Fearing Obama

American Thinker ^ | September 15, 2009 | J.R. Dunn

[neverdem]

"Never take counsel of your fears."

  -- George S. Patton,  War as I Knew It

One of the more puzzling aspects of the public reaction to the ascension of Barack Obama is the abject fear, bordering on sheer terror that he arouses in certain conservative circles.

The internment camps, we're told, are already in operation, ready for dissenters and rebels, in particular AT readers. Swine flu is a bogus crisis, worked up in order to provide an excuse to put the country under martial law. We have ACORN, which is about to be issued with brown shirts, coal-scuttle helmets, and rubber truncheons before being sent to clear the streets (that is, if they can be dragged out of the whorehouses). Organizing for America, effectively Obama's personal fan club, is to be transformed into the equivalent of Cuba's block organizations at best, and the Red Guard or Khmer Rouge at worst.

Then we get to Obama himself. He has been described as an American Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin, the Antichrist, and a cyborg sent back in time by Skywatch to keep an eye on Gov. Arnold (Okay, I admit it - I made that one up). He's out to undermine the Constitution, transform the country into a third-world state, overturn the republican system of government, and ignite a civil war. What's more, he has the power to do this in a matter of months. It won't require even a full term of office -- if he's allowed to remain president for even another year, it'll be too late. The country will be gone, one with Babylon and Tyre, a glowing legend dropping over the horizon of time.

Pretty impressive coming from a community organizer.

We know a lot about dictators. We know a lot about them because they have been thick on the ground for the last century or so. The 20^th century was the epoch of the tyrants, the "booted commandos", as the historian Jakob Burckhardt called them. They very nearly ran the world off the rails, coming within two battles (Midway and El Alamein) of boxing up the Western democracies. They killed hundreds of millions and turned venerable nations across the globe into wastelands. Considering the damage they caused, we ought to know them a lot better than we do

They all came out of the same box, mentally adroit, emotionally unbalanced, physically tough. They grew up in disrupted and often dysfunctional families. They were usually outcasts or misfits, living as bums (Hitler), professional agitators (Lenin, Trotsky, and Mussolini), or criminals (Stalin). They often served as soldiers (Hitler and Mussolini), an experience which burned the last remnants of humanity out of them. This provides one explanation -- though not a complete one -- for the universal uniform fetish. They were emotionally isolated, viewing humanity as an enemy camp, with only a small group of acolytes worthy of trust. They were paranoid to the point of insanity, unremittingly brutal, often enjoying the torture of their opponents. (Hitler watched films of the July 20 conspirators being executed, while Stalin played endless mind games with his prey.) Commonly autodidacts with no formal education and contempt for actual expertise, they commenced projects beyond the capabilities of their eras and began wars somebody else had to finish -- usually over the dictator's own dead bodies. They appear to have been uniformly obsessed with apocalyptic fantasies. They tended to deteriorate mentally and physically with shocking swiftness -- witness Lenin's strokes, Mussolini's hypochondria, Hitler's medical obsessions and drug addiction, and Stalin's bottle-a-day vodka habit.

Now let's submit Obama to the checklist. Egomaniacal, check. Disrupted family life, check. No formal education... misfit... soldier... physically tough... apocalyptic obsessions... Whoa... where'd we go wrong here? Nothing fits... When we compare Obama to the historical type of the dictator, it simply doesn't come together. Can anyone picture Obama in military fatigues? As we say in Internetland, ROTFLMAO. 

With actual tyrants we get decisiveness, aggressiveness, complete control of government, and a strict ruling hierarchy. With Obama, we get lollygagging, lack of attention, key projects such as the stimulus, cap & trade, and health care farmed out to the likes of Van Jones, Nancy Pelosi, Henry Waxman, and Zeke Emmanuel, none of whom appear to be reporting to anybody, and a general air of offhandedness. Obama appears to have an undergraduate's conception of how serious work is accomplished: he has all the great ideas; somebody else does the heavy lifting.

Obama has been repeatedly embarrassed over the period of the summer -- cap and trade held hostage, town hall meetings in which his party was slowly roasted over the coals, the defenestration of Van Jones, and being called a liar in front of the Congress, on national television to boot. Yet to my knowledge, not a single one of Obama's enemies -- not even Joe Wilson -- has yet been tossed behind barbed wire. The thug dictators would not have been so laggard. Mussolini would have had them beaten within an inch of their lives, Hitler would have dumped them in a camp, and Stalin would have sent them to the Arctic, along with everybody they ever met just to make sure. Obama lacks this level -- and perhaps any level -- of brutality, cruelty, and viciousness, or even the ruthlessness of the more benign run of authoritarian leader such as Kemal or Mannerheim. If he answered my want ad for "Murderous Tyrant", I'd take one look and tell him, "We'll be in touch."

