In my latest for the Guardian, I argue that two contrasting speeches by Michelle Obama show she understands what works in Chicago doesn’t work on the national stage. Unfortunately for Democrats, the Obamas’ efforts to reinvent themselves risk making them seem inauthentic and leave them vulnerable to Republican attack.
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“Unfortunately for Democrats, the Obamas’ efforts to reinvent themselves risk making them seem inauthentic and leave them vulnerable to Republican attack.”I don’t understand the word “seem” here. Are you implying that the Obama’s reinvention is genuine or only “seems” inauthentic?Are not reinventers ipso facto inauthentic?If that is so, then yes they are vulnerable to “genuine” attacks even from hacks like Severin.
A week or so ago Tom Ashbrook had as his On Point guest Richard Todd, the author of The Thing Itself, a kind of meditation on authenticity. I haven’t read the book yet, I think it’ll be on the fall pile, but he was quite witty about the slippery, even ineffable notion of what’s “authentic”. One caller mentioned that some Europeans come here specifically to experience “authentic” American kitsch of the sort we dismiss as worthless trash. Another talked about taking his students to Central America, where they searched for locally-made trinkets, and Indian souvenir shops selling items from China.Last week in Montreal I nearly bought a hollow wooden frog that comes with a stick you clack across its back. For some reason I figured it was locally made. Label on the bottom: Made in Thailand. Uck no thanks, inauthentic! Had I been in Bangkok though, such a product of a local sweatshop would have been just the thing.In short I think it’s nearly impossible and maybe pointless to pick through the layers of the global economy in the search for “authentic” objects. And even more pointless to look for it in politicians who by nature must arrange themselves into configurations that the public can accept. How authentic is Ranchman Bush, or McCain and his “cabin”? The answer isn’t that they are inauthentic, it’s that to even imagine that authenticity can exist among such people, is absurd.Republicans will of course attack Obama and his wife no matter how they behave, so hewing to some imaginary line of authenticity to avoid such attacks is pointless.
“so hewing to some imaginary line of authenticity to avoid such attacks is pointless.”De Tocqueville was right about second raters going into politics in this country. I am always surprised how this quadrennial search for a fuhrer turns people into logic torturers to defend the confidence men they adore.
tvoh, who is your authentic non-fuhrer-esque first rater?Dan uses the disclaimer-followed-by-the-double-equivocation pattern: I don’t find X inauthentic * but (1)some people (2)might.* “The choices the Obamas made don’t bother me…But…”See also:I don’t care who X sleeps with but some people might.Dan merely points out, in concern-troll fashion (he is “troubled”), the risk that they take, to those who might wish to attack.
Don’t argue with me Neil, argue with De Tocqueville.If you want me to pick a person not in government who could do a better job, there are many. They probably don’t want the job.The search for find an authenticity is like Clinton’s search for a legacy. Lost is the idea of just doing a good job for the sake of a good job. No, the candidate has to promise to shower goodies as if Zeus from Olympus, but with humility.Of course the Saint is a Dem on this blog and on some other blogs it’s a repub.