Posted on 05/13/2013 8:13:56 AM PDT by Kenny Bunk
The Passive-Aggressive Presidency
Obama appears quite unique in presidential annals. A campaign promised a fundamental paradigm shift, the creation of the Magical Land of Hope and Change. After victory, a strange lassitude followed. That is, with the exception of Health Care, the President took demonstrable action on very little else of the nations business, creating the extra-constitutional Czar system and appointing a radical Team to run things without much direction or input from him. This strange passivity is delivering the fundamental change promised. His behavior patterns fell into place. I am fairly sure that a psychiatrist might call them Passive/Aggressive. It is strange that this syndrome could be adopted as a method of operation by an entire administration and go completely unremarked upon by the media.
Passive/Aggression: What is it? Briefly, it is characterized by highly provocative behavior. That is, behavior that rather than taking any direct action, is designed only to provoke a response; a response that can be used to aggrandize oneself. So, on an individual level it can be said that the behavior is extremely egocentric, with no regard to consequences. The primary purpose of the self-aggrandizement is foremost to achieve avoidance of any blame, or rather responsibility. Any negative consequence is caused by someone else. Merely by attaching blame to someone else, the passive-aggressive personality is then self-enabled to claim credit for solving the problem. But this isnt just an individual, it is an entire administration.
Practical Application: Obama is to do nothing, therefore he CANNOT BE BLAMED for anything. The strategy crafted for Obama is to lie in wait for events to occur, then activate a protective mechanism to spin that event regardless of its nature, taking credit and casting blame as the case may develop. Even if the fallout of a particular event might be potentially harmful to the country, he can take credit for ending the situation. Of course blame must be meted out among those whom he claims caused it in the first place.
The implementation of this unique strategy of actually doing absolutely nothing makes blaming Obama fools work, as does complaining about him, or personal attacks upon him.
In fact, it is my contention that these tactics may very well only strengthen a manipulative Passive/Aggressive character and make the accusers look weak and inconsequential. Call it psychological Judo. Let me repeat that: IMHO, directly attacking Obama is a bad idea. It makes his base idolize him all the more and makes it easier for Team Obama to turn the blame for any problems that affect the country as whole a lot easier.
Passivity followed by Aggression to claim credit and to place blame. In the thoroughly modern, deconstructive paradigm any critique of anything is negative. The object of the criticism automatically becomes an the injured victim. Those persons issuing the mildest of objections or even differences of opinion are automatically (a) wrong, and (b) guilty. Of course, in these uber politically correct times, if the person issuing a contrary thought happens to be of a fairer complexion than the object of the thought, all effects of the observed phenomenon are immediately trebled. Opposition of any kind thus becomes psychic support. The paradigm is shifted.
The goal of the paradigm Shift is the achievement of a socialist system in a country whose traditions are fundamentally opposed to it.
Rationale: Just as Slavery was abolished, so must be Capitalism. It might be fair to call it a Marxist perversion of the Abolitionist mindset. The figurehead consciously chosen to lead the change is of course Barack Hussein Obama, II. He was first identified by Joe Biden, who enthusiastically endorsed him to his fellow Democrats as, a clean Negro no black accent sharp looking. Biden recognized that once identified as non-white, Obama (and therefore his administration) would be automatically excused from scrutiny and criticism.
The present administration manifests these Passive/Aggressive strategies with a strange set of work habits. A good example is the typical White House workday during the 10-14 day interludes the President actually spent in Washington, DC in his first term. Obama spent most days sequestered in a den equipped with very large flat-screen TVs tuned to various ESPN basketball outlets. His daily companion was special assistant Reggie Love, a young former Duke basketball star and a White House resident. Occasionally, they would venture out as far as the White House gym to shoot some hoops. Meals were brought into to them. For days on end, the only visitor regularly allowed in the inner sanctum was Valerie Jarrett, who also acted as doorkeeper for any other administration officials or cabinet members requesting an audience.
During this unremarked-upon period in his Presidency, the POTUS and Mr. Love traveled the country together. The Presidential golf game became an obsession. He literally did nothing else for long periods of time. It was also during this time that a new tradition of Michelle and the Girls separate vacations began. Separately or together, the Presidential Family and Mr. Love traveled and vacationed extensively, spending many weeks away from Washington.
As the demands of the 2012 campaign developed, the tenure of Mr. Love as a live-in companion ended abruptly. A rather homoerotic video featuring Mr. Love somehow emerged on the Web, from which it was quickly removed. Even more quickly, Mr. Love was removed from Washington, DC, with an overnight relocation reminiscent of the Witness Protection Program. He had effectively been disappeared.
