Posted on 10/25/2008 8:00:09 PM PDT by 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.I dare say, this is ominous stuff.
● 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.
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.
Doug is a fellow parishoner at Our Lady of Malibu. A very thoughtful, intelligent, accomplished man. His support of Obama is absolutely baffling to me.
He went from supporting Romney to Obama in very short order. This contributes to my cynicism.
Wondering if anybody has jotted down the names of the various Bus Transportation Companies participating in the Obama campaign.
Curious if we could find out through them the travels of groups of same people attending Obama rallies about the Nation, or about certain areas of the Nation.
It’s quite curious to my wife and myself that many thousands of people are attending these Obama functions when we don’t even see ANY Obama bumper stickers, or any other support for Obama anywhere from our area to over the hill in Corona, to Arlington District of Riverside, to Woodcrest. Everybody displaying political signage has McCain/Palin, and Vote Yes on Prop. 8.
C’mon...This is California we’re living in. Where’s all this Obama stuff?
Here in the Bay Area.
Thank God for Mark. He accurately describes the phenomenon of Obama and the way it seems to have affected some otherwise smart people.
So often we have examples of various people “drinking the koolaide” but in this case- whatever has happened to people in our country is alarming and inexplicable.
The free concert just before he speaks might have something to do with it.
Throw in some 'Million Man Math' and you, too, can have a huge crowd.
A turncoat can’t be trusted—by either side.
I know this sounds bizarre, but I suspect that the political left is so far gone in their contrarian pseudo-religion of socialism, that if Obama *announced* to them that he was “the Antichrist”, they would not be appalled, in fact, they would be thrilled, and embrace him even more.
Even his followers who are nominally Christian would not miss a beat in worshiping Obama instead of Jesus. They might even replace the cross with a statue of Obama, substituting selections from his speeches for prayer.
“Barack Obama’s nomination is so extraordinary
that another chapter could be added to the Bible
to chronicle its significance.”
— Jesse Jackson, Jr.
(Importantly, this is *not* to say that I think Obama actually is the Antichrist, just that in a fit of ego, he might actually declare himself to be the Antichrist, because that is what the left wants him to be.)
This Antichrist offers the left most everything they want, politically and spiritually. What Would The Antichrist Do?
1) The Antichrist will horribly punish Christians. He will express all the hatred the left feels for Christians, and hurt them anyway he can. Is there any doubt about their burning hatred for Christians right now?
2) The Antichrist offers himself as a substitute for God, to be worshiped through a cult of personality. He declares himself God, and his followers call him “God on Earth.” His followers love this idea, because it means that he has superhuman powers. He is Superman, who is God on Earth.
3) The Antichrist is actually against war, because he wants to rule over all the Earth. So he fully supports internationalism and a world government. War is contention among his servants, which distracts them from adoring him. Any war he permits would be solely for his entertainment, especially if it is cruel and vicious, and directed against the innocent and helpless.
4) The Antichrist appeals to the left because he has unchecked power. Anything and everything on the left’s agenda is passed without debate. There is no “gridlock”, just a legislative fantasy land where the left gets everything it wants, and those opposed to the Antichrist get nothing.
5) The Antichrist fully supports abortion, euthanasia, and government control over everything. Unless you obey the Antichrist, you are denied everything the government offers, such as property, water, food, and medical care. All must enlist in his civilian army. Or, as Michelle Obama said:
“Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going
to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put
down your divisions. That you come out of your
isolation, that you move out of your comfort zone.
Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives
as usual - uninvolved, uninformed.”
— Michelle Obama, reported by The Boston Globe
And again, though I truly doubt that Obama is “The” Antichrist, if he is to take the mantle of that evil being, in many ways he could do what it is promised that the real Antichrist would do.
That a man would declare himself God and get a multitude of followers is also not impossible. “Father Divine” did so in the 1920s, and was at one point estimated to have as many as 2 million followers. And this was in a time where the Christian faith was very strong in the US.
