Friday, June 11, 2010

A Lesson For Obama From Mandela, By Way Of Hollywood

Between lawyering and acting, I often don't see movies until months after they've been in multiplexes (I refuse to call them "theatres").  Thankfully, I have a stepson who, in addition to finding jobs at a time when few college graduates are able to do so, buys DVDs on a regular basis.  As a result, last weekend, I got around to seeing "Invictus," the Clint Eastwood film that depicts how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) used the sport of rugby and the World Cup tournament as a vehicle for bridging the racial and cultural gap in post-apartheid South Africa.  The film shows how Mandela's decision to do this, in some sense, was an act of desperation, a manufactured alternative at a time when there really were no others.  That it worked as well as it did lies in the fact that sports possesses two qualities that Mandela understood would help build national unity:  drama, and teamwork.

As I reflected on this, after the movie ended, I began to realize why so many people are disappointed in Barack Obama, and why the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf has become a kind of catalyst for that sense of disappointment.  For all of his rhetorical ability to inspire a crown, Obama seems to instinctively shy away from conflict, from strong emotions, from the kind of focused passion that is often needed for a nation to become greater than the sum of its people's lives.  Whether this lies in his upbringing, or in his genes, can and will be a subject for biographers one day.  In any event, it explains why he has largely functioned as an in-box-out-box President, checking off issues (the stimulus, health care, financial reform and so on), delegating them to Congress or experts (or both), and then announcing how pleased he is with the results.

But what is missing, in the process, is any kind of effort on his part to show how the results connect with the larger story of our history as a nation, and to show or tell us where he wants to take us.  Sadly, most Americans don't relate to politics through their minds, but through their hearts.  This is where a sense of drama, and a visible appreciation for teamwork, is invaluable for a President, regardless of his party or his politics.  F.D.R. demonstrated both qualities through his fireside chats; George W. Bush (to lesser ultimate effect) did it with a bullhorn amidst the devastation of the September 11 attacks.

What should Obama have done, as soon as the oil started spilling into the Gulf?  Get angry?  No, get involved.  Get everyone involved.  Go down to the Gulf, and invite everyone who wanted (and still wants) to help to come down and do whatever they can to help.  Let Bobby Jindal and the Army Corps of Engineers build barrier islands.  Let Kevin Costner try out his new oil-scrubbing technology.  Let Eric Holder and the Justice Department go full-tilt after BP for their criminal negligence.  Give the oil-eating microbes a chance to do their stuff.  Hell, even invite Sarah Palin down for whatever she can contribute, based on the Exxon Valdez disaster (if nothing else, it would have taken her off the Tea Party trail and put her on the spot for her "drill, baby, drill" rhetoric.  And yes, go down to the Senate personally (on national TV would be even better) and tell the World's Greatest Deliberative Body that they're not going anywhere--and neither is the House of Representatives) until they put a climate change bill on his desk that beings to wean us from our addiction to oil.

Drama.  And teamwork.  It's not too late for Obama to discover it and, for the sake of our nation, I pray that he does.  Perhaps this week's start of another World Cup tournament (this time in soccer) can help.

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