My Political Sins

The 2008 Presidential Election primary season is a unique event in our nation’s history. It’s comical how much of a backlash the closely contested Democratic primaries have generated in the face of a recent past in the party that has found solace in systematically attacking past elections. What brings me to these keys today is the fact that I have been called out on my political sins. Sadly this has nothing to do with my wavering from staunch Republican values, increasing cynicism in the face of party politics, or my new discovery of an internal flame for “fighting the power,” as Public Enemy says, and forcing this world to become better. I have been called out for my lack of support from Barack Obama.

The attacker is Charles P. Pierce, a writer for Esquire magazine. The title of the article persecuting my beliefs states, “The Cynic and Senator Obama.” A catchy and lengthy subtitle states, “The cynic wants to believe. But far too much has happened, and inspiration is no longer enough. The cynic will need to be convinced.” I’m sure that any logical reader is wondering where the hell I’m going with my feelings of being burned at the stake for not supporting this rock-star candidate. Let me explain.

Surrounding Obama is a storm of increasingly religious rhetoric, hope for the future, and an appearance that states without shame, “This is what we’ve been waiting for.” I will continue waiting. Thank you. Throughout Pierce’s article, he talks about himself in third person as “the cynic” – an attempt to speak of himself specifically as the author while also connecting with readers in a similar position. I can’t connect. I’m not a “cynic” in a traditional sense (mostly), nor am I a “cynic” in an Obama sense. I reject him on the principle of the aura surrounding him. Pierce accidentally proves a very important point about how this nation views the presumptive Democratic nominee. The article, on face value, makes sense with its rhetoric. He calls non-believers cynics. Fair enough, but why? The Obama campaign, and its followers (remember that term), have turned themselves from political supporters into ideological priests. There are only rare instances of debating actual policy, but instead Obama’s disciples are looking down there noses at me and others in similar positions because for some reason we must not support a brighter future and “hope”. Innocent, your honor. If the presidential campaign that is coming up will be formulated around dogma rather than policy, the Illinois Senator’s campaign deserves a little critical analyzing. First, let’s look at the rhetoric surrounding his campaign. Secondly, the nostalgic comparisons and psychological “feel-good” associated with him. Finally, the politics. Hopefully I will persuade you, the lost internet traveler, that Obama is 1) human, 2) a politician like any other, and 3) is being shielded by his followers to hide his ultimate weakness. Someone grab some kryptonite, quick.

The words. In a well spoken stump speech a number of years ago, Obama repeatedly announced “Don’t tell me words don’t matter!” I’ll concede the point, sir; continue. Words matter, and so the words around Obama matter. According to his people, I’m not just the opposition, I’m not a voter or a number. I am the “other”. I am a person who has not decided against a candidate, but has rejected a principle, a philosophy, a religion. This pseudo-religion status could be for a multitude of reasons. I find myself agreeing with the majority of pundits when they, in a very P.C. way, Obama is the epitome of an iconoclast. He has not broken the mold in the way one being created within that mold outgrows it. He broke it from the outside, essentially an act of political ideological warfare. I fear that this has given the people of this nation the false notion that such a person is praise-worthy on face value, without actual analysis. Just because a person is a change from the status-quo, does not make him a god. Granted, he has great speeches, and seems wonderful, but I would only accept this if there was something under this religious front.

I will get into the politics later, but I am scared of the Obama-ites. Soon I will no longer be just a cynic, rejecting fluffy rhetoric for a realistic world view, but I will be an atheist. Those, or “them”, will see me as a rejectionist, fighting back against the book of truth. Their candidates speeches of hope and charity will become accepted truth, no matter the logical rejections that can be made. My objections on the basis of what is better for this nation will have no place in rational discourse to these disciples, but instead I am a heretic, doomed and lumped into a group consisting of realist politicos, falsely clinging to war and fearmongering (because if I’m not with Obama, I MUST be a Bushy, right?). In articles down the road, the cynics may change over, persuaded by finally giving on the harshness of reality, and falling victim to the softness of lofty rhetoric. Only the realist faithful will be left, guided not by hope, but the situation.

I do not claim that Obama is not a good person, nor do I contend that he is qualified for our highest office, as the qualifications are U.S. Citizenship and 35 years of age. What I reject is a pseudo-religious devotion surrounded by rhetoric that does not allow the American public to debate the policy, but instead this will become “us” vs. “them”.

Patrick Henry, in his famous “give me liberty or give me death” speech, he made three wonderful quotes that sum my overall feelings very well.

“Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts.

…

“There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight!”

Obama is living on a framework of hope, and as we will see, there is little under it. We cannot allow comfort to outweigh our need to ACTUALLY keep our nation in the role it is, the single greatest nation on Earth.

The analogies I see surrounding Obama are scary, to say the least. Many people call him the new JFK, but they only want to imagine those high poll numbers and feel good mentality. They forget the Bay of Pigs fiasco, they forget that Kennedy wanted to go to war with the USSR, and brought us to within 500 yards of nuclear war in the Cuban Missile Crisis through obscene mismanagement.  This is the same President who lied to the nation about major medical conditions and had nearly open affairs outside of wedlock. JFK was assassinated before he could screw too much up. He was a rock star, and three years was good and fun, but America would probably have not literally lived through much more. George Bush has amazingly high poll numbers in the third year of his presidency, and if he was assassinated at the same period as JFK, would have a comparable legacy. Imagine that!

Obama is a siren, he is a feel good band-aid for eight years of fear, war, and harsh realities. What we must realize is that we can feel comfortable in his speeches, but it is our duty to continue to give weight to the what the real world demands, and always defer to those necessities first.

Now onto the politics. This will be short. Obama has nothing to say. Name a policy. What’s his Iraq war policy? Get out? Stay in? Both are wrong. He has made a living of vague conclusions and wiggle room. I must say that I believe this to always be the best way to solve a problem, because by principle it allows you to keep yourself open to all possibilities. The problem is that Obama does not state this as his policy, he instead states he has concrete policies while actually having none. Without his followers, and his control of the debate that we need “hope” and feel good politics over real decisions that actually do things, there is nothing. It’s like a donut; It feels SO GOOD when you take that bite, but you end up with nothing but empty calories that require you to exercise and do things that take discipline and hard decisions later on.

P.S.: Michelle Obama always looks like she’s pissed in pictures, I think she secretly wears the pants in the relationship; and will become the next Hillary Clinton.

P.P.S.: I have not slept all night, and so this is mostly a rant.

-W. Thomas Webb

“We turned in early. I was feeling a wine buzz, and I told Ix-Nay that I was going to have a look at the stars before coming to bed. Wrapped up in my blanket like a human taco, I fell under the spell of the night sky.”

- A Salty Piece of Land