Barack Obama...

[medicnick83]

Hi guys,

I have a friend in Norway to has to write a paper about the following:

in what way barack obama will change the american society

She is really struggling to do this, so I thought I'd ask YOU guys for your thoughts / opinons / etc on this subject so that maybe, with the discussions going on and what not, she'll get some inspiration and do what she has to do.

 

[Arthur]

My own view is the question's based on a mistaken notion that presidents can affect/change their society. They can't. Their real power is far more limited than people realise. It's much more the other way round ... Americans shape their president. This misunderstanding is yet another example of the ongoing and pervasive European misunderstanding of what for 200 years has been called the American Experiment. A good place to start is Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America.

BTW, my sister is also in Norway, doing a PhD.

 

[Zyzzyva]

I think by the end of his term/terms, americans will have more of an appreciation for their core values.

This is generally what happens when you get what you want.

The expectations placed on him are simply to large. In the current climate, i don't expect him to be able to implement the sweeping changes he is promising. In time news agency's will begin to air stories on the publics annoyance with the slow of rate change.

Eventually this annoyance will tranform into a blame game where even the mass media will get blamed for the propogation of the unrealistic dream.

The failure of the unrealistic dream will force people to start looking at what they actually have instead of what they want, and this realisation will leave america stronger and perhaps leaner and meaner, once it forces them to focus on their core strengths.

Lol, i know i took a bunch of logic jumps there, but i still think i'm right.

But only time will tell.

 

[icyrus]

in what way barack obama will change the american society

Hopefully he will be able to move fundamentalism out of mainstream opinion.

 

[Vitowe]

I'm just surprised he's still alive.