{"id":433,"date":"2010-03-04T13:39:27","date_gmt":"2010-03-04T11:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/?p=433"},"modified":"2015-04-27T22:35:28","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T20:35:28","slug":"obamas-government-by-consensus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/obamas-government-by-consensus\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama’s government by consensus"},"content":{"rendered":"

You’ve read it here first: Barack Obama is nuts<\/span>. My diagnosis is based on the popular American saying: “Insanity<\/span> is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results.”<\/p>\n

In the past 13 months, Obama has sat down several times with the Republican opposition to try to get some agreement on matters of national importance. He’s visited Republican leaders at their homes. He’s held meetings with Congressional representatives. He’s invited Republicans into his office. And each time, they said they appreciated<\/span> the gesture<\/span>, before they continued to attack him.<\/p>\n

Obama took this to a new level<\/span> last Thursday, when he met with members of Congress to discuss reform of the US health-care system. But after seven hours, “Neither side had moved an inch.” Those words are from the BBC; even CNN seemed to have grown tired of the whole thing. During this opportunity for dialogue, high-ranking<\/span> Republicans, including Eric Cantor and John McCain, still complained to Obama that he wasn’t listening to them.<\/p>\n

This is one of those cases when everybody involved is simply doing the wrong thing. And Obama, as the guy in charge<\/span>, has to take the most responsibility. The president, whose party has the largest majority in a generation<\/a>, doesn’t have to listen to all the whiners<\/span>. That’s not how the American system works. It’s not Africa.<\/p>\n

African-style leadership<\/h2>\n

Obama’s African roots betray<\/span> what I think is a definite African influence. In traditional society, the village elders<\/span> \u2014 and often the villagers themselves \u2014 aim in all situations not for a majority vote, but for a consensus. Because everyone contributes to the consensus and agrees to live by it, society is strengthened.<\/p>\n

I saw this myself in my journeys across West Africa. Bus passengers in Burkina Faso discussed whether to pay the usual bribes<\/span> at the border. Ivorians<\/span> discussed whether to share what they had with others. Villagers in Togo discussed what to do with a girl who had run away from home.<\/p>\n

When one of these situations arose, all other activity stopped. Both main arguments were made and translated into all the languages spoken by those present. Everyone got a chance to offer an opinion<\/span> or a suggestion. Moral issues were weighed against each other: the good versus<\/span> the greater good<\/span>. And step by step, a rationale<\/span> was found that enabled everyone to live with the consensus that emerged<\/span>.<\/p>\n

They made an informed decision<\/span>, put it behind them, and moved on. No bribes were paid; food was shared; and the girl was sent back to her cruel parents, because a worse fate<\/span> awaited her on the streets of Lom\u00e9.<\/p>\n

A different game<\/h2>\n

In Kenya, Obama would be a fantastic president. But in America, what he’s doing is just not working. The Republicans are playing a completely different game<\/a> (which they’re entitled<\/span> to do).<\/p>\n

Since 2006, they’ve become experts in asymmetric warfare. Last year, they used procedural means<\/span> to delay or derail<\/span> 80 percent of all legislation<\/span>. They are continuing to follow Karl Rove\u2019s advice of attacking their adversary<\/span> on his strengths. Obama\u2019s strengths are his popularity, which they are eroding<\/span> one percentage point at a time; his character, which they and their allies at The Wall Street Journal<\/i><\/a> and Fox News<\/span> continue to malign<\/span> daily; and his good nature, which they constantly put to the test<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Obama can win only if he starts to be less like Jesus (“turn the other cheek”) and more like Mace Windu<\/span><\/a> (“kick butt”). With such ineffective government, it’s no wonder voters are abandoning both the Democrats and the Republicans. And it’s no wonder the “tea party” supporters \u2014 with their message that all government is bad \u2014 are becoming the fastest-growing movement<\/a> in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You’ve read it here first: Barack Obama is nuts. My diagnosis is based on the popular American saying: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results.” In the past 13 months, Obama has sat down several times with the Republican opposition to try to get some agreement on matters of national importance. He’s visited Republican … >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[177,27,114,51,29,107],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1740,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions\/1740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}