Obama 2

American phobias, manias and fears have lost

Obama won the second presidential election outright. In terms of the number of electors from the states, he outnumbered his opponent by one and a half times. According to the absolute number of votes "for" -plus one and a half million. No chance for speculation...

Obama won the second presidential election outright. In terms of the number of electors from the states, he outnumbered his opponent by one and a half times. According to the absolute number of votes "for" -plus one and a half million. No chance for speculation.

There are two reasons why Obama won.

He was better than his competitor.

America turned out to be better (wiser, fairer, more pragmatic) than it seemed at times.

I could name two dozen more reasons, but these two are enough.

Real Democracy is an exciting game. The US presidential election provided an amazing year-long action that had it all: captivating intrigue, mounting suspense, open ending - until the last minute. And real drama! Two parties (“We” and “They”), a clash of ideas raised to the level of a battle between good and evil, vigorous activity behind the scenes, a bet on reason, a clever game on prejudice, gigantic money, a fateful choice. The energetic warm-up of the Republican primaries - casting with scuffle - was watched with interest mainly by amateurs and professionals. The show of party congresses has already united the whole country on television. Three face-to-face fights between the two main gladiators for the place of Caesar were judged and rowed by 70 million people.

Every word, gesture, "tin" during the campaign was caught on the fly, trying to discern a hint of ultimate victory or defeat.

• Cars? My wife Anna owns a pair of Cadillacs.

• I love firing people.

• Corporations are people, my friend.

• Some of my best friends are owners of famous football teams.

What's with Mitt Romney?! Wants to please everyone, but from him a mile away reeks of wealth, complacency, arrogance.

But what happened in the first presidential debate. with Obama? Where did the royal stature go, eyes downcast, is he confused or not ready for a duel? The words don't fly off the teeth like his rival's. Where is the will to win? And this is the person in whom they believed so much?

The election marathon is over. Now you can forget all this and think about the main thing. This second victory for Obama may be no less significant than the first.

Four years ago, the unthinkable happened. The Obama phenomenon is a manifestation of the consciousness revolution. But revolutions never happen in good times anywhere. They occur only when the country and society are brought to the edge. Obama's epoch-making victory was best summed up by the American satirical magazine Onion: "The black man got the hardest job in the country."

It fell to the new president to move several mountains at once. Or overcome a few abysses. The financial and economic crisis is comparable to the Great Depression of the 30s. And three wars to boot: Iraq, Afghanistan and the global fight against terrorism.

And he did it. The US economy has entered a positive trajectory. US troops have left Iraq and will leave Afghanistan next year. The elimination of Osama bin Laden (and a line of his accomplices and deputies) symbolized revenge for the tragedy of 9/11. Obama was obviously rushed with the Nobel Peace Prize, but he definitely deserved the Oscar for the operation of the Navy SEALs in Abbottabad.

And as if that weren't enough, Obama carried out health care reform in the country. It was the doctrinal dream of the Democrats—a reform of the scope and class of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, John F. Kennedy's New Frontier, Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. By providing health insurance to 30 million disadvantaged Americans, this reform makes American society more secure, fair, and humane. This alone guarantees Obama a place in history.

Here are just places in the White House for a second term, it did not guarantee at all. Rather, vice versa.

What seems so clear from a distance of years or continents is far from being so obvious to compatriots - contemporaries. Mass psychology works in a completely different direction. Fairness is good, but why should it be paid "out of my pocket"? The 30 million disadvantaged are definitely in favor, but how many millions of the wealthy are against the new tax?

With war and peace, too, not everything is so simple. When coffins come home for years, the soldiers need to come home. When they finally return, I want them to come back with a victory. And they leave behind a bloody chaos.

But the main thing is at home. Crisis – has it been overcome or has it not been overcome? How to count... In terms of gross, the US economy has reached the pre-crisis level, but only recently. The latest data is for October: 2% of economic growth in terms of the year - the best performance in what was once called the "first world", Europe does not dream of it. But this is not enough! The real way out of the crisis is when people return to work or work (and at least the previous earnings) will return to people. This is not only a social, but also an economic problem - effective demand, which alone is capable of guaranteeing sustainable growth. In October, the number of newly hired - 171,000. This is better than in previous months. Especially if you do not forget that in the worst months of the crisis, the economy threw 800,000 people out on the street. A small rise is definitely better than a big fall, but where is the real, confident, steep rise?