Obama did nothing. The staff handled the sudden disappearance. The President was never mentioned. Among the media, no questions were been asked about this interesting White House residential companion. The election behind, Reggie Love has resurfaced. No longer a White house resident, he joins the President on the road on both official jaunts and personal travels. He has even resurfaced in Washington when the First Lady is on separate ventures. The media ignore this of course, although the relationship appears at least as close as that between J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson, about which many millions of words have been written.
Nothing has changed in the Presidential work routine and the fact remains that the President actually spends very little time at the job, even compared with JFK and Bill Clinton. When in Washington, he will actually be in the office for perhaps one or two hours in the afternoon, and never in the evenings. Protected deep within a Passive/Aggressive fortress and tasked with nothing, this President does not govern. His assigned task is to campaign. His primary role is that of Democrat Party fundraiser, at which he has succeeded admirably. The sole concern of the President and the Administration is to carry both House and Senate in 2014.
Valerie Jarrett runs the administration, handing off chores on a day-to-day basis. Behind Jarrett are Van Jones, of the Communist Party of the USA, and the true eminence grise of the Obama administration, the billionaire ex-concentration camp kapo, George Soros
The Presidential marching order: do nothing. Maintain power. Place blame. Take credit. The Passive/Aggressive Presidential Strategy was grafted onto an individual chosen for traits other observers have characterized as extremely narcissistic. The two styles are a perfect fit. A perfect being has been cast in a role that requires him to do nothing but admire himself. An adoring press applauds.
This working model closely matches Obamas tenure as President of the Harvard Law Review. Classmates report that any work actually required by the administrative, non-editorial post had to be performed by others. Obamas role became ceremonial. He showed up for social functions, usually cocktail parties, and held forth at some staff meetings. Any positive results, occurring as they did on his watch, were to his credit. Of course if anything did not go quite so well, it could hardly be blamed on him because after all, he had done nothing. Fortunately others picked up the slack, and things went fairly well. He was lionized by some, and loathed by others, probably by those who had to pick up the slack.
In his brief legal career he personally handled the sum total of one case. Oddly enough, as this one case devolved, he was given the choice of leaving the bar voluntarily, or facing a bar hearing. As in normal in cases of voluntary surrender of the license, all details are sealed. It is possible that an attorney on the opposing side noticed that his autobiography contained information at variance with answers made on the Illinois Bar Application. When the Bar Application in question was available on line it was easy to spot certain discrepancies, namely the denial of use of an alias, omission of traffic offenses, and no mention of the drug use extensively referred to in the autobiography. To avoid a hearing, he chose the option voluntarily: to permanently leave the Illinois Bar with absolutely no chance of reinstatement and went into politics. The rest is history.
Benghazi handled with Passive/Aggressive methods: There can be little doubt that the White House was immediately aware of the attack on the Benghazi compound through live surveillance video and that the President was notified and probably even watched in the Ready Room. However, the first reaction was completely passive, in order to build a case that the POTUS knew nothing. This was inadvertently admitted by Joe Biden in his debate with Paul Ryan. Of course in Bidens case, it is entirely possible he was not told.
But as the crisis developed, the President took absolutely no action. At 5 PM, he left on a fund-raising excursion and was incommunicado for over 8 hours! His departing instructions: Do what you have to do. Even as he disappeared from the scene, a disinformation campaign took immediate shape, with the video story being floated successfully in the MSM, allowing the President to claim he could do nothing because of a lack of information. As the massive cover-up continued (continues) others in the Department of State, the military, and the intelligence services were used to take the heat in wave after wave of disinformation.
Where was the President for the 48 hours incommunicado? The truth remains that help for our people in Benghazi was readily available. Orders to go to their aid were countermanded, by whom remains unclear. Those military authorities who wished to go to the aid of those under attack have already been replaced. The truth also remains that the administration is now openly dedicated to the complete overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria, when it is abundantly clear that what will replace it is going to be a Jihadist regime.
The official line: the President is solving the problem of who attacked and killed the Ambassador and the other men. To paraphrase the script now in play: The State Department was horribly lax in security. We will fix that. Democracy will be said to be brought to Syria, just as it was to Egypt in a sequel to the Arab Spring, and that the rapprochement with radical Islam will be achieved with mutual discussion and respect.
The scenario is not quite complete. But they will try to re-direct blame. Responsibility will be shifted. Success will be claimed. The original design was "by doing nothing but placing blame and taking credit, the administrations personality will be aggrandized. This is Passive/Aggression. That this has started to unravel is quite remarkable.
