What Obama Can Learn from The Wire
One of the main reasons I supported Barack Obama is because we share the same favorite TV show, HBO's The Wire. The Wire is probably the most realistic show on television and the only show that deals intelligently with several problems facing the USA, including drugs, violence, educational disparities and corrupt politics. What are the lessons Obama has learned from watching The Wire, a show which paints a bleak picture of the decaying city of Baltimore?
Foreign Policy
If Obama was watching The Wire carefully, he could learn a lot about foreign policy from two of the major characters from the first three seasons, Avon Barksdale and his cohort, Stringer Bell. While Avon was always willing to go to war for territory and fight over pride, Stringer was more pragmatic, realizing that war was bad for business. Like Obama, Stringer was willing to negotiate with his enemies, including Proposition Joe and Marlo Stansfield. Rather than war with other drug dealers over territory, Stringer built an alliance of hustlers from both the east and west side to share a common package and economic interest.
Obama could take Stringer's role and avoid wars unless they are absolutely necessary, negotiate with countries previously hostile to the US and build alliances with other countries. He should not however be shady and conniving, the characteristics which led to Stringers death.
Drugs
Addiction and distribution of drugs have played a big role in all five seasons of The Wire. If anything is clear from The Wire, it is that the War on Drugs is a failed war, one that only keeps the cycle of addiction, poverty and violence going. For many, the War on Drugs is a war on black neighborhoods. In The Wire, we see that incarceration of drug dealers has little effect, as there always is a new one to take his place. Obama could learn a lot about how to deal with drugs from Bunny Colvin's Hamsterdamn experiment. Rather than brutality and incarceration, treatment and counseling were used in an area where drug dealers were free to sell drugs. With drugs less of a priority, police were able to stop violent crime, burglaries and rape.
If Obama was paying attention to Season three, he will put more money into treatment, and less emphasis on incarceration. While the American War on Drugs has focused primarily on the black community, millions of white Americans have become addicted to prescription pills and methamphetamine. While surveys have shown that white people use drugs at the same rate of black people, blacks are incarcerated five times as much for drug crimes.
Education
Season four of The Wire highlighted the educational crisis in urban areas through the eyes of four poor black children and a white teacher. In Season four, we see the failure of No Child Left Behind, as teachers are forced to teach to tests rather than using their own skills and knowledge. We also see the apathetic teachers and the overcrowded classrooms and the social problems that lead to dysfunctional students.
Season four also makes it clear that students in urban areas who aren't involved in the educational process get educated on the street to become drug dealers. John McCain called education the Civil Rights Movement of the 21st century, probably the only thing he said during the campaign that I agreed with. Education in urban areas is not a black problem but an American problem, a problem all Americans must unite to solve.
Politics
Clearly Obama paid close attention to Mayor Tommy Carcetti's campaign against Mayor Royce. Both Obama and Carcetti were good looking, with excellent debate and oratory skills. Just like Tommy Carcetti, who woke up white in a city that wasn't, Barack Obama woke up black in a county that wasn't. Carcetti managed to overcome his race problem by splitting the black vote between Royce and Gray just like Obama managed to split some of the white vote between Edwards and Clinton in the primary. Carcetti kept a cool head while his opponents tried to connect him to unsavory characters and reached out to people outside of his base to develop a strong coalition.
Obama must also learn from Tommy Carcetti's brief term as Mayor. Carcetti found himself in a budget deficit as Mayor and unable to complete his campaign promises. He also realized that he would have to eat "bowls of shit" from several interest groups in Baltimore. Obama must also confront this problem in dealing with the military, Wall street and religious leaders. With a failing economy, he must be both pragmatic and idealistic in his decisions on what to cut, what to keep and what to expand.
Obama must also be like Carcetti and build alliances with his opponents who did not support him in the election, such as Carcetti's alliance with council president, Narise Campbell. He must also crack down on corruption in politics, whether it be from the Clay Davis's of the world or the Tom Delays.
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I miss The Wire!
If any of you haven't seen it I highly recommend renting the DVD's. This is without a doubt one of the best shows ever.
Man, you reminded me why I loved The Wire, Obama should remember what Brother Musaan said, paraphrasing, "the most dangerous man in america is a brotha with a library card" stress education, and raise expectation and for early childhood education, say gr 1-3, teach ahead of assigned curriculum
I'm a public defender and see the drug problem on a daily basis with my clients, most of whom have drug problems, although most are not charged with drug crimes. I think that the legal system does have a role to play in this- it's sort of like an intervention where the drug addict's friends and family confront the addict and ask him to get treatment. Instead, it's society confronting the addict and saying you need to get treatment plus you need to make amends for any harm you caused.