(Breaking news concerns the million-plus 9/12 marchers searching Washington for politicians to tar and feather. And the Grand Seigneur was where last Saturday? In Minnesota, on a speaking trip that I'm sure had been planned for quite some time. In contrast, when a large-scale anti-Vietnam march descended on Washington in 1971, Richard M. Nixon, nobody's hero figure, left the White House to go among the marchers, discussing matters with them until late at night.) 

It's true that he does like to play the Dear Leader role. The national speech to schoolchildren was right out of the Mussolini and Peron handbook, while the "lesson plans" and quotations of the One's wisdom recommended for classroom use come direct from Stalin and Mao. But it's all theater, of a piece with his epoch-making speeches that never seem to contain a quotable line and revolutionary programs that can't quite get rolling.

In truth, with his community organizer's view of the world, the figure that Obama most resembles is Harry Hopkins, right-hand man to FDR and New Deal figurehead. Hopkins was a career social worker who after a lifetime spent in that thankless grind developed a patronizing attitude toward the poor and a burning hatred for the well-to-do. Under the New Deal, he attempted to turn this cheerful vision into reality, to transform the United States into a vast charity waiting room, with every citizen a welfare client. But he lacked both the power and ability to bring it off, even considering his admiration and familiarity with the tyrants of the era. Hopkins became very close to Stalin, for whom he simply could not do enough. (The KGB's Lubianka headquarters featured a large portrait honoring Hopkins until the end of the Cold War.)

All this is a strong indication that conservatives have not yet taken the measure of their opponent. It's telling that the most serious blow to Obama's plans, this summer's town hall uprising, was a pure grassroots effort, arising from voters disgusted with the administration's plans and less than overwhelmed by melodramatic visions of barbed wire and interrogation chambers. The ensuing march on Washington somehow came off without being met by flamethrowers, nerve gas, or helicopter gunships.

The popular impulse of the 9/12 marchers will fade if not given direction and purpose. But it's awful hard to provide those when you're hiding under the bed. We need to sit down, take a deep breath, and look closely at Obama and his collection of goofs without fears or illusions. What we will see is no political Godzilla but a hack pol elected to a position well above his abilities and trying to trigger a national social revolution using cheap Chicago ward-style political tactics. This man is vulnerable. He is not a nail-hard military tyrant or a glowing-eyed cyborg. He can be tripped up with ease. But you can't trip anybody if you're running from your own shadow. 

If I wanted to discredit the conservative movement, I'd publish a selection of the more hysteria-sodden comments concerning the Devil's own community organizer, many of them originating from influential and widely-read opinion leaders. (And perhaps some clever left-wing media figure is doing that right now.) The truth is this: the impulse that governs Obama is the same one that causes weedy, bespectacled college sophomores to play at being fierce revos. How scary is that?

What really should worry us is how Big O and his sideshow ménage will handle the disasters that will pop up tomorrow, next week, or after new years, but will inevitably pop up. Can you imagine Obama trying to handle 9/11 or Katrina? That's nightmare country. And also another story.

[neverdem]

The internment camps, we're told, are already in operation, ready for dissenters and rebels, in particular AT readers. Swine flu is a bogus crisis, worked up in order to provide an excuse to put the country under martial law. We have ACORN, which is about to be issued with brown shirts, coal-scuttle helmets, and rubber truncheons before being sent to clear the streets (that is, if they can be dragged out of the whorehouses). Organizing for America, effectively Obama's personal fan club, is to be transformed into the equivalent of Cuba's block organizations at best, and the Red Guard or Khmer Rouge at worst.

J.R. Dunn must be a lurker, at least.

[PetroniusMaximus]

Never fail to take your opponents plans more seriously than they do.

[21twelve]

He didn’t make the Cyborg thing up. There were some posters of it from the 9-12 march!

[Irish Rose]

Terrific article. Thanks for posting.

[TigersEye]

Can the author name one policy, one EO or one PDD 0bama has made that can sanely be argued to be helpful for the economy? Can he even name one that isn't arguably detrimental to the economy?

He can point to all of the speculation about where 0bama might be leading us and deride that but I bet he can't come up with one good example of something positive that has already been done by The One.

[prophetic]

I'm in a bit of self-therapy where getting worked up where this antichrist is concerned.

Now I simply pray "Lord, deal with this evil man and his evil cronies according to your righteousness and power since you know how to destroy & humble the wicked!"

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[webheart]

We fear Obama because there is so little known about him. We fear the unknown, which is what people have done since the dawn, and what all other creaures with any sentience do also. Obama is a big unknown. The biggest unknown is who he works for. He may be incompetent himself, but his czars and his “advisers” are probably as crafty as all heck. All he has to do is read the teleprompter, and sign stuff.

