On Obama's election

Anyone who knows me probably knows that I can’t exactly be described as thrilled at the outcome of this election. Most of my political and economic beliefs are the exact opposite of the policies Barack Obama supports. There was literally no campaign stance that I thought him serious about that I did not disagree with him on. Granted, there are few Democratic policy proposals that I would agree with, but I found many of his proposals either completely unrealistic or downright harmful to America’s economic well-being and national security. An income tax cut to 95% of Americans when 40% pay no income taxes? Spin it how you want but a tax cut that is not; it is simply a vote-buying slogan that will have miniscule economic benefit if actually enacted. He supports unilaterally extending the Afghan war into neighboring Pakistan in order to fight the “real terrorists”. How can someone who thinks the war in Iraq (desert terrain, 25 million people) is a disaster even contemplate venturing into a country packed with mountainous terrain and 170 million angry, ignorant peasants?

Nevertheless I sincerely hope his presidency is a success. Despite his campaign’s failure to fulfill the “post-racial” promise, Obama’s presidency does have significant potential not only to advance race relations in the United States, but also offers black Americans a powerful symbol of the change America has already undergone. A successful Obama presidency will send an incredible message to young black Americans and indeed all Americans that no matter what your background, no matter what your skin color America is the one place in this world that you become what you make of yourself. That idea, that your destiny is what you make it, is the underlying principle of individualism that has made America great and Obama’s election is a testament to its power and potential. That, I think, is the most important lesson of this election and the one I hope most Americans take home.

I would much rather our first black president have been Michael Steele, Michael Williams, Ken Blackwell, or JC Watts (or most ideally, despite his aversion to politics, Dr. Thomas Sowell), but that is not the hand we have been dealt. This should be a clarion call that the Republican Party needs to seriously examine and overhaul its vision for America and identify a new generation of leadership. I cannot say I have too much confidence in President-elect Obama’s proposed policies; I am much too cynical and have seen where similar policies have led elsewhere. But I do have hope.

Silly Republicans, Barack Obama isn't the Messiah...

...He's the reincarnation of Muhammad.

Conservatives have roundly criticized what they term as "Obamamania", the almost-messianic obsession too many Americans seem to have with Democrat Barack Obama. From fainting at political rallies, to otherwise-respected new commentators experiencing shivers up their legs when they here Obama speak, to Oprah Winfrey referring to him as "The One", to one San Francisco Gate columnist proclaiming Obama to not really be a mere human, but rather a "light-worker", it appears that many of his supporters attach some sort of quasi-divine attributes to the freshman senator from Illinois.

The controversial cartoon on the cover of the latest issue of The New Yorker has shed even more light on this phenomenon. While many commentators proclaimed the cartoon highly offensive and at least very un-P.C., Obama himself has stepped forward to denounce the cartoon as "offensive to Muslims". And where have we heard condemnation of cartoons as being offensive to Muslims before? That's right, the Danish editorial depictions of the Prophet Muhammad. Nevermind that The New Yorker was actually satirizing all the false rumors that have been floating around about Obama.

Shame, shame on Jyllands Posten for publishing the insulting depictions of Muhammad and shame, shame on The New Yorker for publishing the insulting depiction of Barack Obama, our modern-day prophet.

Well, at least the Democrats aren't criticizing the cartoon because Americans are too stupid to understand the context behind it. Oh wait, I spoke too soon.

Conservatives for Obama?

Thomas Sowell weighs in on the supposed phenomena of avowed conservatives proclaiming such distaste for the actions of Republicans in Congress that they are supporting Barack Obama for President to presumably force a leadership bloodbath within the Republican Party, culling all those addicted to earmarks, and rationalizing that support by citing Obama's doubtful willingness to listen to conservative opinion.

While I am one of those who wholeheartedly supports getting rid of the current congressional Republican leadership, Sowell is absolutely correct in his analysis that presidential elections are too important to cast a vote based on emotional frustration. There are more important things at stake than the electoral punishment of wayward Republicans. While Obama has been rhetorically tacking towards the center in recent weeks in an attempt to attract centrist and center-right voters, that rhetoric is in no way consistent with either his earlier positions during this campaign or his entire political career. Pat Buchanan details Obama's recent political ruthlessness, as does Rich Lowry of the National Review, Dennis Byrne of the Chicago Tribune, and Bob Herbert of the New York Times.