For 44 consecutive months - until this September - unemployment has been above the 8 percent mark. Romney did not need much eloquence, it was enough to repeat this phrase like a mantra. It sounded like a sentence. Presidents with such figures are not re-elected for a second term. (True, Dwight Eisenhower won in 1956 with about the same rate of economic growth, but this is the only exception to the rule. And there were no precedents for such a level of unemployment.)

Well, yes, it's true: American politics (the practice of democratic elections) is theater. And indeed, it has so much staging, external effects. The political history of the United States is full of apocrypha on this matter. Like in 1964, John F. Kennedy won because he won the first presidential debate. And he won them because he was tanned, and Richard Nixon looked tired and not very shaved. How deftly Ronald Reagan - the "great communicator", cut off the enemy. Or, on the contrary, how the entire campaign of a failed candidate went downhill due to an unfortunate slip of the tongue or a single slip...

In the 2012 campaign, every such sniper bullet or miss was tracked by thousands of reporters and exaggerated by the whole world. Terrible things have come to light. It turns out that Obama does not know how to kindle hearts (and where did the sacred fire of hope and faith that emanated from him in 2008 go?) That he is a bad politician in general ...

Here only it is necessary to make a reservation. There are two policies in English (American) language. Policy and politics. The first is the political course (domestic or foreign policy). And the second concept describes precisely party relations. The election campaign is pure politics. The requirements and skills of the two politicians are quite different. Now, all of a sudden, theater criticism (I'm talking about political theater) has discovered that Obama is not as good at the art of communication and seduction (potential allies, sponsors, counters and crosses) as, say, Bill Clinton. That he is burdened by secular communication and ritual ceremonies. That, in fact, he prefers the loneliness of a statesman to a stellar presence in the crowd.

I will not say that the latter seems to me such a shortcoming.

One way or another, criticism is clearly overdoing it with theatricality. Each actor in this marathon performance had its ups and downs, the scales tipped to one side or the other, and from the very beginning to the voting day it was clear: the race was extremely equal - nostril to nostril.

In fact, Barack Obama fought not only and not even so much with Mitt Romney, but, if you like, with the barometer. His two campaigns - 2008 and 2012 - were really like heaven and earth. Not because in four years he suddenly became stupid, forgot the rules of the political game, or forgot how to fight. On the contrary, he only matured and tempered. But then the wind blew at his back, making him an incomparable champion of everyone's hopes. The previous Republican administration drove the country into a dead end, and he, a new and in all respects different politician, must lead it to open space ... But this time the wind was in his face. Now Obama was responsible for everything that happens in the country and with the country. He needed to prove that he was not just better than his opponent - he spoke, posed and promised. But that he, Barack Obama, should remain at the helm, because his political course stopped the socio-economic catastrophe in the country, equal to the climatic one, and it must be continued. Because he understands better than his rival what the model of the state (in fact, modern capitalism) should be - this applies to such concepts as activity, control, social responsibility. And also because his, Obama's, foreign policy is adjusted, cautious, free from adventures, it is adequate to the possibilities of the country and its new role.

Everyone says - both opponents and supporters - that the level of expectations and faith that surrounded him 4 years ago was too high. Well, of course, it was impossible to keep her. It was the higher, the lower the country sank under the weight of previously unknown trials. Here is a small list of only the most important problems.

Inequality. Never before has the gap between the richest (1% and even 0.1%) and the rest been so great in a country that proclaims the ideal of equal opportunities ... The middle class is losing stability, and this is the foundation of American society. The level of his well-being has not been growing in the last decade and is even declining… The demographics are changing alarmingly. The most successful and numerous post-war generation of baby boomers is approaching retirement. Society is aging... And it is getting dark before our eyes. By the middle of the century, the white population will no longer be in the majority, America will become a society of several racial minorities ... And then China comes on the heels. And in general, everything is changing globally: American weight, American century, America's place in the world.

The American collective consciousness and subconsciousness is storming, and this storm is stronger than the "Frankenstorm" that hit New York and New Jersey for days. In the same way as last time all the best, pure, idealistic that America has rose up for Obama, this time all the American phobias, manias and fears, stirred up and rising from the bottom, worked against him. And they lost.