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Five Considerations of Obama as "The Hollow Man"
Posted by Timothy Smith
on
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
in
elitism,
government,
liberty,
Obama,
personality cult,
politics,
president,
statism
Last week I was visiting one of my favorite haunts, Borders Bookstore. In the magazines section my eyes were drawn to a title on the front cover of Liberty magazine: "Obama - The Hollow Man." After thumbing through the pages I bought a copy, brought it home, marked it up and would like to share some salient portions of the article.
At the outset, Jim Walsh, the article's author, takes steps to make it clear he is not writing some sort of hit piece. Not some crazy theory. Jim declares: "Obama does pose serious threats to the republic. ... The threats he poses aren't in his person; they're in his policies and his philosophy ... to the extent that he has one."
In summary Mr Walsh lays out five points as follows: 1) Obama's no visionary; he's an empty vessel. 2) Obama's statism comes from political expediency, not philisophy. 3) Obama believes in a warped form of meritocracy. [see below for definition] 4) Obama believes, as Dick Cheny did, in an imperial presidency. 5) Obama encourages a cult of personality.
If I were to chose one excerpt from the entire article it would have to be the two paragraphs where Walsh defines meritocracy and the dangers such a belief can pose. "He [Obama] believes in a brand-name social heirarchy, purchased retail. Like Bill Clinton, he has surrounded himself with striving Ivy League graduates who are much better at repeating the wisdom of their professional schools than at developing original ideas."
"What's wrong with this? Isn't that the American Dream? Well, no. The dark side of manic meritocracy is the elitist idea that education and social standing give a person or group of people an inherent right to coerce others. This is wrong in many ways. The most important is suggested by the fact that our Constitution requires the protection of individuals from the tyranny of consensus, which is precisely the tyranny than Obama and his associates represent."
The government takeover of GM and Chrysler being overseen by a 31-year-old Ivy League graduate is one example of Obama's meritocracy. Combine that with Obama's narcissism that craves worship as a cult figure, or an adored celebrity, and we begin to understand the harm to the United States of America the current occupant of the White House could inflict.
I suggest this philosophy of meritocracy also manifests itself in Obama's frequent reminder that he taught Constitutional law and was editor of The Harvard Law Review. The recording many of us have heard where Obama describes how the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties and puts too many constraints on government also illustrates his smug, elitist, holier-than-thou (and don't you forget it) condescending behavior.
The "sharing" or "spreading of the wealth" rhetoric illuminates Obama's fixation on his educated, upper-crust social class snobbery disguised as benevolence or compassion. Since Obama has a lack of self-confidence he attempts to convince others that he is superior both in his motives and his intellect. As Jim Walsh states in closing: "Statists encourage personality cults because they want to concentrate political power in a single person, rather than spreading it across a system of checks and balances, in which people are judged by what they legitimately accomplish not by what they or their followers claim that they existentially are."
This is not the first time individual liberties have been assaulted by Congress or the President. I agree with Walsh's final assessment of Obama when he says that America will survive his presidency - first because Obama, although he claims to be, is not so transformational that he can obliterate the pillars the United States was founded upon. Second, average citizens are not the stupid idiots elitists suppose them to be; rather, they are savvy, reasoning individuals that will hold their leaders accountable.
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At the outset, Jim Walsh, the article's author, takes steps to make it clear he is not writing some sort of hit piece. Not some crazy theory. Jim declares: "Obama does pose serious threats to the republic. ... The threats he poses aren't in his person; they're in his policies and his philosophy ... to the extent that he has one."
In summary Mr Walsh lays out five points as follows: 1) Obama's no visionary; he's an empty vessel. 2) Obama's statism comes from political expediency, not philisophy. 3) Obama believes in a warped form of meritocracy. [see below for definition] 4) Obama believes, as Dick Cheny did, in an imperial presidency. 5) Obama encourages a cult of personality.
If I were to chose one excerpt from the entire article it would have to be the two paragraphs where Walsh defines meritocracy and the dangers such a belief can pose. "He [Obama] believes in a brand-name social heirarchy, purchased retail. Like Bill Clinton, he has surrounded himself with striving Ivy League graduates who are much better at repeating the wisdom of their professional schools than at developing original ideas."
"What's wrong with this? Isn't that the American Dream? Well, no. The dark side of manic meritocracy is the elitist idea that education and social standing give a person or group of people an inherent right to coerce others. This is wrong in many ways. The most important is suggested by the fact that our Constitution requires the protection of individuals from the tyranny of consensus, which is precisely the tyranny than Obama and his associates represent."
The government takeover of GM and Chrysler being overseen by a 31-year-old Ivy League graduate is one example of Obama's meritocracy. Combine that with Obama's narcissism that craves worship as a cult figure, or an adored celebrity, and we begin to understand the harm to the United States of America the current occupant of the White House could inflict.
I suggest this philosophy of meritocracy also manifests itself in Obama's frequent reminder that he taught Constitutional law and was editor of The Harvard Law Review. The recording many of us have heard where Obama describes how the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties and puts too many constraints on government also illustrates his smug, elitist, holier-than-thou (and don't you forget it) condescending behavior.
The "sharing" or "spreading of the wealth" rhetoric illuminates Obama's fixation on his educated, upper-crust social class snobbery disguised as benevolence or compassion. Since Obama has a lack of self-confidence he attempts to convince others that he is superior both in his motives and his intellect. As Jim Walsh states in closing: "Statists encourage personality cults because they want to concentrate political power in a single person, rather than spreading it across a system of checks and balances, in which people are judged by what they legitimately accomplish not by what they or their followers claim that they existentially are."
This is not the first time individual liberties have been assaulted by Congress or the President. I agree with Walsh's final assessment of Obama when he says that America will survive his presidency - first because Obama, although he claims to be, is not so transformational that he can obliterate the pillars the United States was founded upon. Second, average citizens are not the stupid idiots elitists suppose them to be; rather, they are savvy, reasoning individuals that will hold their leaders accountable.
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