What
President Obama Learned From The Wire
By: Casey Gane-McCalla
Jack & Jill Politics
 Its
officially been one year that The Wire has been off the
air. Erin Evans over at The Root has a good article on
Wire withdrawal. Still we have to remember that one of
The Wire’s biggest fans, Barack Obama is now running the
country and is caught up in his own drama with
situations and characters so interesting and complex it
could’ve been written by David Simon. Here are some
things that Barack Obama could’ve learned from The Wire.
If the world was David Simon’s Baltimore, who would
Obama be? Who would be Clay Davis and McNulty?
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
huslters 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 Stringer’s
death.
Drugs
Addiction and distribution of drugs have played a big
role in all 5 seasons of The Wire. If anything is clear
from The Wire, it is that the War on Drugs is a failed
war, 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 3, 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 4 of The Wire highlighted the educational crisis
in urban areas. Through the eyes of four poor black
children and a white teacher. In Season 4 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 4 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 ony 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 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.
I’d never in my life think that the cast of the Wire
would do a PSA or ad but here they are in North Carolina
supporting Barack Obama in the election (did Wire fans
push Obama over the edge in NC?)
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