Obviously, the title of this essay is taken from an ancient Irish folk song entitled, “Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye.” I believe the title is appropriate because Barack Obama had a meteoric rise from a community organizer in Chicago all the way to the presidency of the United States. I am not an active participant in the political process as it relates to politics, but I am an interested observer of the political scene and particularly the events in the Democratic Party. My roots are in the Midwest, in Missouri, and of course Illinois is our neighboring state. But be that as it may, I was completely unaware of Barack Obama until he delivered the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in the fall of 2004. I heard that speech but more than anything else I marked it off as the heated rhetoric of a presidential campaign. I cannot say that the speech offended me but it did not bowl me over either.
On the other hand, a good many Democrats in high-level positions considered that speech a colossal humdinger. More than anything else, I suspect that the speech made in 2004 was the rock upon which Barack Obama has built his career. I have lived in New Jersey since 1955 with a four-year detour to Washington, so it is not surprising that I knew so little of the story about Barack Obama. But Barack Obama and the Irish folk song, “Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye,” have a good bit in common.
This ancient Irish folk song laments the fact that an 18- or 19-year-old son of Ireland has returned home quite crippled. I believe that most historians will agree that England had its foot on Irish necks for a period of more than 800 years. When the English were overthrown in 1922, they managed to keep six counties in northern Ireland that they claimed were part of the English empire. That claim is preposterous on its face. But nonetheless during the occupation of Ireland, work was hard to find and youngsters such as Johnny faced bleak job prospects. As was often the case, people such as Johnny were forced to join the English army. The folk song records the fact that there was a battle in Ceylon and when Johnny returned to his homeland, he was a cripple. The song says,
You haven’t an arm, you haven’t a leg,
You’ll have to be put with a bowl to beg.
Johnny, we hardly knew ye.
And so it is that a person in my position who has always been interested in the affairs of the Democratic Party knew nothing about Barack Obama until the famous speech in 2004. Hence the title of this essay.
Obama parlayed that speech into the Democratic nomination for the junior Senator from Illinois in 2006. For one reason or another, the Illinois Republicans had no candidate as the election approached. Finally, a floater named Keyes appeared on the scene as the Republican candidate. It must be noted that Keyes was a resident of Maryland who seemed to have no intention of moving to Illinois for the election. As one might guess, Obama won the election and became the junior Senator from the state of Illinois. Two years later, he became the Democratic candidate for the presidency and was elected. So I believe it is fair to say that in a period of four years, from 2004 until 2008, Mr. Obama had catapulted himself from a community organizer in Chicago to the presidency of the United States.
Obama has now been our President for two years. Together with his election, the American electorate produced substantial majorities for the Democratic Party in the House and in the Senate as well. In the first two years of the Barack Obama administration, he has made spectacular progress. For example after trying for more than a hundred years, this country now has a national health plan. The Republicans are attacking it and hoping to defund it, but as long as Obama is the President he can use the veto pen. When the Republicans endeavor to sidetrack this historic achievement, it will be going nowhere.
Obama has made several other moves that are beneficial to the American electorate. When he came into office, he inherited the worst depression since 1929. Obama has established a collection of experts to steer us through the great downturn. As I write these lines in 2011, it appears that our financial prospects are looking up. The stock market is now at the 12,000 level and may go higher. The problem now is jobs. Obama says that he is working on the jobs front but he is dealing with the solid opposition of the Republican Party.
The purpose of this essay is not to record every hit and miss of the first two years of the Obama administration. It is to give my general impression, as a person who is sympathetic to the hopes of the Democratic Party, of the performance of Barack Obama in the office of the presidency.
As I have said earlier, I knew very little about the career of the community organizer Barack Obama. When he burst upon the scene in the 2006 election, I regarded him as an interesting figure who would bear watching. I had no idea that Obama had his eye on the presidency of the United States. And I must say that he seemed to have all of the credentials to hold that post.
In the Democratic primaries prior to the 2008 election, Obama was pitted against Hillary Clinton. There was also a third candidate named John Edwards in that race. For four years or so, John Edwards had articulated the thought that America was becoming a nation of the super rich and the ultra poor. I have long since subscribed to this point of view and, as a result, I supported John Edwards with my contributions. It is well that Barack Obama won that race because in the end, it was disclosed that John Edwards had fathered a child out of wedlock, which resulted in the dissolution of his marriage. Edwards had a great vision for America, as I saw it, but his extra-marital affairs have come to doom him.
You know the rest. Obama was elected and the first two years of his presidency were years of great accomplishments. While he has accomplished much, there is a disturbing facet of Obama that bothers me. Specifically and precisely, Mr. Obama is not a fighter.
The politicians in this country know that they can defy Mr. Obama at will and there will be no penalty associated with their refusal. For example, during the first two years of the Obama administration, the Republican Party has locked hands and voted against nearly every proposal that he has put forward. But rather than attacking this treasonous conduct, Obama said on one occasion, “Perhaps I have not put my arms out far enough.” I am sure that he would like to extend brotherly love to Republicans as well as Democrats but when a party such as the Republican Party is sticking a gun in your ribs, there is no need to apologize to them. He should kick them in the ass.
I was infuriated at the outcome of the expiration of the Bush era tax cuts. In 2010, when the Bush era tax cuts were set to expire, Obama proposed middle class taxes should remain the same and that the taxes on the higher levels should return to those levels that applied before the Bush tax cuts took place. The Republicans fought viciously to protect the breaks for the wealthy. This was not a tax increase of any kind. Obama was proposing that the tax rates should merely go back to the years of the Clinton administration for those making more than $250,000 per year.
