority but not a super majority of 60 Senators. This minority rule arising in the Senate, whose membership is based on two Senators from each state, is itself not representative of all the citizens of the United States equally and in that sense also is a minority body. This is one of many concessions the Framers and others made to make the adjustments necessary for a Federal union to work. Thus the Framers recognized that there are seeds of anarchy in a pure democracy and so put in measures like a bicameral legislature, one house based on representation by population the other based on representation by state, with different terms, to avoid precipitous change or the tyranny of the majority over the minority. (Sometimes it seems like the tyranny of a skillful minority over the majority.)
Obama sees the Constitution as a body of rules for a rational, deliberative process. With its elaborate machinery, checks and balances, separation of powers, federalist principles and the Bill Of Rights it is designed to force us into a conversation, testing ideas against external realities , forging alliances and making concessions to make our Democracy work even in trying times.
The Framers did not recognize and absolute truth or an “ism” or dicta from on high and thus the Constitution forces those in power to take all the public’s ideas and interests into account when formulating laws.
BARACK OBAMA:BOOK REVIEW: The Audacity Of Hope. Chapter Two: Values.
Obama in this chapter talks about values. If you remember the 2004 presidential election the subject of values was a big issue if not a decisive issue in the campaign. This is one of those nebulous issues thought up by Karl Rove to show that Republican voters, particularly fundamentalist Christian voters had superior values than those people that just voted their economic interests. Like it or not the candidates had to address issues surrounding abortion, gay marriage, gays in the military etc.
Obama believes that the core values of America are those that are expressed in the Bill Of Rights and it is those values that unite us as a people.
Politicians in Washington are engaged in a big money game over humanist values versus property values for their constituencies. Thus the issue of values came up in the 1994 election when the values in question, gun rights, gay rights, abortion, Christian fundamentalism etc. had nothing to do with the economic rights of the people involved. People with marginal incomes were led not to vote for their economic interests but for perceived values that would have no effect as to what they had on the table to eat that night. Thus an election was decided on false issues created by politicians whose loyalty lay not with the electorate but the economic interests of the wealthy.
While the values of Americans as expressed in the Bill Of Rights have not changed 9/11 has allowed the government to play fast and loose with constitutional principles. Problems arise when conservatives who value “free markets” or gun rights do not pay enough attention to those that liberals value like freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, privacy and due process. Also who controls woman’s reproductive rights seem to cut both ways and everybody appears to believe in freedom of worship but the line that defines government involvement in religion is often blurred depending on one’ point of view.
Often there is a misconception between values and ideology. Values are important to people but do not rise to the level of an ideology. Many people value gun rights but nowhere in the Constitution is there a clause saying they can’t be regulated so those who enjoy hunting can exercise their gun rights but those who wish to use an AK 47 for illicit purposes can’t be stopped from doing so.
Ones perception of other peoples values can be enhanced by empathy or by putting yourself in the other person’s shoes to see how he sees the issues surrounding values and what is important and what is not. Those that wish to divide the public on the issue of values by creating good guys and bad guys do not act in the public interest.
What is more important; clean air and water, adequate medical care, proper education a broad and secure middle class, freedom of speech, privacy rights, due process, freedom of assembly or small government, unfettered markets, an uncontrolled military and their contractors, laws that cause the accumulation of wealth in the top sector of the public and lobbyists that formulate laws and have the financial clout to see that they are enacted?
Obama believes that change is in the air and that people are becoming more enlightened as to what is important to them and the welfare of the public in general and what is important to the power brokers in Washington.
WHY NOT NEWT?
Barack Obama: The Audacity Of Hope. Chapter One: Republicans And Democrats. Identity And Philosophy.
Senators Edward Kennedy And Barack Obama 2007
Barack Obama in this chapter discusses the difference between Republicans and Democrats historically and up to the present day. He notes that the party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt has become more conservative recently hearkening back to the party as it was in the Twenties before the Great Depression
The party of Nelson Rockefeller made up of moderates who would go along to get along has disappeared. There have been changes in the Democratic Party also. The party once run by big city bosses and with a contingent from the Solid South has also disappeared. Also the party that ruled Congress for forty years after World War II is gone.
However while the Democrats have held on to the idea that politics is a game of achieving goals incrementally by give and take and compromise to benefit of society in general, the Republicans have become more conservative and more absolutist.
Republican party discipline is rigidly enforced by its leaders. Districts have been gerrymandered into safe districts except if a member breaks a party rule like no new taxes then he is met by an onslaught of media attack ads and vituperation and vilification on conservative talk shows. Thus a shiny new true believer is put in his place as payment to the chastised and dismissed member for daring to vote his beliefs or conscience.