The Failure of The Other Party to recognize the syndrome is easy to explain. A passive/aggressive Presidency is so alien to the traditions of the country that perhaps the Republicans could be forgiven for failing to recognize its deconstructive potential (except that the phenomenon is by now over 5 years old).
However, as a practical matter, the upper reaches of the GOP, mystified to their core by theories of Deconstruction, even more by its skillful implementation, and having been severely beaten in various elections by its adept practitioners, have decided to ignore it. The GOP will tend to do a very American thing: i.e., treat it as a business challenge, make friends with it, stake out a franchise from it, and get rich with it. Continuing an arrangement begun in the 1950s if not earlier, the Republican Establishment has settled for minority party status in lucrative safe seats from which they can continue to directly benefit key contributors, while avoiding any time-consuming governmental responsibility. The GOP long ago decided to go along to get along. It is not a power-sharing arrangement. It is more of a pact among thieves. The bureaucracy, essentially in Democrat hands since the 1930s, runs the government, while the elected GOP joins their colleagues across the aisle to support major contributors. This is demonstrated by the absolute Republican befuddlement and impotence during those strange interludes when the electorate decides to place them in the majority in Congress.
It is becoming increasingly clear that if there is ever to be any opposition to the present course of the growth of socialism in this country, it will not come from the Republican Party as we now know it. It is loathe to change because the deal they have struck is simply too good for those who direct the party to end it. Unfortunately, it is also quite possibly the sign of the partys approaching death.
It is an historic failure because The leaders of the GOP cannot see, or refuse to accept that those who would step forward to save the Republic will also step up to join with the Founders of that Republic. Instead, they came up with a Mitt Romney, a bland sort of personage, who campaigned largely on the idea that he was not Obama, a subject exhausted in the first 30 seconds of the campaign. A timid Romney failed to reveal any Program, or Plan to implement it. His was essentially a respectable, painfully non-offensive campaign delivered in the very nice way that has come to be expected of the Republican Party. E.G., he let Obama completely off the hook of Benghazi in debate.
But neither of course did any Conservative spokesman ask him to delineate his Program or his Plan. Instead, the Republicans accepted the ludicrous Class Warfare terms of the debate as put forward by the Democrats. This apparently had the effect of depressing the Republican base, while at the same time energizing the low-end Democrat.
Obama became increasingly the beneficiary of psychic and emotional investment on the part of his base. The theory of a Passive/Aggressive Presidential Strategy was proven, at least well enough to win. Even if their primary motivation was a sort of artificially generated class envy, these low-info voters were apparently at least smart enough to turn out or if they werent that intelligent, be turned out in any of the myriad ways the Democrats, without Republican objection, have developed.
The sad fact seems to be that many traditional Republicans demonstrated that they would probably prefer to be in that notorious dog crate on the roof the station wagon, rather than be trapped in the car listening to this bland and boring Milquetoast, or show up to vote for him. Who then is the Leader to be? What will be the name of his party? Perhaps there is no reason to euthanize the GOP. It might be easier to shift it away from its current leadership and rebuild it.
What to do about a Passive/Aggressive Administration:
Place Obama into a rhetorical limbo. Dont play his game. Leave him out of the discussion. Instead: Design and SELL a PROGRAM. Lay out what needs to be done in this case to save the (a) Economy and (b) the Republic itself. Turn to PLAN: That is, what precisely are the steps to be taken to IMPLEMENT THE PROGRAM.
Sample Policies: Domestic Energy policies for an expanding economy. End ethanol subsidies and requirements. End boutique fuel requirements tailored to specific locales by means of pseudo-science. Roll back the EPA, defund its harmful programs, or eliminate it entirely. Encourage something boldly and immediately useful, such as the use of clean, modern diesel engines in passenger cars. Stop the subsidy of Wind and Solar Power, instead realistically develop the Nuclear, Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Coal options on hand actually planning the next 150 years of energy use, research and development adding sensible alternative options.
Return to 0 base budgeting. Why is there still a built-in increase under the budget rules adopted in the 1970s by a Democrat-controlled Congress?
Where (or what) are the Grass Roots? The by-and-large poor results conservative or constitutional candidates were suffered at the hands of highly organized and magnificently funded Republican Moderates i.e., RINOS in state primary elections, and are not encouraging.
Where then is the drive toward fiscal sanity and smaller governments to begin? Can we expect the movement to begin like Abolition, in drawing rooms and churches? Yes. But todays drawing room and church is the Internet.
The biggest vote-getter in Italy s election bought NO advertising; was not speechifying on TV; had no inane feel-good commercials. No billboards. He took a dominant position in parliament (over 20%) on the strength of a mighty presence on the Internet. What happened is history. It is also hope for those who can see the breakdown of the Two-Party system, which has actually become a variation of the one-party system, just like the one-party system that controlled (and economically ruined) Mexico over the past century.
