When countries invest hope in a leader

Two years ago this month the majority of the American people invested their hopes and dreams for themselves and their country in Barack Obama. He was smart enough to convince them, albeit with the help of the omnipresent teleprompters, that he was the person who could bring them the changes they sought. Seventy years ago the German people invested their hopes and dreams for their country and themselves in Adolph Hitler. He was smart enough to convince them that he was the man who could deliver the changes they sought.

A.J. Goldmann writes in today's Wall Street Journal about an exhibition at the German Historical Museum entitled Hitler and the Germans: Nation and Crimes. The exhibit addresses the question of how Hitler was possible. How did parents allow their young people to be indoctrinated with evil? The exhibit shatters the myth that Nazis seized power. What was Hitler's appeal to the Germans? How did the acts of violence meet with the approval or at least the acceptance of the German people? Were the German people seduced by a ranting lunatic? Why does Hitler so fascinate the Germans even today? (10.000 visitors lined up to see the exhibit on the first weekend of the show).

Until we understand what ordinary Americans were (are?) thinking when they invested their hopes in Barack Obama, we are going to have a hard time winning the 2012 election. I think they thought he would miraculously create an America in which our sins of the past would not be allowed to be repeated; all that was or is bad about America would be vanquished by their fearless leader. Then, of course, there are the union people who know that he shares their belief that corporations are evil, the racial and ethnic minorities, the gays, and the women who think (sometimes correctly) that Republicans are going to make them carry rapists' babies, the young adult males who do not want to fight for their country or have anything to do with military discipline, and the young adults who want to get high on marijuana or cough syrup or glue or on whatever they can get a doctor to prescribe for the psychiatric fad of the month.