Posted on 09/10/2012 1:51:12 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Last Thursday night in Charlotte, the death of the American dream was on full display. While adoring throngs cheered President Barack Obama’s hackneyed bloviating, Barack Obama gained points in the polls. Whether those points last or not – whether Obama wins or not – the fact is this: America is now a nation balanced on the razor’s edge between the self-reliant and the self-declared victims.
The 2012 presidential campaign was supposed to be a referendum on two major questions about Obama. First, has he done a good job? Second, what will he do if given four more years? And Thursday night provided Obama with his first opportunity to answer both those questions.
Instead, he answered neither. Obama knows something the rest of us don’t: this election isn’t about what Obama has done or what he will do. This election is about whether the American people consider themselves victims requiring a savior, or entrepreneurial individuals who value freedom over the comfort of faceless community. This election is about the crowd inside the Time Warner Arena, not about the politician on the stage before them.
And that crowd considers itself a group of victims. Walking around the Arena, two connected phenomena rose above all the chatter: worship for President Obama, and the perception that both Obama and his fans had been somehow slighted. Any opposition to Obama was considered treasonous bullying. That perspective infected the campaign itself; Obama for America wouldn’t even allow major Democrats to speak to the conservative media arrayed at the Arena. Conservatives were victimizers; liberals were the victimized. The philosophy of unearned victimology dominated the lectern.
Obama played on this perspective throughout his address. According to Obama, America is no longer a place where “everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules.” Some people cheat. And those people are winning. Said Obama, “I ran for President because I saw that basic bargain slipping away … when the house of cards collapsed in the Great Recession, millions of innocent Americans lost their jobs, their homes, their life savings.” Those “innocent Americans” were apparently helpless to get back on their feet; someone had rigged the system. Republicans, said Obama, wanted to “stick it to the middle class.” Insurance companies, said Obama, wanted to put Americans at their “mercy.” Companies wanted to “release toxic pollution into the air your children breathe.”
In this world of victimhood – in this world where individual Americans simply can’t get ahead thanks to the obstacles imposed on them by others (the wealthy, the businessmen, Wall Street, Republicans) – what is required is an army. Led by Barack Obama.
Obama’s military language pervaded his speech. This was a war speech, given by a would-be war leader. It was a speech that celebrated “The values my grandfather defended as a soldier in Patton’s Army; the values that drove my grandmother to work on a bomber assembly line while he was gone.” Obama utilized territorial analogies: “We’re not going back. We are moving forward, America.” Obama likened himself to America’s last great non-Cold War military leader, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, calling for “common effort, shared responsibility, and the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that Franklin Roosevelt pursued.”
The speech wasn’t merely martial. It suggested that Americans can only accomplish things by ceding power to the government. Or, as the slogan went during a DNC video, “Government is the only thing that we all belong to.” As individuals, we are nothing; as a collective, we are infinitely powerful.
That collectivism formed the central component of Obama’s speech. Obama never used the language of compulsion – he suggested that government was a way we “ask” each other to do things. That, of course, is a lie – government compels people to do things. But according to Obama, that’s just fine. In fact, that’s the only way to get things done and to stop the victimizers from victimizing the victims. Citizenship is, according to Obama, giving up your autonomy and your rights to a government that can protect individuals from each other. “This country,” said Obama, “only works when we accept certain obligations to one another, and to future generations.” Those obligations include forcing CEOs to pay higher salaries; forcing banks to bail out bad borrowers; forcing taxpayers to subsidize the women’s studies courses of every little girl.
More than anything, government, said Obama, is not the problem. We are the problem, if left to our own devices. “We don’t think that the government is the source of all our problems, any more than are welfare recipients, or corporations, or unions, or immigrants, or gays, or any other group we’re told to blame for our troubles … America, we understand that this democracy is ours. … America is not about what can be done for us. It’s about what can be done by us, together.” Individuals are the problem. Government can be the solution.
And the would-be victims in the hall cheered for a leader they would hand as much authority as possible. They saw in him the hope to escape their lonely destinies in favor a greater communal one. As Obama said, “the election four years ago wasn’t about me. It was about you.” Obama is the vessel.
