I think we all know how Francisco felt when Bernardo finally trundled along to take up the watch (Hamlet I.i). What a relief! The election did not have the result I wanted (nor the result I predicted, here, for example, or–before the evaporation of three or four trillion dollars from the US economy–here). But I am certainly glad it is over. A brief perusal of the comments elicited by some of those predictions shows that some readers–especially, it seems, those who dissent from my choice of neckwear–have forgotten their manners in their eagerness to gloat. That’s OK. Had the election gone the other way, I was planning to spend some time gloating myself.
I thought John McCain’s concession speech the best (and best delivered) speech he made in the entire campaign. Simple, articulate, “straight talking” as he more often said than did. I did not see but did read Obama’s victory speech, and that too was full of generous sentiments and–something I was especially happy to see–one or two pragmatic reassurances to the “other side,” i.e., my side.
If you’re on the losing side in an election, it’s difficult not to feel–what? Disappointed, certainly, and chagrined. In the case of Obama’s victory, when his supporters seem to regard him as a sort of Messiah, those feelings are supplemented by others. How to describe it? It’s a bit like going into an auditorium and finding several thousand people cheering for someone you believe just promised to make them poorer, less free, and less secure. You and your other 55,800,000-odd friends on the other side stand around scratching your heads and pondering the wonders of crowd sentiment.
Well, there will be plenty of time for second thoughts, retrospective explanations, and that great renewable source of energy: the wisdom of hindsight. For now, I want to leave readers with a soothing recommendation. I have been reading Duff Cooper’s charming memoir, Old Men Forget, first published in 1953. Cooper, the 1st Viscount Norwich, was a British diplomat, husband of Diana Cooper (reputed to be the most beautiful woman in England), and father of John Julius Norwich, the prolific writer. Cooper was a gifted writer himself (his biography of Talleyrand is said to be only intermittently accurate, but it is a joy to read) and he possessed a prodigious appetite for life. More on that, perhaps, in another post. For now, I simply want to share an observation Cooper made about politics that has relevance to America as it digests the results of the “historic” (as it has invariably been called) election. “Nothing,” Cooper said, reflecting on the rocky fortunes of the Labour Party in 1924, “can enlighten a theorist so quickly as the task of dealing with a practical problem; nothing can sober an agitator so completely as the weight of responsibility.” Will the many practical problems this country faces enlighten our new masters? Will the heavy weight of responsibility for the prosperity and security of the United States sober them up? I really don’t know. I hope so.
I certainly agree with you that Senator McCain’s concession speech was the best of his campaign. It may have been the best speech of his entire political career. Simple, articulate, and heartfelt. There were moments during the campaign when I sensed that he was deeply unhappy with the man he had become: frustrated, angry, erratic. Like you, I did not see but read Senator Obama’s victory speech. I also later watched it on YouTube. Like other non-partisan conservatives I know, I found it magnanimous and inspirational, and look forward to a much more moderate presidency than George W. Bush has given us the past eight years. As for Senator Obama “promising to make us poorer (Who exactly is the “us” you speak of in this regard?), less free (Again, in what sense do you mean this? Almost every visitor from abroad I met over the past five or six years has remarked on how they felt a kind of clamp-down on freedom in this country which for so long has stood as a beacon of goodwill and reason.), and less secure” — is this not overly simplistic?
A sterling quote from Mr. Cooper. Like you, I hope the heavy weight of responsibility will enlighten and sober up the new administration, and the citizens of this country.
Difficult days lie ahead. I, for one, have great hopes for President Obama. He displayed an admirable gravitas throughout most of his campaign — something sorely missed in our last president, something Senator McCain seemed to loose as his campaign wore on, and something that Governor Palin never displayed amid all her snarling, grinning, bluffing, and winking.
I don’t vote and didn’t this time although it was crystal clear to me that Obama would win. Had I voted, I would have been glad to go Republican had that party presented me with a genuine (‘presentable’ is more accurate) alternative to Obama.
You know, someone like Ronald Reagan. But that didn’t happen.
I won’t go into what I really think about the Republican choice for P and VP. But I will say that as the campaign wore on, that choice took on a comic, almost clownish quality.
In a phrase, I simply could not take them seriously.
As I’ve also said before here and elsewhere, it finally didn’t really matter who won. I can’t comment about domestic policy – I don’t have the background for that, but I do know about foreign affairs and whether McCain or Obama, the winner was bound to be dragged into the morass of the Palestine issue, a resurgent Russia, the Iranian bomb threat and so on.
It’s already happening.
Russia congratulated Obama and then almost within the same breath, announced the placement of “missiles” in some Russian enclave very close to the heart of Europe. The Iranians scratched their beards and shifted their turbans and didn’t say much of anything. The “Arab street” (a mischaracterization, but never mind that now), loudly proclaimed in broken English that nothing would change and so on.
And more important: guess who Obama’s first contact with “official” Washington was? Just today…this morning?
None other than a CIA official briefing the President-elect with his first intelligence summary – the so-called “President’s Daily Brief”. The spies are already circling the wagon. Right on day one.
I have my misgivings about Obama. There’s something about him that seems to represent the culmination of the 60s “cultural revolution” and its persistent rearing of the head on the American stage.
Wonders of that era from the drug-crazed Janis Joplin to the leering and lecherous Michel Foucault must be smiling – somewhere.
Hopefully, Obama will shun that crippling legacy, render it void and get on with the impossible job he has ahead of him.
Roger, I’m really surprised at this latest post.
As little as we know about Barack Obama, what we do know is sufficient. As thin as his resume is, he has not been without responsibility and he has made decisions, which, the best efforts of the press notwithstanding, are a matter of public record. We know what we need to know about the direction in which this man wants to take our country.
