There is a reason the psalmist warned, "Put not your trust in princes, nor
in the son of man, in whom there is no help." (Psalm 146:3)
It wasn't that he was cynical about humanity. It appears the writer observed
that the best efforts of humankind were unable to produce the satisfaction
people sought in earthly leaders.
Which brings us to the expectations surrounding Barack Obama.
It is a truism in politics that you are supposed to lower expectations in
order to boost your political stock should you exceed them. Sen. Obama has
done precisely the opposite. He has raised expectations so high there is
only one way he can exceed them following his nomination in Denver. That is
to climb to the top of a mountain peak, there to be transfigured and ascend
into Heaven. No wonder Jon Stewart lampooned his messianic personae on "The
Daily Show," saying that while in Israel, Obama made a short visit to the
manger in Bethlehem where he was born.
In his Berlin speech, Obama promised to tear down more walls than Joshua did
at Jericho. He's going to destroy walls separating black from white; walls
between Jews, Muslims and Christians; walls dividing rich from poor, and
East from West. Prior to the advent of Obama, such powers were reserved for
the Messiah, who, we are promised, will beat swords into ploughshares and
spears into pruning hooks, make the lion lie down with the lamb and we will
study war no more.
No politician can live up to such great expectations. That is because
neither the problems, nor the solutions emanate from Washington. Politicians
in one party want us to believe that politicians in the other party caused
our problems. Each party has had its turn in the White House and a
congressional majority. If one party is better than the other, shouldn't one
of them have solved the problems by now?
With expectations so high, if Obama is elected president and his party
maintains, perhaps expands, its margins in the House and Senate, he will
have to immediately solve at least some of the problems he has promised to
solve, lest his opinion polls take a dive and cynicism makes a comeback.
Obama is to be commended for lecturing black men about their role as real
fathers, not just sperm donors. But he is not the first to give that
lecture. Rev. Jesse Jackson and comedian Bill Cosby have also given it. Yet,
the targeted behavior has not changed. America's primary problems are not
economic and political; they are moral and spiritual and there government
cannot go, with or without "faith-based initiatives."