Obama's Politics of Reconciliation... Overrated?

by Matt Flaherty

From Yale English Professor David Bromwich, an insightful analysis of the potential problems with Obama's temperament and leadership style. In short, Obama's style generally attempts to mute dissent and partisanship by, like some good-natured teacher or coach, getting everyone to believe that they are on the same team. I found Bromwich particularly enlightening since--sharing Obama's temperament myself--I've been inclined to simply be rapturous about his charismatic leadership, his ability to make everyone feel like their voice counts rather than simply snuffing out opposing contributions as illegitimate and uninformed, and leading to the shrill partisanship and grand-standing that this can lead to. But charismatic leadership (which can sometimes slide into merely rhetorical appeasement) Bromwich suggests may also have its price:

The strange thing about Obama is that he seems to suppose a community can pass directly from the sense of real injustice to a full reconciliation between the powerful and the powerless, without any of the unpleasant intervening collisions. This is a choice of emphasis that suits his temperament.

...Reconciliation, however, can't be genuine or lasting without some polarization, a careful (not generalized) exposure of injustices, and a fight that feels like a fight. In the absence of these, reconciliation dwindles into a rhetorical device; it leads to short-term salvation formulae and a renewal of discontents.

...taken to the circuitous lengths Obama allows, pragmatism is another word for the compulsive propitiation of unnecessary partners. It expands the work and blunts the achievement of reform.

...Somewhere at the bottom of the missteps of the last few months is a failure to recognize the depth of the popular ignorance a president of the United States confronts on any issue.

... To take control of his presidency, he must give up the ambition to serve as the national moderator, the pronouncer on everything, the man with the largest portfolio. If the public option in health care reform is finally defeated, Obama will not soon recover his credit as a national, a party, or a general-issue leader. To avoid that fate, he will have to grant to politics, mere politics, an importance he has not allowed it thus far.