In the clutches of Obama Derangement Syndrome?
Here’s a link to my piece for Pajamas Media on how to avoid the perils of ODS. It appears to me from a very quick perusal of the comments there that most people would prefer to plunge right into ODS instead.
A bit of clarification and reiteration of my point of view:
I think it’s not only our right but our duty to criticize every single move of Obama’s that we feel is wrong or ill-advised. Nor have I abandoned the idea that as President he (or Congress, with his approval) might make decisions that are actually dangerous to the country’s security, its liberty, or its economy.
But it is best for the nation and for us as individuals to not assume that will happen. Instead, we need to wait with cool heads and open minds to see what actually happens, and then respond to it. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t prepare ourselves mentally and emotionally, as well as strategically, for that possibility. But we need to remind ourselves it’s only a possibility.
“I think it’s not only our right but our duty to criticize every single move of Obama’s that we feel is wrong or ill-advised.”
Yes, there is a difference between reasoned criticism and all out, unthinking hatred. All out unthinking hatred as in BDS, focuses on the personality and being of the individual criticised. The object is not so much to criticise and offer counter proposals as it is to destroy the person.
In criticising Obama’s policies it is necessary to never make it personal and to offer counter proposals based, insofar as possible, on facts and reasoning.
Your right about waiting until he actually does things wrong before going on the attack. But I think we should be throwing our ideas out right now. Our agenda. Its not ODS, rather throwing obstacles in front of his bus that he has to waste time and energy dealing with. The more time he spends trying to talk people out of our proposals, the less he has to get his passed…
Example: Anyway, I think we really need to fix the voting system. It’s still a mess and we’re lucky Obama won by six points so fraud was not an issue… but we should work on fixing it now, before the next election and before the next potential problem.
Then Obama can hem and haw and dissemble on why we don’t need to do anything… and look bad for doing it… all without us doing anything nasty to him.. he’ll stick his own foot in his mouth.
Side benefit, we really do need to fix the election system.
I’m hoping it will pass, but I definitely for the first time understand the Bush Derangement Syndrome, because I have caught the virus, only it has mutated. It is ODS.
In part this is because I have been monitoring the activist machine’s efforts for about 5 years now and have seen how it plays out in my area. It’s very destructive.
The opposite of ODS is what needs to be addressed – how people who have been screaming about a stolen election suddenly turn their head and avert their eyes in the face of the ACORN scandal, how people who have screamed anti-war for all of Bush’s term suddenly willing to roll over and expose their bellies in deference to the notion of re-instituting a draft, people who are now willing to squash free speech, and further the Nanny State, which is far worse than any Patriot Act – the handing of complete power over to activist wing of the Democratic Party.
It has me very depressed. And I have never given in to depression before. Right now, I don’t even want to talk to my friends and family members who have done this horrible thing.
I will never forgive the media.
I fear for our system – and I do not think it is an unreasonable fear. I don’t trust the checks and balances to hold.
I’m trying to put it aside. Thanksgiving is a few days away. I will have family here. My kids here.
How do I get there?
Thomsass: Ever since 2000 I’ve been thinking we need to fix the voting system. So have many people. The problem is that those in power benefit from the flaws. In fact, many consider them to be not a bug, but a feature.
Rose: It will pass if time passes and the worst of your fears aren’t realized.
If they are realized, however, you won’t be dealing with your imagination and dread any more but with reality. In that case, the focus of people’s energy needs to be on action rather than hatred. It’s also possible that at that point you might have more allies in that action (changing the composition of Congress in 2010, for example?) if the majority of the American people come to realize what they’re in for.
Till then, best to try to concentrate on the things in your life that are joyful and personal, such as Thanksgiving.
I want to do enough ODS that liberals will be trying to make a logical and moral argument that I shouldn’t.
