Sunday, October 26, 2008

ObamaGod


I think it ought to concern everyone when a moderate journal like the National Review begins putting up warning flags about the From Mark Levin "cult-like atmoshpere" which surrounds the man who very likely will be our next President.


I've been thinking this for a while so I might as well air it here. I honestly never thought we'd see such a thing in our country - not yet anyway - but I sense what's occurring in this election is a recklessness and abandonment of rationality that has preceded the voluntary surrender of liberty and security in other places. 
There is a cult-like atmosphere around Barack Obama, which his campaign has carefully and successfully fabricated, which concerns me. The messiah complex. Fainting audience members at rallies. Special Obama flags and an Obama presidential seal. A graphic with the portrayal of the globe and Obama's name on it, which adorns everything from Obama's plane to his street literature. Young school children singing songs praising Obama. Teenagers wearing camouflage outfits and marching in military order chanting Obama's name and the professions he is going to open to them. An Obama world tour, culminating in a speech in Berlin where Obama proclaims we are all citizens of the world. 
I dare say, this is ominous stuff. 

Even the media are drawn to the allure that is Obama. Yes, the media are liberal. Even so, it is obvious that this election is different. The media are open and brazen in their attempts to influence the outcome of this election. 
I've never seen anything like it. Virtually all evidence of Obama's past influences and radicalism — from Jeremiah Wright to William Ayers — have been raised by non-traditional news sources. The media's role has been to ignore it as long as possible, then mention it if they must, and finally dismiss it and those who raise it in the first place. It's as if the media use the Obama campaign's talking points — its preposterous assertions that Obama didn't hear Wright from the pulpit railing about black liberation, whites, Jews, etc., that Obama had no idea Ayers was a domestic terrorist despite their close political, social, and working relationship, etc. — to protect Obama from legitimate and routine scrutiny. And because journalists have also become commentators, it is hard to miss their almost uniform admiration for Obama and excitement about an Obama presidency. 
So in the tank are the media for Obama that for months we've read news stories and opinion pieces insisting that if Obama is not elected president it will be due to white racism. And, of course, while experience is crucial in assessing Sarah Palin's qualifications for vice president, no such standard is applied to Obama's qualifications for president. (No longer is it acceptable to minimize the work of a community organizer.) Charles Gibson and Katie Couric sought to humiliate Palin. They would never and have never tried such an approach with Obama. 

But beyond the elites and the media, my greatest concern is whether this election will show a majority of the voters susceptible to the appeal of a charismatic demagogue. This may seem a harsh term to some, and no doubt will to Obama supporters, but it is a perfectly appropriate characterization. Obama's entire campaign is built on class warfare and human envy. 
The "change" he peddles is not new. We've seen it before. It is change that diminishes individual liberty for the soft authoritarianism of socialism. It is a populist appeal that disguises government mandated wealth redistribution as tax cuts for the middle class, falsely blames capitalism for the social policies and government corruption (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) that led to the current turmoil in our financial markets, fuels contempt for commerce and trade by stigmatizing those who run successful small and large businesses, and exploits human imperfection as a justification for a massive expansion of centralized government. 
Obama's appeal to the middle class is an appeal to the "the proletariat," as an infamous philosopher once described it, about which a mythology has been created. Rather than pursue the American Dream, he insists that the American Dream has arbitrary limits, limits Obama would set for the rest of us — today it's $250,000 for businesses and even less for individuals. If the individual dares to succeed beyond the limits set by Obama, he is punished for he's now officially "rich." 
The value of his physical and intellectual labor must be confiscated in greater amounts for the good of the proletariat (the middle class). And so it is that the middle class, the birth-child of capitalism, is both celebrated and enslaved — for its own good and the greater good. The "hope" Obama represents, therefore, is not hope at all. It is the misery of his utopianism imposed on the individual. 

Unlike past Democrat presidential candidates, Obama is a hardened ideologue. He's not interested in playing around the edges. He seeks "fundamental change," i.e., to remake society. And if the Democrats control Congress with super-majorities led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, he will get much of what he demands. 

The question is whether enough Americans understand what's at stake in this election and, if they do, whether they care. Is the allure of a charismatic demagogue so strong that the usually sober American people are willing to risk an Obama presidency? After all, it ensnared Adelman, Kmiec, Powell, Fried, and numerous others. And while America will certainly survive, it will do so, in many respects, as a different place.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Using gematria, the Greek Church Fathers (e.g. Andreas Caesariensis Cappadociae, Commentarius in Apoc., 38; Migne 106.340D) identified the name of the number of the beast (Apoc. 13:18) as BENEDIKTOS (the values of each letter in Greek are 2+ 5+ 50+ 5+ 4+ 10+ 20+ 300+ 70+ 200 = 666); in Latin "benedictus" means "blessed"; in modern Arabic, the name Barack (Arabic: بارك ) means "blessed".

Benediktos = Barack

Anonymous said...

"gemetria", I mean

Anonymous said...

Strul - your translation is confirmed via this Swedish article posted in Malmö by Behrang Miri :

Allah can let Obama bless America

Quote: "Barack, a common Arab first name, bless now American people and offer them a "change" after eight years of Bush's Texas Rangers policy.

Själva namnet Barack betyder just att välsigna på arabiska, något som dock inte förklarats under den amerikanska valprocessen.

The very name Barack means to bless in Arabic, which is not explained in the American electoral process."


and

"What we instead hear and see is a patriotic Barack Obama who loves his country, is a proud Christian and a member of the United Church of Christ and who never forgets to say "God Bless America" after each made speeches.

Allt för att kunna bli accepterad av mainstream Amerika.

Everything in order to become accepted by mainstream America.

Jag hoppas verkligen att det finns en anledning till Baracks umgänge med Hollywoods elit.

I really hope that there is a reason for Barack socializing with Hollywood elite.

Jag hoppas verkligen att Barack är demokraternas version av Ronald Reagan och att han tar över Vita Huset.

I really hope that Barack is the Democrats' version of Ronald Reagan and he takes over the White House.

Jag hoppas verkligen att han, när han väl är där, ska kasta ut sitt största skelett ur garderoben -

”Yes Amerika, you choosed a muslim as your president”. I really hope that he, when he clearly is there, to throw out its biggest skeleton in the closet - "Yes America, you choosed a Muslim as your President."

Pastorius said...

Interesting, if he does become President.

Interesting that his name is the same as the Pope's name.

Interesting, but could mean nothing.