04.02.2008

How is he doing it?

I know that most of you might not be interested and may be even annoyed about gedankenpingpong covering the USA and its political rally so often. But I am often quite amazed about what's going on over there. Why should we care over here in good old Europe anyway? And isn't campaigning just talking about ideas that won't be realized after elections.
Well, first of all, the American president has proven more than often enough that his moods and political decisions affect us. And even Karl Marx once said "theory also becomes a material force as soon as it has gripped the masses". So it matters and that's not what I wanted to blog about anyway.

I am always surprised, the new youtube channels I find. So many of them are actually quite interesting. And many of them are well done. Recently I discovered Barely Political. What's so special about it? Well maybe not much, it's a bunch of people including a few hot chicks making silly talk about politics. But they also have this Super Obama Girl. And that is what I am really interested in. How can a candidate become such a "popstar"? I haven't seen something like that over here in Europe and can't think of anything similiar in the western hemisphere.
As far as I can tell, this only happens when people are mad fanatics (like the hardcore catholics in poland) or desperate and looking for a big change (e.g. Ukraine).
Change is also what Barack Obama and other candidates are preaching all the time, you might say. But as far as I can tell the American people are not really desperate. So what is it about Obama that inspires so many of them that much, in a country where only 50 percent of the people vote? Assuming this is something good - though you can argue about that - do political systems like in Germany or the UK need change? Campaigns have been much more personalized over the last few years even here in Germany. We also had TV debates between the two most important candidates during the last election. So even though we're voting for parties, it's very obvious who might become "changellor". But why is it that our politicians are that technocratic? Or are they not. The last person who somehow inspired people in Europe was Ségolène Royal. We all know what happened.

8 Kommentare:

Anonym hat gesagt…

I try do post this comment in english. The christian democratic party (CDU) in Hamburg does the most personalized election for mayor Ole von Beust since the last election for chancellor Merkel. Everywhere you go you see the face of Beust. They put a Mega-Blowup (20 m x 8m) with his face on a housewall near Reeperbahn. Beust has nothing to do with a popstar, but the CDU has decided to replace political statements with an heroic image campaign for their candidate. Check out their website www.cduhamburg.de and you can watch OleTV and see how personalized elections in germany already are.

gedankenpingpong hat gesagt…

Well,
that's my point. We already have personalized campaigns but are the people inspiring? Do they have a vision of the future? Well the only vision I can see is: "I promise nothing will change!" or even worse like you could see in Hessen were one candidate was campaigning against foreigners and the other one was campaining for shutting down energy plants and reallocation (Umverteilung). In Hamburg there is not much to campaign with so the main topic seems to be education, which indeed is important but most people don't care. Were is the vision?

Anonym hat gesagt…

Where is the great idea in the US? What makes an idea big anyway?

Check out this video and write down a few words that pop in your head.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY

What about dreams, freedom, equality, hope, change? Yes sure. Aint this stuff everybody wants to see on planet earth.

It's an American thing to create pop culture. They invented it. It has nothing to do with reality. Just a lil bitt history repeating.

JFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King. Common, that's to easy.

gedankenpingpong hat gesagt…

First thing I was thinking was "I am not sure you really do".

Point is, Barack Obama stands for a new type of politics as Hillary Clinton stands for the old system. And there is nothing wrong with history repeating if it's the good parts of it. I just hope he won't end like your examples.
I know that heroism has a long tradition in American history. I am not sure why it's not related to reality. It is reality. The question is what will really happen if he gets ellected.
And looking back we had a few inspirational politicians with ideas too. Just think of Brandt who made a big effort to stableize relations with eastern europe and was able to unite a divided nation during the late 60ies.

So my point is that he's someone, who is really forward looking whereas Bush has always been someone protecting the status quo. Question is do we need politicians with ideas or just technocrats.

One more thing: The translation of the Marx quote is not really good. He originally said: Die Idee wird zur materiellen Kraft, sobald sie die Massen ergreift.

Anonym hat gesagt…

Talk is cheap.

Was cheap, is cheap, stays cheap.

Before Obama, by Obama, after Obama.

gedankenpingpong hat gesagt…

you could argue that one needs to talk before acting in politics.
Let's what happens.

Anonym hat gesagt…

You could even believe in ufos. What about life on Mars? Sounds like an awesome vision.

gedankenpingpong hat gesagt…

To make things clear: I am not saying I believe everything. I blogged about people over there being inspired. That's not a statement about my personal believes.