For tough-minded Camille Paglia, Barack Obama’s lack of experience is only slightly relevant. Here, she gets to what really counts:
I too wish that Obama had more practical experience in government. But Washington is at a stalemate and needs fresh eyes and a new start. Furthermore, at this point in American history, with an ill-conceived, wasteful war dragging on in Iraq and with the nation’s world reputation in tatters, I believe that, because of his international heritage and upbringing, Obama is the right person at the right time.
It’s striking how far the notion of “America” has traveled in the mind of the Left. In the U.S., everyone except the Indians is already of “international heritage.” But for Ms. Paglia and the Left, it’s as if Americans have morphed into race-minded totalitarians, and only the “post-racial” Barack Obama can liberate the rest of the world by taking the U.S. down a few pegs to meet everyone else on everyone else’s terms.
This is, of course, the inverse of reality. Virtually all of America’s global critics—from European internationalists to Palestinian right-of-returners—operate from a point of self-perceived superiority, while the U.S. only demands the respect due all free people. European statesmen proclaim that it’s time for America to become more like Europe and George Bush merely calls them partners in return. Islamists speak about remaking the infidel world as one vast caliphate while American leaders praise the peace and beauty of Islam.
As for Obama’s ethnicity, this notion is long overdue for exposure. It would be helpful if Ms. Paglia could list the countries in which she thinks the color of Obama’s skin would function as a diplomatic asset. In tribal Europe, the assimilation of African immigrants has been anything but smooth. Throughout the Arab world, anti-black racism is a simple fact of life. And in Africa itself, both Arab-on-black racism and inter-tribal warfare remain deadly. In truth, it is only the U.S. in which being black is considered a positive, and this is because it isn’t, for the most part, considered at all.
If Ms. Paglia finds the U.S.’s “reputation in tatters,” she’s describing some internal or personal state of perception. Many Americans, perhaps, enjoyed the idea of America as a nation done with difficult wars. And Iraq has produced a cognitive dissonance there, it’s true. But the next president shouldn’t be elected so that the post-Viet Nam Left can achieve a delusive inner harmony.
