NObama!

Previous lesson we watched a documentary called “Right America: feeling wronged – some voices from the campaign trail.” Alexandra Pelosi, the film maker, took a road trip around the USA prior to the presidential election to interview some of the conservative voters. In Europe Obama is looked upon as a hero and world leader. We easily take it for granted that he is likewise popular in the USA. However, this is not the case, according to Pelosi’s documentary.

58 million Americans voted for John McCain during the election 4^th of November 2008. In “Right America: feeling wronged” we learn that some of the republican voters had a stronger opinion behind their vote than others. They have several reasons for rejecting Obama and some of them appear extremely engaged in the election. As it was a matter of life and death. Republican voters even cry and claim that Obama as a president will mean WW3. It is therefore important to take account of the fact that this documentary only shows the extreme “NObamaism.”

Many of the conservative voters are quite religious. They do not support homosexuality or abortion and believe Obama’s views on these topics are too liberal. Some quotes from the documentary are: “I hope there are enough Christians in the world to save us” and “We need a pro-life who is for the unborn”

It seems like the anti-Obama voters mostly represent people living in the country. In the documentary, they claim that Obama does not represent the average American at all. Obama attended prestigious schools such as Harvard University and has lived his whole life as a city boy in Chicago. People living in the country have the general opinion that Obama cannot rule USA when he does not know the what they claim to be “the real Americans.”

It is also a strong belief that Obama is an enemy among owners of small businesses. Obama’s fiscal policies involve levying higher taxes on the owners of small businesses. This is a part of the new health plan. A strong opinion throughout the documentary is that this will ruin many of the smaller businesses.

Objections to Obama as a president also involve the view that Obama’s foreign policies will not protect the USA properly. The conservative voters in the documentary claim that Obama’s role as a democratic world leader will weaken his emphasis to protect the American people from the threat of terror.

Personally, this documentary surprised me a bit. Obviously, there has to be millions of people who do not adore Obama to bits. Still I had never thought that there were this many people who object Obama to that extreme extent. T-shirts, anti-Obama songs, and massive petitions and demonstrations were held. There are also web pages such as http://www.hellnobama.com/, http://nobama.com/ and http://www.nobama.tv/ in existence.

I do not know whether this extreme protestation is unique in terms of dissenting presidents. However, I do believe all president candidates meet severe resistance, though in different areas and groups of people.

If you want, you can watch the whole documentary here:

part 1
part 2

part 3

part 4

part 5

This term

This term I am going to write a senior project on America's foreign policies and Obama's role as a world leader. I will be studying how Obamas' foreign policies are different to those of former presidents. The American foreign policies and international role today will be also covered. I will also take a closer look at how Obama is more of a world leader than just a leader of the US.

This term I am planning to study really hard. As well as completing a vaster amount of the assignments we get I wish to learn as much as possible in order to be prepared for an exam. I will read my homework well and do my written work thoroughly.

"The Valley of Elah"

A few lessons before Christmas we watched a film called “The Valley of Elah” which tackles a bunch of social issue as well as the other films we have previously watched. It is directed by Paul Haggis and the cast consists of famous actors such as Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon. The plot spins around the story of a father who gets the terrible message that his son is missing after just having returned from the war in Iraq. He cannot resist from interfering the investigation when he discovers the sloppy work the police investigators do. With his help and interpretations of the evidences, they conclude that he was killed innocently by a friend of his who is also a soldier. His body was found burnt and slaughtered to pieces. His death was a result of a post-traumatic co-soldier’s anger.

The film also tackles discrimination at work. The police woman, who investigates the case with the dead soldier, is being harassed by her male colleagues. She has a profession which is dominated by men. Still she is tough and tells them off when they do not act professionally. The film is about family relations as well. The importance of family and strong bonds between divorcees are emphasized.

I definitely enjoyed this film a lot! In addition to being entertaining it is frightening to face that what is being tackled in “The Valley of Elah” are realities of today. I think it was good to see a film which challenges our conception of how honest the work of the police is. Additionally we get to see how it is like for parents to lose their son and how your work life can suddenly take a step into your private life. I definitely recommend “The Valley of Elah.”