Unfortunately, what we have to overcome is the fact that the breathtaking ineptitude and arrogance of the present administration is already coupled to a strong social media campaign aimed at their base, buttressed by a supportive main-stream media. The way out of this is NOT listening to right-wing media. By personalizing the attack on Obama, they fall into a well-laid ambush. By not offering or supporting a clear policy-based alternative, right wing talk radio makes things worse. That is, the effect they have is hardening Obamas support and helping him build his base. The negativity has in my opinion, depressed turnout, too.
Again, Team Obamas goal: a sweep of the House and Senate in 2014 that will rubber-stamp the social revolution begun by the radical Left and their passive-aggressive, do-nothing front-man. Their hope is to create an opposition-free rule by introducing and passing social legislation that will mask the tyranny inherent in Executive Orders by allowing the President to rubber-stamp the rubber stamp Congress. That is what we fight.
But first, understand the Passive/Aggressive Presidency.
Ping
Ping
But before I do, here is a quote from my profile page, and then a poem by Rudyard Kipling.
In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations."
Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956
Mesopotamia ~ by Rudyard Kipling
They shall not return to us, the resolute, the young,
The eager and whole-hearted whom we gave:
But the men who left them thriftily to die in their own dung,
Shall they come with years and honour to the grave?
They shall not return to us; the strong men coldly slain
In sight of help denied from day to day:
But the men who edged their agonies and chid them in their pain,
Are they too strong and wise to put away?
Our dead shall not return to us while Day and Night divide—
Never while the bars of sunset hold.
But the idle-minded overlings who quibbled while they died,
Shall they thrust for high employments as of old?
Shall we only threaten and be angry for an hour:
When the storm is ended shall we find
How softly but how swiftly they have sidled back to power
By the favour and contrivance of their kind?
Even while they soothe us, while they promise large amends,
Even while they make a show of fear,
Do they call upon their debtors, and take counsel with their friends,
To conform and re-establish each career?
Their lives cannot repay us—their death could not undo—
The shame that they have laid upon our race.
But the slothfulness that wasted and the arrogance that slew,
Shell we leave it unabated in its place?
Many of us are trying to stem the tide of "Progressivism" without a feeling for its underlying "Deconstructionist" principle.
Call it 'Philosophical Judo,' but what the enemy is doing is using our ideological strengths against us.
"Always change a losing game." Don Budge
You think the current scandals are going to end up as a positive for democrats? I think the opposite. And Obama is going to end up making Nixon look like an amateur.
If you follow the deconstructionist paradigm, they may not end up as anything.
As far as the election of '14 goes, those in the cult show every sign of treating the guilty as the victims. (IOW, Barry really is St. Trayvon's dear olde dad?) But I guess it depends upon how many are in the cult, voter fraud, the other team's game plan ... or lack of one...etc.
BTW, who exactly is the 'other team?'
Those of us imbued with the cultural norms of "The Christian West," can tend to be rather perplexed by the operative paradigms of "The New Normal."
Just let's make sure we aren't playing into their hands. So let's get over it and get ready to rumble!
Many of us are trying to stem the tide of "Progressivism" without a feeling for its underlying "Deconstructionist" principle.
Take a look at this:
Those who are at work with them, namely The CCP, should keep up the good work and we should support them financially. And, your postmaster friend should be on their witness list.
However, we really have bigger fish to fry in 2014. If Team Obama carries the House and keeps the Senate it won't really matter if we have proven Barack Obama to be The Lost Dauphin dela Belle France or Judge Crater. The Republic will be well and truly lost.
Let me know what you think of this post.
“Nice writeup on the Limbaugh Theorem.”
Ha. Limbaugh may have the national microphone but he wasn’t the first to accurately describe Obama’s behavior. Your comment just demonstrates that you haven’t been reading Kenny Bunk.
“Ha. Limbaugh may have the national microphone but he wasnt the first to accurately describe Obamas behavior. Your comment just demonstrates that you havent been reading Kenny Bunk.”
Does Kenny Bunk have an audience of 6 million?
“Does Kenny Bunk have an audience of 6 million?”
Nope. But since you implied that Kenny Bunk was plagiarizing Limbaugh he deserves to be given credit instead of having his name tarred.
“But since you implied that Kenny Bunk was plagiarizing Limbaugh he deserves to be given credit instead of having his name tarred.”
I did not mean to say that Kenny Bunk was plagiarizing anyone. I don’t have time to read all the posts on FR, so I’m sure to miss a lot. I do get to listen to Limbugh most days though.