While this should be of obvious concern to Republican voters contemplating a punishment vote, Democrats who have supported Obama from the beginning should honestly examine that support. Does a candidate who so readily changes his political stripes to suit the target demographic of the week really represent the sort of "Change" and "Hope" they bought into in the first place?

Knocking Obama Off His High Horse

In the wake of Senator Barack Obama's comments in San Francisco that economic bitterness causes working class Americans to "cling" to guns and religion, George Will says "Obama may be the fulfillment of modern liberalism." Why? Is it because Obama says he can heal the racial divisions in this country? Is it because Obama claims he can overcome the partisan divide as President, even though he has never sponsored any significant bipartisan legislation? Is it because Obama represents, as he says, "change" we can "believe" in?

No. It is because, as every liberal Presidential candidate since Adlai Stevenson has done, Obama has sought to portray himself in one way to the public, but has maintained an attitude "of condescension toward [working] people and the supposedly coarse and vulgar country that pleases them."

More Hitchens on Obama

There is much I disagree with Christopher Hitchens about. But on the war in Iraq and on the shallowness of Barack Obama's campaign, he is spot on:

"So amnesiac have we become, indeed, that we fall into paroxysms of adulation for a ward-heeling Chicago politician who does not complete, let alone "transcend," the work of Dr. King; who hasn't even caught up to where we were four decades ago; and who, by his chosen associations, negates and profanes the legacy that was left to all of us."

More Asinine Obama-Worship

From black feminist Alice Walker. Pathetically, she describes him as this generation's Martin Luther King, Jr and Nelson Mandela.

Although she recites, at length, her own tale of woe, Walker declines to offer any examples of Obama's accomplishments that would justify comparison to King or Mandela other than the color of his skin. Not to step on the toes of the Racial Grievance-Mongering Committee (as led by Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Jeremiah Wright, et al), but Obama's growing up with a dark skin tone in no way compares to the constant threats to King's life nor the 27-year imprisonment of Mandela. Ironically, TheRoot.com characterizes her article as "[arguing] that we must build alliances not on ethnicity or gender, but on truth," when in fact she argues voting for Obama precisely because of his ethnicity.

As a white man, I refuse to accept blame for Walker's discomfort with libraries, her issues with her "white women friends in college," nor the bottles thrown at her head while working to register blacks to vote in Georgia. Her life is not Obama's and I have no need to vote for him in order to absolve myself of any of the sins visited upon her.

Walker has fallen victim to the fantasy of David Ehrenstein's "Magic Negro." She has based her expectations solely on Obama's flowing rhetoric, which stands at stark odds to his actual record. Should Obama become President, a more realistic expectation would be a brief period of self-congratulatory, ersatz racial harmony, followed by a lengthy period of bitter division caused by his pursuit of very liberal policy positions.

More on the Great Transcender

Thomas Sowell, The Audacity of Rhetoric;
Bookworm, Obama's Messianic Schtick;
and, from March 2007:
David Ehrenstein, Obama the 'Magic Negro'

The Great Transcender's verbal sleight of hand

Christopher Hitchens's Monday column in Slate shreds Barack Obama's rhetorical puffery in his much-vaunted (at least from the point of view of Obama-as-messiah cultists) speech on race in America.

Contrary to Obama's claims that the "Reverend" Jeremiah Wright's outrageous condemnations were a recent revelation to the Great Transcender, Obama knew at least as early as April 2007 that should he advance in the Democratic primaries, he would have to publicly distance himself from Wright. In other words, Obama was perfectly content to garner political support in Chicago's black community by staying close to Wright until he built a wide enough base to support his national run. He has tried to be one person in the congregation of Trinity United Church of Christ supporting the hateful speech of his racist pastor, while presenting himself as some great racial healer to the American public.

From Hitchens's column:

"To have accepted Obama's smooth apologetics is to have lowered one's own pre-existing standards for what might constitute a post-racial or a post-racist future. It is to have put that quite sober and realistic hope, meanwhile, into untrustworthy and unscrupulous hands. And it is to have done this, furthermore, in the service of blind faith. Mark my words: This disappointment is only the first of many that are still to come."

His hypocrisy stuns and insults. Unfortunately, too many people still exclaim in wonder at the emperor's new clothes.