Great article! I’m just sorry that so many posters seem content to dwell in bitterness and hatred. I’m worried about the direction the country is taking with all of the name-calling and mud-slinging from both sides of the aisle. I agree that we need to be vigilant and make our views known, but I’m willing to give the man a chance, and like it or not, he IS our president. The country has survived bad presidents in the past, and likely will in the future, but we need to stop the divisive language, and act like the UNITED States, and not “blue states” or “red states” or “Republicans” or “Democrats.” We are Americans first, and that means talking to each other, not at each other.
What is Obama owed? Here’s my thought: President Obama deserves as much respect, support and benefit of doubt as Pres. GW Bush received from the opposition during the past eight years, a time when our country was at war.
However, I would like to believe that we conservatives, libertarians and others of the loyal opposition are not like “them” – we are much better than that.
neo-neocon Says:
“Thomsass: Ever since 2000 I’ve been thinking we need to fix the voting system. So have many people. The problem is that those in power benefit from the flaws. In fact, many consider them to be not a bug, but a feature.”
That is the beauty of putting it on the top of our agenda. It will highlight those facts…. Obama and the democrats would have to flush a lot of goodwill and credibility trying to make excuses to not do some ‘change’ in the way we do elections.
Sallyo – I believed that also. But the nation just put into power the man who most definitely and demonstrably DOES NOT.
You’re right though – I’ve said to my kids all along, through Clinton – with my then 10 year old sitting on the couch getting ready for school in the morning and hearing all about ‘semen on the dress,’ and news conferences with foreign leaders where the Press would only ask our President about the dress – I said, look, you have to respect the office, the President – through Bush, where not a single one of my kid’s classrooms sports the customary photo of the President, and teachers often revealed their hatred of Bush – I said, to the principal, their views are their views and they are entitled to them, but you have to continue to tech respect for the office.
I’m finding that resolve tested – and I don’t really know what I am going to do when I see the photo on the classroom wall.
Or what I am going to say to my sister if Obama reinstitutes the draft, and she realizes, it is too late.
Yes, For instance, I believe that Obama ‘cares’ about the poor.
This is what is attactive about liberalism (to the rank-and-file liberals) in the first place. I too was a liberal and understand it’s appeal as I was/am caring.
Liberal rank and file types are ‘well-intentioned’ and they ‘care’ but as I was telling my neighbor, in your caring and solutions you have to understand that it’s better to teach a man to fish than give him fish.
In ‘caring’ if you craft solutions that will negatively impact the economy with a higher tax on the group of Americans who are most likely to create jobs then you are creating more dependent americans.
In order to ‘care’ we need to appeal to people in the sense that it is better that greater opportunity is created. If more people are working and not dependent than the better we all do. What kind of solutions would create more opportunity?
Solutions that:
1) do not penalize risk takers (entrepreneurs)
2) do not penalize capital being sold (realizing gains)
3) do not penalize making good decisions like ‘saving’ and ‘investing’
4) introduce market forces into health, college and other sectors of the economy that have seen costs sky rocket with the removal of market forces lately.
wup, gotta go. will write more later.
I can’t react badly anymore to his policy specifics–his administration scrubbed it all off the “President Elect Website.”
BDS = react in rage and horror no matter what he says or does.
ODS = react in rage and horror specifically to what he says or does.
BDS = Bush wants to trample the Constitution, take my rights and make the world more dangerous! He’s bad!
ODS = I read on his official website, before they scrubbed it, that he want’s to require mandatory community service. I heard him say he’ll cut missile defense; making the world more dangerous. His ideas are bad!
BDS = amorphous conspiracy-minded accusations, based on an interpretation of Bush policies, rooting in feelings.
ODS = solid, specific sober-minded reflection, and reaction, on Obama’s stated policies rooted in reason.
That’s not ‘Derangement’ at all, that’s called ‘paying attention’.
I think there’s been a shifting of the goalposts on this Derangement thing.
