Another Sort of New Deal

I think this may signal a change. But in a more profound way. It was the myth of the "man of the people" that Bush represented. His pedigree couldn't have been more blue blooded.
Clinton was the real deal as far as upbringing but he was Yale/Oxford too. Reagan was built, very successfully, as a myth of Every man who went to Coe.

I am indeed sick of country bumpkins thinking they have ANY idea about what it's like for Americans, the majority of which live in urban or suburban areas.

Joe, your blogs always cause me to pause for thought, and then to disagree. Every President has been cosmopolitan, and enjoyed luxury beyond what most of their fellow citizens have experienced before ascending to the throne. Not one has risen from deprivation to the office. None. Where they all began is immaterial (although most began swaddled in privelege). They have been born with silver spoons in their mouth and not up to the job (W.Bush), and they have been born in dirt and exceeded all expectations (A.Lincoln). But relatively speaking, they have all enjoyed the highest echelons of American life. Call it urban or call it rural, it is a place most people can't go.

I like this post, but have to disagree, only to the point that I consider both Houston and Little Rock to be urban. Southern, yes. Rural, no. I do hope that there has been a change in that you don't have to pretend to work a ranch in order to identify with the American experience, but you don't need to be from one of the big northeastern cities or Chicago to be urban.

skoll, pretending to work a ranch is part of the political oki doki. Bush probably won't spend much time at the ranch after leaving office. It is just a facade. I will take a rational, competent leader from wherever, northeast, Chicago, Tiajuana. I don't care. Just be sane, honest, competent. Something we have not had with Bush and what I hope for with Obama.

fomerlyjames is wrong about ``every president has .. enjoyed luxury''.

Abe Lincoln Harry Truman, and Ike Eisenhower, for example, had rather humble beginnings.

frog63, as I posted that, I thought about the humble beginnings. But, but, but, each of them rose to run at the highest level of prestige and privelege in American society. I was speaking of the end, not the beginning. Lincoln was the only one who when elected, was sort of on the outside. Truman and Eisenhower ran with the wolves by the time they got to office. I know what you are saying, but disagree.

Successful presidents share a number of common traits, be they urban or rural:
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1. They are hard workers, diligent and steady.
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2. They are smart. Not always intellectual giants, necessarily, but pragmatic and insightful.
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3. They are self-assured and not driven by insecurity or a need to be loved/appreciated.
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4. They know what they know and what they don't know. In other words, they know their own limits and are not afraid to seek out experts.
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Running down a list of recent presidents, one finds Bush lacking in #1, #2 and #4. Clinton had an Achilles Heel in #3. Old man Bush lacked #2. Reagan had a problem with #1 and #2. Carter is an interesting case, though his main issue may have been #2. He could be exceedingly arrogant. We'll ignore Ford. Nixon had a serious problem with #3. Kennedy was fairly well balanced.
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What about Obama?

palininatowel, interesting analysis, and I don't disagree. I would emphasize # 2. That is what separates the humble beginnings Presidents with the rich and priveleged Presidents.

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And Obama falls into that category.

Our myths take an awful long time to catch up to reality. Sarah Palin thought that New Hampshire and Alaska are microcosms of America. That only makes sense if you like the idea of a rural, all-white America, which isn't the America most Americans inhabit.
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It's bugged me that one party has been all about demonizing regions of the country-- you'll never see a Democrat saying bad stuff about rural areas or the south the way that you see Rudi frickin' Giuliani slag on elitist city dwellers.
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So I like this post.
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A small point-- maybe you brought it up entirely in jest, but when Obama mentioned the price of arugula, he was talking to Iowa farmers who grow it. It wasn't like he was quoting Aeschylus out of nowhere to a bewildered and hostile crowd.

Actually, Joe, I was thinking of this in a different way.

I was wondering if this wasn't maybe going to signal another cultural revival. Between the coming increase in poverty, and the rise in misery index, I wonder how this will be revealed in our culture.

How will these changes be manifest in our cultural output, specifically, I find myself excited by the prospect of new writers, new play, new music, and especially, new artists and painters.

I look forward to a fairly huge outpouring of culture to come out of the next 20 years of American life.

LIfe with more art and artists in it is always a more interesting way to live.

formerlyjames,
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Agree. I didn't mean to change the subject from Joe's post. I think there has been a certain bounce in the step of city dwellers since election night, like "one of our own" has been elected.
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There is certain calm and cool about Obama that does mark him as more of an urbanite than a country guy. Part of that is his color, but part is also the "Yeah, I've seen that before" vibe that city dwellers tend to have.
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Kind of reminds me of an old "Candid Camera" many years ago where Alan Funt took his hidden camera into a New York diner. A guy in Funt's employ took a seat at the counter and proceeded to eat not only his food, but his glass that had held his Coke and the ceramic plate that had held his hamburger. The diner sitting next to the glass-eater just kept eating his own meal, glancing every now and then at the guy next him.
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Finally, the glass/plate eater gets up, dabs his face with the napkin, and leaves. The other guy just calmly finishes his meal, saying nothing.
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So Funt walks up and says to the still-seated guy, "Did you see that guy eating his glass and his plate?"
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The guy replies, "Yeah, so what? It's New York."
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That's the sense Obama gives off... "Yeah, I've seen that before. I can deal with it."

