What Do You Want, Hitler?
Categories: Earl Caldwell, President Barack H. Obama
Tags: Earl Caldwell Woody Allen Adolf Hitler WBAI 99.5 FM - N.Y.C. President Barack H. Obama
Les Payne
August 31, 2009
President Obama might feel a double-edged frustration when hearing his critics on health care. As “progressives” press him from the left as too soft, the extremists on the right are blasting him as “Adolph Hitler,” complete with moustache.
Caricaturized during the campaign as “Obambi” by one New York Times columnist the president has recently come under the wall-eyed gaze of another such pundit. Paul Krugman warns the White House against backing away from the “public option” component of health care reform.
The “progressive” columnist, who can be down-right
insightful when not carrying water for the
“There’s a point at which realism shades over into weakness,” Krugman wrote in a recent Times column. “Progressives feel Obama is on the wrong side of the weakness line.”
That threshold is less clear for former Baltimore Mayor Curt Schmoke who is the current Dean of Howard University Law School. Under the Washington Post headline, “Who’s Afraid of President Obama,” Schmoke argues that “it does not yet appear that the time has come” for President Obama to use the “carrot and stick.”
Weakness is not what critics on the Right see in Obama.
“Hitler!” they shout in opposition to his health care initiative. Die Fuhrer’s face is superimposed on Obama posters they wave about at town hall meetings these days. Some of the nasty artwork has been attributed to perpetual president candidate Lyndon LaRouche, supposedly of the Left. However, Obama right-wing critics sport the posters quite on their own.
Rep. Barney Frank, (D-Mass.) famously faced down one of many health-care critics with such posters of Obama with a Hitler moustache.
Meanwhile, YouTube features a slew of videos—viewed by millions on-line—that portray Obama with that Hitler mustache in a brown-shirt under Swastika flags and even addressing his large campaign gatherings with an authentic Hitler voice-over in German.
As the health-care issue heads toward a post Labor Day resolution, President Obama will be damned as “Die Fuhrer” if he does and Obambi if he doesn’t.
WBAI radio host Earl Caldwell put the “too weak” question to me on-air recently. I fielded it as cleanly as I could. Earl also asked about the tough-guy tactics that I’ve been known to employ.
For this and other volleys, let’s go to the "AUDIO TAPE”:
Played: 1617 | Download | Duration: 00:35:44
Thank Goddess for the audiotape, Payne! I laughed out loud when you did the “mixed-race” compare-and-contrast, tagging Shelby Steele as Fool and Barack Obama as Authentic. Absolutely. I disagree with you, though, when you say Obama can't lead if he's reaching across the aisle to shake the hands of his enemy. I believe just the opposite: I think the strongest leader seeks first to find a compromise especially when you know doing so will inevitably be seen as weakness. Plus, it’s not like Obama has a choice. His maneuvering room is vastly more constricted than that of the centuries of white boys who preceded him in the job. Beyond that, though, I think reaching across the aisle is the ultimate show of strength, something Obama seems to understand—and use—better than anyone in recent memory except for Mandela. Obama’s biggest problem with being so adept at riffing the full range of power, though, is that the American public is not used to it. We're trained in the binary either/or, zero sum game of venal slicksters (Bill & Hillary), flat out idiots (Dubya & Sarah Palin), or cold-hearted harpies (Dubya's mama). So a leader like Obama genuinely confuses us and makes us nervous. Even we who support him worry that he might not know when it’s time to grab that enemy’s hand, snatch his ass over the line, and stomp him down. But it’s also like you said, Obama’s road to the White House cut through Chicago politics. He might move with great equanimity, but he wouldn’t be where he is if he weren’t also capable of calculated ruthlessness. Maybe we’ll feel a little better when we see some of his opponents draw back a nub.
Oh, as for your essay ("The Night I Stopped Being a Negro") you mentioned, but didn't tell folks where to find it, allow me: It's in the newly released WHEN RACE BECOMES REAL: BLACK AND WHITE WRITERS CONFRONT THEIR PERSONAL HISTORIES (Southern Illinois University Press 2008).
Reply to this
I generally appreciate your thoughtful commentary on issues illuminated by Les Payne, but I disagree with your point about engaging one's enemy in domestic politics; that is, your claim that reaching across the aisle "is an ultimate show of strength." The Republicans have learned from Bill Clinton's "stealing" their ideas, so under Obama you might notice that they don't advance any. I agree with the notion of "reaching out to enemies" with respect to foreign affairs, in part because most of our enemies, so-called, are creatures of our own creation- we stole their resources, occupied their land, killed their people, corrupted their leaders to commercial advantage, and the like, and that's likely why they oppose us and have been designated "enemies". Domestic politics is different, I think, in that the Republicans believe that if Obama wins, they lose. It is the same with the Democrats. That means if Obama's programs are enacted into law and are beneficial to most Americans, he and other Democrats are likely to be re-elected or elected: it's all about gaining power to make the rules- the ultimate end-game is usually about wealth, but the Democrats in recent decades care more about the lives of ordinary Americans. What seems so different now is that President Obama's story seems very different from the racial stereotypes historically cast by both Republicans and Democrats about African-Americans, but we learn as always that truth matters not at all. Obama has been cast as a Hitlerian figure, a socialist, a third-worlder, a traitor of some sort looking to transfer power from whites to here-to-fore powerless minorities. All this is happening in a rapidly changing U.S. in which the growth of immigrant populations has been dizzying, the U.S. economy is in a deep downturn, and the look and feel of the country is changing. Whites, who voted for McCain/Palin by a significant majority, are not pleased with what they see. The fear-mongering we see at town-halls and elsewhere played up in media works so well because President Obama is racially different from his predecessors. The mainstream media that people count on for factual information is not up to the task- how else can so many inane notions get air time and print space, and linger in public consciousness? I'm among those who want to see the President toughen up and whip the Democrats in line with all the historic resources at his disposal; after all, they are now in the majority. Even while I understand that politics is, or can be, the art of compromise, I would prefer to see the President maintain his principles and his positions and lose, than to become some caricature and pass watered-down measures. The hope I would keep alive is hope that President Obama will not try to be all things to all people. We've all seen that "B" movie before and we can guess the ending.
Reply to this
I listen to most Earl Caldwell shows, but for online review, I find transcripts helpful.
That said, the whole "weakness" thing is irrelevant as a way to view President Obama and health care. Disclosurer:
I am for single payer, and HR676.
For me, President Obama is too corporate. The promises (such as listed in the memo made public) to big Pharma that they wouldn't lose money in his health care policy), the real absence of clear plan and not backing
single payer since he was an IL State
Senator bother me. I think there are some good points in Bruce A. Dixon's and Glen Ford's commentaries on Black Agenda Report. I voted for Pres. Obama, but I am disappointed in his policies so far (wars, secrecy, continuation of "W" Bush policies - from drones in Pakistan..., bail-outs while not doing much for people being foreclosed), pro-privatizing schools...
I think nominees to the US Supreme Court will be most telling for me. If he nominates a Roberts or Alito type for his next nominee, I'll not vote for Obama next time.
Reply to this
Obama said after meeting with doctors, nurses and other health care workers at Children's National Medical Center that he can't afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care.There are too many lives and livelihoods at stake.
Reply to this