mercoledì 3 febbraio 2010
Chris Matthews is one of the most prominent cable-television news anchors in the United Status. He has a daily opinion program in the MSNBC cable network. (In recent years, MSNBC has become the “voice of the left” in the world of cable TV news.) I met Chris at the wedding of a mutual friend, a highly respected journalist, Jewish, a Democratic Party liberal intellectual. Chris was surprised to find in such circles a Catholic Monsignor who was totally and happily at ease with the teachings of the Church’s magisterium on faith and morals, and said he wanted to meet with me, I guess to examine better where such a specimen like me comes from. Unfortunately, we have not been able to meet yet because of the increasing demands of putting together such a daily program in a political situation as agitated as it has become since the campaign for the presidential election of 2008, especially with the emergence of the “Barak Obama factor.” Last week, commenting on President Obama’s first official “State of the Union” report to both houses of Congress, Chris made a comment in his show that, in my opinion, helps us understand better the ultimate nature of the current political conflict in the United States today, leaving aside the ideological, religious, and economic issues that have been part of American politics since the foundation of the nation. Chris said that “for over one hour (the length of Obama’s speech) I forgot he was an African-American President.” In terms of the context of contemporary American politics this would be considered a “racist” or at least a racially insensitive and even offensive statement. However, the fact is that no sane observer could ever accuse Chris of overt or hidden racism, and indeed although the question was publicly raised, the discussion went nowhere since one would have to be totally dominated by the ideology of political correctness in order to even suggest that Chris Matthews is knowingly or unknowingly a hidden racist. In my opinion, Chris’ spontaneous remark shows the very opposite. It shows, I suggest, that the deepest reason for the nation’s reaction to Barak Obama is not a matter of race. What makes people fascinated and at times almost obsessed by President Obama is not his race, but the fact that he exists at the borderline of the nation’s past and a radically different future. No one knows how to classify how Obama thinks. Maybe he cannot do it himself, as he made clear when he kept insisting (in a never before seen meeting with his Republican Party political opponents) that his political views are not radical at all, and that in many cases, they come close to those of Republicans. NEXT PAGE CLICK BELOW >> His State of the Union speech showed this as in issue after issue he was closer to the political views of traditional moderate Republicans than to those of the leftist wing of his Democratic Party. Indeed, The American Conservative magazine this week has an article with the title: “How Obama Lost the Left.” I think Cardinal Walter Kasper has captured well the deepest nature of the present political unrest when he writes that “the attempt to pick out from this dizzyingly vast multiplicity” arising from globalization “a thread that could unify and hold it together seems to be more and more hopeless.” As a result, “postmodern philosophy has drawn certain conclusions from this situation. It consciously abandons the postulate of unity that until now has shaped Western thought as a whole. It advocates, not only acceptance and tolerance of plurality.” It also calls for “a fundamental option in favor of pluralism in which there are no longer any absolute values and norms. Reason has become plural in itself. Truth, humanity, and justice exist only in the plural” (cf. The Uniqueness and Universality of Jesus Christ, Eerdmann, 2001). Obama is on the borderline between modern and post-modern thought, trying to hang on, I think, to the modern side and somehow rescue unity and certainty from post-modern radical relativism. The country somehow senses this, both moderate conservatives and moderate liberals. More than any other national politician, the President personifies the present cultural clash. Barack Obama is not a Catholic, but Chris Matthews is. I hope Chris may find someone who will help him see the beauty of the relation between the Church’s social doctrine and the liberation of reason from both modern and postmodern thought brought about by faith, hope, and charity. © Riproduzione riservata.
Chris Matthews is one of the most prominent cable-television news anchors in the United Status. He has a daily opinion program in the MSNBC cable network. (In recent years, MSNBC has become the “voice of the left” in the world of cable TV news.) I met Chris at the wedding of a mutual friend, a highly respected journalist, Jewish, a Democratic Party liberal intellectual. Chris was surprised to find in such circles a Catholic Monsignor who was totally and happily at ease with the teachings of the Church’s magisterium on faith and morals, and said he wanted to meet with me, I guess to examine better where such a specimen like me comes from. Unfortunately, we have not been able to meet yet because of the increasing demands of putting together such a daily program in a political situation as agitated as it has become since the campaign for the presidential election of 2008, especially with the emergence of the “Barak Obama factor.”
Last week, commenting on President Obama’s first official “State of the Union” report to both houses of Congress, Chris made a comment in his show that, in my opinion, helps us understand better the ultimate nature of the current political conflict in the United States today, leaving aside the ideological, religious, and economic issues that have been part of American politics since the foundation of the nation.
Chris said that “for over one hour (the length of Obama’s speech) I forgot he was an African-American President.”
In terms of the context of contemporary American politics this would be considered a “racist” or at least a racially insensitive and even offensive statement. However, the fact is that no sane observer could ever accuse Chris of overt or hidden racism, and indeed although the question was publicly raised, the discussion went nowhere since one would have to be totally dominated by the ideology of political correctness in order to even suggest that Chris Matthews is knowingly or unknowingly a hidden racist.
In my opinion, Chris’ spontaneous remark shows the very opposite. It shows, I suggest, that the deepest reason for the nation’s reaction to Barak Obama is not a matter of race. What makes people fascinated and at times almost obsessed by President Obama is not his race, but the fact that he exists at the borderline of the nation’s past and a radically different future. No one knows how to classify how Obama thinks. Maybe he cannot do it himself, as he made clear when he kept insisting (in a never before seen meeting with his Republican Party political opponents) that his political views are not radical at all, and that in many cases, they come close to those of Republicans.
NEXT PAGE
CLICK BELOW >>
His State of the Union speech showed this as in issue after issue he was closer to the political views of traditional moderate Republicans than to those of the leftist wing of his Democratic Party. Indeed, The American Conservative magazine this week has an article with the title: “How Obama Lost the Left.”
I think Cardinal Walter Kasper has captured well the deepest nature of the present political unrest when he writes that “the attempt to pick out from this dizzyingly vast multiplicity” arising from globalization “a thread that could unify and hold it together seems to be more and more hopeless.” As a result, “postmodern philosophy has drawn certain conclusions from this situation. It consciously abandons the postulate of unity that until now has shaped Western thought as a whole. It advocates, not only acceptance and tolerance of plurality.” It also calls for “a fundamental option in favor of pluralism in which there are no longer any absolute values and norms. Reason has become plural in itself. Truth, humanity, and justice exist only in the plural” (cf. The Uniqueness and Universality of Jesus Christ, Eerdmann, 2001).
Obama is on the borderline between modern and post-modern thought, trying to hang on, I think, to the modern side and somehow rescue unity and certainty from post-modern radical relativism. The country somehow senses this, both moderate conservatives and moderate liberals. More than any other national politician, the President personifies the present cultural clash.
Barack Obama is not a Catholic, but Chris Matthews is. I hope Chris may find someone who will help him see the beauty of the relation between the Church’s social doctrine and the liberation of reason from both modern and postmodern thought brought about by faith, hope, and charity.