The Story Of The Great 2008 American Prairie Fire & A Brokedown Presidential Palace
I’m just back from a whirlwind three-day tour of four Middle Atlantic states that was part-business but mostly pleasure, with some political snoopery thrown in for good measure. (I just can’t help myself.)
Some observations based on an admittedly unscientific sampling:
* There were Barack Obama lawn signs, posters, t-shirts and buttons pretty much wherever I went from a small town in Delaware to Pennsylvania coal country to northern New Jersey suburbs to upstate New York, while I lost count of all of the cars with Obama bumper stickers. But I did not see one sign, button or anything else touting John McCain. Not one.
* Almost everyone with whom I spoke, who included a house painter in Delaware, a Pennsylvania parochial school nurse, a New Jersey limousine driver and a Russian woman in New York who had become an American citizen last year, said the same thing: This election is all about leadership.
That is actually pretty easy to miss if you are sucked into the daily sturm und drang of news media campaign coverage focused on personalities, controversies and scandals.
I spoke to 20 people who ranged from their early 20s to mid 80s. All but six said they planned to vote for Obama. Three others said they would vote for McCain and three did not plan to vote.
If this cross section is any indication of the electorate at large, and I think that it more or less is, I make these conclusions with some degree of confidence:
* There is a prairie fire burning in America fueled by a longing for leadership. Voters care less about when U.S. troops leave Iraq or how the economy gets fixed than electing someone who can lead while easing their fears about the future.
* Allowing for the fact that none of my stopovers were in deeply conservative areas, with this fire at his back Obama may well win in a landslide. This is because McCain, who is running a shockingly inept campaign, represents the third term of a president who has been an abjectly poor leader.
* * * * *
It is fitting that among the places I heard the leadership mantra was the home of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Hyde Park, 90 miles north of New York City.
There is a consensus among historians and people of a certain age that FDR not only exemplified the best in presidential leadership, he brought out the best in Americans during a time fraught with extraordinary crises not unlike today, while George Bush has not only not led, he has brought out the worst in us.
FDR’s family home, presidential library, a visitor’s center and sundry outbuildings are known as the Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site. The biggest draw is Springwood, a 35-room mansion where the great man battled polio and came home from Washington to rest during an unprecedented four terms in office bookended by the Great Depression and World War II.
Springwood, which FDR gave to the American people, is literally falling apart from a lack of funding. There is a broken down-ness to it — just as there is a broken down-ness in the U.S. after seven-plus excruciating years of presidential lite — that dishonors the memories of FDR and wife Eleanor, who are buried along with Fala, their beloved Scottish terrier, in a nearby rose garden. FDR directed the planting of 2,000 trees on the property in the depths of the Depression to encourage farmers to do the same to control erosion. Today some of the grandest trees are looming, leafless skeletons and many others are in dire need of care.
This state of affairs was shocking but somehow not surprising: A president who will waste a trillion dollars shedding American blood in Iraq but has not seen fit to check the decay of the home of a president whom he has had the temerity to compare himself to beyond a drop-in-the-bucket appropriation to stanch the worst of the mansion’s problems.
* * * * *
One of the McCain supporters with whom I spoke was a tall and rail-thin 84-year-old Marine Corps veteran of the Guadalcanal and other World War II battles in the Pacific who has lived his entire life in a small town in Indiana. He had announced to his wife in a booming voice that he wasn’t “going to pay no damned fee” when the park ranger leading our tour group asked to see admission tickets as we climbed the steps to the dilapidated entrance of Springwood. The ranger smiled and waved veteran and wife through.
As we stood on the back lawn of the house after the tour taking in the majesty of the Hudson River and not a few dead trees, this proud man Marine volunteered the fact McCain also is a veteran — as well as a former POW — and that is all he needed to know to vote for him.
“But can he lead?” I inquired.
“Of course. The man’s a veteran and a great patriot,” he boomed. That settled it for him.
The Russian woman, who has lived in Brooklyn for 26 years and was escorting two cousins from Israel, said in a thick accent that she was excited about voting in her first U.S. election and that supporting Obama was “a no-brain-her.”
I asked her why that was so.
“Because Americans are suffering. The man is a dictator,” she said, referring to Bush. “Me, I’m lucky. I lost my job but my husband is doing okay.”
