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It Was an Outrage, All Right
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Conservatives had nothing to complain about. But Obama's school speech was an affront to liberals—borrowing heavily from their nemesis, culture warrior Bill Bennett.
“There are no facts,” Friedrich Nietzsche famously wrote, meaning that reality is composed of competing stories about reality. As in a courtroom trial, the strongest, most believable story wins.
But reality is buried under there somewhere—unlike his fascist followers, Nietzsche believed in the existence of truth—and often the strongest story is a flat-out lie. Take the deceitful uproar over Obama’s speech to schoolchildren. The speech wasn’t “socialist.” It wasn’t even liberal. It was squarely in line with 20 years of profoundly conservative thinking on how to raise a child. Diehard liberals should be appalled:
“When we strive to help our children become responsible persons we are helping them toward maturity.”
“And that's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.”
“No one's born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You're not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don't hit every note the first time you sing a song. You've got to practice.”
“We can enlist the aid of trainers, therapists, support groups, step programs, and other strategies, but in the end, it’s practice that brings self-control.”
“At the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities.”
The speech wasn’t “socialist.” It wasn’t even liberal. It was squarely in line with 20 years of profoundly conservative thinking on how to raise a child.
This is the conservative line laid down by William Bennett in his Book of Virtues, and used by one conservative politician after another to justify a bootstraps mentality that scorns any type of federal intervention in the lives of its citizens, from Headstart to cost-of-living increases in the minimum wage to the barest Welfare entitlements. Your well-being and fortunes in life are your responsibility; don’t expect a governmental helping hand if you stumble.
• Mark McKinnon: Flunk the Far Right Imagine Obama warning the bankers and the businessmen that they could only be bailed out if they fulfilled their responsibilities. But he didn’t hesitate to tell that to the kids. Bennett and his heirs would be proud.
In fact, I took two of the five quotes above from the Book of Virtues itself. The rest are from Obama’s speech.
It’s hard to recall now perhaps, but Bennett’s 1993 bestseller was a watershed in American politics. Published in the first months of Bill Clinton’s first presidential term, the book stressed the qualities of rugged individualism over government’s benevolent intervention. It was the beginning of what you might call the Republican Party’s government-in-exile. Unable to work the levers of government, conservatives began—as left-wing socialists had always prescribed—to shape the contours of popular consciousness.
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Lee Siegel is The Daily Beast's senior columnist. He publishes widely on culture and politics and is the author of three books: Falling Upwards: Essays in Defense of the Imagination; Not Remotely Controlled: Notes on Television; and, most recently, Against the Machine: How the Web Is Reshaping Culture And Commerce—And Why It Matters. In 2002, he received a National Magazine Award for reviews and criticism.
spotted
I think the hue and cry was more about bigots afraid to have their children see a black President.
bobvious
Certainly seems that way, doesn't it? The stated reasons of the "I'm keeping my child home!" crowd sure seem to be missing something.
ElLamer
Poor kids man.
Imagine how embarrassing it will be for little johnny arriving at school the next day and having to explain to his friends "I wasn't here yesterday because my mom watches FOX"
LOL
Embers
I'm ashamed that all the faces I saw on TV saying they wouldn't send their kids to school because of this were white. It IS about about these people not wanting their children to see a black man in authority over them.
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n--Y--cvillekidoakely
Dead on, kid. It's a lot more than racial animus involved here.
We must be very careful with charges of racism, especially when there could be other plausible explanation. The perception of playing the race card, even when there's some racism involved, inevitably destroys one's argument. It's a no-winner, which actually makes the racist seem like the offended party.
The Obama team got nailed with it early in the campaign against McCain. They've never charged anybody with racism or race-baiting ever since. Very smart.
agrippa-x
i agree with oakely that yours is the most rational take on this. the hue and cry from the far right during clinton's first term employed many of the same epithets and canards we're hearing now. the difference is they have become better at pushing it to the front and they have many more outlets.
camfield
Racism definitely is more than a small factor, but you are definitely right about the scorched-earth attitude of conservatives. They would deny their own neighbors decent health care, destroy the environment that sustains us all, promote war, turn a blind eye to savagery and starvation around the world . . . whatever it takes to promote their self-centered agenda.
I swear, they often appear to believe that altruism is a social disease.
