Obamier Than Thou
Like virtually everyone else on Earth, I have a soft spot for Barack Obama, not least because he listens to the great Austan Goolsbee. (“What’s a haunted house, ma?” “It’s where the Goolsbee.”) And, let’s be frank, because he’s an ethnic. But his final pre-caucus advertisement, which I found via Marc Ambinder, rubs me the wrong way. Consider this passage, where Obama describes how awesome he is:
“I’ve spent my life working for change that’s made a real difference in the lives of real people.
Already Obama has alienated yours truly. My goal in life is to make a real difference in the lives of MMORPG avatars. As we approach the inside-out cyberworld vividly described by Vernor Vinge, these non-real lives or orcs and goblins will slowly converge with the so-called “real world” of cash-strapped working families. While I do genuinely care about the fate of working families, as the child of a working family (I mean, my family takes part in the legitimate economy, though perhaps we don’t “work as a family” in the sense of “not wanting to stab each other at times”), I wonder: Who will speak up for the e-orcs and other members of the virtual downtrodden?
“That’s why I passed up a job on Wall Street to fight joblessness and poverty on the streets of Chicago when the local steel plant closed.
On a slightly more serious note, I have to wonder if Obama’s intermittent organizing proved more beneficial for poor families on the South Side than, for example, the low-wage employers Chicago and other cities try to systematically drive out of their cities. To be sure, there is a valuable place for community organizers, but Obama is very clearly privileging their place over that of financiers and, by extension, entrepreneurs. This is a mindset that will likely have consequences. “Fighting” poverty via Alinskyite tactics involves a lot of hard work and direct confrontation and stick-to-it-iveness. Perhaps poverty will in fact be felled by a crane kick to the nuts. But I suspect the faceless corporate bureaucrat who came up with Wal-Mart’s $3 check-cashing has done vastly more to actually increase the purchasing power of the poor, and thus to alleviate poverty. (Believe you me, I’ve got a lot of thoughts on what it means to fight poverty. I’ll spare you for now.)
“That’s why I turned down the corporate law firms to work as a civil rights lawyer; to fight for those who had been denied opportunity.
This is somewhat more persuasive: I would love to see corporate law firms vanish. My hope is that superintelligent machines will somehow make this happen within my lifetime. But I do wonder: I know a lot of corporate lawyers who donate to Obama, and some who’ve left their “cushy” (i.e., soul-crushing, grueling, and sometimes mind-numbing) jobs to work for him. Do they see this as some sort of ritualistic self-flagellation? We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy! That’s pretty damn depressing.
More broadly, I have to wonder about how Barack Obama thinks the economy works. Apparently the virtuous few are those who work in the universe of social services, the non-profits, a handful of professional agitators, possibly academics. Everyone else, particularly Wall Street types and corporate lawyers and, I don’t know, manufacturers and massage therapists and small business owners, are not so much the people who create the wealth others, in their infinite wisdom, kindly dole out but rather a sickly exploiter class consisting entirely of pale, limpid eunuchs who are not robust enough to lead our nation into the 41st century and beyond.
Who knew!
Having said all this, I still really want Obama to win the Democratic nomination and I’d even be moderately stoked if he won the White House, if only because he seems like what we used to call “a cool dude.” (I am a patsy, but that’s obvious.) But man, if I were one of those productive types — a tiller of soil, etc. — I’d think, “This fella is, uh, kind of self-righteous.”
I’m for Obama solely because of his position on The Wire.
I’m sort of a single issue voter like that.
— Peter Suderman · Jan 3, 03:22 AM · #
“To be sure, there is a valuable place for community organizers, but Obama is very clearly privileging their place over that of financiers and, by extension, entrepreneurs.”
And that’s wrong, because Morgan Stanley as much as anyone has been serving to uplift, spiritually and materially, the South Side of Chicago. Indeed, one wonders why in the history of finance capitalism endemic poverty has existed at all. Anyway, alert David Simon! If only his show were to spend more time focusing on the anti-poverty efforts of the New York trading floor (while showcasing the depridations of Chavist Venenzuela) then it might really, as Mark Bowden says, “have it all figured out”!
— Mark · Jan 3, 06:52 AM · #
The guy ranks as the 49th richest Senator at an estimated worth upwards of $2,500,000. Nothing spectacular but not bad for someone who chose to toil away for the good of the common man.
— Michael · Jan 3, 07:54 AM · #
A Democratic presidential candidate who bashes corporate America on the eve of the Iowa caucus? Say it ain’t so!
Remember that Slate piece: Obama says he’s going to tell people things they don’t like, but he doesn’t; McCain just says them.
I used to wish Barack Obama would win the Dem nomination (and I still think he will), but now I wish he’d lose — so that McCain can pick him for Veep.
I know, I know, it’s crazy. But think about it.