It was brought to my attention that what I thought to be a startlingly brilliant original aperçu, had been aired at sometime in the past by one Rush Limbaugh, to whom I have not listened for some years.
"Why?" one might reasonably ask. Well, I'll tell you some of the reasons:
Limbaugh is a brilliant broadcaster. I have experience in the business and he is among the greats. No, make that The Immortals.
However, as a member of the choir, there is only so much preaching that I can handle; so many blinding glimpses of the obvious.
I know just how bad the Democrat Party is. Knew that in the '50s.
I know that Obama is a Marxist ... even if not a very bright one.
I know the massive harm he has already wreaked upon the nation and fear what is to come.
But what I now expect from "Right Wing Radio" is not a further discussion of personalities and symptoms, but some hint of solution. I also blame "right wing radio" for disseminating a miasma of despair among certain blocs who, although they listen to right wing radio all gd day, have been discouraged from even voting! Perhaps the right wing hosts, IMNVHO, are now the "nattering nabobs of negativity," whom Spiro Agnew decried.
Specifics:
During that long period when Rush claimed that "illegal immigration was merely the sign of a strong economy," and California among other states in which I operated began their tragic descent into the Third World, I became suspicious. This was only one of the areas in which Rush seemed to be an establishment wannabe ... and as it turns out, that was during his addiction to prescription drugs and resultant deafness ... both since openly and sincerely rectified, much to his credit. But for me, the damage was done.
In 2007 and 8, Rush Limbaugh NEVER managed to cover the constitutional objections to Obama's first candidacy ... not that I sought his advocacy. He is not alone in this, of course, but I found it bizarre that not one talk show host, especially he, would not even mention it as an item of interest. Ditto the work of the Cold Case Posse.
I can accept Rush as a necessarily cautious, and fabulously successful businessman. But slap my butt and call me Snobby, former rock'n'roll disc jockeys ain't never gonna be my first choice for go-to political philosophers.
Now I am given to understand that Rush Limbaugh is brilliantly re-branded as a staunch anti-establishment conservative sympathizer.
Cool. But we don't need sympathy, boys. We need a Program, a Plan, and a Leader.
BTW, speaking of the Constitution, Mark Levin has somewhat atoned for his past sins (which are similar to those enumerated above) by actually recommending a positive step: A Constitutional Convention of the States. Program? Plan? Leader?
Let's all take a grain of salt here and realize that these entertainers have done some good. But, let's own up to the fact that as capitalists ourselves we can realize that they are in the business of selling radio time, not saving our Republic. That's our job. Entertainment may well be a distraction.
Well said! I agree with your comments except for the following:
“I also blame “right wing radio” for disseminating a miasma of despair among certain blocs who, although they listen to right wing radio all gd day, have been discouraged from even voting.”
If I followed your logic, then I shouldn’t even be reading Free Republic. We had two pitiful candiadates in 2008 and 2012, yet the choir here at FR said they were staying home. I agree neither were worth voting for, but look what we got by default.
Whenever mentioning this, I should say,
BTW, the number of FReepers who stayed on the couch on election day is a disgrace. The KB VFW Bar Poll noted that the loudest "conservative" mouths in the group were often the MOST likely to have forgotten to vote.
“During that long period when Rush claimed that “illegal immigration was merely the sign of a strong economy,” and California among other states in which I operated began their tragic descent into the Third World, I became suspicious. “
I was more furious than suspicious, living at Ground Zero of the Third World tidal wave. Limbaugh has always been quite open about success, financial success, being his first interest. It never surprised me to find him brown nosing the Chamber of Commerce and other treasonous elites, the GOP establishment especially.
Limbaugh has never once spoken of doing grunt work on a political campaign in the days before he became rich, and I’m sure that that’s because he never did. Politics wasn’t his passion. He was interested, but not enough to even bother to vote until well into his 30s.
So while he’s a great broadcaster he’s not a political thinker. He may accidentally help some of us on occasion by using his bully pulpit. I’d rather have him speaking out against Amnesty 20 years late than helping the other side, which he used to do and the foolish Hannity still does.
So if any significant change is going to come it won’t be from ‘our’ media celebrities, who will be too busy trying to make money- funny how the Right managed to get Reagan elected with the only media celebrity being Reagan himself.
O, you mean the guy who loves Dick Morris and Karl Rove? The guy whose brain is obviously just a life support system for his hair?
“The guy whose brain is obviously just a life support system for his hair?”
The very same.
He likes to make noises about being a registered Conservative up in New York, but the boy couldn’t be a bigger toadie for the GOP.
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