American Studies Weblog

A month before his inauguration, Americans choose Barack Obama as the man they admire most in the world, according to a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. It’s the first time a president-elect has topped the annual survey in more than a half-century.

This is a report by the USA Today newspaper and Gallup Poll survey which has put Barack Obama on the top list of the admired men In the United States. Now the question that can be asked is “ what is the significance of this poll and what does it mean? What kind of impact this rating can have on the future president of the US?
Clearly this rating can put too much burden on him. The current financial crisis in the US has been one of the worst of its kind in the past four decades in the US. A report released yesterday said that this year the US has seen one of the sharpest falls in Christmas consumption. With unemployment rates high, the Americans are experiencing one of the most difficult years in at least the last 25 years. The harsh financial situation plus the prolonged and unfinished projects in Afghanistan and Iraq have made the Americans frustrated and angry.
Considering all that, the Americans are looking for a savior , a messiah , somebody who can save them from the current mess.
This can be a double-edged sword for the president-elect Obama. On the one hand he can use this trust and get things done. Given the current situation and the fact that Democrats control both the houses of Congress , there would be less challenge for the president-elect. He would meet less confrontation and more cooperation in the congress. The Republicans would probably not impede his plans in the congress with filibusters. So generally speaking this rating gives him a honeymoon period which is one of real opportunity for him to try to get things done because he’ll have a lot of support and a lot of good will.”
On the other hand this can be dangerous for Obama. These high hopes can both be a source of opportunity for him and a potential source of disappointment. If Americans cannot see any tangible improvement in the economic situation quickly , President Obama would be under heavy criticism. They would see their hopes dashed and this can be a potential source of trouble for him.
To conclude , I can say that we have to wait and see what is going to happen in the coming months. If a quick fix can be found for the current economic situation, Barack Obama can pose himself as one of the most successful presidents in the US. On the other hand if the economic downturn continues and Americans do not see any improvement in their situation , Barack Obama can be in real trouble.

The news that has dominated the global issues is the financial crisis. Everyday there is the news that a new company has applied for government protection or another company has had to lay off thousands of workers. The climax of these crises is the predicament of the three giant auto-makers in the US (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler ). As recently as last week it was announced that Chrysler has decided to halt production for one month. This company has also had to reduce its employees substantially. The other companies are not doing much better.
The other impact of the global financial crisis is the great reduction in the purchase power of the average Americans. This reduction in the purchasing power of the Americans means that less and less commodities can be traded and this in turn means less transaction and more recession. Apparently this global financial crisis has had profound impact on the lives of the average Americans.
But despite all this, some have argued that all these crises were a scheme and a set-up, to halt the seemingly unstoppable growth of China and Russia. The surge in the price of oil had dramatically enhanced the international position of Russia. The unilateral behavior of Russia and the inability of the West and the US ushered the return of Russia onto the world stage. On the other hand, the tremendous vulnerability of the west vis-à-vis Russia in regards to energy had substantially weakened the West’s bargaining power.
The higher oil prices had also boosted the economies of countries like Iran and Venezuela, two countries that are on the terrorist list of the US. Iran has been able to make great achievements in the nuclear technology and this been a big source worry for the west. A few months ago , Henry Kissinger wrote an article and in it he warned against the “trillion dollars” that the oil-producing countries have been able to make because of the high oil prices. This huge money could potentially be a great source of power for countries like Russia, Iran and Venezuela, countries that are not liked by the West and the US in particular.
One of the aftermaths of this crisis was the free fall of the oil prices in the market. Oil prices decreased from 147 dollars and currently is hovering around 42 dollars. Some have even predicted that the oil price could even dip below 30 dollars. What all this means is a substantial fall in the revenues of the oil-producing countries and this in turn means less power and bargaining position for them. Some have argued that if the financial crisis had not happened, the oil price could have exceeded 200 dollars. Right now , because of cheap oil, the strategic reserves of industrial countries have increased from 52 days to 56 days. This means that they have used the opportunity to reduce their dependency on oil. All these indicate that the position of oil-producing countries has been greatly reduced.
Therefore one could speculate the current crisis might be e behind- the –scene scheme to restructure the world financial system to insure and guarantee the superiority of the US in the future. With massive interventions in the market by the US government , once the crisis is over, it can be predicted that the global position of the would be greatly enhanced.

