The Land of Reinvention vs. Resistance to Change - Vol. 4 Issue 7
The great French social critic and political thinker, Alexis de Tocqueville, observed that the American brand of Democracy balanced liberty and equality, embodied by concern for the community as well as the individual. Tocqueville was both a critic of unbridled individualism and a fan of “association.” He believed that “association,” the coming together of people for common purpose, would bind Americans to the idea of a nation larger than their own selfish desires. In many ways, an Obama administration will attempt to embody those basic American ideals and tendencies so acutely observed by Tocqueville during the time of President Andrew Jackson.
Yet, Tocqueville observed, that more than just eliminating any vestiges of old-world aristocracy, ordinary Americans also refused to defer to those possessing, as Tocqueville put it, superior talent and intelligence. These natural elites, who Tocqueville asserted were the lone virtuous members of American society, could not enjoy much share in the political sphere as a result. Ordinary Americans enjoyed too much power, claimed too great a voice in the public sphere, to defer to intellectual superiors. This culture promoted a relatively pronounced equality, Tocqueville argued, but the same mores and opinions that ensured such equality also promoted, as he put it, “a middling mediocrity.” Make no mistake about this: Obama will be challenged by “a middling mediocrity” from both the Left and the Right.
Never the less, America is about to go through an important rite of passage. It is impossible to over-estimate the invigorating and positive effect of an Obama presidency, both here in the States and around the world. But before anyone puts their dancing shoes on and pops the champagne, allow me to bring you back to earth: We are still a deeply divided country. The McCain-Palin rhetoric in the last days of their disgraceful campaign - spewing veiled and not-so-veiled venom to eager crowds of self-described xenophobic “Joe-the-plumbers” - has even amazed Republican commentators like George Will and Peggy Noonan. This negative “tone” is not likely to dissipate quickly and no one is counting on patriotic cooperation from the right wing. All one has to do is go back to the Clinton wars to see how the Right behaves when it loses.
Yet it is not just “the Right” that worries me. So, what’s the problem? It is simply this; American society, while always in the process of reinvention, is also resistant to fundamental change. Mediocrity is even-handed. Despite the large Democratic majorities in Congress, Obama will try to govern from the middle. THAT may be problematic to a substantial number of left-leaning Congressional Democrats. As so many Presidents have discovered in the past, it is often members of one’s own party who present the largest obstacles to change. If any person can overcome the “old politics” of mediocrity, it is Barack Obama. Let us pray he finds the strength and continuing inspiration to overcome resistance from whatever source, whether left, right or center. Oh, and one more thing, GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.!
Never prouder to be American, I remain
Savant
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