ODS = “Did you see his website!? Did to see what he actually said he’s going to do to us?! This is bad…”
Anti-ODS = “You’re just deranged, you can’t count at all what he says. Nevermind what he says or what he has done in the past let’s see what he does next. Besides, the leftist congress will check his leftist excesses.”
The thing you’re forgetting here is that by the time he actully does what he says he will do, it’s too late, now you’re just going to have to live with it ‘cuz you should have been a more vocal opposition. But, it’s just like republicans to take the oppositions’ weapon and wound other republicans with it out of ‘principle’.
Why would Reagan have to invoke the “11th Commandment” if we didn’t have such an urge to flagellation and spontaneous auto-da-fe?
Republicans have always sheep looking for any slaughter that will have them….
Very cool, thoughtful piece, particularly the quote at the end, regarding living the life we want to see protected. Thanks.
I agree, Gray – and the fatal mistake the conservative candidates make, nationally and locally, is an outmoded notion that the voters will see past the fakery and make the right decision – at least for the last 5 years that hasn’t been the case.
The guy who most entertains the masses will win, doesn’t really matter what he says. Critical analysis, deeper questions, even his record doesn’t enter in to it – and the lazy media doesn’t have to work to please the crowd.
Re: safeguarding election results
1) some of this is the fault of the RNC. I’ve read, anecdotally, that persons wanting to volunteer to help Repubs observe elections found it difficult to gain permission/instruction for doing so. Similarly, lawyers who wanted to help Repubs in Ohio had difficulty finding the proper parties who could instruct them how to do so. The RNC MUST TAKE ELECTION FRAUD MORE SERIOUSLY. A lot of Repubs would like to help. There is a groundswell. Let us hope Repubs do not miss this groundswell, as they continue to miss, for instance, the groundswell in favor of protecting our national borders (which is not a racist groundswell, dang it, but consists of reasonable persons who perceive a a vulnerability).
2) there does need to be Repub pressure for some election reform. For instance, Ohio prevented Repub pollwatchers from observing some early voting polls. How Ohio could accomplish this, I’ve no idea – but national legislation is needed to eradicate this problem. If the Ohio Presidential election is fraudulent, the people of the entire nation are defrauded.
It’s hard to stomach a Republican shortsightedness which would refuse to push for electoral safeguards. Sure there might be Repub dirty doings uncovered inside such a push. So what? Repubs, Dems, all Americans desperately need an electoral process the people can have full confidence in. I DO NOT have confidence in our current process. I only have confidence that our current process is significantly corrupted.
I have EDS: Election Derangement Syndrome.
I agree going “nuclear” must not be the first resort in our objections to him. But I am deeply afraid. I hope I’m wrong.
Is he going to open the borders? Is he going to officially allow illegal aliens vote? Is he going to institute censorship of political ideas, i.e. the Orwellian-named Fairness Doctrine? Is he going to do nothing aside while Israel, Iraq, Poland and other countries are destroyed or taken over by our enemies? Is he going to prosecute people who even call for investigating voting irregularities?
He made transparent lies about his association with Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright.
The media loves him. After the NY Post, WA Times, and Dallas Morning News were kicked off his press plane, won’t the other media be even more willing to stifle any negative reporting, just like they did for Saddam Hussein?
(P.S. A draft of the PJM article appeared in your RSS feed on the 6th. I was wondering when it would show up here.)
Back to my first point about liberalism.
We as conservatives need to acknowledge that liberals ‘care’ and are well intentioned but inform people of the caring nature of teaching a man to fish rather than giving fish.
If bad behavior is rewarded (ala taking on more debt an house than you can afford) then bad behavior will continue to flourish.
If laziness is successful (journalists have been extremely lazy this last election cycle) then laziness will certainly continue.
If good behavior, due diligence and owning a business proves to be the path where people can REALIZE success then America can prosper and less people will be dependent on government.
Instead, we need to wait with cool heads and open minds to see what actually happens, and then respond to it.
