Beware of a “Mavericky” America Where Failed Policies are Rewarded, or, Why Francis Fukuyama Endorses Barack Obama

Beware of a “Mavericky” America Where Failed Policies are Rewarded, or, Why Francis Fukuyama Endorses Barack Obama

Francis Fukuyama, one of the leading intellectual lights of American conservatism, has endorsed Barack Obama in a short essay in the (aptly titled) magazine The American Conservative

I’m voting for Barack Obama this November for a very simple reason. It is hard to imagine a more disastrous presidency than that of George W. Bush. It was bad enough that he launched an unnecessary war and undermined the standing of the United States throughout the world in his first term. But in the waning days of his administration, he is presiding over a collapse of the American financial system and broader economy that will have consequences for years to come. As a general rule, democracies don’t work well if voters do not hold political parties accountable for failure. While John McCain is trying desperately to pretend that he never had anything to do with the Republican Party, I think it would a travesty to reward the Republicans for failure on such a grand scale.

McCain’s appeal was always that he could think for himself, but as the campaign has progressed, he has seemed simply erratic and hotheaded…

America has been living in a dream world for the past few years, losing its basic values of thrift and prudence and living far beyond its means, even as it has lectured the rest of the world to follow its model. At a time when the U.S. government has just nationalized a good part of the banking sector, we need to rethink a lot of the Reaganite verities of the past generation regarding taxes and regulation. Important as they were back in the 1980s and ’90s, they just won’t cut it for the period we are now entering. Obama is much better positioned to reinvent the American model and will certainly present a very different and more positive face of America to the rest of the world.

 

Hat tip: The Huffington Post

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Elena

I can understand not voting for McCain because he’s “mavericky”, but I’m not sure how Obama is going to fix things.  He’s going to raise taxes and (if we believe his campaign rhetoric) enact protectionist policies.  *frowns*  On the other hand, looking at the last paragraph, maybe Fukuyama thinks rethinking taxes means they should be higher.

Meagan

It’s interesting that you point this out. Times are scary, no? The U.S. economy has surely taken quite a hit over the past few months. Many people are still confused with the state of the economy — and where the candidates stand in regard to fixing it. With a recession and the need for reform on the minds of a majority of Americans, I thought you might be interested in two non-partisan guides we’ve put together here at Public Agenda on the economy (http://publicagenda.org/citizen/electionguides/economy) and taxes, spending and debt (http://publicagenda.org/citizen/electionguides/taxesdebt). Feel free to check these out and get back to me with any questions. Thanks again for blogging about this!