There seems to be an uninformed, oblivious, paranoid group mind among Republicans. Like a pack of emboldened, maddened dogs, they act as if convinced that someone's out to steal some of their bones. That conviction appears to have been aroused by those pandering the baser aspects of human nature by preaching that the only way to defend one's peace, serenity and material possessions is to attack anyone representing any sort of imagined threat. Too bad so many seem to have an intelligence more akin to George Bush's than Barack Obama's. Take Glenn Beck and others on Fox News, for example . . .
cudmaster
Isn't it "patriotic to debate and disagree with any administration"?
cassandravert
Well said cvillekid.
There is a huge difference between saying personal effort is indispensible to success and saying that it is the only factor responsible.
Who in their right minds would object to teaching kids to assume personal responsibility? If more adults took personal responsibility for their beliefs, there would be fewer nuts out there.
Oh....wait. I guess it is a political speech because if kids learn to think, they would not be so easily manipulable by political special interests.
Dog-Without-A-Leash
"No one here, so far, has addressed Siegel's thesis in the article, that somehow Obama's talk was "an affront to liberals". Quite a stretch, Lee, to tie Obama to Bennett. Siegel, in his own way, is as hysterical as the right-wing opposition."
I think that the reason no one has addressed Siegel's thesis is because they probably believed that Siegel was floating that theory with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek.
Lioness
I couldn't have said this better myself. I was reading this, thinking..."What is wrong with learning to stand on your own?" I mean, if our safety nets run out of money and collapse, well, we'll have to rely on ourselves, won't we? These are good principles to instill in all kinds of people. LOL!
I also partially agree with your 2nd statement, but I would not be at all surprised if there were a racist element to it. Some days, I'm ashamed to be white. :P
bobvious
Cudmaster asks, "Isn't it 'patriotic to debate and disagree with any administration'?"
Yes, it is patriotic to debate and disagree with any administration. However, like it wouldn't be patriotic to physical injure a member the cabinet, there are things that are acceptable, and things that aren't. Do we really need a list of no-nos?
goldgoose
Sorry, as a teacher I have to agree with Siegel. President Obama's speech was not at all about race. It was a conservative approach to education. Obama said, "No one is born good at anything." Wrong. Athletes and scholars are both born with talent. It is shameful to see a cripple trying hard become an athlete because someone said, "If you work at it you can do it."
Students do need to persevere; more important they need to think for themselves rather than believe some idiot teacher saying all you need to do is try harder and you can do anything. It ain't so!
I love and support Obama but he doesn't know diddley about education.
sippewissett
I don't know where you extracted the points you made, but you need to re-read his speech. It was a motivational speech to take personal responsibility for one's life. It was not about whether Obama knows about "education" -- except for the inspirational impact it had on his own life. Don't be such a nitpicker and look for the good in what he said.
shortcourse
I'm more afraid of my children reading bigoted comments like these on this website.
sippewissett
I love that clowns like Perry said they found the speech "disturbing" before they knew the content -- not unlike Bill Frist's diagnosis of Terri Schiavo from a video!
WalidMaaytah
I'm sure the always present, in their demented minds, race factor was the case with some of them, especially from our proud, infamous and shamefully backward white South, but I think that the politics of it is more like the broader reason for this pathetic and nonsensical hysteria that seemed to have possesed them. I bet they don't feel too smart and proud about themselves now that they have heard the speech - if they did, that is. Have they no idea how stupid and ignorant they sounded with all the rabid, hysterical fear and political paranoia about the President's speech? Probably not - for idiots never admit to themselves or to others that they acted like idiots.
MOZART
Edsel:
When George H.W. Bush spoke to school children on October 1, 1991, he said, "Let me know how you're doing. Write me a letter. I'm serious about this one. Write me a letter about ways you can help us achieve our goals."
Idiot... were you complaining then??
On November 14, 1988, Ronald Reagan addressed and took questions from students from four area middle schools in the Old Executive Office Building. The speech was broadcast live and rebroadcast by C-Span, and Instructional Television Network fed the program to schools nationwide.
While much of his speech was innocuous, the president went off on a tangent at one point about the importance of low taxes - telling the students that lowering taxes increases revenue. This sounds pretty political to me, and I'm sure there were a lot of parents who personally disagree with his goal.
