J'Accuse

[swilton]

J’Accuse – Huffington Post, August 9, 2011

Michael Brenner, Senior Fellow, TransAtlantic Relations – University of Pittsburgh

America's situation today bears some resemblance to Emile Zola's passionate denunciation of the persecution of Major Alfred Dreyfus by bigoted, ancien régime leaders of the French army. This landmark achievement for the voice of righteous protest galvanized a movement that forced Dreyfus' exoneration as well as broke the silence about the sordid affair among the most senior of the French political elite. Similarly, the suffocating silence in America deafens us to the grave damage to the country's public institutions, their perceived integrity in the eyes of citizens, and the social compact that has bound together wage earners and the wealthy and powerful in the cause of national unity and basic decency. As an enterprise in calculated destruction of the great reforms of the past eighty years that reconciled 'Americanism' with the realities of modern life, it marks a reactionary turn unprecedented in our history or that of any other Western country. As an attack on the authority of the peoples' elected representatives by the creation of an ad hoc 'super Congress,' it erodes the constitutional foundations of the Republic.

Then there is Mr. Barack Obama -- nominally President of the United States. The president is, above all, the custodian of the civic religion that binds the country's diverse people into a polity that calls for loyalty in exchange for legality and security. To fulfill this duty, the Chief Executive must strive to embody our public values. The inescapable wheeling and dealing that is an integral part of the job must not be driven by personal ambition alone to occupy the White House. Measured against these somber responsibilities, Barack Obama has failed the country. Moreover, it is a failure that is not dictated by the array of forces or flawed strategy. The truth is far more troubling. He has failed us due to a lack of conviction, a lack of appreciation where the path of presidential duty lies, a lack of courage, and no lack of expedient impulses to promote himself. This last is cause, and reinforced effect of an alarming contradiction between a skillfully cultivated public persona and his actual, private thinking about the issues of our era.
We have had ample evidence of this dismaying truth over the past two-and-a-half years -- and even earlier. We have conveniently overlooked it -- we being Democratic voters, the lax media, and of course the favored interests who encouraged the crackpot right to depict Mr. Obama as a 'socialist' while he so nicely served them. The true believers among supposed liberals refused to see it. For they have proven true believers in an imagined man who does not exist; true believers of what satisfies their own needs for a hero more than the well-being of those whose cause they claim to serve. All this goes unexamined by mainstream pundits, analysts, experts, political journalists, economic sages, academics, etc.

The biggest story is not these unsavory antics but the silence. Democrats in Congress have long seemed to have been struck mute. Harry Reid in the Senate went through the motions of resistance to the sell-out and then blessed the sell-out. Nancy Pelosi promises a last-ditch fight and then passively watches 50% of her minions sign the unconditional surrender. Individual maverick voices are notable for their absence -- the exception is the venerable Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who looks an incongruous throwback to another time for saying what he believes and believing what he says. The others kowtowed obediently to Mr. Obama and lent their dead weight to dragging the country over the cliff. Other Democratic dignitaries secluded themselves on Cape Cod and similar cozy retreats far from the confused and maddened crowd. No one is called to account; no one calls to account.

Full article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michaelbrenner/jaccuse_2_b_921018.html?view=print&comm_ref=false