What did she do?
“I was a home health-care worker, but the dictator took away our money although there are many old people who are sick and need us.
“He sent the money over there,” she said with a sweep of her arm in what I presumed was the general direction of Iraq.
“I’m Russian, but I call Bush a dictator,” she said with a laugh. “I know it’s not right, but I can’t help it . . . ”
One of her cousins interjected that the woman has a son who is a medic in Iraq.
“Yes, yes,” the woman acknowledged. “Baghdad. The Green Zone. Him I’m not worried about. He can take care of himself. The old people can’t.”
A gray haired woman from North Carolina wearing an Obama baseball cap, a bored teenaged grandson with a spike haircut in tow, joined the conversation.
She volunteered that she was barely old enough to remember when FDR died.
“It was the only time that I ever saw my mother cry,” she said.
“When Obama wins,” she added, touching the brim of her cap for emphasis, “It will be my turn to cry. But mine will be tears of joy.”
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16 Responses to “The Story Of The Great 2008 American Prairie Fire & A Brokedown Presidential Palace”
Does anyone really believe that a career Chicago politicians who will give the public sector employees, the unions, and the trial lawyers whatever they want is really going to lead to a resurgence in America where people will want to replant trees at a historic site? Will a politician who wants to impose at least two new regulatory schemes on the economy really going to be the leader for fixing things? How much did Senator Obama do to fix broken down-ness in Chicago or Illinois versus now much did he do to give certain Democratic special interest groups what they wanted. Senator Obama has demonstrated no ability to control or even reigh in many of the special interest that dominate the Democratic Party. I have no idea why Shaun believes that he will be able to do it after he is elected?
Of course Senator McCain is totally unfit to be president and the Bush Administration has been such a disaster that will will end up making the U.S. a one party state well before demographic changes were going to do it.
Also, I wonder if most of the kids in public school in NYC even know who FDR was?
I enjoyed Shaun's travelogue of Hyde Park…as I enjoy most of his journey narratives.
But using FDR's home as a paradigm of America is a stretch: ” Springwood is literally falling apart from a lack of funding. There is a broken down-ness to it — just as there is a broken down-ness in American society after seven-plus excruciating years of presidential lite”.
A critical reader would ask: Was Hyde Park in immaculate shape after Clinton?
Also SD makes a good point re. Obama: “How much did Senator Obama do to fix broken down-ness in Chicago…”
The answer is not a whole lot. Given Obama's rather expensive wish list…addressing the needs of the NPS is not on his agenda at all.
“The National Park Service is suffering from an operationsfunding shortfall now exceeding $800 million annually. Inaddition, several billion dollars are needed to protectarchaeological sites and historic buildings, and repair theextensive backlog of maintenance projects. Many parkfriends in Congress have spent years highlighting the fiscalcrisis in America s national parks. The Administration hasresponded with a budget request for 2008 that would increasethe National Park Service operating budget by $258 million”
http://www.npca.org/nationalpriority/pdf/NY-FS.pdf
Will Obama divert $600 million a year to help fix Hyde Park et al?
Or…if elected and in 4 years time…will Shaun and other Obama supporters just overlook what is VERY likely to be the still-sorry state of Hyde Park and the NPS?
Marlowecan ,
The first time time a visited a rust belt city, I used the term “Tired” instead of “broken down-ness” because it is more than just the maintenance condition. It is the mix of people, businesses, and government that gives a city or area a tired look. Well maintained empty buildings are still empty buildings. I always thought up the sum of previous history make a city look tire where you can see the signs of all of the previous businesses or government project.
Also, I have always though that the state of government buildings versus the rest of a city is a sign of the culture of an area. If the best looking building in a city is the city hall or school district headquarters, it is probably not a place where anyone wants to do business.
Marlowecan writes:
A critical reader would ask: Was Hyde Park in immaculate shape after Clinton?
an even more critical reader would ask “After Reagan, Bush 1,Clinton? The old, “But Clinton…” Rhetoric is tired in and of itself. Policymaking is always generational from one Admin to the next. It is not a wipe-the slate junta.
“This is because McCain, who is running a shockingly inept campaign, represents the third term of a president who has been an abjectly poor leader.”