The Democrats particularly made an effort to reach some agreement on this point of the tax policy. Senator Schumer of New York, for example, proposed that the tax rates of those with incomes of a million dollars or more would simply return to the levels that applied during the Clinton years. The Republicans said, “no way.” They wanted the tax cuts for the millionaires and billionaires to stay in place.
It astounded me that Obama gave in. There are infinitely more middle class earners than there are those with million dollar incomes. This was a fight that Obama could have easily won. More than saying he simply punted, he gave in on a fight that he could have easily won. Can you imagine anyone saying that millionaires deserved to pay less, all the while holding the middle class tax payers as hostages? Obama not only gave in on this idea, but additionally he changed the estate taxes so they would now apply to estates of $5 million, whereas previously, the limit was $2 million. This was an added sop for the wealthy. And so we see that John Edwards was right. The rich are getting richer, and the middle class earners are doing all they can to hold on to what they have.
When this happened, I wrote to Mr. Obama and suggested that if this was his idea of equity, he should consider resigning. Of course, there has been no reply to that letter.
In dozens of other cases, Mr. Obama has demonstrated his desire to avoid a fight at all costs. Consider for example the many debates about health care. More than anything else, this accomplishment is a tribute to the wisdom and effectiveness of Nancy Pelosi. When it came to a debate during the health bill on the public option, Obama through his spokesman made it clear that he was not prepared to fight the insurance companies who have profited since the public option was not adopted. Simply put, if there is a debate that requires a fight, Obama will avoid the fight or will seek a compromise on the terms of his opponent.
When it comes to physical courage of opposing the intransigence of the Republican Party locking arms and saying “no” to everything, my vote would have to go to Nancy Pelosi. When it comes to guts and balls and whatever other symbols of courage one may cite, Nancy Pelosi is the clear winner.
I suppose that I am repeating myself, but in a political proposal where there is a fight to be had, Obama is among the missing. Unfortunately Mr. Obama will not take part in that fight but will probably seek a compromise on the other person’s terms. The politicians of both the Republican and Democratic Parties know that there is absolutely no penalty whatsoever for opposing whatever Obama wishes to accomplish. They are clearly not fearful in any respect.
I make this assessment in sorrow rather than in anger. But I really believe in a President as somebody with the guts and brashness and balls of a person such as Harry Truman. Truman did not have a degree from Harvard Law School; he knew right from wrong and he was willing to fight for it. There was no timidity in Harry Truman. Nancy Pelosi is of that school of thought.
After two years of the Obama administration, I know now what to expect. For example, at this very moment we are engaged in a dispute about whether or not democracy should prevail in Egypt. I believe that it is absolutely clear that Mubarak should be removed from office. I realize the restraints on American intrusion in this matter, but it seems to me that Mubarak is yesterday. The people who are demonstrating are tomorrow. I hope it becomes clearer to the dissidents in Egypt that we are on their side. Our continued support of the reviled despotism of Mubarak is not where we want to be.
This essay started with the idea: Barack, we hardly knew ye. I suppose that it would have been best if, four or five years ago, we had known about Tom Buffenbarger. He is the President of the Machinist Union and Aircraft workers. Apparently Buffenbarger in his capacity as the President of a major union, has had a good bit to do with Mr. Obama.
During the primaries in 2008 when Obama was pitted against Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, Tom Buffenbarger issued a statement. The essence is contained in these lines. Buffenbarger said, “This guy won’t last a round against the Republican attack machine. He’s a poet, not a fighter.” I have nothing against poets and there are times when I wish I could write poetry. But when it is time to fight, poetry becomes secondary.
Who knows? Maybe poetry is better than fighting. But I doubt that Nancy Pelosi and dozens of others who stand up for the downtrodden would agree with that proposition. In the next two years of the Barack Obama administration, we can hope that Mr. Obama acquires some of Nancy Pelosi’s courage and ballsiness.
I am a realist and I know that this is probably a forlorn hope. That is what I am left with. On the other hand, I am very grateful that Obama is our President as opposed to, for example, Sarah Palin. But we all live and learn. I expect that we will have to come to understand thatMr. Obama is a poet and a timid one at that.
So the answer to the title of this essay now becomes clearer. What we did not know about Barack Obama is that he is more of a poet than a fighter, which Tom Buffenbarger could have told us two years ago. I wish it were the other way around. But hope springs eternal and maybe Nancy Pelosi’s courage may spread to our President. In that case, I would tend to withdraw my suggestion that Barack should resign.
I never thought that at this late date, I would still be missing Harry Truman, my fellow Missourian. But he was a flinty character, and I wish that there were more of Harry Truman in Barack Obama.
E. E. CARR
February 1, 2011
Essay 547(?)
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Kevin’s commentary: only a few days ago, Barack was elected to a second term in office. I hope that now that he no longer has to worry about being re-elected, he can be a little more ballsy than he has been previously. Regardless though I think one of the biggest victories here is the supreme court appointments that Obama will presumably get to make. I’m pretty sick of how conservative the court has been for the last uh, since-I’ve-been-alive.
It’s also amazing to me that not even two years after this essay was authored, I find it crazy that people like Palin and Santorum were even taken seriously. I mean, it was just as much of a mystery then but looking back on it I have no idea how it was allowed to get as far as it did. Mittens honestly wasn’t even on the same scale. I mean he was a bit of a greedy douchebag but Of course he lost horribly also as he well should have but for an uncomfortably long time things were distressingly close.
PS a huge, but late, happy Veteran’s day to Pop!