— PEG · Jan 3, 08:18 AM · #
Obama didn’t leave a high paying job on Wall Street to be a community organizer. He worked as a copy editor for a company that churned out newsletters. A former coworker wrote:
“Don’t get me wrong – I’m a big fan of Barack Obama, the Illinois freshman senator and hot young Democratic Party star. But after reading his autobiography, I have to say that Barack engages in some serious exaggeration when he describes a job that he held in the mid-1980s.I know because I sat down the hall from him, in the same department, and worked closely with his boss. I can’t say I was particularly close to Barack – he was reserved and distant towards all of his co-workers – but I was probably as close to him as anyone. I certainly know what he did there, and it bears only a loose resemblance to what he wrote in his book….”
http://isteve.blogspot.com/2007/10/obamas-life-v-obamas-autobiography.html
— Steve Sailer · Jan 3, 09:07 AM · #
Reihan:
“This fella is, uh, kind of self-righteous.” is exactly my reaction to Obama.
Of course, that means he is virtually assured of winning the nomination, as I thought Howard Dean seemed like the most normal person in the race last time around.
— Jim Manzi · Jan 3, 09:33 AM · #
C’mon, Reihan, you can do better than this :).
City regulatory policy had little or nothing to do with the deindustrialization of the ’70s and early ’80s … it was a function of increased global trade, more demand outside the US, good old-fashion union busting, etc. (and I think some dumping at below-cost by Japanese steel companies, but that was minor if it even happened at all).
The “low wage employers are the real poverty fighers” meme has some resonance in the broad sense, but clearly not in the lives of the people that Obama worked with. The benefits of Wal-Mart and free trade and the like are diffuse (low prices for tens of millions), while the costs are acute (job losses or reduced wages for hundreds of thousands or millions). I think empirical evidence shows the South Side would have been better off without the steel plant closures.
It’s not like South Side Chicago was a paradise before the steel closures … I’m sure there were plenty of social ill’s to go around in 1974.
The heir to Alinsky organizing is probably Geoffy Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone, which Obama cites in his anti-poverty pieces and has been wildly successful.
And of course finally, Obama does “get” the business world … I always read his bit at the end of “Dreams from my Father” about going to Colombia to learn more about business and then come back to use it to make a difference in the lives of the poor as “I will tear down the master’s house using the master’s tools”. Obviously he’s moderated a bit in his old age.
— Nicholas Beaudrot · Jan 3, 01:48 PM · #
I really, really can’t get myself into the headspace that says that self-righteousness is the greatest of human evils. And yet it comes up again and again and again around here. Self-righteousness is an annoyance. Predation creates very real human suffering.
If only his show were to spend more time focusing on the anti-poverty efforts of the New York trading floor (while showcasing the depridations of Chavist Venenzuela) then it might really, as Mark Bowden says, “have it all figured out”!
If only those brave, selfless venture capitalists or whatever were willing to fundamentally change a system that ensures that some will live under crushing poverty, instead of donating money that does nothing to address the underlying structural problems, maybe I’d be more sympathetic to them.
Obama didn’t leave a high paying job on Wall Street to be a community organizer. He worked as a copy editor for a company that churned out newsletters.
As has been pointed out before, Steve, the recollections of a single person are not enough to significantly undermine Obama’s story.
— Freddie · Jan 3, 02:34 PM · #
I’m from Illinois and closely followed Obama’s ’004 Campaign. He is more Marxist than Hillary. It does not bode well for the future of our country.
At least for the time being we have our choice of Commissars. Obama seems like a nice Commissar.
— M. Simon · Jan 3, 04:53 PM · #
Freddie, what is your understanding of who Obama worked for on Wall Street, and what he did for them?
— J Mann · Jan 3, 07:53 PM · #
My understanding is that he turned water into wine for Goldman Sachs. Oh, and he did blow off the copy machine. This guy I know saw it himself.
— Freddie · Jan 3, 09:38 PM · #
There’s an NYT story someplace (let me know if you want the link) that lays it out fairly well. Obama wanted to be a community organizer after Columbia, but couldn’t get an acceptable job his first year out and worked for a year in Manhattan. He was a researcher and editor for a firm that publishes info for companies that want to do business overseas. In his memoir, he talks about imagining where his life would go if he sold out, but after a year, he got the job he wanted and moved to Chicago.
AFAICT, there’s no real dispute about what Obama actually did. Beyond that, it’s all a matter of spin. Sailer’s blogger essentially criticizes Obama for allegedly making it sound like he turned down the possibility of riches to go work for the people.
IMHO, that’s not the right spin — Obama is smart and well-liked, and I suspect that if he had stuck it out in New York, he would have gotten past his grunt-work entry job and been fairly successful, particularly if he’s got any math. Still, it’s essentially a criticism about the tone of Obama’s memoir discussions of his first job, so it’s probably just a matter of opinion.
Great post on Stevens, by the way.
— J Mann · Jan 4, 03:21 PM · #
Obama was my State Senator for a while. The US public has A LOT to learn yet about him. Dems, be careful what you wish for. This guy’s IL record is going to turn off many people.
— Chester White · Jan 4, 04:02 PM · #