Idiot... were you complaining then??
Isn't it funny how the immediate accessibility of facts on the internet can mess up you arguments?
Facts: The bane of conservative reality.
One thing abouy the stupid lunatic fringe... they do not even know enough to be embarrassed.
penscott
The Democrats denounced George Bush for the speech and insisted on a Congressional investigation. You forgot to mention that Mozart.
velvetsmog
I wonder if a day will come where we stop litigating the culture wars of the 80s and 90s and move into today. The toothless congressional hearings happened 18 years ago, for christsake. Move on.
ElLamer
I though they just threatened hearings..... I didn't realize there were any. The point back then was that it was just before the campaign and was government funded....
cbeenthere
penscott
They did not denounce Bush for the speech he gave-- hearings were held about the cost of the camera op. and ELLamer gives you the reason.
gak001
I have no problem with any of that except trying to tell children that lowering taxes increases revenue. That is simply junk science and has never happened in the history of the United States. Assuming the Laffer Curve isn't a bunch of supply-side nonsense (which it is, see Eisenhower administration), their own junk science even proves them wrong: we have never been on the other side of the curve.
Supply-Side economics is the biggest economic farce I can think of. Even George H.W. Bush, an economist, called it "voodoo economics." Reagan wasn't a god among men, he was a D-list actor and a snake oil salesman who did some good things but ultimately set the country back in so many areas and paved the way for George W. Bush to be elected.
sippewissett
Don't forget the Iran Contra Affair and the debt Reagan left behind. So many people were 'seduced' by his rhetoric, but that doesn't make him "great". He just talked a good game and didn't get anything done on health care though he talked about that too.
gilbert5
no one had to complain about Bush's 1991 speech, the democrats were spending thousands of dollars to investigate it--and the liberals think the conservatives are crazy and paranoid!
AlanD2
MOZART: I wish I'd said this myself!
penscott
The hue and cry was generated by the arrogant and stupid Dept. of Education flyer asking students to write letters on how to help the President.
Spotted, you and others like you are true bigots for countering all criticisms of the President with accusations of racism. It is getting tiresome and you make yourselves ridiculous. Van Jones has a word for people like you, but I won't use it.
Embers
The hue and cry was generated by Fox News and various talk radio hosts, Limbaugh, Beck, etc. That is who generated the hue and cry.
I and the other commenters are lobbing these charges of racism because that's the only rational explanation we can come up with.
ElLamer
I think one could also say that fat cats fear for the ill gotten gains and are willing to throw anything in front of the Obama reform train, including their own mother, in order to slow it down. I don't think its all racism.
Embers
ElLamer, I agree. The call obviously went out -- kill the reform.
sippewissett
The "hue and cry" was started by Fox talking heads, GOPers up for re-election who enflamed birthers and tea party attendees with time on their hands now that both of those debunked protests had run out of steam. A flyer doesn't incite to disrespect the president. People do and people did, and a lot of their motivation was racist. Spend some time on some right-wing Web sites and you will trip over racism tied to Obama on every page. (And I'm white but think that we are a racist country with much to be ashamed of, including racially motivated attacks on Obama, of whom I am very proud.)
devilsadvocate
If Republicans hadn't been so quick to dismiss this speech, and actually listened to it, they might have had the chance to re-learn much of what they had forgotten about conservative values. Sounds like more than just schoolchildren needed to listen to this speech.
ElLamer
lol good point!
as to liberal outrage: who says William Bennett was wrong about everything? I think all those quotes are perfectly fine. I don't see how any of that can justify the injustice of our health care or minimum wage situation.
sippewissett
Agree. Siegal trumped up a controversy over the content of Obama's motivational speech and has tried to politicize it by comparing it to Bennett. I disliked Bennett while he headed Education, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have something worthwhile to say.
masher
I agree. I thought I was one of the only ones to catch it. We have in the US today a law that allows Microsoft to import workers into the US. In some groups they only hire H-1B workers because they have "preferred vendor lists" which happen to just be H-1B visa houses.
For the past two years I have not seen one US citizens resume. I have friends who are more than qualified. But their resume will never get into Microsoft, well not to my desk.
There is a bipartisan group (including Grassley) who want to reform H-1B. But Obama isn't allowing it on the agenda.
