Despite an approval rating from his own citizens of 43%, the British left is still enamoured with Barack Obama. Maybe it’s healthcare reform; maybe it’s because he’s not a Republican; or perhaps it has to do with what he represents – but while those in the States lambast his perceived inertia, Brits swoon at his rhetoric.
The British left loves him for many of the same reasons the American left once did. His stance on healthcare: seeking to address the fact that almost one in five Americans is uninsured. His inspiring rhetoric, which is all the more rousing when compared to Gordon Brown or to Ed Miliband. But the British left’s refusal to become disillusioned comes largely from a political distance.
Most on the British left appreciate how alien the American system is to us. We can forgive Obama his failings – and his reneging on the pledge to close Guantanamo is perhaps the most harrowing symbol of this failure – but we recognise that the difficulties he faces differ wildly from those facing us.
We’re fortunate in the UK that political debate is less polarised than it is across the Atlantic – you cannot imagine, for example, the question of a candidate’s religion so readily influencing the outcome of a general election. Also, while much discussion of healthcare in the UK today revolves around whether spending decisions should be devolved to GPs, in the US the debate barely gets started, with one side abjectly refusing to consider that a system like the NHS, which costs half as much per head as their own, might be an alternative – because of the impact this has on an American’s right to choose.
But this admiration for Obama from the British left is not just in spite of his inability to push through left-wing reform. Following the intransigence that met Obama when he sought to raise the debt ceiling, something which has been waved through pretty much without a nod for the last 30 years, some called for Obama to invoke executive privilege and circumvent Congress. Similarly, on healthcare reform Obama could have expended more political capital and overridden some of Congress’s obstinacy. But his desire not to disrespect a democratic process, which incidentally is more directly representative than ours, has for many on the British left proved him worthy of reverence, especially considering how a move like this would have agitated an already hostile Congress and probably incapacitated Obama for the duration of that Congress.
So, while for some disillusionment comes from Obama’s lack of progress, to many on the left in Britain his principles, which are what make him so inspiring, remain intact despite the failures, and the failures are understood largely to be the product of a very different politics. With a hostile Congress and a fierce Republican party adept at dragging the debate rightwards, he’s had a tough time – but a bit of perspective and a more acute sympathy for his position mean that here on the left we still love him.
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