The Middle is Always Evil

Barack Obama supporters are starting to creep me out in a serious way. You know the ones; chanting his name, crying during his speeches, fainting during his speeches, screaming “I love you!” as he passes.

Jesse Jackson, Jr. had this to say about Obama’s Nomination clinch:

“I cried all night. I’m going to be crying for the next four years,” he said. “What Barack Obama has accomplished is the single most extraordinary event that has occurred in the 232 years of the nation’s political history. … The event itself is so extraordinary that another chapter could be added to the Bible to chronicle its significance.” (italics mine)

Michael Morse, a teen columnist for TeenLink, a newspaper aimed at young people in South Florida, went to an Obama rally and shared his experience:

The crowd immediately ceased the roar when Obama approached the mic, eager to hear whatever the man has to say… I can’t believe the man whose speeches I watch on YouTube everyday is so close to me. His speeches give an aura of immortality that belies the fact that he’s a living breathing human.

Its very upsetting to hear this kind of thing from someone my age; it bears a frightening similarity to Hitler’s level of popularity in Nazi Germany, where he was elevated to a sort of demi-god status. This is especially concerning, considering Obama’s support for compulsory national service for American high-school, middle-school and college-age students, which is (if you accept my earlier analogy) more than a little similar the imfamous Hitler Youth, Hitler’s version of compulsory national service.

Obama’s supporters seem to have forgotten that Barack Obama is just a man– and less than a man, hes just a politician. Worse still, he isn’t even a good politician. Its been said over and over again, but Obama is all fluff and no substance. One struggles to find anything material on his webpage, aside from one, large PDF ominously titled, “THE BLUEPRINT FOR CHANGE” (caps his, not mine).

Time columnist Joe Klein knows what I’m talking about:

Rather than focusing on any specific issue or cause — other than an amorphous desire for change — the message is becoming dangerously self-referential. The Obama campaign all too often is about how wonderful the Obama campaign is.

Have you seen Obama’s website? Its creepy! On the main part of the site there’s a Kids for Obama page, where kids are given 10 ways in which they can get involved, encouraging children to host Obama-themed sleepovers and parties, to get a pen pal to talk to about Obama, among other things. If you sign up, you can set up your own little facebook right there on his homepage, give all your information, and join other Obamunists to celebrate his birthday, hold Obama-themed spa parties, book clubs, and any other kind of get-together you could think of– all in Obama’s holy name.

Worst of all, though, is Camp Obama, a four day training camp paid for by the Obama campaign, which teaches Obama supporters to learn more about how Barack Obama is a great and wise leader.

Hitler and Barack Obama have too much in common for me to not feel uneasy going into election season. Gun control, socialized healthcare, compulsory national service, an anti-market economic position, all on top of a creepy, cult-like leader worship by supporters. Thats five too many similarities.

This weekend, I picked up a copy of the most recent issue of Time magazine, expecting to learn what the real meaning of patriotism is. Inside, I found two, short essays; one by Barack Obama, one by John McCain, about what patriotism means to them. I was disappointed.

McCain’s essay was so abominable, I can’t even comment on it. Obama’s, on the other hand, was less despicable, but only because it (predictably) had less substance. I would like to take just a moment to talk about what it did have to say.

Obama focuses his essay around the Declaration of Independence, the greatest of our founding documents. He writes:

“We are a nation of strong and varied convictions and beliefs. We argue and debate our differences vigorously and often. But when all is said and done, we still come together as one people and pledge our allegiance not just to a place on a map or a certain leader but to the words my mother read to me years ago: ‘that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’”

This is all fine and good, and I cannot disagree with what is written there. But listen to Mr. Obama’s interpretation of those words:

For me, it is the love and defense of [the ideals put forth in the Declaration of Independence] that constitutes the true meaning of patriotism. They are ideals that do not belong to any particular party or group of people but call each of us to service and sacrifice for the sake of our common good.

He professes to love and defend each man’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and follows this up by saying that these ideals call us to sacrifice and serve the common good. Its almost as though he were reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand when he wrote this, and decided to contradict her (and himself). Rand wrote:

Observe the results of a society built on the principle of individualism. This, our country. The noblest country in the history of men. The country of greatest achievement, greatest prosperity, greatest freedom. This country was not based on selfless service, sacrifice, renunciation or any precept of altruism. It was based on a man’s right to the pursuit of happiness. His own happiness. Not anyone else’s. A private, personal, selfish motive. Look at the results.

How, Mr. Obama, can one pursue one’s own happiness sacrificially for the sake of others? Don’t these ideals directly contradict? Yes, yes they do.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness means that man has the right to live in a society that is free from force and coercion, that he may work in whatever pursuit he chooses, that he is entitled to the products of his work, and that he may use those products in whatever way his conscience may dictate, so long as he does not initiate the use of force against another. With an increase in taxes of $800 billion dollars, more regulations of business, a mandated “living wage,” and mandated healthcare benefits for employees, this is exactly the society that Barack Obama is working against, rather than ideals that he loves and defends.

Barack Obama has demonstrated that he has no understanding at all of our nation’s founding document, and he wants to be the president.