The Cult of Obama
First the Tom Cruise video and now this one: Yes We Can − Barack Obama Music Video (YouTube). OMFG! Famous people *heart* Obama! Game, set and match to you sir. There is also a Letter from an Obama supporter by Jesse Last (3QuarksDaily) making the rounds and people who should know better are guzzling the kool-aid at a majestic pace and are completely gaga about this gentleman, philosopher, poet and bridger of cultures.
Here are some excerpts with snide commentary.
“I cheered with hundreds of people from all backgrounds and thought − what other event in history has united this type of group for a common cause?”
Check. Obama is a uniter. And the first one. Ever. No one else has ever effected this kind of change anywhere in the world or anytime in history. Not even that other black guy who turned one Monday every January into a holiday.
“Consider this hypothetical. It’s November 2008. A young Pakistani Muslim is watching television and sees that this man—Barack Hussein Obama—is the new face of America . In one simple image, America ‘s soft power has been ratcheted up not a notch, but a logarithm.”
Just make sure that that same Pakistani child didn’t already lose a close family member to the air campaign Obama was forced to start by the intractable Pakistanis.
“If you wanted the crudest but most effective weapon against the demonization of America that fuels Islamist ideology, Obama’s face gets close.”
That’s a relief. Just when it seemed we would have to approach the issue with nuance, here comes a crude measure to save the day: “America doesn’t hate black people”. That’s marketing gold. How about not bombing them, stealing their resources or supporting their dictators for four years? Too subtle?
“Obama inspires us to see beyond what is most immediately obvious in order to understand the greater task we face and to trust our capacity to meet the challenges of that hard work.”
Why have issues when you’ve got a sackful of platitudes? It’ll be hard work expanding the US military by 90,000 soldiers. But, if you can imagine it, it can happen. Hope is a power no snideness can overcome.
“Barack Obama believes in our ability to contribute to the greater good.”
Such a breathtakingly groundbreaking view; no other candidate has ever offered such a bold, iconoclastic message.
“For the next four years, I want my television to broadcast not fear, but the vision of a President who trusts that I am a part of a country and a world that is profoundly flawed but fundamentally good. That it is ok to believe in my fellow human beings …”
There’s more, but I was welling up so badly at that point that the page was a blurred mass of hope. And change. And butterflies and ponies. I cited only that which my unbelieving eyes was capable of transcribing more or less error-free. Be careful of reading the full text; there’s a strong likelihood that you will be forever blinded because your eyes will thereafter refuse to see anything less beautiful than Obama’s message of hope.
“That I may carry myself with both pride and humility as an American traveling abroad.”
Obama’s not Bush and Obama’s not Hillary. End of sales pitch. Elect presidential soma instead and we’ll ooze sunshine and rainbows for at least four years.
“He is asking a lot of us, because choosing a new, bold way is frightening. … Obama is giving us a gift – the chance to hope and to begin to make change.”
*gag*
“He is not naïve to hope, he is courageous to do so. It is easier to hate your enemies than to love them. It is easier to hold grudges than to let them go. It is easier to believe the worst of others than to see their failings time and time again and maintain a deep faith in their fundamental goodness. Obama chooses the harder path.”
Yeah, though he walketh among us,
he be not one of us, but all of us.
He speaketh only blinding white truth.
He is the kindler of hope, the bringer of change.
He is everything and nothing.
He is the alpha and the omega.
He will tuck out us in at night.
He will wipe away our collective tears.
He will kiss our booboos.
He will show us rainbows and ponies.
He will make the hurting stop.
And then, he will invade Iran
for looking at him funny.
Comments
#1 − Very Observant
marco –
In Who wins if it is McCain v. Hillary? McCain v. Obama? by Mitchell Freedman, says:
“As for Obama, he remains a mirror with flowery rhetoric. People see what they want to see with him, more than many candidates. Yet, when he gets specific on matters such as health care, Obama keeps wanting to show, at least rhetorically, that he is a reliable corporate Democrat a la the Clintons.”
Obama’s health-care plan would cover less than half of the Americans without health insurance and would be voluntary—screwing any chance it has of working because the insurance pool would be out-of-balance as only sick people would volunteer to pay into the program.
#2 − Jesse Last’s Latest
marco –
One week later and Mr. Last is a good deal more skeptical than the words quoted above would imply. In My Hope for Obama by Jesse Last (3QuarksDaily), he now writes:
“Recently, he seems to have turned up the “change” volume but neglected the “individual contribution” sound, and now his message feels slightly out of tune. When I watch him speak on television, I see the crowd cheer with an incredible fervor. […] I just wish I did not feel as though I were watching a rally bordering on a revival. We need soaring rhetoric in a world of depressed resignation, but such rhetoric should be filled with content. I want to hear more about his proposals.”
Welcome back.