That's straight from a Dem talking points memo, Shaun. For a second, I thought you were John Kerry. In the interest of balance, can we expect to see a posting suggesting that voting for Obama is voting for Jimmy Carter's second term?
Manchester2,
If you really want to see broken down-ness, people should do back and watch movies from the late 1970's. They made cities like NYC look horrible. Of course, no one held former President Carter responsible for fixing up the neighborhood.
Manchester2:
Inconveniently, this post is not about what kind of campaign that Obama is running (brilliant but uneven with some definitely problematic aspects) or what he would do to stanch the decay at Hyde Park.
I have written early and often about the problems I have with Obama — some of them focusing on leadership — and will continue to do so in the future.
Here is a recent foray into an aspect of Obama that his most sycophantic supporters are having fits over:
http://kikoshouse.blogspot.com/2008/06/barack-o…
*squawk* Bush bad! Bush bad! Bad, bad! *squawk*
Problems with Hyde Park (home of too many people's Father) or, say, Gettysburg, which predated Bush's first election, are not Bush's fault any more than Bhutto's assassination, hurricanes, fires in California, or any other handy object of dishonesty and pathology.
The Big Lie about McCain being another Bush is tiresome, too.
“In the interest of balance, can we expect to see a posting suggesting that voting for Obama is voting for Jimmy Carter's second term?”
Or McGovern's first, both suggestions of which are true unlike the Big Lie about McCain. And making Hyde Park prettier won't be at the top of the vote-buying agenda. Although we have time to see it promised to voters this year, too…
“I enjoyed Shaun's travelogue of Hyde Park…as I enjoy most of his journey narratives.”
And photo selections, even for nonsensical purposes. He should stick to the good stuff.
“Also, I wonder if most of the kids in public school in NYC even know who FDR was?”
Or a lot of Obama voters!
Fear not, though. At Obama's big speech later this year, he can show photos not only of JFK and LBJ and MLK but … FDR. Even turn and bow before his picture! Great theater and continued appeal to emotion, that. (Bash Bush and Cheney during the speech with unattractive photos of the two being flashed before the speech-goers' eyes and Obama will score extra kiddie-appeal points.)
* * *
“The first time time a visited a rust belt city, I used the term “Tired” instead of “broken down-ness” because it is more than just the maintenance condition. It is the mix of people, businesses, and government that gives a city or area a tired look.”
Other terms are “gritty cities” and one I use, definitely known here in the eastern USA where failed policies of the past have wrought ruin — “Cyanide Nation” (mere “Blue” is not harsh enough) with business- and job- and economy-killing effects.
Another word I predicted my liberal friend from DC would use when I showed her the Upstate New York city where I lived for a couple of years is: “Dreary.”
You can see the same dreariness in many people's eyes in such places, if not the more disturbing, dangerous combination instead of dullness combined with open hostility to others and to society.
DLS,
I always thought of it as tried because people could not be bothered to do things like clean the windows of their own business or take a step out of their way to pick up trash. Part of the tired reflects the changing demographics of such areas such as PA have one of the oldest populations in the U.S. Part of it is the union mindset that you only have to do the job that you were assigned for the time that it was assigned as nothing else. Part of it is the big government mindset that it is the goverment's job to maintain everything. And last, it probably is due to demographic make up of cities that makes people focus on their own group.
DLS,
I always thought of it as tried because people could not be bothered to do things like clean the windows of their own business or take a step out of their way to pick up trash. Part of the tired reflects the changing demographics of such areas such as PA have one of the oldest populations in the U.S. Part of it is the union mindset that you only have to do the job that you were assigned for the time that it was assigned as nothing else. Part of it is the big government mindset that it is the goverment's job to maintain everything. And last, it probably is due to demographic make up of cities that makes people focus on their own group.
Folks:
While I know you delight in hijacking comment threads, let's get back to what my post is about, not your masturbatory political fantasies of the day. Otherwise, please butt out.
Folks:
While I know you delight in hijacking comment threads, let's get back to what my post is about, not your masturbatory political fantasies of the day. Otherwise, please butt out.
They do tend to ramble don't they.
BORING!
They do tend to ramble don't they.
BORING!