John Patrick Diggins cites Obama's strengths in an interview
When I catch John Patrick Diggins on the telephone to talk about the election and presidential leadership, he has just returned from an event at the Century Foundation. At the lunch table, he comments gruffly, "All people spoke about was winning the election, no one seemed to be concerned with the problems of the future." A surreal gap exists, he says, between the often frivolous horse-race chatter about tactics and strategy that dominates the national conversation and the grim reality that whoever wins the presidential election will face "the worst situation that American history has ever found itself in."
Diggins, a professor of history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, has never been one to mince words. A leading intellectual historian and presidential scholar known for his eclectic views, he took on conventional scholarly wisdom with a biography praising Ronald Reagan — Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History (Norton, 2007). And he is skeptical of the prevailing view that more troops should be added to the fight in Afghanistan. That might well lead to "a worse disaster than Iraq," he says, noting that no one has ever conquered Afghanistan. "Now we think America is going to be able to accomplish that?" His voice trails off into an incredulous chuckle.
Observing the final days of the presidential election, Diggins marvels at how divisive social issues — gay marriage, abortion, race — have taken a back seat to economic concerns. Even religion — which he believes played an important role in providing ethical guidance in earlier periods of American history, "but has been used by contemporary politicians to justify what they want to do anyway" — has for the most part dropped out of sight. The culture wars are fading away, he says. "Young people don't take those issues so seriously." Even intensely religious Americans, he adds, seem to regard their financial well-being as their highest priority.
At this moment of crisis, he continues, we need "a leader who can acknowledge our own moral imperfections," pointing to the extraordinary example set by the subject of his 2000 book, On Hallowed Ground: Abraham Lincoln and the Foundations of American History (Yale University Press). "Lincoln reminded war-torn Americans that the Civil War may be God's judgment upon America for the sin of slavery," he says, noting how that sentiment makes for a sharp contrast with the theological certitude that has characterized the George W. Bush era....
Read entire article at Chronicle of Higher Ed
Diggins, a professor of history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, has never been one to mince words. A leading intellectual historian and presidential scholar known for his eclectic views, he took on conventional scholarly wisdom with a biography praising Ronald Reagan — Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History (Norton, 2007). And he is skeptical of the prevailing view that more troops should be added to the fight in Afghanistan. That might well lead to "a worse disaster than Iraq," he says, noting that no one has ever conquered Afghanistan. "Now we think America is going to be able to accomplish that?" His voice trails off into an incredulous chuckle.
Observing the final days of the presidential election, Diggins marvels at how divisive social issues — gay marriage, abortion, race — have taken a back seat to economic concerns. Even religion — which he believes played an important role in providing ethical guidance in earlier periods of American history, "but has been used by contemporary politicians to justify what they want to do anyway" — has for the most part dropped out of sight. The culture wars are fading away, he says. "Young people don't take those issues so seriously." Even intensely religious Americans, he adds, seem to regard their financial well-being as their highest priority.
At this moment of crisis, he continues, we need "a leader who can acknowledge our own moral imperfections," pointing to the extraordinary example set by the subject of his 2000 book, On Hallowed Ground: Abraham Lincoln and the Foundations of American History (Yale University Press). "Lincoln reminded war-torn Americans that the Civil War may be God's judgment upon America for the sin of slavery," he says, noting how that sentiment makes for a sharp contrast with the theological certitude that has characterized the George W. Bush era....