Oddly enough, that’s going to be our new administration’s policy towards terrorism.
I think this happened to a certain segment of the right with Bill Clinton. It was never anywhere near as widespread as BDS later was, but CDS existed and was a slow poison that may have contributed to the later development of BDS on the other side.
Oh, come on: We were accused of CDS just for pointing out the stuff he and his administration actually did:
National firearm bans.
Slowed or cancelled weapon systems we could use right now
banned Intell agencies from giving money for information from “Human Rights Violators”.
Used federal troops to raid Waco on shaky evidence; no “machine guns” found.
FBI raided Randy Weaver’s house and killed his wife on shaky evidence–later paid him for their errors.
Raised my taxes.
Lied under oath in front of a grand jury.
Somalia
Kosovo
Refused to target bin Laden, bombed an aspirin factory instead.
No action or retaliation after US Cole attack.
Treated terrorism as a Law Enforcement matter.
Federal troops raided a Cuban neighborhood in Miami on Easter Sunday to kidnap a child and send him back to Cuba.
You cannot argue that the above events actually happened. I was party to several of them.
The above was why I despised his policies, and came later to despise the man himself.
I didn’t hate him at first, I earned that right over years.
I feel I should say that the commenter quality on PJM has gone downhill in the last year or so. I used to really like to go there, but now every time I read the comments, I want to slap everyone.
Part of the reason I became conservative – or at least, the reason I was drawn toward the movement – was the creepy, disturbing behavior of those on Democratic Underground/Daily Kos/LeftRoots. As a result, whenever people start talking about a RightRoots, I get a shudder down my spine. I really don’t want to face that, since I’ve always taken the view that that the lowest common denominator will win.
Between people who believe in activist government (well, their hearts are in the right place) and people who think the lack of government health-care is a sign of our current president’s unholy ancestry, the latter will always win. Same when you’re faced with a choice between a person who believes in federalism, and someone who thinks our next president is a communist bloodsucker who is in thrall to the Chicago Machine…well, the second choice wins. It’s not a pretty picture, and I’m hoping it passes through the collective brain quick.
Cool heads, yes, but…
You Guys Aren’t Going To Do To Us What We Did To You, Are Ya?
The caller seemed slightly stunned at my attitude, as if he thought now that Obama won, the Right would just roll over and die.
I’ve noticed an undercurrent of that attitude on the Left since the election. It’s as if they’ve had a terrible realization: “Oh my God! They’re going to do to us what we did to them over the last eight years!”
That’s very nice, Neo, for us to have cool heads preparing ourselves emotionally and strategically, but what do you really mean? Especially strategic prep. Strategic prep requires action for pre-positioning and materiel for contingency planning.
I was in a gun shop today for some ammo, and was impressed by the number of customers seeking weapons. The overheard conversations centered around the coming police state, in effect. Is this your strategic preparation? What do you have in mind?
Baklava Says:
“We as conservatives need to acknowledge that liberals ‘care’”
Sure, as long as it is with someone else’s money.. they care a lot..
Of course where Obama Derangement Syndrome doesnt exist, it can always be drummed into existence with a twist of racism. Witness a very idiotic school policy blown out of proportion:
“Obama is a bad word at some Mississippi schools.”
http://www.parentdish.com/2008/11/09/obama-is-a-bad-word-at-some-mississippi-schools/?icid=200100397x1212785424x1200797611
Dear Neo,
There is something about your article that sticks in my craw. I have already written two comments, with the intent of posting them in your forum here, and deleted them both. An equal number of times, I decided to walk away an not comment but came back. I’ve been trying to find a polite way to say this and a polite way to not say it; but since I can’t do either, I guess that I’ll just have to be blunt. Your article, and articles by others written in the same vein, offends me. Not the political/PC “I AM OUTRAGED!” type offense, but the “Who in the @#$% do you think you are!” type.
