Obama's pitch for national unity: Let's stop fighting and go beat the Asians.

[Better Believe It]

Win the Future, Whip the Foreigners
Obama's pitch for national unity: Let's stop fighting and go beat the Asians.
By William Saletan
January 26, 2011

Let's stop fighting and go kick some tail.

We need "a new era of cooperation," said the president. "At stake right now is not who wins the next election. After all, we just had an election. At stake is whether new jobs and industries take root in this country, or somewhere else."

That was the theme on which the speech pivoted. In the past, presidents have invoked—and, in the opinion of their critics, started—wars to unite the country behind them. President Bush used 9/11 and Iraq this way. But Obama can't play that card. Military bravado isn't in his nature. There's nothing to brag about in Iraq or Afghanistan—the best Obama could say about those wars last night was that our troops would be coming home—and Americans are preoccupied by unemployment.

So Obama has found a different war to rally the nation: an economic war. We must "win the future," he said. Win against whom? Answer: foreign companies and workers. "We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world," the president declared. "Nations like China and India" are "educating their children earlier and longer, with greater emphasis on math and science. They're investing in research and new technologies. Just recently, China became home to the world's largest private solar research facility, and the world's fastest computer. So yes, the world has changed. The competition for jobs is real."

But nationalism is inherently divisive. It feeds tribalism. It plays on our desire to blame foreigners for our troubles. And in a multiethnic country, it can be internally corrosive. To that extent, it imperils Obama's values. There he stood, the son of a Kenyan government economist, reminding Congress that despite our "different backgrounds," we share a faith in the American dream "no matter where you come from." How easily will that disregard for ethnicity coexist with a Sputnik-style campaign against foreign competitors? Will white Americans see the difference between Asian adversaries and Asian immigrants? We've already conflated Muslim extremists abroad with Muslim moderates at home. That's why Obama had to reassert last night that "American Muslims are a part of our American family."

Read the full article at:

http://www.slate.com/id/2282559/?GT1=38001

[somone]

1. Like the Asians in his family?

[Robb]

6. No kidding. That's the silliest thing I've read today.

The bar, I'd add, is damn high. :D

[sufrommich]

2. So an American President is not supposed to rally

against foreign competitors? Ridiculous.

[elleng]

4. xacly, sufro.

thx

[Better Believe It]

7. Obama's economic war with Asia. It's not our war! It's Wall Streets war!

So you want American workers to wage war on the workers of Asia on behalf of Wall Street and big business? That's what it means!

What we really need is international labor solidarity and cooperation in order to defeat the international globalist attack on the living standards and economic/political rights of ALL workers in the United States, Asia, Europe and the entire world.

President Obama neglected to point out that the American corporations he's working for have outsourced millions of jobs to those lands (he failed to mention that little fact in his SOTU) and his favorite companies like General Electric have invested more money and created more jobs in China than in the United States!

So he wants us to compete against his "free trade" pals in China, South Korea and India?

Nonsense.

Does that really make sense to you?

Well, many of us understand what the real plan is for "competing" with those "Asians" .

To goal is to drastically cut the wages, benefits, pensions and government social programs for working people at home!

That will "make" American workers even more competitive with "Asians" and businesses more profitable.

Wall Street and corporate America is proposing world-wide competitive race to the bottom by working people here against the workers in other nations.

And in that "race" we along with those "foreign" workers will be the biggest losers.

Do you want to "win" that war?

Only the world-wide rich can win that competition.

I don't want any part of that "race".

Didn't that sort of thing help lead to World War I?

[ProSense]

3. What is it?

Did people smoke crack and watch the SOTU.

<...>

That's the message President Obama delivered last night in his State of the Union address. He took a beating in the November elections. He's facing a Republican House. He's lost his filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. A congresswoman just got shot in the head. Democrats and Republicans were sitting together to hear his speech. And unity is a traditional theme of this annual ritual. So Obama did the natural thing: He urged the country to come together.

<...>

That was the theme on which the speech pivoted. In the past, presidents have invoked—and, in the opinion of their critics, started—wars to unite the country behind them. President Bush used 9/11 and Iraq this way. But Obama can't play that card. Military bravado isn't in his nature. There's nothing to brag about in Iraq or Afghanistan—the best Obama could say about those wars last night was that our troops would be coming home—and Americans are preoccupied by unemployment.

So Obama has found a different war to rally the nation: an economic war. We must "win the future," he said. Win against whom? Answer: foreign companies and workers. "We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world," the president declared. "Nations like China and India" are "educating their children earlier and longer, with greater emphasis on math and science. They're investing in research and new technologies. Just recently, China became home to the world's largest private solar research facility, and the world's fastest computer. So yes, the world has changed. The competition for jobs is real."

<...>

How offensive!

[Cant trust em]

5. Wow. That's an interesting take.

It's getting crazy around here.

[provis99]

8. this "economic warfare" stuff is baloney.

The only economic warfare going on is the warfare of the rich against the rest of us; national boundaries don't matter in that war.

[Better Believe It]

9. Exactly!

[harun]

12. +1

[pampango]

14. Well said. n/t

[Starbucks Anarchist]

10. I'm sure he hates the many Asians in his family.

And he nominated Steven Chu because he can't stand those "foreigners."

[Better Believe It]

11. Huh??? President Obama doesn't having any problem with U.S. corporations exporting jobs to Asia.

The Chinese workers make a lot less money and have fewer benefits than American workers.

A great location for American capitalists to invest. They just love Chinese people .... at least until they get uppity and begin demanding better pay and working conditions.

Why some of Obama's biggest corporate pals like the General Electric CEO Jeffrey of Immelt have invested more money and created more jobs in China than in the United States.

Isn't that just wonderful?

Me happy!

You happy too?

And you suggest President Obama and his corporate friends are racial bigots!

Hardly.

They know a good profit making opportunity when they see it.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

13. Do you even read the crap you post?

But nationalism is inherently divisive. It feeds tribalism. It plays on our desire to blame foreigners for our troubles. And in a multiethnic country, it can be internally corrosive. To that extent, it imperils Obama's values. There he stood, the son of a Kenyan government economist, reminding Congress that despite our "different backgrounds," we share a faith in the American dream "no matter where you come from." How easily will that disregard for ethnicity coexist with a Sputnik-style campaign against foreign competitors? Will white Americans see the difference between Asian adversaries and Asian immigrants? We've already conflated Muslim extremists abroad with Muslim moderates at home. That's why Obama had to reassert last night that "American Muslims are a part of our American family."

I see you also lack basic reading comprehension. My previous post was a sarcastic dig at your attempt to paint him as a racist via the article you posted. Jesus.