Francis Fukuyama endorses Obama

[ProSense]

I’m voting for Barack Obama this November for a very simple reason. It is hard to imagine a more disastrous presidency than that of George W. Bush. It was bad enough that he launched an unnecessary war and undermined the standing of the United States throughout the world in his first term. But in the waning days of his administration, he is presiding over a collapse of the American financial system and broader economy that will have consequences for years to come. As a general rule, democracies don’t work well if voters do not hold political parties accountable for failure. While John McCain is trying desperately to pretend that he never had anything to do with the Republican Party, I think it would a travesty to reward the Republicans for failure on such a grand scale.

McCain’s appeal was always that he could think for himself, but as the campaign has progressed, he has seemed simply erratic and hotheaded. His choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate was highly irresponsible; we have suffered under the current president who entered office without much knowledge of the world and was easily captured by the wrong advisers. McCain’s lurching from Reaganite free- marketer to populist tribune makes one wonder whether he has any underlying principles at all.

America has been living in a dream world for the past few years, losing its basic values of thrift and prudence and living far beyond its means, even as it has lectured the rest of the world to follow its model. At a time when the U.S. government has just nationalized a good part of the banking sector, we need to rethink a lot of the Reaganite verities of the past generation regarding taxes and regulation. Important as they were back in the 1980s and ’90s, they just won’t cut it for the period we are now entering. Obama is much better positioned to reinvent the American model and will certainly present a very different and more positive face of America to the rest of the world.

Francis Fukuyama is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

link

NeoCon Fukuyama for Obama (Fukuyama voted for Kerry too)




edited for clarification.

[shoopnyc]

1. I will forgive him, but I'll NEVER FORGET...

...what he helped do to this country.

[politicasista]

3. Yep. We can say that about all repukes, but

at least they're coming around. Although 8 years too late, but better late than never.

[Occam Bandage]

4. I don't believe in punishing people for having bad ideas.

Nothing Fukuyama did was criminal or immoral. He wrote papers advocating ideas. He wrote books advocating ideas. He was on committees advocating ideas. In a free and fair government, his ideas would have been analyzed and accepted or dismissed on their merits.

The problem with the last decade was that a secretive, reckless cabal took over the reins of government, and they criminally rammed through dumb policies by giving Congress, the American people, and the international community the run-around.

I don't believe that it's immoral to be wrong. I do believe that it's immoral to knowingly circumvent the failsafes in governance, and I believe it's immoral to knowingly do harm for political reasons. Fukuyama has done neither, and to his credit, he's shown a great deal of openness to reconsidering his ideas.

I'm glad for his endorsement, and remain a fan of his writing.

[stolivodka]

2. So, does that mean that history is back on, again?

Just wondering.

[Occam Bandage]

5. Well, he's admitted it is, though

he thinks that the main reason is that technological and scientific advancement will end up changing the rules to the point where liberal democracy is no longer stable as the world's dominant ideology.

[Omerrrta]

6. a good interview with him about obama

heres a good interview with him from earlier this year:

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2257118.htm

"
I think of all the Republicans, McCain in many ways is the most attractive but he is still is too, you know comes from the school that places too much reliance on hard military power as a means of spreading American influence.

I think in many ways, Hillary Clinton represents both the good and the bad things of the 1990s and there is something in the style of the Clinton's that never really appealed to me and so I think of all the three, Obama probably has the greatest promise of delivering a different kind of politics.
"

[smoochpooch]

7. Anyone know who Samuel Huntington has endorsed, if anyone? n/t