The problem is with the premise of your article. You watched the worse excesses of the ant-Bush left and concluded that the anti-Obama right would behave in much the same fashion. I don’t know about you but I haven’t seen that happening. What I’ve seen is quite a bit of infighting regarding the future of the Republican party and conservative movement; I’ve also seen a lot of people who are furious at how the McCain campaign is attempting to destroy Sarah Palin’s reputation. What I haven’t seen, though, is the kind of anti-Obama fervor that you appear to be afraid of. I’m not saying that there aren’t instances of it happening, but if they are out there they aren’t what very prevalent (and I’m quite sure that if there was much of it, the media would be more than happy to point it out.)
There are a lot more things that I want to say, but I guess that I’ll leave them for another time, but I will close with this. If you see specific instances, please point them out and feel free to condemn them as you see fit; chances are that I’ll agree with you whole heartedly. However, this (for lack of a better term) stern lecture was totally uncalled for.
Anyway, I’ve always enjoyed your blog and as long as you keep writing, I’ll keep reading.
Thanks
SitS
I dread seeing all those weirdo rightwing protesters crashing news conferences and State of the Union speeches wearing weird costumes and t-shirts.
Imaging the rank upon rank of giant rightwing puppet heads that will appear at every event.
I hate it when rightwingers shout down the Secretary of Defense with pro-war slogans…
–All the rightwing bomb-sitters climbing on top of missiles so that their defense funding doesn’t get cut.
Rightwingers blocking the entrance to Whole Foods and Barnes & Noble to protest organic food and propaganda….
We have four years of that to endure…. See, we’ll be just as bad as the BDS of the last four.
Tom: I’m talking about finding articulate, principled Republicans to back for the 2010 election. For those Republican senators in office right now, planning how to filibuster and what issues would be worth filibustering. Letting your legislative representatives know what you think about those issues. Getting on school boards and agitating for an end to leftist dominance of education. Canceling subscriptions to periodicals you think are biased. If a person fears that violence might occur, a gun for protection is not a bad idea either.
I’m sure there are other options I haven’t thought of, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind. And here’s more good advice, I think.
Standing in the Shadows: Nowhere have I stated that ODS would be as widespread, or would take the same forms, as BDS has. But I’ve heard from enough people and talked to enough people who seem to be paralyzed by fear and dread of Obama’s Presidency that I see OBS as a possibly destructive force for those people. That’s what I’m trying to address.
….I’ve heard from enough people and talked to enough people who seem to be paralyzed by fear and dread of Obama’s Presidency that I see ODS as a possibly destructive force for those people.
I’ve got as much, or more, to fear from this administration as anyone. But, we’re not the kind of people who destroy ourselves over it.
If we were, we wouldn’t be conservative.
Standing in the Shadows,
People are already comparing Obama to Hitler (one of the comments from neo’s PJM post for example). If that’s not deranged, I don’t know what is. I mean he’s not even in office yet, so I think it’s absurdly premature to compare him to a man who was actually responsible for the murders of 12 million people.
Sigh. As much as I would like to fire off a “quick” reply, but it’s 12:00 here and I can’t afford the 2+ hours to write it (for me, that’s quick). Can I get back with y’all tomorrow? ^_^
SitS
When people have guns and the bible to cling to, Neo, they won’t be easily paralyzed.
It is a sense of dread, neo. Because we’ve just put in power the people who are all about taking away rights. Nannystaters are the least malignant of this group, and they are bad enough.
It’s the realization of just how fragile our system is – when the true believers will look the other way over voter fraud, using the govt. to go after someone like Joe the Plumber, knowing how they hate any dissent, and how they love to use the govt/legal system to get their opponents – it just has a bad feeling –
They’ve been in the shadows, but now they emerge victorious, and it is only a matter of time before they begin flexing the wings of power.
It is not just Obama we have elected. It is much more.
Derangement? God, I hope so. because if it is reality…
As a result, whenever people start talking about a RightRoots, I get a shudder down my spine. I really don’t want to face that, since I’ve always taken the view that that the lowest common denominator will win.
