Obama's Not A Superhero. Are We In The Market for One?

July 14, 2014

By Joe Rothstein
Editor, EINNews.com

We must really love the notion of having a superhero swoop in and fix things.

How else do you explain the dozens of superhero movies that show up and succeed on our movie screens? 8 Superman movies, 6 Batmans, 8 X-Men, 3 Spidermen. The Fantastic 4. Captain America. Avengers. The Green Hornet.

The more frustrated people become with their real-life leadership the more attractive these cartoon change agents seem to become.

In fiction, authors, film producers and comic book writers have control of the endings. Strong figures generally turn out to be good guys beating the bad guys. In the real world there are no such guarantees. We’re living through some real life examples of that right now.

Russians were understandably frustrated that their transition from 70 years of Soviet totalitarianism and oppression floundered on early disastrous economic advice and an incompetent drunk for prime minister. Then a superhero—Putin--came along to save them. Under Putin the Russian economy did much better. Dignity and pride was restored. But those gains came a big price. How big?

Well, last year 40,000 Russians fled their country seeking political asylum. Four million government employees have been restricted from leaving Russia for fear many won’t come back. Journalists are feeling much heat--censorship and an occasional murder of a writer who won’t conform. Political opposition has suffered its share of head bashing and imprisonment. They may never get rid of Putin, or whomever he selects to steer Russia after him.

Egyptians risked their lives to get rid of Mubarak. Then their nation unraveled. Now they’ve got Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. For better or worse? That story is just unfolding. No peeking at the final chapter. It hasn’t been written.

Americans are desperately unhappy with their government--74% think the country is on the wrong track, 60% disapprove of the President’s job performance and an astounding 83% are fed up with the Congress their votes elected.

Are voters ready for a dictatorial strong man or woman to make it all right? Listen to Republican congressional leaders and you might think we already have one. That’s what John Boehner’s suit against President Obama is all about. Here’s Boehner:

“Too often over the past five years, the President has circumvented the American people and their elected representatives through executive action, changing and creating his own laws, and excusing himself from enforcing statutes he is sworn to uphold -- at times even boasting about his willingness to do it, as if daring the American people to stop him.”

Obama, however, seems to have a split personality. A dictator at home, but on foreign policy, according to such notables as former Vice President Cheney and Vice President-would-have-been Paul Ryan, the President is almost criminally “weak and indecisive.”

The truth is, Barack Obama is not an action figure. After five years in office it is quite clear that his style is to shun histrionics and political knuckle-busting. After all that’s happened during his presidency, deep down he clutches the hope that positive change can come if leaders will just find a middle ground. It’s just not in his DNA to swoop in and fix things on his own, other than tidying up around the margins. He needs to be part of a “Fantastic 5”: Obama and the Republican and Democratic leaders of both the House and Senate. That’s the way our system is supposed to work. As a former constitutional law professor, Obama knows that. He's not going to leap tall buildings to get around it.

Rather than a strong super-hero, the country needs to decide which side of its bi-polar politics it’s on. As long as we keep electing people bent on tearing down government it’s going to be impossible to rebuild it. Ted Cruz is hardly a “wacko bird,” as his fellow Republican Senator John McCain labeled him. Cruz just doesn’t see much of a role for the federal government. A lot of people agree with him--—somewhere in the 20% range nationally according to a recent Pew poll.

The question is whether that minor fraction of the population will drive the national agenda. Right now, it’s not. But it has a heavy foot on the brakes.

If U.S. politics were an action movie, someone would show up to save the country before it gets driven off the cliff. Maybe that someone will be the collective U.S. voter in the November elections. The will of the majority exercised by peoples' votes is the real Krypton in a democracy. To be effective it needs to be used, and used decisively.

We can only hope this real-life drama ends well, the way it would if it were fiction.

(Joe Rothstein can be contacted at joe@einnews.com)