They used to think you had to agree to treatment for it to be successful. Newer research shows the rate of success is the same for those who voluntarily enter treatment and those forced into it by the court system.
Incarceration should only be used as a back-up for those who refuse treatment. And not just for drug crimes- most crimes are due to substance abuse or mental health problems. Treatment and monitoring by the court (probation, community service, restitution, etc.) is more likely to stop it than sending the person to jail- sending them to jail doesn't do much except disrupt the person's family, job, etc. and make it harder to lead a successful life.
The failures of the war on drugs should be self evident by now but sadly is not.
I work in the field of addiction and one of the most interesting things that I have seen, and was touched on in the article, is that the abuse of prescription opiate medications is truely epidemic in this country. So as we busted smugglers and the drug cartels americian doctors have been prescribing opiate medications and Benzodiazopines (xanax etc.) hand over fist. The legal drug dealers have made untold fortunes on this yet no body noticed. The attitude that if the Dr. prescribes it it must be OK allowed for opiate addiction on a level that has not been seen before in this country. I will state that again...Never before seen in this country. While everyone is all excited about busting crack heads and pot heads something far worse was unleashed on the public. So it goes.
Second, the war on drugs stopped alot of Marijuana being imported but had a rather funny consequence. Unable to import the stuff the trade turned to domestic production. Now the US is actually an exporter. Talk about unintended consequences.
"One of the main reasons I supported Barack Obama is because we share the same favorite TV show..."
For this they give you a column in a public forum?
This takes the trend of viewing public affairs through the mirror of Hollywood to a new low. Television consists of whatever entertainment executives think will sell advertising, and consequently only occasionally, coincidentally intersects reality. In a country where most citizens spend more hours per week in fantasy land than they do at work, further blurring the distinction between public policy and entertainment strikes me as a very bad idea.
Obviously you have not watched The Wire. If you had seen all 5 seasons I think you would have a different view. The Wire is about as far from normal Hollywood fair as you can get.
You haven't seen The Wire have you?
Well.... if you've been paying any attention at all, "The Wire" is one of his favorite shows. And alot of the things you are saying he needs to do...he already has been doing even before the wire came out....keep up
Who benefits from the War on Drugs? Terrorists, corrupt officials, "threat-assessment" contractors, the corrections officers union, corporate prison companies, gangsters, gun manufacturers. Who doesn't benefit? Recreational users, innocent bystanders, state and federal treasuries. Albert Hofmann, who invented LSD and admitted taking hundreds of trips, lived to be 102 and was productive. Even the right-winger John Stossel debunked the war, back in the 1970s, and continues debunking the whole anti-drug philosophy.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/06/legalize_all_drugs.html
The drug war is special interest pork.
Mexico ignores the drug war and they aren't having any problems right?
LOL, people are getting whacked left and right down by our border.
Mexico's problems have been caused by the US's policies towards drugs leaking across the border (along with some carefully placed 'foreign aid')
Obama should shutter the ONDCP and replace it with the Office of National Drug Policy Reform, naming Ethan Nadelmann as the new "Drug Czar".
Well from my experience watching "The Wire" - no matter who Obama obeys as long as there is a foot soldier a la Jimmy McNulty to aggravate him, things will be torn asunder and we can get some mavericky things done in our broken government - first step, "Hamsterdam" for the separatists and fringe elements in our country that pray for Doomsday. You know what? We'll just make all of Alaska "Hamsterdam" as that should contain most of the problem.
Casey-Gane McCalla,
Great article and post. I concur with much of what you point out in this article/post. For me, as a registered independent, it is also one of the reasons I also voted for Barack Obama. You are right, The program, "The Wire," paints a bleak picture of the decaying city of Baltimore. I hope the new Obama administration understands that there is a real decaying minority urban core, throughout America. From Massachusetts to Florida, from Southern California to Northern California and places in between, black and poor communities are in unique crisis. Like you, and millions of Americans, I'm hopeful that the Obama administration will hit the ground running.
AAPP
Obama will obey his Republican masters just like Clinton, Carter, and Johnson before him. He is helpless in the face of the right-wing smear machine. He will cave to the Fundies, court the corporations, and imprison the populace in constant survellience. He will become a true Unitary Executive by disbanding congress and the courts. Trust me, this won't end well.
And what evidence do you have for this, Nostradamus?
Sounds like you are describing Bush
If all that you were saying was true then he would not have gotten elected in the first place... get a grip
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