Thoughts.

[elisi]

Listened to Obama's Arizona speech today. The New Yorker has a very good article here (many thanks to frenchani for the link!), which just about sums it all up. Extraordinary through and through. (Even if David Cameron could write a speech like that, it'd not be as affecting, because well, he's David Cameron.)

And it reminded me of a thought I had the other night, when Darcy and I were watching 'The Thick of It', and I began comparing it to 'The West Wing'...

The latter is about idealism and aspiration, and Americans truly have that. And it is not a foolish notion either - just look at Obama. The hope and inspiration that Americans have - and that he to a great extent commands - is deeply touching.

'The Thick of It' however is steeped in cynicism. In England people view politicians mostly as an inevitable part of life, a necessary evil - but Churchill apart no one gets put on a pedestal. (And just look at Nick Clegg as an example of what happens when people do... The reason he's so reviled now, is because for moment it was believed that he was different.) It's no accident that on Doctor Who the Master turned himself into a Hugely Popular Politician - we are very aware that if we had a figure like that it'd probably mean that the guy was an Evil Mastermind out to destroy the world.

The flipside to this is of course Sarah Palin, where we don't have any kind of equivalent. (We don't have the highs, but then we also avoid the lows...) OK, we have plenty of idiots, but it's not quite the same. ;)

Not really going anywhere with this, just thinking out loud.

Comments

[vampirefever.livejournal.com]

I worked in Parliament for 7 years and can say with conviction, the cynicism is wholly justified. I had been a party activist and my degree was politics, but the reality was sobering.

My own post just after Obama won the presidency was, as far as my flist goes, the only cynical post I saw of the whole Democratic win. I could see all that starry-eyed idealism was going to crash and burn. And except for the few uplifting speaches Obama has made recently, the way the American voters turned on him at the recent elections shows idealism is fine but wont give you miracles.

The West Wing is one of my favourite ever programmes but it's because it's Utopian that I love it. Reality is by far so much dirtier and corrupt.

[elisi]

I worked in Parliament for 7 years and can say with conviction, the cynicism is wholly justified. I had been a party activist and my degree was politics, but the reality was sobering.
I remember you talking about it... (It's interesting how the pattern is repeated throughout the world though. In the Faroes you have a population of 50,000, and yet the politicians are the same as anywhere else.)

And except for the few uplifting speaches Obama has made recently, the way the American voters turned on him at the recent elections shows idealism is fine but wont give you miracles.
You know, I think Obama himself was always perfectly aware of this. From what I've read (his books are excellent) he is perfectly aware of how fickle people are, and quite simply just wants to do the job, with no interest in 'point scoring' or winning the next news cycle.

The West Wing is one of my favourite ever programmes but it's because it's Utopian that I love it. Reality is by far so much dirtier and corrupt.
Indeed...