Posted on 01/29/2010 6:14:15 AM PST by Tolik
All politicians fudge on their promises. But this president manages to transcend the normal political exaggeration and dissimulation. Whereas past executives shaded the truth, Barack Obama trumps that: on almost every key issue, what Obama says he will do, and what he says is true, is a clear guide to what he will not do, and what is not true. It is as if “truth” is a mere problem of lesser mortals.
1. Obama now rails against a pernicious Washington and its insiders: ergo, Obama controls Washington through both houses of Congress and the White House, and wants to expand Washington’s control over the auto industry, health care, energy, student loans, transportation, etc.
2. Obama bashes the Supreme Court on weakening public efforts to curb campaign contributions. Therefore, we know Obama has done more than any other President in destroying public campaign financing by being the first presidential candidate in a general election to refuse public funds—in confidence that he could raise a record $1 billion, much of it from big moneyed interests on Wall Street.
3. Obama calls for a freeze on government spending and deplores deficits. Hence, we know that the possible $15 billion savings in some discretionary spending will not affect the Obama record budget deficits that will continue to grow well over an annual $1.5 trillion a year—as Obama piles up the greatest budgetary shortfalls in any four-year presidential term in history.
4. The President calls for Guantanamo Bay detention center to be closed within a year of his inauguration, and Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the architect of 9/11, to be tried in New York. Accordingly, we know that Guantanamo won’t be closed within a year and KSM won’t be tried in New York.
5. Obama issues four serial deadlines in autumn 2009 for Iran to comply with non-proliferation accords. Presto—we know that Iran will get the bomb unimpeded by U.S. opinion.
6. Obama promised an end to earmarks and lobbyists in government—of course, we assume, then, that lobbyists will be ubiquitous among his presidential appointments, and there will be thousands of earmarks.
7. Obama announces that He will end the war in Iraq by removing all combat brigades by August 2010. As a result, we understand that George Bush long ago signed an agreement with the Iraqis for a joint agreement on removing US combat forces by August 2010.
8. Obama laments that his fall in popularity resulted from a failure to communicate directly with the American people. We conclude as a result that Obama has given more interviews, radio and TV appearances, and stump speeches than any first-year president in history.
9. Obama reiterates that “this is not about me.” That reflects the fact that he has employed the first-person pronouns “I,” “me,” and “my” more than any prior president.
10. Obama assures on eight occasions he will televise all health-care deliberations on C-Span. This is clear proof that nothing will be televised as debate occurs behind closed doors, punctuated by votes purchased through $300 million bribes and state exemptions from federal statutes.
11. Obama promises to be a tax-cutter. So we know that vast new taxes will come through revised income tax rates, caps lifted off payroll taxes, Cadillac health care charges, and a variety of surcharges.
12. Obama warned that if another stimulus were not passed, unemployment would reach double-digits; hence, we were assured that the jobless rate would reach 10%.
13. Obama calls for bipartisanship and an end to finger-pointing. Of course, then, he will begin and end nearly every speech with attacks on George Bush and the prior administration.
I could continue ad nauseam, but you get the picture. So why does Obama serially tell untruths, mislead, and do the opposite of what he promises?
Here are four brief reasons. They are complementary, rather than mutually exclusive.
1) He does this because he can. Obama, from college at Occidental to Chicago organizing, has never been called to account. He was always assured that his charm, his ancestry, or his rhetoric alone mattered, while his record, actions, and accomplishments were mere footnotes. He channels our hopes and dreams and need not traffic in reality. We, the people, like the media, have tingly legs and believe the President is “some god”, and therefore need not question the charismatic face on the screen.
2) Obama is a reflection of an era of liberal academic postmodernism. There are no absolute facts; truth is only an illusion in the eye of the beholder. Reality instead is relative, and predicated on the basis of power. Ergo, what others say is true is simply a reflection of their race/class/gender/religion/cultural privileges. Speaking “truth” to power means simply opposing those who, you deem, have more advantages than you and yours.
3) Obama is a neo-socialist who believes the ends of social justice justify most means necessary to achieve them. As a philosopher-king who knows what is best for ignorant lesser folk, who can’t possibly appreciate all the ways in which he works and suffers on our behalf (Cf. Michelle’s “deigns to run”), Obama reluctantly must employ Platonic “noble lies” to achieve the common good: OK, we don’t understand Obamacare and therefore fear it and the way it is packaged and sold; but once it is forced down our throat, we will come to love—what is good for us.
4) Obama is a narcissist, who believes that his reality is our reality, that his rules are our rules. If the king, the autocrat, the heart-throb, the prophet, or the messiah says something is true, then facts and reality adjust accordingly. Facts and corrections are boring. And if confronted with contrary evidence, the self-infatuated simply smiles with the assurance that the problem is others’, not his.
