More moot complaints unproductive

March 9, 2009 by Brad Lord-Leutwyler 

We need to move past political barriers in endangered times

Recently I read the article, “A Black Woman’s View — No He Can’t,” by Anne Worthman, a professor at Illinois State University and Stanford University (as a loaner).  The article is all over the Web, making the spam-circuit of the angry old republican guard. In a nutshell, she is … disappointed … that Barack Obama is the president.

If you read the entire article, you will notice that the author failed to say anything meaningful and she did not support any assertion with anything other than unstated and specious assumptions.  She did not tell me why he couldn’t be a good president.  She made assertions such as “I would have to abnegate my certain understanding that you have chosen to sprint down the road to serfdom that we have been on for over a century,” yet failed to provide any evidence to support her claim: how and why will that result come about, given the co-equal and tri-partite government we have?

Clinton brought great prosperity and no serfdom and Bush brought us…the present state of affairs. Please spare me the “Bush is the end result of policies going back to Carter” dodge: If Bush et al were half-awake and realized that all who preceded them were so wrong they could have taken action.  

They didn’t because Bush and our devastated republican party are so grossly anti-intellect and pro-ignorance that all they were interested in doing was preserving power.  Had they thought about doing what is correct, what is intellectually cogent, they would not have lost the power to which they have become so Gollum-like addicted. 

Indeed, every assertion this woman made was without any support.  So what if Obama’s advisers are intellectuals.  So were those of Jefferson, Reagan, Kennedy, Nixon and Lincoln. We have seen what eight years of having anti-intellectuals in government can do.  Does she expect us to buy the position that more of that will improve the situations in the world? 

To some who were disappointed with the outcome of the election, her argument sounds acceptable.  This is the sad message of the last election: we are still unwilling to think.  We would rather feel hurt, vengeful, superior or righteous.  

I am not wild about Obama, but he is the one who won and we all need to begin to move forward and make the best of the situation.  We need to try to construct the best nation we can, given the cards we have been dealt.  If we love Obama, we should do all that we can to support him.  

If we do not like his approach, we still must try to make the most progress that we can and not sit around plotting ways that we can squander the present in order to undermine him: It may yield political results we like in the future, but it will further damage our nation as a whole.  If the last 20 years have taught us anything, it is this.

I would like to suggest that the author should shut up about Obama and start talking about the arguably flawed system that limited us to two parties – a system that yields mediocre results most of the time.  Complain about how the media limit our choices and how the media does so because of the money issue (nearly 1 billion dollars spent by the candidates).  

Lastly, she can complain to Americans about their attitudes and not just about the pissed-off segment of the population that banded together and did things the democratic way.  

 We have to unite as a nation.  Democrats need to stop with the crybaby routine and republicans need to quit being such narrow-minded anti-humanists.

We are a team, one nation, one people and one goal.  If the offense and the defense on a football team are playing for opposed and selfish objectives, what are the odds that the team will even make the playoffs?

We need a national “come to Jesus” meeting about our failings in this regard.  If you did not vote for and are not in love with Obama, take comfort in the fact that perhaps Obama will at least give us that.

Brad Lord-Leutwyler is an adjunct professor of philosophy at UNLV.