Beyond this the Republican Party has been taken over by its conservative wing and there are fewer moderates to meet and reach decisions somewhere in the middle. Now it’s our way or the highway and lobbyists like Grover Norquist who are not elected but have more power over issues than elected members decide policies and even the fate of elected members. They control big money donors so if a tenet of their conservative philosophy is violated by a member he can expect to be vigorously opposed in the next primary. Also new members are forced to sign pledges to vote certain ways on measures like no new taxes.
Barack Obama thinks that this polarity and absolutism exhibited by the Republican right is preventing the government from enacting legislation fair to all Americans or even functioning properly as a governing body in a democratic society
Instead the Republicans have a limited focus for government, no safety net, no health care, no consumer protection, small government, no regulation of commerce, free markets and government should only provide for the national defense and protection of private property.
Obama sees this situation as a bad one for all concerned. Without a strong and vibrant middle class and with proper education for all Americans we will not be able to compete in a globalized economy.
The Audacity Of Hope is about changing the status quo in Washington to a government that is more focused on protecting and nourishing all its people and not just the wealthy. To do otherwise would be to abandon our premiere place as the leader of the World to other rising powers. Therefore we must prepare our country to compete in order to hold our place in the world.
This book is different than his first book, Dreams From Father. In that book he seemed to be searching for identification and a philosophy to live by. In this book he appears to have found his identity and philosophy.
Barack Obama: The Audacity Of Hope. (Thoughts On Recapturing The American Dream). 2006. Prologue. Book Review.
SENATOR BARACK OBAMA
In 2006 Barack Obama published his second book. His first book Dreams From My Father, about his life up to entering law school was written after he had graduated from law school. It initially had a lack luster reception but upon his election to the Senate it was re-released and became a best seller. In this book he tells us of his experiences after law school. Upon graduation he went back to Chicago where he became a civil rights lawyer, a lecturer at the University Of Chicago Law School, married Michelle and had two girls and eventually, after being a political activist (He is considered responsible for registering 150,000 voters in behalf of the Democratic Party), he decided to become a candidate for political office. He first ran on the state level and then on the Federal level. He dedicates this book to the women who raised him, his grandmother Tutu and his mother Ann.
Despite a lukewarm reception at his entrance into politics on his first run for the state senate by perseverance and hard work he won. Next after a failed attempt at a congressional seat he decided to run for U.S. Senate. Michelle was dubious but she supported him. This decision was also greeted coolly by the power brokers in Illinois as he was running against a wealthy Republican incumbent, Peter Fitzgerald. However fortune smiled on him when the incumbent dropped out of the race because of a scandal and the Republicans were forced to bring in a candidate from another state with wild ideas like some of the candidates in the Republican runoff of 2011.
Campaigning on a state wide basis with a low budget was rigorous and stressful on family life but it caused him to speak directly with many voters and learn their hopes and fears.
Basically the average voter wanted a secure job, a decent education for the children, health care at a reasonable cost, a clean environment, safety from criminals and terrorists and a retirement with security and dignity. This book is based on those discussions he had during his during his successful campaign for the Senate.
He states that his own philosophy resembles more closely the editorials found in the N.Y. Times rather than the The Wall Street Journal. The book discusses those things that unite us as well as those that divide us and the common values that can lead us to a new consensus. He rejects politics that is founded solely on racial identity, gender, identity, sexual orientation, or victim-hood. He believes that our culture and values are important as our GDP. His first book was written in his late twenties before he had decided to run for political office while this book was written after he had become an experienced politician and probably with an eye on the Presidency.
Dreams From My Father, A Story Of Race And Inheritance. Barack Obama. Book Review. Part Three, Kenya, Chapter Nineteen: Barack Returns To Home Squared And Learns Of His Father’s Life In Kenya.
Barack: Harvard Law Sch0ool
Barack returned to Home Squared after his visit to Alego. There his paternal granny tells the history of the family from his great grandfather, to his grandfather to his father.
He learns that his paternal ancestors were strong, independent men. His great grandfather was a skillful and disciplined farmer and he learns that his grandfather worked for the British and taught himself to read and write. He also was a cook in Burma during the war to an English Captain. When he returned to Home Squared he built his own house and cleared his own land and made amends with his father with whom he had become estranged. He taught Barack Sr., his letters and numbers at an early age.
Barack Sr. was a bright boy but willful and independent. He attended grammar school and middle school but he was dismissed before graduating for misconduct. His father was furious at him and sent him to work with an Arab trader on the coast. This didn’t work out and he had problems at other jobs.
