March 12, 2009

• Watchmen, Bush and Obama.

  WARNING!  This post contains plot spoilers, so don’t read if you haven’t seen the movie Watchmen and are planning to.

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  Safe to read yet?

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  Okay!

  

  Best movie evaaarrrrrrr…since The Last Dragon, of course.

   

  You can’t expect perfection in a world designed for entropy.  Then why do we expect our heroes to be?  Now, don’t start shaking your costume-burdened heads at me, comic geeks, while you say that the usual heroes are flawed.  I know.  Batman is unable to quench his thirst for revenge; Superman has an addiction with wearing a latex speedo; when you eat sushi in front of Aquaman he runs into a corner and cries; and worst of all, Gambit is French.  (Oh, zee horruhrrrr!) 

   

  But I’m talking about real heroes.  Real heroes have real flaws…just like Rorschach and Ozymandias from Watchmen and our last 2 presidents.  (Yes, I know it’s a stretch, but work with me here.  Everything else in your xanga inbox is boring, anyway. )  I couldn’t help noticing during the movie that Rorschach–for whom the means justifies the end–is the comic book version of George Bush and Ozymandias–for whom the end justifies the means–the same with Barack Obama. 

   

  Much like the anti-liberal Rorschach in his quest to rain down some righteousness on the evils around him, Bush was faced with the task of defending America after the first attack on American soil since the 19th century.  (In case you didn’t know, Hawaii was not a state when Pearl Harbor was bombed.)  Rorschach taking a meat cleaver to a child killer’s head wasn’t exactly a kosher way of enacting justice, but neither were Guantanamo Bay and utilizing surveillance techniques that made the ACLU pull out its collective, dreadlocked hair completely ethical choices by Bush.  Criminals didn’t mess with Rorschach because they knew he would kill them.  After we carpet-bombed Afghanistan and the wall of steel drove through Iraq, the saber rattling of other enemy countries suddenly quieted because they knew we had a crazy and stubborn president who would send them a Condoleeza Ricin telegram if they sneezed in our direction. 

   

  Much like Ozymandias in his megalomania, you cannot help but compare him to Obama with his narcissism and ego.  Ozymandias built a billion dollar empire selling his own image.  Are his action hero figurines any different from the Obama coins, commemorative plates and idolatry infused “Hope” posters we have today?   Ozymandias channeled Ramses and Alexander the Great, Obama did the same with JFK and Abraham Lincoln.  Ozymandias was one of the smartest men in the world, and I do not dispute the same with Obama.  Barack Obama is clearly an intelligent and talented man who can lead our country out of this economic quagmire.  But what bothers me is that Ozymandias was willing to kill millions to save billions.  What is Obama willing to sacrifice?  Accountability?  Check.  (Waiving his own touted rule of “no lobbyists in the White House” for his own administration.)  Unity?   Check.  (Class warfare through socialist policies.)  I think Obama will pull our country out of this mess, but I wonder at what cost.

   

  Are the faults of Bush any worse than those of Obama or vice versa?  What about others in the past?  Bill Clinton and JFK had affairs.  Winston Churchill neglected his health so much that he looked like a bipedal walrus.  George Washington had slaves.  All great leaders have great faults, but we needed them to bring us out of darkness, so we, like Dr. Manhattan, overlooked them, without condoning or condemning.  So no, I don’t think that the faults of Bush are worse than those of Obama, nor do I think that Obama’s faults are any worse than Bush’s.  For all of his faults, I am thankful that George Bush kept my family safe the last 8 years.  And for all of his faults, if Obama leads us out of our depression, I will be thankful.  History is always a little kinder to our presidents than the present.  But with Russia, Iran, China and North Korea starting to rattle their sabers my hope for President Obama is that he remembers Rorschach’s last advice.

   

  Never compromise…even in the face of armageddon.

   

  So go do your thing, Obamandias.  Make me thankful.

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  Have a great rest of the week!

  • 12:29 am
  • 9 Comments