And anyway, swine flu is a bogus crisis, maybe not for the purposes of martial law, but to show how well the government can take care of your health. And ACORN will more likely be wearing purple shirts, like the ones SEIU wears to the town hall meetings. And nobody said anything about internment camps being already operational, but if you have ever been camping, you know how long it will take to get them up and running. The hardest part will be the barbed wire.

Am I paranoid? Hell yes, I’m paranoid. Only God and good luck can save us, because we aren’t ready for a fight like the one we could be facing.

[BIGLOOK]

I’m glad you brought this up. It’s timely with what I’ll tell you.

[campaignPete R-CT]

Obama is melting.

[dasboot]

Wait a darn minute. Think for yourself for a few moments.

Not all of history's bloody tyrants fit the mold the gentlethinker paints. The effete Emperor's of Rome. Kim Jong Il.

Pride and recklessness are often exactly what is missing from executives who've seen war. G Washington?

Maniacal tyrants develop from persons of all backgrounds...environmental, familial: what they have in-common is the RIGHTIOUSNESS of their sundry CAUSES; and the levers of POWER to COMMAND, and PURSUADE: dehumanize GROUPS of ‘ENEMIES’...foreign and domestic....and EXECUTE ‘WAR’ against them.

Regarding those commonalities above, I think one must be in a pishy-poshy, comforting DENIAL, not to have noted the nascent and developed TENDENCIES toward unreasoned RIGHTIOUSNESS, and agglomeration of streamlined POWERS over large groups...and with support from large groups who oppose those targeted groups [and, who believe they will be on the winning side , and may live FREE and FOR FREE under their TYRANNICAL BENEFACTOR], fomented by our current CIC and his sycophants.

You want to lose this free republic? Sit back and let him take it....believing that he'll not be able to do it. It's not paranoia: it's prudent vigilance.

Who thought the sky was actually falling in 1936??

Don't be foolishly optimistic. Tyrants come and go. Yes. But they can take your wealth and loved ones with them in the course of their temporary folly.

[dasboot]

Who thought the sky was actually falling in 1936?? Oh yeah...that nutjob Winston, EG.

[PhilDragoo]

[vaudine]

While the author indulges in a bit of hyperbole, the fact remains that in O's speech 5 days before election, he said, "only 5 more days until we FUNDAMENTALLY change this country." In Van jones own words"we gonna build a NEW system". In Cass Sustein's idea bank, animals have the same rights as people, and he and Ezekiel Emanuel believe in the Complete Life system of rationing healthcare. Holdren, along with his pals the Erhlichs believe in abortion, forced if necessary, and want to find a substance to put in water or food to make women sterile. Rev. Wright, Lewis Gates, believe all their troubles are caused by whites, even tho Gates has risen to Professor at Harvard and the Rev. is living in a million dollar mansion in this country that has been so bad to them.And they all admire Chaves and Castro--such role models.

Rahm Emanuel is keeping beady eyes on the main chance so as to NOT let any crisis go to waste. Carol Browner, EPA and the greens are cutting out water for irrigation so farmers can grow nothing because of a minnow. Waxman et al want Cap and Trade to rid us of even more jobs and quadruple our utility bills. Libs all want to use alternative energy before we GET that alternative, so we keep having to buy foreign oil, when we could drill and make jobs, be independent, save our economy.We could build new coal and nuclear plants--more new jobs, cheaper utilities.

Dairies are going under at a fast clip because corn to feed the cows costs about 10 times what it did before ethanol.

Obama wants us to be global, be under UN and International law, pay taxes on health ins., global warming, open our bank accounts to the irs and all these are just for starters.He is also in bed with ACORN, SEIU, and other corrupt orgns.Senators Rockefeller & Olympia Snow are introducing a bill to give Pres. O power to cut off internet at his discression .

Nah, no internment camps, yet. They would rather we just sit down and shut up when they call us racists.

vaudine

[American Constitutionalist]

J.R. Dunn = Tokyo Rose

[Halgr]

It may be too late before many conservatives wake up to the reality of the NWO and that the DARK SIDE has been prepping for this for DECADES....if not longer.

I see OBAMA and His Crew as the most dangerous element to face America since Russia’s Nukes.

Dunn is Done and needs to look for another day job.

[GVnana]

What we will see is no political Godzilla but a hack pol elected to a position well above his abilities and trying to trigger a national social revolution using cheap Chicago ward-style political tactics.

Yes. And the more we expose his cronyism, his corruption, and his lies, the more vulnerable he will become.

[adanaC]

Now I simply pray "Lord, deal with this evil man and his evil cronies according to your righteousness and power since you know how to destroy & humble the wicked!"

God give us wisdom, courage and strength and let us keep a sense of humor through it all. We will need it all.

[rawcatslyentist]

>"We have ACORN, which is about to be issued with brown shirts,"

I thought they decided on purple shirts this time.

[freeangel]

saving