Today, you have to wonder, would such a man have a chance to be elected President of the United States?
Yup. Liberal haven up there.
Indeed this is not the election for protest votes for third party candidates and childish “I didn’t get my way in the primaries so I am going to get back at the party by rooting for Obama to win” propositions.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance, and I dare say that this is by and far the most important vote in our nation since the vote on July 4, 1776 by the Continental Congress.
It is ironic that a vote for John McCain would be the most important vote cast in this conservative’s lifetime, given my exasperation with McCain in the past, but I take this responsibility with the same due diligence and commitment that I did raising my hand to be sworn in as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army back in 1983.
Eagles Up!! Patriots forward!!
Revelation 13:3
3And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
To be fulfilled before I chip in.
Today, you have to wonder, would such a man have a chance to be elected President of the United States?
A chance? More like a certainty.
Haven, or coven? I know several witches personally.
I am concerned about Obama's reaction to Biden's interview with the TV reporter. He is exercising this power as a candidate. Can you imagine what He will do if elected!
I don't understand why the media cannot connect the dots. I think Greta understands this and a few others at FNC, but Hume and his all stars are mesmerized by Him, as well as MSM. I am so disappointed in Hume and am glad he is retiring. Maybe the new person will replace the panel with people who are not caught up in DC fun.
Either works. ;)
Levin has been taking it to "Osama" Obama on his nationally syndicated radio show every weekday for the past few weeks and will continue to do so until Election Day.
There is much concern that an Obama Administration would use the reintroduction of the "fairness doctrine" to effectively kick national "conservative" radio talk show hosts off the air!
Levin has been taking it to "Osama" Obama on his nationally syndicated radio show every weekday for the past few weeks and will continue to do so until Election Day.
There is much concern that an Obama Administration would use the reintroduction of the "fairness doctrine" to effectively kick national "conservative" radio talk show hosts off the air!
bttt
But that is my point, that he is not the real Antichrist. My point is that he is a parody, *an* Antichrist, and not because he is the Antichrist, but because he wants to be, a pretender to that throne.
Socialism evolved in a Judeo-Christian milieu. As such, many of its goals, and means to those goals, are parodies of the mythology of these religions.
For example, one of the goals of socialism-communism amounts to surrendering “the knowledge of good and evil” and returning to the Garden of Eden. But their parody uses different words, to give up “morality” and become amoral, and return to “the state of nature”.
But nowhere in Judeo-Christianity is it proposed that man would, or even could, do this, return to Eden. The idea is only found in socialism-communism, as a perverse interpretation of scripture.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, in the 19th Century, was a big advocate of this, and had as a central theme the parody of Biblical tales, that he felt should be perverted in the retelling to different purposes. For example, he rewrote the story of Nebuchadrezzar II, so that God was *rewarding* the king by making him like an animal, so that he could more fully enjoy nature, stripped of the corruption of civilization, a “child of nature.”
Al Gore would probably be thrilled with the idea of building a Tower of Babel, believing that it would indeed reach unto heaven, and that when he ascended it, he would be like God. Except in his version, the tower is actually built and accomplishes that purpose.
So how would a socialist-communist reinterpret Revelations? To start with, the Antichrist would be the “good guy”, and the signs of his arrival would be joyous events. He would bring about the “New Jerusalem”, though called something else, no doubt. And he would also dispel the old culture and civilization, like Jesus did to the old laws, statutes and judgments.
His new religion, of course, would have to be socialism-communism, as it would transcend all the “old” religions. And those who still followed those “old” religions would be heretics and unbelievers. And there would be open season on them, because the Antichrist followers would be permitted to do anything against them.
So coming back to my main point, I would not expect any variety of conformity with Biblical Revelations, because they would not be following that text, but their own “black bible”, with different means and goals. Again, not *the* Antichrist, but a pretender to that throne.
Not saying he is, just saying I can't rule him out just yet.
The kicker? I'm not even a Christian, and I think he's the Antichrist!
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