But he isn’t an empty vessel, as the American people will find out during his second term. Government, in the end, is still comprised of men. Men who exercise their power. Men who have agendas. Men who are individuals – the same sort of individuals Obama tells us not to trust, except given unspeakable power.
The Communist Party of America CPUSA Political Action Commission: "Why Vote?" - "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and many others, died for a most precious human right, the right to vote. Now, the same racists who denied Black voters ballot rights in the 1960s are trying to keep voters from the polls in 2012.
In the old days, they called it a "poll tax." They rode at night and wore white sheets. Today, they wear expensive suits. But they still steal elections by cutting off early voting, by imposing photo ID requirements that poor voters can't afford. It's called "voter suppression."
It will take a fight to defeat these dirty tricks. Voter suppression tactics violate the letter and spirit of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Everything from sit-ins to mass rallies on state capitol steps are called for."............
......"A better and peaceful world is possible -- a world where people and nature come before profits. That's socialism. That's our vision. We are the Communist Party USA.".....
Hahaha, another one...
......”A better and peaceful world is possible — a world where people and nature come before profits. That’s socialism. That’s our vision. We are the Communist Party USA.”.....
......”A better and peaceful world is possible — a world where our prophet comes before people and nature .
That’s Islam. That’s our vision. We are the Muslims USA.”.....
Very incisive and well written article. I never heard of this writer before. Thanks for posting.
Yes, but it was actually worse. I watched most of the rat convention coverage. What I saw was the final corruption of our republic. By corruption, I don't mean the shopping bag full of money sort of corruption, but rather the way good food will go bad if not protected from bacteria.
I bet not one delegate could tell you what our Declaration of Independence says is the purpose of government. The purpose of government is to secure our unalienable rights. It does not exist to plunder some and pass the plunder on to others.
I bet not one delegate had a problem with Obama’s nationalization of the auto industry, finance, banking, student loans, and soon, healthcare. Nationalization is the act of a dictator, not a President.
I bet not one delegate had a problem with the fact that their party is little more than a collection of grievance groups. Blacks are told the party will protect them from whites. The party will protect women from men and likewise just give the party more money and it will protect gays from straights. Oh, and the latest grievance group the democratic party has cozied up to is the Muslim Brotherhood. Wonderful. Make nicey-nice with those whose idea of brotherhood is to slowly slice off the heads of infidels.
I bet not one delegate had a problem with Obama’s attack on the very foundation of our republic, which is lawmaking by us, the people, through our representatives. When one man issues laws, we’re no longer a free people but serfs to him. Far too many think Obama should snap his fingers, make law, and we should all be happy for it and that the purpose of Congress is to do what they’re told by chairman Obama.
The democratic party has promised too much to too many for too long these past 80 years to possibly fulfill the promises. We’re broke, and it is all going to come crashing down.
Without at least tacit approval from most Americans, none of these assaults on our republic would have occurred. Our slide into despotism is assured until Presidents, Congressmen, Senators, Judges and bureaucrats are put in fear of losing their comfortable and profitable offices.
One of my favorite Type O Negative t-shirts says
“You are not a victim. You are a volunteer.”
“....I watched most of the rat convention coverage. What I saw was the final corruption of our republic. By corruption, I don’t mean the shopping bag full of money sort of corruption, but rather the way good food will go bad if not protected from bacteria....”
Obama is the garbage collector - the green, recycling of America organizer in chief.
If you haven’t seen it yet, check out this video. It’s pertinent to your conversation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xwejQBIyjow
They're lemmings to the cliff.
Inside of every liberal is a tyrant trying to claw its way out.
“Love” your LINK! Thank you.
There are “good” choices and there are BAD choices (and they decide for us).
That was Pete Steele’s point.
They willingly volunteer to be “victims”.
I hate lemmings.
And Democrats have been nurturing these “lemmings” to be victims in their inner city labs for generations.
Obama wants people to feel victimized and helpless so they will be dependent on government, so he can control them. This high, prolonged unemployment is no accident.
Where’s a cliff when you need one?
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