However he was befriended by two American teachers in Nairobi. They recognized his potential and urged him to finish his high school education by a correspondence course and said they would write letters of recommendation for him to attend college in the United States.
Barack Sr. took their recommendations seriously and enrolled in a correspondence course and graduated. Then he wrote over thirty letters seeking admission to American colleges. Since he lacked funds he also needed a scholarship and living expenses. After many rejections or non- responses he succeeded in gaining a scholarship to the University Of Hawaii with living expenses. Afterward he went on to Harvard and obtained a Masters Degree in Economics and returned to Kenya.
His expectation was that he would be among the leaders of a new independent Kenya. However he fell out of favor with Jomo Kenyatta the President of Kenya because of the open criticism he made of the favoritism of the Kikuyu in receiving government posts. Barack Sr. was a member of the Luo Tribe. However The Kikuyu had suffered more under British rule because their land was in the highlands coveted by the British farmers who immigrated to Kenya. So this might have played a part in Kenyatta’s thinking.
Later he was hired as a minor bureaucrat but he had spent many years unemployed because Kenyatta blocked him from finding employment in the private sector as well the government.
In the end, a disillusioned man, he turned to alcohol and died early.
Barack Jr. recognized his father as a lonely man, unsupported in his quest to be a leader in Kenya by his father, relatives and other Luo. He had been estranged from his father who in turn had been estranged from his great grandfather who had gone so far as to travel widely and even embrace Islam.
However Barack implies that he embraced his black identity in Chicago which he now considered home among the blacks of the South Side. Also implied is that he was going to seek out the same leadership goals his father had through that community.
Why he thought he had to start out a new in Chicago is left unsaid. However he physically had the appearance of a person with black genes and that may have shaped his thinking. Also settling in a major American city located in a major American state, the one time home of Abraham Lincoln, may have been perceived, consciously or unconsciously as the most likely way to achieve his goal.
However he could have settled in Hawaii with his white mother, Indonesian half sister and his white grandparents just as easily as they were people he grew up with and nurtured him. Also he would have the similar political opportunities as in Illinois where outside the South Side of Chicago the population was predominantly white.
In this respect, going off on his own seems to be a reflection of the way his male ancestors led their lives.
This book was written after he had graduated from Harvard Law School and he had been the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, a distinction that opened many doors for him. This was especially true when he returned to Chicago where he obtained a teaching position at the University of Chicago Law School and had his pick of the cities law firms to join.
In the end he chose to be a leader in government a dream his father also had.
Dreams From My Father, A Story Of Race And Inheritance. Barack Obama. Book Review. Part Three, Kenya, Chapter Eighteen: Trip To Home Squared and Alego His Grandfather’s Farms. Transitions.
Barack’s grandfather had been a cook for the British Army and during the World War a captain before he returned to the farm. His grandmother still lived on the property and greeted him with warmth as did of all his relatives there. The grandfather is referred reverentially to as the “The Old Man” and was remembered as a skilled farmer as well as a cook as well as a stern no nonsense man. He also had other wives. Barack is shown a picture of Akumu with a daughter Sarah. She lived on another homestead called Alego. Grandfather Hussien apparently was in Burma with the Army because Akumu looks Burmese.
Grandfather Hussein Onyango Obama (1895- 1979) is buried with a marker on the property and alongside his grave is Barack Sr.’s grave yet to have a marker.
Yusef and Sayed explain to Barack that the land is fertile but no one has the agricultural training or expertise to raise the yield above a subsistence level. Much of the land has been given away because the family has been unable to work it.
Roy and Barack journey to Alego to see their cousin Abo a descendant from their grandfather’s other family. His cousins Salina, Kizia and Billy are there also. At night the men drink together and discuss the weaknesses of the Obama clan in Africa. These turn out to be too much drink and more than one wife.
Later back at Home Squared, Sayed opines that Barack Sr.’s problem was that he tried to live the life of an educated bureaucrat and also follow his ancestral ways and this caused him to fail as an economic planner in the new Kenya. Barack senses that his father never fully made the transition from the rural farm to be the educated economic leader he stove to be. (It was probably too great a journey to achieve in one generation.)
Dreams From My Father, A Story Of Race And Inheritance. Barack Obama. Book Review. Part Three, Kenya, Chapter Seventeen: Safari To The Great Rift Valley With A Reluctant Auma.
Barack decides to go on a safari to The Great Rift Valley and convinces a reluctant Auma to go with him. They join a small tour group led by a guide and two Masai warriors for security. The Masai still clung to their old ways as herdsmen and warriors. The young males had to kill a lion to gain their manhood and cattle raids still occurred.