So Obama is supporting federal laws that make it nearly impossible for US citizens to get jobs *in America* and he is telling kids to study harder to get the job...its a sick lie. He should have said "work as hard as you want, I will just increase the quotas on engineer imports and crush your wages."
mcmchugh99
This is what I always said about this speech, and I have heard it many times before from Obama, almost word-for-word. It is strictly a Mom, God and apple pie speech that any Republican could have given, and is full of dull platitudes, cliches and truisms that have been heard a million times before.
For progressives like me, they are all misleading slogans, having little to do with the reality in this world. It is not true that people can do anything, or that opportunities are unlimited. No socialist like me would ever believe that. No one who has been in many places around the world would believe it.
The fact is that most people die in the social class they are born in to, which means that most will die poor. Republicans automatically call this whining, wimpishnes, class warfare and so on, and tell people to move to China, Cuba, France or wherever, but it does not change the basic truth of this proposition. I can see why they don't like any facts that say all individuals have an equal and unlimited opportunity in the great capitalist game of life, but the social class system and racial CASTE system in this world ensures that only a very few people ever move from rags to riches, and only a minority even move up one class rung from the one they were born into.
Telling kids otherwise just prolongs this laissez faire mythology much longer than it should be prolonged, especially under the circumstances we find ourselves today.
eurydice9276
Actually, a person who has been in many places around the world (as I have), would believe it. This country has very few barriers to upward mobility, which is why people still want to emigrate here. Obama's achievements are a sure example of that.
In fact, a message of individual responsibility is what's needed to counteract the limitations of economic class and the repression of majority expectation. The laissez-faire mythology is that other people will give you what you want - when, in reality, they'll only give you what they want.
stopper22
why do they progressives call themselves progressive when they don't believe in progress?
i would agree your statement "that most people die in the social class they are born in to". you go on to say that only a very few move from rags to riches and only a minority move even on step. that is exactly what this is all about, the opportunity, the chance to be one of those. if "very few people" in this country of 300 million is say...1% that's 3mm people, say its 0.1% that's still 300,000 people! what qualifies as "only a minority"? technically that's anything less than 50%, but let's err of the small side, say 10% (a very small minority); that would be 30 million people! thats the population of an entire country or more than the entire population of Texas or almost the population of Canada!
a little perspective is required here. opportunity is clearly not unlimited, but that is no reason to tell school children, "hey sorry, you're outta luck. this is your lot in life, so accept it." opportunity is available to more people and in greater scope than anywhere else.
sippewissett
Obama has every reason to want to lift up and uplift kids in our country. I just learned a scary financial statistic from the feds: the top 1000 people in this country earn the SAME amount as the bottom HALF of the U.S. No one is begrudging the rich their riches, but this statistic says that our middle class is in jeopardy. Education is part of how people work their way up in society. Let's use all means possible to support those who strive. That's neither liberal nor conservative: it's human.
MurrayAbraham
I didn't know there was a conservative and liberal way to raise a child!
No need to politicize everything.
connie47
Isn't that the truth?
friendlyskies
Some people just enjoy making a fuss about being offended. They like the attention, it makes them feel important. And it gives them wide-eyed, fist-pounding leverage for making unreasonable demands of others.
laughing13
Excellent point, MurraryAbraham! Perfectly said. Mr. Siegel, your rant here polticizes the speech with almost as much uptightness as the conservatives BEFORE they heard the speech. Good God, ya'll. Can't a speech be a speech?!
Mr. Siegel, from reading your article it seems you would rather have head Obama launch into a Chomsky-esque dissertation (complete with droning boring polysyllabic verbosity eternally lost on the proletariat.) That would have gone over great with gradeschoolers.
Obama's speech was fine as it was. Sheesh. Note to history: think twice before telling kids to get educated and be self-reliant, and think three times before trying to help others secure access to healthcare.
sippewissett
Yahoo. Thank you. Agree 100%. If you want kids to succeed and be self-reliant, all parts of the political spectrum should agree with that. Except the Fringe of course.
Ozone69
The Left fails to remember that when President George H.W. Bush spoke to students, the Democrats (Gebhardt and Schroeder) initiated an investigation and hearings. The Republicans in Congress are not doing that. Some conservative pundits make remarks about President Obama's speech to school kids and the left gets its panties all twisted.