And it is, sort of.
Just a partial list: http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/victordavishanson/index:
Just a partial list. Much more at the link: http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/victordavishanson/index
Ping !
Let me know if you want in or out. Links:
FR Index of his articles: http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/victordavishanson/index NRO archive: http://author.nationalreview.com/?q=MjI1MQ== Pajamasmedia: http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/ His website: http://victorhanson.com/
Later.
I would love to see Dr. Hanson on some panel on PMSNBC instead of Pat Buchanon. To see the libtards faces as VDH dissects their Messiah would be something to behold. While Krauthamer is brilliant in explaining the pathology of our Narcissist in Chief, VDH is able to use his vast knowledge of history to explain how false prophets like Obama always fall to earth eventually, but sometimes with grave consequences for the subjects they rule over.
Common characteristics of those with malignant narcissism include:
- Grandiose sense of self-worth
- Impulsiveness, doesn’t finish projects, or attempts to finish a project too quickly to move onto something else
- Recklessness (psychology) tendencies
- Pathological lying or exaggeration of the truth
- Shallow affect
- Creates illusions of superiority
- Strives for constant recognition or prestige
- Exaggerates and boasts about accomplishments
- Feels ashamed or attacked by negative judgments from others
- Preoccupation with fantasies of a perfect partner or future
- Lack of empathy or selective empathy
- Pulls attention from everyone else onto themselves to feel unique
- Tendency to idealize their own superiority, devalue other people’s worth or accomplishments
- Sensitivity to how others react to him/her
- Inability to tolerate boredom
- Manipulativeness
- Indifference to or rationalizes having hurt or mistreated others (underdeveloped conscience)
- Drug and alcohol abuse
- Narcissistic rage
Hanson really nails it on the last paragraph. Dead on!
Implied: his reality isn't reality. That's a pretty frightening thought.
The thought of having such a personality in the White House should give everyone cold sweats. Obama is doing to this country what that POS did to his wife's car.
“These are not the ‘droids you’re looking for.”
It’s a simple psychological trick.
- Speak with authority and tell your lie with unwavering conviction, but without being blatantly confrontational or partisan. (”This fellow is just reporting the facts.”)
- Spark the slightest bit of doubt in the listener’s mind. (”That’s odd. I could’ve sworn that just the opposite was true. Perhaps I was misinformed? Because surely the President wouldn’t say something so blatantly false and easy to verify/discredit.”)
- Get the listener to listen more closely and become dependent on you for the truth. (”I truly want to understand this. Perhaps my misconceptions are because I didn’t pay close enough attention. I don’t want to miss this opportunity, so I’ll pay close attention this time.”)
It’s nothing new. Just an Orwellian way to weasel into your head. Hanson’s method of countering it is the best, IMO: Just call Obama out for the liar he is, thereby exposing and discrediting him as a carnival fraud.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2440036/posts
This is a masterful deconstruction cum demolition of the Kenyan interloper
Being that Victor Davis Hansen is a history professor in a California University. It might be Fresno State. I am sure he has encountered many spoiled brats like Obama. Not anything new to him
Spot on and scathing is an understatement.
We know Barack Obama used cocaine to a significant degree. Crack is a form of cocaine, and I would not doubt that Obama used the former, too. I was told the purplish color of his lips are a sign of past crack use, but don’t know the facts of the matter.
bttt
I'm really surprised nobody has figured out that he does this because it's ALL he can do.
No hat, no cattle, all bulls%$t.
These are Obama’s problems but America has problems of her own with Obama. America is like some love sick college girl who continues to believe in the nonsense, continues to have faith in her cheating, feckless, disrespectful lover. Her starry eye swoon in the romantic capitals of Europe was the first tell tale sign that tragedy awaits. America bought the blush and bloom of bullshit and live with it it must for four years. Despite the pain of being lied to, living in financially strapped times, etc., somewhere in its heart America still yearns to be swept off its feet again, commit the same grave mistakes, reenact the same foolishness. This is the tyranny of love for a brutal lover and, sometimes — if there is any truth to romantic novels (think: Far From The Maddening Crowd)— nothing short of death may cure that insanity. America may take the image of her lover and god to the grave. It’s a feisty romantic comedy served up for the secularism of our time. Tragedy at some point, throws away its heavy coat and mantle, and becomes comedy. Tears, again, flow...
Yes: like shooting fish in a barrel.
The problem is that so many people decided to willfully deceive themselves, went with the preconceived ideas and tuned out any critical thinking.
Politics as a cult of celebrity. Our side is not immune neither, btw: we are looking for a Leader that will take us to the promised land too. It’s like electing a king or a queen or a messiah. How about electing the right people to the congress so the supreme leader becomes irrelevant? Or at least much less important.
Perfect description of the Obama followers. It's a cult.
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