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Obama, der konservative Revolutionär

 

George Bush war eigentlich ein Radikaler mit reaktionärem Temperament, und der neue Präsident ist – wie seine ersten Schritte zeigen, ein im Kern Konservativer mit radikalem Temperament.

So sieht’s der Guardian und beklagt es.

Ich habe das hier schon vor Monaten geschrieben (einen Tag vor der Wahl!) – und finde es weiterhin einen Grund zur Freude.

Zitat:

„George Bush was not a conservative, but rather a curious hybrid of reactionary and progressive. He was a reactionary by temperament and conviction whose methods were borrowed from the most radical progressives. He besmirched the conservatismthat he had forsaken and led it from the corridors of power into the political wilderness.

Because progressive commentators depict Bush as an arch-conservative instead of the curious amalgam of reactionary and radical revolutionary that he actually was, they remain blind to Obama’s conservatism. His senior appointments, the tenor of his inaugural address and his agenda during his first days in office bear the imprimatur of conservatism. …

Such conservative themes were sounded in Obama’s inaugural address, in which he brushed aside debates about the optimal size of government and whether „the market is a force for good or ill“. Instead, he substituted a simple criterion for judging government action: „whether it works.“ Such an emphasis on utility and efficiency is almost textbook conservatism. It is the negation of ideology in politics.

The Obama presidency is not a revolution, but instead a restoration. The „values upon which our success depends“, Obama reassures America, „these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout history“. He asks for a „return to these truths“. Nothing new is needed, neither fresh ideas about the human condition’s betterment nor utopias; merely a return to and vindication of the past.

The return to core tried-and-true values as the only reliable basis for political action, the consignment of ideology – whether concerning the virtues of unregulated markets or government’s scope – to irrelevance in developing policy, the celebration of responsibilities and duties instead of rights, and commitment to America’s unchallenged global leadership. It is hard to imagine an inaugural address more steeped in the classical conservative tradition than the one delivered by Obama last week.“