The Valley is remote, beautiful and teeming with wildlife like a Henri Rousseau painting. Barack and the others sleep in tents and get to know one another.
One of the other men, who was English, tells him that he was born in the central highlands of Kenya but his family had to give up their farm, after independence, and return to England when he was nine. He studied medicine and has returned to Africa but not Kenya to practice where there was a surplus of doctors. Instead he and his wife settled in Malawi and practiced under a government contract where there was a dire need for doctors as there were only eight doctors for half a million people and a constant shortage of supplies. People were dying of preventable or curable diseases and now the region was beset with Aids. In some villages fifty percent of the people had the disease. The doctor was grim in his assessment of conditions.
Noting his pessimism Barack asked why he had come back. The man answered, I view Africa as my home with its open spaces and ecological beauty, London was too crowded and confining for him. This said, he knew he would eventually be replaced by a native doctor and have to go back to England where he felt out of place.
On their return they find that Roy has come back from the United States. He is the eldest son and the women treat him with respect catering to his every whim. Auma is upset at this treatment and sees no reason for it other than the fact he is the first born male.
Barack learns the facts of David’s death. Roy and David had gone to a club where Roy met a woman he took a fancy to and a man objected saying he was the woman’s husband. A fight broke out and Roy was arrested for lack of identification papers. David came to the jail and asked for the motorcycle keys. He had been drinking and Roy didn’t want him to drive. David convinced him he should go back to the house and get Roy’s papers so he wouldn’t have to spend the night in jail. Roy gave in and on his way David got in an accident and was killed.
Seeing Roy’s remorse, Barack says it was an accident Roy and not your fault. You should let it go. It seems that Africa was a place of great hope and beauty but of many heart breaking stories.
Dreams From My Father, A Story Of Race And Inheritance. Barack Obama. Book Review. Part Three, Kenya, Chapter Sixteen: Nairobi, Kenya. The Dilemma Of Responsibility.
M
MATHARE, KENYA
Barack tries to mentor his younger brother Bernard. However he senses the seventeen year old only wants him to leave him his basketball sneakers and is not interested in any advice to work hard in school and get an education.
Barack begins to see what his father was up against as the oldest son responsible for the extended family when his grandfather died. Auma has made a place for herself in life as a teacher while his sisters Jane and Zeituni eke out a living as clerical staff. Also no one seems to have a husband much like the situation in Roseland.
The family is split over Barack Sr’s meager estate. Aunt Sarah claims that Barack, Auma and Bernard are not Barack Seniors children. Auma says there is some question over who Bernard’s father is because Barack Sr. and his mother Kezia had long since separated and he had married Ann and had Barack and Mark and David with Ruth but he would sometimes spend the night with Kezia after these marriages. Bernard is aware of these facts.
Auma drives Barack and Zeituni to Aunt Sarah’s house located outside of town. On the way they pass a vast squatters town of jury rigged shacks of wood scraps and corrugated tin. No one seems to know the population and guess at 500,000 or one million. Auma says that people continually drift there from the countryside looking for work and the government seems unwilling and unable to cope with the poverty and the unhealthy conditions much less provide work for the inhabitants.
Sarah lives on the far side of this slum called Mathare in a nine story unfinished cinder block building. She is a bitter woman leading a Spartan life and desperately asks Barack for money. He gives her all he has in his pocket.
On the way back Auma tells him that his father saw to the welfare of everyone when he had a good job with the government. However when he lost that job he was repudiated by the family members he had helped even to the extent of giving him a nights lodging when he needed it.
Barack goes to meet Ruth, the woman his father married while at Harvard. She had two sons by Barack Sr., David and Mark. David the youngest has died from leading a profligate life. He was a protégé of Roy who Barack met in Washington D.C.
Mark the eldest is a student at Stanford and appears to be headed for a fruitful life. Ruth has remarried and lives in a wealthy enclave of Nairobi with her new husband and her child by him. She is still bitter about her divorce but this anger is tempered by fond memories of Barack Sr.
Auma tells him Ruth is the only one with a clear claim to Barack senior’s estate as she has kept the proper paper work.
Later Barack has lunch alone with a reluctant Mark. Mark discloses his desire to wash his hands of Kenya and all his ties there.
Barack wonders what his responsibilities are to these people he is related to but hardly knows. Auma and Mark seem to be the only ones who have or will make something of their lives. The broader question implicit in his thoughts is what are one’s responsibilities to those who will not or cannot help themselves?
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