Hot on the heels of his staunch defense of the legacy of President George W. Bush, Alexandre Adler, historian and France’s foremost neocon, examines the underlying causes of Obama’s wild popularity and what Adler sees as McCain’s only chance for victory.
On the reasons for Obama’s strength, Adler discusses in part:
— ‘his campaign’s lack of any tangible racially-based resentment.’
— ‘the fact that Reagan assured the United States a spectacular economic recovery, but nevertheless, paid for it with social inequalities that little-by-little have surpassed by way of inconvenience the advantages brought by free markets.’
— ‘the sometimes incredible stagnation of all public facilities in a country where the pressure for lower taxes has kept railroads, airports and sometimes roads at the technological level of the 1970s.’
— ‘the generation of children of humiliated communists and progressives, who are today rich and in power, and who are tempted to inflict a spectacular defeat on the American right.’
And what hope do U.S. Republicans have of beating Obama?
Read on at WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of the U.S. election.
Chronicle of Alexandre Adler
Translated By Sandrine Ageorges
August 8, 2008
France – French – Original Article (French)
Sometimes the fortunes of how a page is laid are symbolic: today, with a little more than two pages at my disposal, I will take the opportunity to quickly expedite the problem of Barack Obama. It is indeed beyond all discussion that Barack Obama has revolutionized the presidential competition, and even deeply, the entirety of U.S. politics. He symbolizes both the dramatic promotion of Black elites (three CEOs of the largest corporations, a chief of the Army and the current secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice), but also the no-less spectacular rehabilitation of the American left, for which he defends all the important ideas: pacifism, protectionism, anti-militarism, increasing taxes and greater solidarity based on much greater [financial] redistribution. All of this was acquired notably through the particular charm of his personality, which is eloquent and brilliant, but something that is even more unusual in the Afro-American community: the lack of any tangible racially-based resentment.
That the United States must one day elect an Afro-American president (male or female) is inevitable. Just as it is inevitable that the generation of children of humiliated communists and progressives, who are today rich and in power, would be tempted to inflict a spectacular defeat on the American right, which remains arrogant without having done quite as well as its children. Barack Obama has managed to combine these two movements inherent in American society.
It isn’t only the talent of the candidate that explains such alchemy. As for Kennedy in 1960 when the anti-Catholic roadblock blocked the emergence of the post-war generation, here the roadblock of anti-Blacks and anti-left are giving way under the weight of a massive rejection of the Reagan revolution.
Read on at WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of the U.S. election.
Founder and Managing Editor of Worldmeets.US