By Isaac Yetiv , Ph. D.
LA JOLLA, California — In what I consider the best novel in Sub-Saharan African literature in French, L’Aventure ambigue, (The Ambiguous Adventure), the Senegalese author, Cheikh Hamidou Kane, opposes two political factions in a royal setting: the Elders against the Grande Royale, the powerful female Regent. The question in dispute: shall the young presumptive heir to the throne stay in Africa and learn to govern the African way or shall he be sent to study in Paris and learn the European ways?
The Regent won the argument. “He shall go to Paris, she declared, in order to learn to win without being right.”(pour apprendre a vaincre sans avoir raison.)
I was reminded of this masterpiece when I was despondently contemplating the results of the elections that gave Obama a second term. He, too, won without being right. By all objective metrics, his first term has been an abject failure and nothing indicated a change of direction that would allow for a second chance. He is not a prestidigitator, he didn’t hypnotize the people with magic or hocus-pocus, and he is no Messiah–that bluff was consumed in 2008.
And I don’t believe Romney was not equal to the task ( no other Republican could have done better.) Or that he made mistakes or gaffes (he did, but Obama-Biden made even more.) So what happened?
I believe in tangible, concrete facts and events, and I found four salient ones that tipped the scale:
1) The electorate: For democracy to work, it is essential to have an alert electorate, “educated and informed” as was envisaged by the Founders. My own experience in lecturing in the community, confirmed by many studies, showed “a dumbing-down of the electorate” in the context of an alarming cultural decline. The ignorance and the lack of interest are stunning. Very few knew,or could figure out ,or cared about, the enormity of the national debt and its deleterious effects on the economy and the national security.
Even the avalanche of scandals that plagued this administration– which culminated in the murder of four brave Americans in the line of duty in Benghazi ,and the incompetence,coverups and lies of the highest echelons of power– didn’t seem to affect their choice, to make them pause and “think.”
The dominant issues were irrelevant. This was not “a marketplace of ideas” but an auction to the highest bidder : who will give Me more free stuff? The exit polls showed that very clearly: “I voted for Obama because he will forgive my college loan, or he will pay my tuition fees, or he will protect my reproductive rights, a euphemism for free contraceptives and free abortion, or he will give me free healthcare , or he will help pay my mortgage etc. The idea that there is no free lunch, that somebody else will have to pay for it, never entered their minds. Let Santa Claus worry about it. Let Obama print more money, borrow from China, and continue to give until, in the words of Margaret Thatcher, “he runs out of other people’s money.”
A man as serious, efficient, and responsible as Romney could never compete with this irresponsible largesse when the public coffers are empty, even worse, full of red debts.
2) The propaganda machine: It was malevolently brilliant, unencumbered by scruples of any kind, like respect for the truth and decency. It was ready, willing and able to distort the facts, to cynically lie, scare, slander, and sow division, to viciously demonize the opponent using an army of very expensive “Democratic strategists” who accused Romney of being “a felon,” of causing death by cancer to an employee’s wife, of throwing old people over the cliff by destroying Social Security and Medicare etc…,all proven falsities, which were accepted as facts by the public.
3) Compliant and activist media: It is a known fact that the media are in their majority liberal. There is nothing wrong with that when they comment the news, express an opinion, or editorialize. But when they deliberately decide to report only what is favorable to the Obama candidacy, or misreport and alter other news, they cross the line into surrogacy and advocacy, and vile servility to one side. By doing so, they betray their vocation and violate the tenets of their profession and journalistic ethics, and deal a heavy blow to the fundaments of Democracy. That’s what happened in Elections 2012. In my public lectures,I was stunned many a time to see that the majority of my audience , usually alert and knowledgeable, was not aware of certain facts and events that happened to favor Romney. Simply because the papers they read and the TV channels they watch never mentioned them as “news” that deserve reporting. When I was asked how I knew so much, I said it was because, among many sources, I watch Fox News that presents both sides, with commentators from both parties.
4) Deficiencies within the Republican party: It was reported that Obama received 9 million votes less than in 2008 and Romney got 3 million votes less than McCain (this, in itself, is a sign of apathy and disinterest.) We now know that many “natural” constituents of the Republican party didn’t bother to vote for Romney for different reasons: Many Evangelicals or other Christians because he is a Mormon; Libertarians and “principled” Conservatives because he is not conservative enough. These are estimated at 3 million voters, which could have made the difference.
Obama won re-election because of all these extraneous auxiliary factors, not because the people judged and decided that they agree with his positions on the issues. To parody his own words, “he didn’t do it, other people made it happen.” In Talmudic parlance, ” he was lucky that his work was done by others.”
Nobody can predict, of course, what lies in store for the Republic. But what is certain is that the numbers, and the facts, don’t lie. ” If Obama doesn’t operate an about face, i.e. if , irony of ironies, he does not embrace and implement, on a bipartisan basis, Romney’s program, we will see a total collapse of the economy, more millions of unemployed, 22 trillion of national debt, more people dependent on the government, and the poor and lower middle-class will be the main victims.
I don’t think that was the intent of those who cast their ballot for Barack Obama.
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Yetiv is a lecturer and freelance writer based in La Jolla. He may be contacted at isaac.yetiv@sdjewishworld.com
Yetiv is a lecturer and freelance writer based in La Jolla. He may be contacted at isaac.yetiv@sdjewishworld.com