BTW, I thought the speech was pretty good and hopefully will inspire the students who need it.
velvetsmog
The Republicans in Congress have no authority to do that because they don't have power. But really, why are we bringing up crap that happened 18 years ago? Let's all grow up and move on.
cbeenthere
Ozone doesn't admit why the hearings went on, apparently it was a flap over federal funding of what was considered a camera op by Bush before the campaign. Not the speech to the children.
hardrain
Kids Didn't Hear Obama, But Will be Bussed for Bush
The Arlington Independent School District, which passed on airing President Barack Obama's live classroom address, has announced that some students will be bussed off campus to hear a message from former President George W. Bush on Sept. 21.
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-beat/Kids-Didnt-Hear-Obama-But-Will-Be- Bussed-for-Bush-57827022.html
Ok Ozone-let's see how the "radical left" responds. Let's see how many are pulled from school that day, let's see how the "liberal media" instigates the rabid leftists.
If we see the same level of panic-striken hate I will find you (online) and apologize.
theschmooze
Schools in Georgia had a mixed bag of, it is ok to show it, it is ok to show it with parental permission at a later date. What BULLS..! All school systems in Georgia should use every tool at their disposal to increase student awareness, considering that Georgia for the most part is near the bottom of the scale for accademic excellence. This is nothing short of Republican hysteria. Oh, don't let the Liberal black boogieman talk to our kids. My wife, who teaches in Cobb County, will be showing the speech on Friday. She has received overwhleming approval from the parents of her students to use the speech as a teaching tool.
This outcry was whipped into a frenzy by the Conservative right because they still cannot give into the fact that they lost in a remarkable landslide this past November.
theschmooze
Ozone69: You are correct, two members of Congress tried to make political hay from the Bush speech, it went no where. There was no feeding frenzy, initiated by anyone, as we have witnessed in the last few days. The fires of discontent have been fueled by those Conseravtives who have microphones and their loyal listeners who have not been able to see the benefit of their kids perhaps being inspired by someone who just a few years ago had no chance of success in this country because of his skin color.
eurydice9276
I think we have too many pundits who get paid to make a big, fat, furry deal about everything. On this subject, Bennett was right and Obama is right. And everybody,regardless of political affiliation, wants their children to work hard and do well in school - even the liberals who Siegal hopes to enrage with this article.
democracyforall
duh! of course we all want our children to work hard and do well in school.
The speech was a cure for insomnia, nothing new, no attention grabber for kids, they've heard this already. Obama was like, "eat your broccoli and be good"....the speech was a real ramblin mess.
tarryh
What inane baloney! I guess it is true that libs eat their young. I am really tired of you glass-half-empty people.
cbeenthere
This bull was started by liberals, I think not.
AlanD2
tarryh: Are you sure you're not talking about conservatives? Moderate Republicans don't seem to last very long these days. Arlen Specter, for example...
tumbleweed
When all you listen to 24-7 is some pundit telling you that the President is a 'Socialist' ' Marxist' and a 'Communist'. What do you expect except ignorant people who spew venom for the sake of spewing it???? After all isn't that what the right wing pundits have been doing for years???? The type of people who complained are the least educated in this country. We know it was about racism. We also know this know this group of people is noted for their unbridled venom toward anyone who is different from them. They hated Clinton with a passion too and still stick it to him any chance they get. It's also about their having lost an election. It kills them to think of a black man over them. They are very immature people who can't take any loss gracefully. It was an outrage all right but not like the author is trying to portray. It was an outrage because Obama did nothing wrong. These people made a mountain out of nothing. The bigger ass they make of the themselves the more people like myself are turned off. They are only hurting themselves and their cause in the process.
larryfromkansas
The hue and cry about this speech in my direction came from the local Catholic church leaders, who demanded that Obama not be seen either in their schools or the public schools. They pretty much showed here their allegiance to the Republican party, a party that had George W. Bush, who signed an executive order giving immunity to the Pope in abuse lawsuits, as it's leader.
njoy-d-ride
All of these presidents should have given their speeches during prime time, NOT INSTRUCTIONAL TIME.
Would have diffused this arguement real fast too...
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