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The Sour Note In Obama's Speech |
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 by Daniel Koffler, March 20, 2008 |
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In an otherwise masterful performance on Tuesday --- if not the greatest speech on race in American history, then one of the greatest by a presidential candidate --- Barack Obama made one decidedly ugly remark:
This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
That is, the problem isn't strange-looking Americans taking your job, it's strange-looking foreigners, against whom Americans of all races, regions, creeds, and colors can unite. Will Wilkinson and Megan McArdle pounced on this immediately. What's so depressing about it is the way it mars Obama's genuinely inspiring vision of America as something more than a crude, zero-sum balancing of mutually antagonistic interest groups. Whether it's Republicans riding into office on fears of unqualified blacks leapfrogging whites for promotion and resentment of latte-sipping elites looking to gay-marry their children, or Democrats campaigning against a far-flung corporate conspiracy to keep the working man down while divvying up seats to their convention to fulfill racial and sexual quotas, both major parties have embraced and internalized the idea that individuals and groups can only thrive at the expense of everyone else. On multiple occasions in his speech, and indeed, throughout the campaign and his career, Obama has directly repudiated that notion. (It's one of the reasons he takes grief from certain segments of the lefty blogosphere.)
Or at least, he repudiates the politics of group antagonism up to the water's edge.
Audacious and hopeful enough? Apparently, it's fair game to scapegoat people in other countries trying (just like Americans!) to build a prosperous future for themselves and their families for the economic travails of American workers. Fair game too, to use the system of international trade that on balance makes everyone better off as bogeyman, when he clearly knows better.
The best that can be said is that, unlike trade restrictionists on the left and immigration restrictionists on the right (and trade and immigration are really just two sides of the same coin) Obama almost certainly doesn't believe that non-Americans are deserving objects of fear or spite. And in pandering to such fears, he's lowering himself no further than the standard of either of his competitors. As Megan puts it:
I understand the political logic that forces Barack Obama to spend a fair amount of time hating on trade. But I sort of feel--call me a starry-eyed idealist though you will--that a speech urging Americans not to hate and fear people who are different from them, should perhaps itself forgo urging Americans to hate and fear people who are different from them. You know, to set a good example for the children.
Admittedly, a lecture on the structural causes of the decline of the manufacturing sector and the flight to skill probably wouldn't go over too well with the target audience for the speech. But one of Obama's rhetorical gifts, and perhaps his most impressive, is his ability to dissolve demographic barriers and present a vision of life as cooperative rather than competitive, in language accessible to ordinary listeners. As long as Obama is after a more perfect union, he ought to have the audacity to hope for a more perfect world.
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David Kelsey
Give our jobs to China
" Apparently, it's fair game to scapegoat people in other countries
trying (just like Americans!) to build a prosperous future for
themselves and their families"
Yes, support corporate outsourcing, or you are a racist!
Anonymous
Americans represent about 4% of the earth's population
So I guess fairness demands that only 4% of U.S. jobs should go to Americans. Perfectly logical. I wonder if D.K. would have got into Yale without affirmative action--is he really in the top 4% worldwide?
Anonymous
Unreal Logic
It is the job of the American President to defend Americans, their Life, their Liberty, and their Interests. Let the president of China or India worry about the interests of the Chinese and Indians.
I will not vote for Obama and think his policies bad for American interests but to suggest that he was scapegoating foreigners is ludicrous. Americans need jobs and if we do not find a way to produce items and services that cannot be made better or cheaper somewhere else, we will fail to keep the living standards to which we have grown accustomed. While that might be seen as a positive to some people, I don't think most Americans want to give up their standard of living and would much rather it advance rather then its opposite.
Anonymous
I'm thinking your Jewcy job
I'm thinking your Jewcy job should be outsourced to one of the people you pretend Obama is insulting. Maybe you can try to find a job in manufacturing?
JewcyCraig
Perhaps my logic is retarded but..
Perhaps my logic is retarded but.. it seemed quite obvious to me that this is in no way a condemnation of foreigners (or the "scapegoating" of them), but the condemnation of corporate America for selling out American citizens solely for tax benefits or low wages. (That is: solely for a profit.)
But seriously, it seems like no one's addressing this. Surely I'm not the first to see it this way, right? This discussion was already disproven?
Marla Patinkin
Manufacturing jobs
Were going elsewhere anyway. Past policies and treaties accelerated the process, but the move has been happening since the 60's . It's our antiquated education system and reliance on the traditional liberal arts prep. education that has kept us from preparing new workers for jobs in tech fields. In addition, there is no funding or tax incentives for adult job retraining. This doesn't seem too difficult for an "average" American to understand. The issue can be addressed in the context of the failed education system and a much needed, innovative proposal for broad reaching restructuring of this neglected American blight.
naftali
Condemnation is in the Eye of the Beholder
The comment plays both ways, condemning the foreigner and the corporation. Except that the corporation is a corporation because it's a corporation (this sentence was fun to write, by the way). It is owned by thousands, maybe ten thousand, maybe a hundred thousand people. They own stock, and they expect their stock to rise in value, which will only happen if the corporation makes as much profit as possible. Many elderly and retired folks live of off the dividends that these evil corporations are able to pay because of the profits they make.
Once a foreign nation allows a manufacturing plant to open, employing people in their country to make goods for Americans, a bond forms between the two countries, who must begin to look out for each other's interests. It is beneficial for world peace.
But there are complications in the US as a result of this, the loss of jobs being the most obvious, something that is not easily remedied because, compared to the rest of the world, our schools aren't very good.
The bottom line--economic analysis and falling into quicksand have a lot in common.
Wayne
Outsourcing
First, manufacturing and other jobs go overseas because of the cost of labor. Our entire economy benefits because of this.
Second, it is the job of corporations to seek the greatest profits. It is their responsibility to use capital in the most efficient way. If they don't, competition will put them out of business.
Third, is anyone aware of the huge pollution problem in China now? The liberals who complain about the jobs going overseas are the first to say not in my backyard about factories.
Fourth, Obama is a demagogue who is pressing emotional hot buttons with no real answers. His economic and tax policies are easily refuted by anyone with a little knowledge in those areas. Fortunately for him his supporters are lacking in those areas.
Anonymous
naive
Some people think that Obama is naive because he wants Americans from all races and backgrounds to unite for the common good of this country. This may be the case, but personally I don't think so, and I am willing to give him a chance.
However, if you believe that the US president has an obligation to look after the welfare of people in OTHER countries, then YOU are naive. If you are looking for Worldwide Socialist Revolution, Obama is not your candidate.
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