Our lowest common denominator goes down to the gun and that applies to mostly citizen soldiers (veterans).
Standing in the Shadows Says:
“What I haven’t seen, though, is the kind of anti-Obama fervor that you appear to be afraid of.”
I’ve seen some here and there. I just didn’t know if it was temp thing that was going to blow over in a week or not. I think we should throw some cold water on it to keep it from becoming fixed… The Kos Kidds did not win this election for O (the media did!). They’re basically idiots and we’ve nothing to learn from them.
Derangement? God, I hope so. because if it is reality…
If it becomes reality then we’ll use what the US Constitution put in as fail safes, Rose. Where there is a will, there is a way. Especially when that path was forseen centuries ago.
Just be sure to to acquire, preferably, both firearms training and hand to hand training (I use Target Focus Training).
The national policies may or may not hurt you but the increase in crime (as is true in Britain after socialist policies have been implemented) is what is really going to threaten folks.
The problem with corruption is always that people will start their own extortion rackets which the central government cannot get rid of. Instead of one standard in which people can protest or try to reform, we have the standards of 50 goon squads all with their own versions of what is right and wrong, legal and illegal.
Factionalism, Civil War, and what we saw in Iraq, sectarian strife, will all happen given enough efforts at the top (Obama) to shatter human rights. Those that complained about Bush destroying civil liberties will truly see what civil liberties are and what happens to a society when they are destroyed under an Obama.
“It is not just Obama we have elected. It is much more.”
Excellent comment Rose!
Neo, it is possible to compress the main thesis of your epistle in one of the basic principle of Judeo-Christian ethics: “Hate the sin, forgive the sinner”. Any derangement syndrome begins with neglecting this principle, which, indeed, is always harmful to psyche of those who does so.
Even from the point of view of political pragmatism, it is more favorable to the cause to concentrate on the nature of evil some person embodies than on his personality traits, which are only conduits of this evil.
I don’t see how we avoid getting in the gutter over this administration. If anything, the last 8 years has proved that rotary club niceness takes an *ss pounding from union hall thugery every time.
We’d be well served in todays politics to study how people choose their loyalty to sports teams. Which is nothing more than an emotional affinity captured by the marketing of attitude.
We may have just had our clock cleaned by pretending politics is and should be above all that. Well no. Its exactly that.
Part of the mental and emotional preparation for being the loyal opposition is being ready to criticize effectively. Sputtering raging spew does not persuade. We need to prepare ourselves to not act like the Bush or Clinton haters of the past. Neither were effective or helpful.
One point most of us here can relate to – I felt a taste of BDS myself during the immigration debate when I was told that I didn’t “care about what’s best for the country.” Actually, I think it was McCain who came up with that one, but it stuck to Bush also.
I can only imagine how often those who otherwise disagreed with Bush were similarly inflamed on a regular basis.
People are already comparing Obama to Hitler (one of the comments from neo’s PJM post for example). If that’s not deranged, I don’t know what is.
It’ll be deranged if people are still doing it eight years from now despite a complete lack of evidence that Obama is anything remotely as bad as Hitler.
Sputtering raging spew does not persuade.
What sputtering raging spew does do is create an emotional effect. That’s straight out of Propaganda 101.
I believe a lot of supposed BDS sufferers are actually leftist propagandists. They don’t believe all the BS they write, but they know that it links Bush with negative emotions in people’s minds. It encourages people to hate Bush rather than merely disagreeing with him. Hating someone is easier and more satisfying to the ego than arguing against them point by point. And it’s contagious. If you put enough hateful messages out there, people think everyone’s hating – it gives them permission to hate along. Pretty soon, you’ve got yourself a mob.
So persuasion isn’t the only tool in our political toolkit. There’s a large vial of emotional poison in there, too. Only question is, do we want to win badly enough to use it?