Our current overlords in the Congress have held power for two years now, and many of the top leaders have held their offices for decades. Their records are equally available, and they are equally clear.
At what point has the task of dealing with a practical problem enlightened Barack Obama, at least in a way that caused him to act effectively or responsibly?
At what point in Barney Frank’s career has he been sobered by weight of responsibility?
Cooper was writing of a different breed of men in a different time. However much theorists and agitators of his day renounced all right thinking, there was still enough residual fear of God in their makeup to cause them some nervousness when it came their turn to apply their folly to real challenges. If there were any such residue within the hearts of the men and women who are in charge today, I think we would have seen it.
Mr. Kimball, I consider you one of the greatest cultural and educational resources in our society. This would be a better world if more people would only consider what you have to say.
But frankly, I can’t find much in your words today to soothe me. If our new masters were ever going to behave in an honorable or responsible fashion, they would have done so years ago.
I know that you know this, and that’s what worries me: I can’t decide if your post betrays an attitude of willful blindness or resignation or both.
“…nothing can sober an agitator so completely as the weight of responsibility.”
This describes the liberal mentality to a tee! That is why they appeal to the angry youth and the disaffected as well as certain groups who are America’s perpetual victims. Being conservative, to my way of thinking, is to shoulder responsibility, personal and otherwise. The libs/Dems are the movement of blame – America, “they system,” the white man, capitalism, etc. ad nauseum.
Well, now the president-elect and his minions have got what they wanted. Dollars to donuts, Dow 3,000 inside 2 years and G-d forbid a mushroom cloud over Central Park. The difference here is, I hope and pray I am wrong and that these horrors do not come to pass. Unlike the dems who can only succeed in an environment of misery, or to create those conditions so they can gain power. And now that they have it, they will not be dislodged easily, not because they will win supporters, but because they will ACORN/Alinsky the system so we won’t be able to ever win a legal election – ever.
Enjoy it my friends. The revolution, I fear, is coming. Let’s see if the MSM actually televises it.
It is not so much that I fear an Obama ascendancy (I must have a very old spell checker as the word Obama is underlined in red)-the practical alternatives to governing in these times will restrain some of his more grandiose schemes. Rather, my greatest fear is who will save this great country from the overarching ministrations of Chuck Schumer, John Conyers, Henry Waxman et al.? My only hope is to bury myself in the contents of the New Criterion to await the day when this country wakes up to the false promises of its new-found Messiah.
Alo,
Indeed, one might say that Obama’s victory represents the culmination of the 60s cultural revolution, in particular the Civil Rights Movement.
I would say his victory is the culmination of the hopes, dreams, prayers, and hard work of many generations of black Americans. I watched a 101 year old black man on my local news channel shed tears of joy. “I never thought this could happen.”
Your mention of Janis Joplin, a fine blues singer who died of a drug-overdose (not a 60s-only phenomenon — look at the jazz and blues scene throughout the 30s, 40s, and 50s) has absolutley no bearing at all in this context.
You are right, however, when you say the Republican Party did not offer someone like Reagan. They tried to, perhaps, in the form of Fred Thompson, and again, in the end, by “tapping” the hapless Governor Palin. Ronald Reagan was possibly a singular phenomena — a Hollywood actor with remarkable political instincts, and the time and capacity to develop and hone those skills.
Would that they tried to offer an Eisenhower instead.
You are right about another thing: Obama has an impossible job ahead of him.
Mr. Kimball, thank you.
Juvenal, I believe the key phrase to understanding Mr. Kimball’s thoughts is his final one, “I hope so.”
Which is not only correct, but as usual with Mr. Kimball’s writings, most amusing. Amusing when one considers how Obama manipulated “hope” to win the White House. A good one Mr. Kimball -thanks!
“Will the many practical problems this country faces enlighten our new masters? Will the heavy weight of responsibility for the prosperity and security of the United States sober them up? I really don’t know. I hope so.”
Given that during his first press conference, Obama gave the topic of what kind of dog they will get as much seriousness as he gave to the economy I think answers the questions above. Clearly the answer is no. He just doesn’t get it.
No, Roger, it’s not over. It’s only beginning. The election was just the warm-up.
To paraphrase Mencken, the people voted for change, and they’re going to get it good and hard.
Roger Kimball got the election wrong because
Roger Kimball and so many others on this board
thought that a battle of ideas and competing
philosophies was being fought out. It was not.
Obama represents the ascendancy not of a
philosophy, but a demographic profile. They voted their race and will continue to do so
automatically forever. And if you are white, and of the original stock of this country, you will be voted against, automatically and forever. John McCains Amnesty Bill last year was an attempt to placate and pander to Hispanics. This election year 78% of Hispanics voted against McCain. Such is the reward for racial pandering. You get exactly what you created…more racism, of the reverse kind and with white America the target. America has let into this country one million immigrants a year, mostly from the third world,one million a year for the past 40 years, and they have a birthrate many times the white majority. Which in less than one generation will be the white minority. Once you have given your country away.. you will NEVER get it back. As whites have been brainwashed into relinquishing power in the name of a mythical non racial society ..every other cultural group became ever more demanding, because THEY have no illusions about what all this means..it means what it has always meant the achievement of power. And no cultural group in history has ever given up power without eventually giving up its culture, its values, its history, its treasure and eventually its lives.
What do they say about 2d marriages? “The triumph of hope over experience.” Hehe…Take heart, this too shall pass.
A great concession speech, you say. That’s just wonderful. Republicans will be remembered for great concession speeches.
I’ll bet Ronald Reagan could have delivered a great concession speech, too. I’m glad he didn’t.
Remeber the election of Senator Palpatine in Star Wars: “So this is how freedom perishes – to thunderous applause.”