Joe Nocera “Obama’s New Cabinet” New York Times, Article Review Example

In his op-ed piece New York Times op-ed piece published on November 26, 2012 “Obama’s New Cabinet”, Joe Nocera advances his choices for which names should constitute the re-elected President’s political cabinet. Nocera comes from a business and journalism background, having written for publications such as Fortune and Newsweek.  He has wrriten for the New York Times since 2005, and as an op-ed writer since 2011. Nocear’s biography indicates that his interest is at the intersection between economics and politics, and furthermore, suggests a possible bias towards the current free-market economic ideology of the United States, insofar as he lacks any radically critical views.

In his argument, consistent with his Nocera suggests who should be Obama’s new cabinet members in his second term, concentrating above all on the new chairman/chairwoman of the SEC.

• Nocera thinks that second-term appointments should be about introducing new ideas.

B: Obama’s selection of Commissioner Walter as the new chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission is flawed, because Walter already served in the S.E.C. during Obama’s first term.

• The choice of Walter is poor, insofar as it does not represent new ideas in the Obama government, rather repeating the status quo.

Evaluation of the argument:

With these premises, Nocera’s argument is based upon some empty rhetoric about new faces. Nocera wants merely a new face, but asks no difficult questions about American economic ideology. In other words, hegemony merely changes hands from another member of the corrupt elite. What about the fact that America has been in the hands of private banking interests since the Federal Reserve was created?

Nocera’s article is guilty of forwarding the illusion that individuals have power in American democracy. One only has to look at the systematic problems that never change to see that it does not matter what “face” is promoted: they are all part of the nomenclature, and Nocera is a part of this same nomenclature itself, contributing to the propaganda of false, superficial change as opposed to systematic change. But what else could one expect from the New York Times and the majority of American media, which are all parts of this great propaganda machine?