The Obama Temptation

National Review Online ^ | 10-25-08 | Mark R. Levin

[Petronski]

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.

I can't help but observe that even some conservatives are caught in the moment as their attempts at explaining their support for Barack Obama are unpersuasive and even illogical. And the pull appears to be rather strong. Ken Adelman, Doug Kmiec, and others, reach for the usual platitudes in explaining themselves but are utterly incoherent. Even non-conservatives with significant public policy and real world experiences, such as Colin Powell and Charles Fried, find Obama alluring but can't explain themselves in an intelligent way.

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.

[Petronski]

My apologies to The Great One, as his original piece at National Review was one long paragraph.

Paragraph breaks herein are mine.

[Petronski]

Ping!

[forYourChildrenVote4Bush]

More Than 5 Million Dollars for Obama’s Greek Temple

The Obama campaign, in conjunction with the entire mainstream media, has been attacking Sarah Palin for letting the RNC spend $150,000 on her wardrobe, as she runs for Vice President of the United States.

But the Obama campaign spent 5.3 million dollars for that phony Greek temple in Denver’s Invesco Field.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/31687_More_Than_5_Million_Dollars_for_Obamas_Greek_Temple

Here is the article:
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2008/10/13/daily43.html

[Petronski]

Your Pinglists please!

[Petronski]

Every Freeper should get this book and read it thoroughly:

[Jim Robinson]

Marxism at work.

[unkus]

Ping

[utahagen]

Mark Levin is right that some conservatives are being reckless. Some of them are also being selfish. Doug Kmiec, for example, makes absolutely no sense in promoting Obama as the better choice for Pro-Life people. Do you think NARAL thinks this is so?! Kmiec’s argument is irrational, which means he's either flipped-out or sold his soul. I suspect that Doug Kmiec expects something in return for backing Obama. Right now, Kmiec is loving the attention. Too late he'll remember, “What profit a man...?”

[Dilbert San Diego]

I wonder how much they are spending on the Grant Park “victory” celebration on election night?

What is it with this guy and huge crowds? He had his Berlin event with 200 thousand people, his speech at Denver with 75,000+, and now Grant Park on election night will probably have 100,000+ admirers.

Is Obama a megalomaniac in some ways? I hate to say, but these huge rallies remind me of Hitler’s rallies of the mindless faithful.

[Deetes]

BOOM

[cgk]

bump and PING!

[aroostook war]

Great post, Petronski! Ever listen to the Kinks? You might enjoy a little ditty they wrote in the late 70’s called “The Black Messiah.”

[Petronski]

That one reminds me most of Mussolini.

[familyop]

I’m staying with principles, but there’s no way that I would vote for Obama, either. Anyone who is voting for Obama is either at least a little to the left (young, etc.), way to the left, ignorant or mad to the edge of dementia—as bad as anyone who would vote for Hillary in a primary.

[Petronski]

“The Great One Mark Levin Nails It” ping!

[familyop]

Here’s one for a laugh for any of you who’ve seen the “Matrix Reloaded” movie. ...a little truth to it.

Barack Obama Recites Morpheus Speech From the Matrix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYfpa7IwId0

[SMCC1]

“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.”

I’ve heard Obama supporters argue that the reason the media isn’t talking about Rev. Wright now is because they already covered it in the primaries and it would be overkill. Now, I didn’t really follow the democratic primaries closely and I don’t watch abc/nbc/cbs, so I was wondering how extensive the MSM coverage of Wright was? Didn’t it take Hannity playing the tape over and over for them to finally report it or the MSM dig it up first??

[Arkansas Toothpick]

If Obama is elected, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Wait until the “burning of the Reichstag” takes place and the Left manages to scapegoat every conservative for all ills in this nation. Seriously folks, this is gonna come to violence and we must be prepared to fight back in very real and tangible ways.

[Petronski]

You’ll want to read this, I think.

[Para-Ord.45]

reference ping