Barack Obama, The Aloha Zen President

How a Son of the 50th State May Revitalize America Based on 12 Multicultural Principles

Michael Haas

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9780313394027
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780313394034
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: American Government
• Index: Politics & International Relations

With a foreword written by former presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, this book portrays President Barack Obama as a true child of Hawai'i and explains why he believes that America can achieve even more greatness by learning from the multicultural customs of the 50th state.

Obama's aspiration to transform the United States using Hawai'i as his model has been a conspicuous theme in his books and speeches over the years. In them, he extols Hawai'i's multicultural ethos, describing how a normative, problem-solving mindset predicated on mutual respect and harmonious interchange is inculcated in the culture, politics, and society of the Islands. Indeed, this "Aloha Spirit" is imbued in Barack Obama, is part of what made him irresistibly charismatic as a candidate, and explains why voters in 2010 were baffled at his demeanor after he became the 44th President of the United States.

This unique book examines Obama's decisions as an adult and as president and exposes how they are directly linked to the culture of Hawai'i and Obama's multicultural life as a child. The author and contributors also describe the ways in which native Hawaiians were dispossessed of their sovereignty and their land, how they steadfastly sought justice, and how their quest served as a model for Obama's mobilization of support for his candidacy.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• Foreword
• Preface
• 1. Multicultural Barack Obama
• 2. History of the Struggles of the Peoples of the Islands
• 3. Public Opinion and Cultural Values
• 4. The Multilingual State
• 5. The Media: A Mixed Plate
• 6. The Emergence of Local Literature
• 7. Hawai'i Calls: Musics of the Islands
• 8. Electoral Politics: Post-Racial?
• 9. The Strength of Organized Labor
• 10. Social Structure and Social Mobility
• 11. Multiculturalizing Elementary and Secondary Education
• 12. A University Searching for Identity
• 13. Crime and Justice without Profiling
• 14. Political Economy and Contemporary Social Struggles
• 15. The Communitarian Pragmatist President
• Appendix: The Aloha Spirit Law
• References
• Abbreviations
• About the Editor and Contributors
• Index