Posted on 11/12/2012 7:28:26 AM PST by Kaslin
Barack Obama ushered in America’s first large-scale experiment in personality-cult politics. The experiment continues apace. Obama got reelected because he enjoys a degree of personal popularity disconnected from his record. No modern president has ever been returned to office with employment figures and right-rack-wrong-track numbers as poor as those Obama has achieved.
Obama couldn’t run on his record, which proved to be no problem—Americans didn’t vote on his record. According to exit polls, 77 percent of voters said the economy is bad and only 25 percent said they’re better off than they were four years ago. But since six in ten voters claimed the economy as their number one issue, it’s clear this election wasn’t about issues at all.
The president’s reelection is not evidence of a new liberal America, but rather of the illogical and confused experience that is infatuation. For multiple reasons, Americans continue to have a crush on Barack Obama even after his universally panned first term. No longer quite head over heels, they’re at the “I know he’s no good for me, but I can change him” phase. Whatever this means, it surely doesn’t suggest conservatives would be wise to move closer to policies that aren’t even popular among Obama supporters.
Why isn’t soul searching underway on the left? When the personality at the center of the cult leaves the stage in four years, Democrats will own his results without the benefit of his appeal. We can’t know quite what a second Obama term will bring, but if his first term is an indication, there’s little reason to expect his party will be crowing. The fiscal cliff is here but a whole landscape of steep drops comes next: the economic cliff (over which lies a possible double-dip recession), the Obamacare cliff (over which lies an unprecedented bureaucratic behemoth), the Iran cliff (over which lies a nuclear bomb), and so on. A precipice in every direction and a president who’s given us no reason to presume he can steer clear. Have Democrats stopped to wonder what initiatives they’ll have to defend when the dust settles in 2016?
Already Obama has signaled he’s continuing policies that don’t meet the moment. There’s the assurance of more taxes, of course. But that’s not all. On Friday, citing ecological concerns, the administration closed off 1.6 million acres of federal land in western states from planned oil shale extraction. An American energy boom lies in wait underground and Obama is determined to keep it there. Abroad, the groundwork is being laid to offer Iran a fanciful “grand bargain” in an effort to halt its work on a nuclear weapon. Think “Russian reset” with fanatical theocrats.
Perhaps Democrats are confident purely because of their stance on social issues. But as a tactical matter (principle and ideology are a different question), is doesn’t make sense for Republicans to fret over the culture and identity wars that have transfixed the left. Gay marriage as a presidential issue is off the table. The November election showed the future of that question lives at the state level, which is both a popular and conservative approach. Obama himself has said he’ll do nothing about it nationally. Multiple polls taken this year show opposition to abortion is at least as high as it’s been in 15 years. By 2016, the new class war will surely have wound down after Americans see that making the “rich pay their fare share” didn’t solve everyone else’s problems and in fact created new ones.
On immigration reform, of course conservatives should act. That was true before Obama’s reelection; it’s now inevitable. In the next four years, serious Republicans will offer policies aiming to give foreign workers a path to citizenship. Leaders like Marco Rubio have already gotten a brilliant head start.
It is in the nature of personality cults to fail at most things beyond generating and disseminating propaganda. This inability is the result of two things. First, the personality’s popularity is not results-driven. Since adoration hasn’t been earned by achievement but by the advent of charisma, why kill yourself trying to get results. Second, few people are willing to candidly critique the personality at the center of the cult, so there is little chance of course correction. None of this bodes well for Barack Obama. And for the country’s sake, let’s hope it’s wrong.
To effect a revolution in American politics, you have to set parameters that successors will be compelled to heed. FDR implemented programs that at least produced identifiable results before revealing their unsustainable flaws. Bill Clinton had no problem declaring the age of big government over because Ronald Reagan had ushered in a prosperous era in which this was so. What part of the Obama agenda will resonate when isolated from the Obama phenomenon? It’s too soon to say, but not too soon wonder.
The Obamazombies who voted for him are already leaking Kool-Aid from every orifice.
2012 just proved results don't matter. What matters is giving the underclass freebies, citizenship, obamaphonium etc. That is all that matters.
