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Obama's even-handedness works against him
President Obama's 10-day Asia trip includes visits to India and Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country.
The president chose not to visit the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar during his time in India because it required a head covering that his advisers feared would fuel speculation about his faith. A Pew study showed that nearly 20% of Americans believe falsely that the president is a Muslim.
The more Obama reaches out to Muslims, the more his critics are likely to slander him, implying that he is not a Christian.
An example is his April 2009 speech in Turkey, in which he said, "We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation, we consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values." The president's critics have seized on that statement, insisting that he rejects the Christian foundations of America.
Is Obama stuck between a rock and a hard place? If you were the president, how would you handle this dilemma?
There's a certain honor in holding your head high when others are persecuting you. If President Obama serves as an example, I think it's fine with him. We are telling gay kids, in the "It Gets Better" campaign, to hold their heads high. We've apologized to the Japanese-Americans who were interned during World War II; they had to hold their head high for a long time until the apology came. It may be too precarious for Obama to tell American Muslims to hold their heads up high -- or to enter a Sikh temple for fear of know-nothing persecution back home. But he was perfectly correct to tell the Islamic world that America isn't a country founded on any religion, Christian or otherwise.
To me, there's only so much fighting against persecution that works. We're only human, and it's inevitable that 20% of people believe that the President is a Muslim. Demagogues form the right -- and many speakers at Tea Party rallies -- never fail to call him "Barack Hussein Obama," and when you apply propaganda that continually, somebody is likely to believe it. Facts don't alter the case. Just as the birthers already hated Obama before they promoted their ridiculous claims about his birth certificate, people who believe that Obama is a Muslim fly in the face of reason for emotional reasons. (As the old quip goes, "Don't bother me with the facts. My mind is already closed.")
I often ponder the sad fact that a majority of whites do not approve of the president's job performance, to which one can add the fact that religious voters, meaning regular church goers, overwhelmingly supported Bush, the Iraq War, and the Republican Party in general. It bothers me that people who march under the banner of God, "values," and their own self-appointed moral superiority can be so blinkered in areas where morality really counts. For a generation the Republicans have counted on bigots and the intolerant. This isn't something they patented. Before the Civil Rights Act drove the South into the arms of the Republicans, it was the Democrats whose allegiance to the most racist part of the country marked them with shame. Adults have to learn about ambivalence, which means making friends with other people, even loving them, despite their weak and bad side. The opposite of ambivalence is to idealize heroes and paint situations in only two colors, black or white.
President Obama is clearly an adult, and he has resisted the temptation to portray his enemies in black and white. This even-handedness led him to call for bipartisan cooperation since his first day in office, an attitude that drives political operatives crazy. After the shellacking of the midterms, he continues to call for cooperation across the aisle, and for a very good reason. It's the only way out of gridlock. Only time will tell if ideals have been defeated by human nature. Some would claim that Obama's mildness did him in already, leading unscrupulous opponents to get away with lies on every front, beginning with "death panels," "the death tax," and of course, the birthers' idiocies about his country of origin. We're only human, and those things can't be stopped. But I secretly wish Obama was only human. As much as I admire his adult behavior, it would be understandable if he stood up to the bullies on the right. It gets better, not by waiting and wishing but by making it clear that you demand the right to hold your head up high.
By
Deepak Chopra
|
November 8, 2010; 4:33 PM ET
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Posted by: pgr88 | November 12, 2010 2:30 AM
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You say he refused to go to the Golden Temple because he is afraid it would lead to speculation about his faith - sorry, that just doesn't wash.
If so, why did Obama visit a Mosque in both India and Indonesia - especially one that was the site of recent anti-American protests led by visiting Iranian clerics?
Basis that, what should we speculate about Obama's faith??
Posted by: pgr88 | November 12, 2010 2:28 AM
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Mr. Chopra: You're assuming he is not a Muslim. Almost everything I've seen points to him being a life-long Muslim, from his father, to his childhood in Indonesia, to his so-called "church" in Chicago run by a Muslim and it's closeness with the Nation of Islam, to his "Muslim outreach" in every department, even NASA!! Please show us where you think he's a Christian and why...
Posted by: sandbear | November 12, 2010 1:42 AM
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In my opinion, you elequently expressed some very good ideas, thank you.
I have been comtemplating the President's drive to bipartisanship for some time. While I applaud the effort, I wonder sometimes if some people didn't push him into it to ensure he would only get things half-done. Bipartisanship started with Hamilton and Jefferson before the ink dried on the Constitution. The political infighting was as bad as today, and the media attacks were actually worse. Washington was actually very concerned about it and even wrote letters to them both asking them to put their anger aside and work together for the good of the nation. No deal. If Washington couldn't stop it at the very birth of the nation, why would Obama take such an ardent stance more than 200 years later? Without a complete change in how campaigns are run (maybe requiring they all be strictly grassroots?) there is little hope for change.
As to The President's calm demeanor and level-headed responses; it's absurd that we have issue with it, but it also understandable. Why would we be so put off by someone doing the desirable thing? There is plenty of research which shows that strongly negative emotional activity adversely effects the brain's ability to see a situation clearly and plan for future events (see C25 effect on PFC).
I have actually been working this around in my mind for some time. I want to keep my emotional response in check so that I can think clearly. For example, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself"... people love to quote it, but I don't think most people really think about what it means. When it comes right down to it, much of human communication is non-verbal. Emotions play out in the muscles of the face and others interpret those movements. The information conveyed is powerful, from what I've seen, and may speak more directly to the emotional centers of the brain than words (mirror neurons). So when concern is expressed without an emotional display accompanying it, it is often not as convincing, even though if may very well be felt with a strong conviction.
So what to do? I don't claim to have solved the problem, but I have found one thing which seems to work. Actions. For example, Obama made a strong case that he is deeply concerned about the environment during is campaign. But that has not translated into very much. Somethings were done, however, were talking about the only planet we can inhabit. Humanity has a bad history of after-the-fact, knee-jerk reactions to serious issues, but this one might be far more serious than we care to think about. So, when it comes down to it, I see this. He's a very smart man. He claims a strong conviction. That conviction is displayed without the often displayed emotion... No problem, I'll accept that as a goal for myself actually. However, when it doesn't translate into action, I begin to feel duped.
Fox and MSNBC at the founding: http://blog.readingthinkingandwriting.com/?p=19
Posted by: CogitoErgoBibo | November 9, 2010 9:27 AM
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How about he stands up to the bullies on the left as well.
Posted by: greenstheman | November 9, 2010 9:02 AM
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By the way, if Obama is a Christian, I'm wondering what kind it is. I'm still trying to find where his dear Rev. Wright's "GOD DAMN AMERICA" appears in the bible!