The Political Pop Star

Thank God for YouTube. I just finished watching Obama’s Berlin speech (all 30 minutes of it) and besides the high number of people in attendance (over 200,000), I was concerned by a couple of comments in his speech that are questionable from a historical context.

About 1/3 of the way through the speech, Obama made this statement:

“The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christians and Muslims and Jews cannot stand.”

Within this passage, Obama paid his subtle homage to Presidents Kennedy and Reagan. It was almost as if he was saying “So what if I can’t speak at the Brandenburg Gate, it is only a location; it is the message that is most important.” The point he seems to be making is that the barriers that separate us as human beings are no longer drawn on a map; they are truly within the heart itself.

Later on in the speech, the second statement of concern to me involved the replacement of Communism with extreme Muslim political thought (Terrorism). “If we could win a battle of ideas against the communists, we can stand with the vast majority of Muslims who reject the extremism that leads to hate instead of hope,” said Obama. This statement is a bit more problematic as it connects the socio-economic and political structure of the Communist state of the Soviet Union with the non-state dynamics of political terrorism. As I tell my Political Theory class, Socialism is the theory (Marx/Engels) and Communism is the economic and political governmental structure of the former U.S.S.R. (Lenin/TrotskyStalin). I realize that I am being picky but I expect the President of the United States to know the difference between Communism and Socialism.

The speech was a success because few people really bothered to read between the lines. It was well delivered but was lacking in bringing something new to the table. Rehashing Reagan and Kennedy is fine but I expected more from this speech. The German newspaper Bild called Obama “the political pop star.” I hope that is not a sign of things to come. Initially, pop stars are interesting to watch and attract a lot of media attention. Unfortunately, some of them go crazy and act a bit strange. Wasn’t Michael Jackson called the “King of Pop” in the 1990s…does anyone want him to run the country?