Sports broadcasts are part of the media/pop culture attempt to dumb down society. I watched horse racing on NBC a few nights ago, the Breeders Cup. To put it in perspective, to serious players, the Breeders Cup is much larger than the Kentucky Derby. It is truly the World Series of the sport. NBC had a one-hour broadcast to focus on the primary event after the NBC Sport Network (formerly Versus) showed two days of races spanning many hours. During the few minutes NBC dedicated to this big race, what do we get? A ditzy broad who is an entertainment reporter and who said “I am picking Alpha because he looked at me earlier.” (Alpha finished in last place.) An unqualified dunce when there are so many people with credentials to give proper analysis?
Ya first gotta have a soul to be able to search for it.
They have no souls as defined by Western Judeo-Christian morality. They are interested in establishing a dictatorship of the socialistic/communistic elite over this nation and driving out/oppressing their enemies; i.e. folks who actually work and pay the bills, people who believe in the constitution, individual freedom, individual RESPONSIBILITY, and economic freedom.
They are interested only in taking from the productive to give to the non-productive to keep themselves in power.
This was the second election won by low information voters.
This is the new normal.....
God save the republic, for surely the majority electorate is not up to the task
What is clear is that the Marxist machinery was far better than the RINO machinery. See"The Manchurian President" by Aaron Klein for details. The Pubbies never stood a chance.
Of all the things "conservatives" pick up on as evidence of dependency and cheating the system, this is the stupidest. Guess what E? This ain't part of obamacare and it is NOT a handout. I have my 23 yo daughter on my company healthcare and I pay almost DOUBLE versus just me and my wife. I repeat, it is NOT FREE. Oh, and she can't find a job paying more than $10 an hour and she is fighting hard against cancer.
At least find a decent issue to raise concerns about regarding barry obama---there's a million of them out there. This is the kind of thing people rightly point out about conservatives and how "mean" they are. And please, no lectures about Constitutionality, that ship has sailed.
Would you agree that the level of this lesson was more appropriate to a 6th or 7th grade class?
This is but a microscopic example of why we are a nation of people not exhibiting age-appropriate behavior or levels of thinking.
Why isn’t the right media making more of this!?!?!?!?
WHAT right wing media is that?
Exhibit “A”: That company is, and has been, the focus of abject worship by liberals. Look, I own an iPhone, but have you ever witnessed such devotion beyond reason to a company? Look anywhere online and see the outpouring if someone dare speak ill of anything Apple.
I saw the same thing, but to on a smaller scale, with companies such as Tesla Motors.
It is the same with Obama. They literally worship Obama and this idolatrous worship blinds them to reality. So yes, it cult-like, but because Liberals have rejected the true God, they worship other things and people in His place.
Limbaugh was full of baloney on McNabb. At that point he wasn't Joe Montanna by any stretch but he was certainly not a scrub like Rush implied. I'd say at that time McNabb was at least in the top 10 QBs and probably top 5. Now if Rush had said "Michael Vick" instead I'd have been there with him.
I wish because they could all drink the kool-aid for real...problem solved.
As far as most of them are concerned, they don't have one.
The American people are the ones who need some soul searching. How in the world could we allow this president with one of the worst records of any chief executive in our history be given a second term? Americans today are all about flash and style over substance. Watching the election night coverage I saw numerous shots of young Obama supporters celebrating as if it were New Year’s Eve and I thought they’re the ones who are going to suffer because they have to pay the bills for this economic catastrophe and their futures had just been thrown into the trash. I thought if they only knew what was in store for them they wouldn’t be in such a joyous mood. We’re all currently living during America’s demise and we have no one to blame but ourselves.
This was my thought early this morning as I thought about the slurry of resignations that will occur in the Obama Administration. Democrats and Undecideds better be prepared to finally speak out. Not like it will mean all that much.
King obama says no shale oil will be extracted. What would happen if the energy companies said “to hell with it” and started extracting anyway? What if they started drilling where the king says they can’t drill? Exactly what could the king do about it?
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