Why the Obama Reaction to The New Yorker Bothered Me
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in 2008 Election, BarackBarack Obama just missed an excellent opportunity to get me to take one more step towards supporting him. When presented with the most recent and now famed cover of The New Yorker, all Obama needed to say was:
“I think most Americans will understand it’s satire.â€
How refreshing it would have been to hear a would-be leader respecting the intelligence of Americans. After 7.5 years of the Bush Administration talking down to us, force-feeding us deceptions and generally treating us like idiots, I’d like to believe we have a chance to escape that condescending mindset with our next president. But Obama and particularly his staff and legions of his supporters have left me a little cold.
Instead of acknowledging the satire and moving on, Obama (through his sniffing silence) and his supporters (through their outraged response) demonstrated a disturbing disdain for their fellow Americans. The general argument was “well, sure, WE may know it’s meant as satire but most Americans are idiots and this will just reinforce their ignorance.â€
What’s surreal about the reaction is that it’s been an outrage at an expected effect. It’s had nothing to do with the real effect (which has been the most widespread debunking of the Obama rumors/malicious lies to date). As far as I know, there have not been masses of Jim Bob Rednecks heading into the their local Barnes and Noble, seeing the cover and saying “hells, yeah, I always thought that man was a danger.â€
In fact, when you think about it, without the Obama supporter outrage, this cover stays safely in the mailboxes of subscribers and hidden on the back shelves of magazine racks (seriously, it’s sometimes impossible for me to find where bookstores are hiding their copies of The New Yorker).
Maybe most Americans are idiots and maybe we do need to shelter them from sophisticated concepts like satire for fear their ignorance will cause mass and dangerous misconceptions. But I really don’t want a president who believes such things. I want a president that leads with the assumption that he’s leading a nation of intelligent citizens. If you think you’re presiding over idiots, you’ll treat people like idiots. I, for one, have had enough of that kind of leadership.
If Obama wants my vote (something that is still possible), he and his campaign will need to start showing more respect for common Americans.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Frankly Alan, I think it is you who is being condescending with your response. You’re neglecting the fact that some of us just find it offensive, satire or no. I don’t dislike the cover because I think it’s going to persuade anyone that Obama is a terrorist. I dislike it because it’s just poor taste and offensive. In the same way that many blondes (or many non-blondes, even) feel about a dumb blonde joke – they understand that it was meant as a joke, it’s not going to convince anyone that blondes really are dumb, but it still makes you mad. To continue the analogy, I see Obama’s response as the blonde saying, “look, I found that kind of offensive.”, and you’re saying “man, that girl takes everything too seriously, she obviously looks down on everyone. And she must be stupid too because she didn’t realize it was a joke.” I find that response condescending.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:01 am
md –
In general, we as a nation have become hyper-sensitive to “things which may offend.” If it’s condescending for me to think we could all work on being a little less high-strung and a little more mellow, then I guess I’m condescending.
But that’s not the point of this post which is addressing those who, unlike you, DO thinks the cover will persuade people that Obama is a terrorist. That was, in fact, the dominant reaction. (Although, I have to question, what IS offensive about the image if you don’t think it will cause a negative effect? If you’re offended by a potential president being portrayed so negatively, how do you feel about the hordes of vicious portrayals of George Bush over the years? Do those offend you too? If so, I’d say you’re possessed of a admirable consistency.)
In The New Yorker case, Obama had a chance to defuse this from the start but instead of taking the high road, he and his campaign chose to take offense. His supporters piled on and the result has made the Obama campaign look as if they think most Americans are too stupid to understand the intent of a satirical cover.
And for the record, I never said anyone was too stupid to know it’s a joke. My beef is they overreacted when they knew dang well it was satirical.
July 16th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Alan, talk about this in a month when the wingnuts of the High and Mighty repuklicans jump on it to say: Look even the liberals think he is a muslim mole????One thing the wingnuts have taught the Obamicans is to respond, immediatley, strongly, repeatedly, and without mercy. The wingnut repuklicans are ready to slime Obama on this kind of tripe because they have no agenda to run on. Like I chimed in on another Donkle issue, if there were strings back to the slimers showing Obama as NOT what was depicted, then it would have exposed the slimey repuklicans for what they are. And would have been satire. This was just bad taste and not satire.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
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