The question of identity is a crucial question. Identity talks about who we are and what is the relationship between us and others. Blunt (2003:73) has defined identity as “ a sense of self that encompasses who people think they are and how other people regard them”. Then we can argue that there is a self-definition and imposed definition of others. This in turn means that identities are always social constructions rather simply matters for the individual. It also means that contestation over different versions of identity are power struggles. In fact how others perceive an individual or group affects the self-definition of that individual or group.
Huntington has argued that identity is an individual’s or group’s sense of self. Identity refers to the images of individuality and distinctiveness held and projected by actor and formed through relations with others. Identities are , overwhelmingly , constructed. Benedict Arnold has described nations as “ imagined communities”. Identities are imagined selves: they are what we think we are and what we want to be. An important issue that we have to remember is the fact that we have multiple identities. These multiple identities might stem from social, cultural, political, economic or national factors.
Stanley Hoffman has said that America’s identity is the unique product of a “ material feature” , its ethnic diversity produced by immigration, and an “ ideological feature” , its liberal democratic creed. In fact immigration and creed are key elements of American national identity. In order to know what really the American identity is , we have to go back to the roots of the foundation of America. America was found by the British settlers. These English settlers brought with themselves the English language, English religion, English culture and English institutions. In fact for two centuries prior to the American revolution, Americans considered themselves as English subjects. So at the inception of this nation, four elements i.e race (whites), ethnicity (English), religion ( Protestantism) and culture ( English culture) were the important factors defining the American Identity. These factors were crucial in the formation of American identity. But as Stanley Hoffman has argued , the American identity is inextricably tied to immigration . In fact immigration changed one of the components and that is the ethnicity. After the revolution and in the mid 19th century, Irish and German immigrants came to be accepted as Americans. We know that there were waves of Irish and German immigrants to American both prior and after the Revolution. But initially , they were not accepted as “American”. As identity is a fluid concept. The Irish and German immigrants who were not considered Americans , became Americans in the mid 18th century. Here we see that the element of ethnicity has changed and includes more people as Americans. Both before and after the two World Wars, there was a surge in the number of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe. Initially , the issue of ethnicity played a significant role in the exclusion of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. There was even a bill passed by the Congress( Immigration Act of 1924 or the National Origin Act). This act was intended to keep the ethnicity aspect of the American identity salient. But the massive immigration of eastern and southern Europeans and their assimilation into the American society has made ethnicity less of a component of American identity. After the Vietnam war and the immigration of many eastern Asians , this element( ethnicity) has become less and less important.
The issue of race has for a long time been an important signifier of who and American is. “ Being American” was for a long time considered to be white( and to some extend it still is). The blacks , according to the constitution of the US , are three-fifth of a person and Indians were referred to as “savages” by Jefferson. However, after the fairly significant achievements of the civil rights movements in the 1965, the issue of race has lost much of its significance (it can be argued , however, that still there is discrimination against blacks and other non- white minorities , but this discrimination is not as blatant as was previously in the US). So it can be inferred that the importance of race in defining an American diminishing .
The last two elements regarding the American identity are language and religion. Traditionally America has been a Protestant country with English as the national language of the country. It still is an English-speaking, Protestant country. But there are “disturbing” trends in America that is challenging the significance of these two elements. The factor that is challenging the significance of these two components is the massive immigration of Hispanics into the US. The immigration of the Hispanics and Latinos into the US is unprecedented in the History of the US. Latinos and Hispanics, who are Catholics and speak Spanish, are changing the social texture of the US. There have been some referenda in some states to decide whether to keep English the official language of the state. The result of these referenda has always been in favor of keeping English the official language but the mere fact that such referenda are happening is significant. Besides these, there has been a rapid increase in number of the people who speak Spanish and who cannot speak English properly. Apart from that, Catholicism, which was once a pariah in the US, is also increasing because of the mass Hispanic immigrants. Therefore one can say that the significance of the last two elements of the American identity is becoming less important. This is what is meant by saying that identity is a fluid concept.
Now this question can be raised “what is American identity”. As Stanley Hoffman has argued one of the key factors in defining who an American is, is the American Creed. What is American Creed? American Creed is best defined in the belief in liberal democracy. Probably the best enumeration of these values is the words in the constitution of the US as “ life , liberty and pursuit of happiness”( though for a long time life and liberty of the clacks was not even mentioned). It is argued that it is this creed that is the basis of the American identity. In fact some say that the American identity is Creedal identity based on the belief in some common values.