That's why the Repoublican Party as we know it is quickly fading into irrelevancy. The Palin's and G.W. Bush's of the world speak only to the rural working-class conservative.

http://www.political-buzz.com/

That's Republican Party...

I simply don't understand the point or, at least, don't think the point is a valid one because too many facets to American life now exist. True, Sarah Palin is from a small town in a very rural state, but to argue that she represents a longing for a "different time" makes no sense. She is a working mother of five who (forget what you think about her personally, professionally, etc.) has ascended to high elected office. When we were in a "different time" she would've been home darning socks and feeding her babies. How can she represent a longing for the past when she, like Obama, is an example of what this nation has become in terms of equality?

Obviously America rejected the argument "he isn't one of us" and voted instead for change and the candidate they best thought could turn things around. But I don't think it follows that America is now "urban" versus "rural." Again, there are simply too many facets to American life to categorize the nation, as a whole, as one or the other.

I live in suburban Nashville. Does that make me urban or rural? If urban is NYC, I certainly don't consider myself urban. If rural is Wasilla, Alaska, I sure as heck am not rural. But I do have a yard and live in a cul de sac and my kids are able to ride their bikes safely in the street. There isn't a lot of "color" in my neighborhood, although it is not void of any. Does that mean I long for times gone by because I haven't given all this up to live in a downtown high rise filed with diversity? America isn't one or the other. America is many things and Joe's post, like his column on Palin before, misses that point.

palininatowel - I agree with everything you said except W also suffered from #3. He clearly had daddy issues and perhaps it wasn't approval he sought but defini9tely acknowledgement that he wasn't the screw up and could surpass the achievements of his father the one term president who never got Saddam.

dancingoutlaw -- no Sarah wants the present for herself -- she just wants minorities and gays to go back to the place they occupied back in the day -- subservient and in closet come to mind.

I'd also be interested to see if Casroline Kennedy Scholossberg is appointed as Chairperson for National Endowment for the Arts. I think she could make a huge difference there.
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I think there's been such a huge suppression of arts and sciences in the last eight years that it has sets us back tremendously as a nation, in our thinking, and our problem solving capabilities as a nation. The deliberated political which has been part and parcel of the supression of the arts and sciences in America is deeply disturbing and I look forward to its ending.
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Joe, if you are wondering why you are breathing a sigh of relief the last few weeks, since Obama has been elected, is it really so complicated as an "urbanite" as been elected? You have to really have been compartmentalizing an awful lot over the last eight years not to notice the patterns of systematic suppression of arts and sciences between other oppressive governments and the Bush governments. Both as some one who is Jewish and someone who is a writer, maybe even more so. Did it really take the self-labeling of "urbanite" for you to claim the relief you feel?

dancingoutlaw, interesting post.
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skollinperin, yes, you're right of course. Houston is undoubtedly urban. But Clinton was from a town called Hope, and Bush was from... Midland? Or is that Laura's hometown? Anyway, he was supposedly from some small town. But in reality, they did come from urban backgrounds.
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And actually Obama never missed an opportunity to talk about Kansas. Even Hawaii is not "urban," in a traditional sense.

Casey Morris said:
I look forward to a fairly huge outpouring of culture to come out of the next 20 years of American life.
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My question is, where is the New Bohemia? It sure is not Greenwich Village anymore.

Rose83,
Bush 43 was born in New Haven, CT, which was urban then and is urban now. And no doubt his upbringing was urbane.

mredct, not only is it urban, it's an Ivy League town. Although to be fair, maybe Joe meant "metropolitan." New Haven is relatively small. But I'm still not seeing it as less urban than Hawaii.

No you don't, Joe. You don't get to to make Obama Jewish as well.
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You're gonna have to take Joe Lieberman, and like it.
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(BTW, why was nobody writing that Joe Lieberman was supporting the guy who was getting, or got, the overwhelming majority of the Jewish vote. Such as it is. [I'e also kinda not gotten why this matters. I'm part Greek. Nobody talks about the Greek vote. And the Jewish vote is concentrated in at least one state that is bluer than blue.{Hey. Who knew? Trolling wiki to try to get some numbers, it turns out that Hank Azaria is a Greek-American Jew} http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Azaria)

um "NOT suppporting."

Damn. It's also not entirely true that people don't talk about the Greek vote. The Greek vote does matter in the NH primary. There's a concentrated population in Nashua, where I was born.