Tomorrow’s the coronation
At least it feels that way, from the reports I read.
America is more excited about this particular president than any previous one I can recall, and my memory goes back quite a while. Is it merely because of the historic nature of the inauguration, based on Obama’s race? Or is it more? Is this the flip side of the mania that was Bush Derangement Syndrome? And if so, is this hope as irrational as that hatred was?
I didn’t vote for Obama, but I can understand the excitement surrounding his inauguration. And, yes, it’s all about race.
Looking to politics for salvation is a losing cause. That will be the first lesson that Obama cultists have to learn.
Obama is a corrupt, Chicago machine politician. He raised 3/4 of a billion bucks by refusing to abide by public campaign financing… once the most treasured liberal ideal.
I wish him the best, but then again I don’t think it’s that important who’s president. The mania over who’s president is kinda nuts.
Yes, yes, and yes, in that order. Geraldine Ferraro had it exactly right when she said Obama was lucky to be black in this election. Yes, it is the flip side of BDS—Obama is the annointed AWB, i.e. anyone but Bush, and is thus deified. And yes, it is just as demented and irrational. It is a cult of personality, and that should give us all pause.
I’d say it’s race, flip-side BDS, and Obama’s charismatic appeal.
A friend recently made an interesting observation based on what happened after Thatcher left power — the left’s animus will transfer to Israel.
I think we’re seeing that now. Consider this from Bill Moyers .
The other day I realized that we hadn’t turned on the TV for three weeks – literally not turned it on. I’ve lost interest in football (partly because of the moronic commentators, who apparently have to work the word “football” into every sentence), the kids have lost interest in cartoons (all repeats).
As a consquence, I’ve been blissfully unaware of the delirium among journalists and the other unwashed masses about Obama’s inauguration, having been spared the emetic effects of their vapid hero worship. I started by programming out all of the shopping channels, then MSNBC, then CNN, and then just gradually stopped watching anything at anytime.
I highly recommend this strategy. Good for the soul.
I think it’s a media, black, hipster and upper middle class liberal excitement. Traveling in other circles I don’t sense any extra thrill going down anyone’s legs even if they voten for the One.
These people are easily enthralled. There was a similar if less extreme gushing when Bill Clinton was inagurated. If I remember right he was going to change the whole DC culture (and he had majorities in both houses to boot)
They’ve been playing up the historic part of it, especially blacks talking about the way things were versus this time. I don’t begrudge them the excitement, but I think they will be disappointed with the presidency.
Frankly, that kind of hero worship strikes me as …childish. Obama’s feet might not be made of clay, but I guarantee that after his basketball games his feet are every bit as whiffy as anyone else’s. That sentiment alone would probably generate outrage in some circles.
The media in particular seem to have all repose and intellectual distance from their subject of a teenaged girl reading about Donny Osmond in Tiger Beat (or whatever the contemporary equivalent is). Surely they must realize how ridiculous they look.
On a darker note, I have doubts about the emotional adjustment of anyone who looks outward generally for personal fulfillment, and in particular those who look outward to politicians, of all people. That’s like viewing Kevin Trudeau as your guru.
Trivial cult of personality, nothing really surprising.
Boring enough for me to switch off the news as soon as they start with this particular tune.
I know the media is excited, but I don’t see any excitement from anyone I know. Since my kids are out of school, I took them to a breakfast buffet that one has wanted to try. A busload of blacks from Mississippi (headed for DC) were stranded there while their bus was being repaired. I offered to give anyone a ride to the mall around the corner if anyone needed anything. They declined.
I understand why this group was excited. And I understand why a majority of blacks feel like MLK’s vision has been realized. I think a majority of whites (the ones who aren’t pimping grievance for political gain) are kind of wondering what all the shouting is about. Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Bill Cosby and Oprah were America’s favorites two decades ago. These folks aren’t surprised that a black politician can win an election. Blacks have been winning popularity contests for years.
In answer to your questions, in order:
Yes, it’s mostly about race. Not all of it, but most of it.
Yes, there is a bit more to it – it’s perceived as vindication by all of the Bush Haters for their world view, so there’s that aspect to the celebration as well.
Yes. Consider it a sort of childish sense of come-uppence by the Bush Haters even though Bush wasn’t running for office.
Yes, completely irrational.
To add a couple of more comments – the supporters of The One will not countenance any derogatory remarks regarding The One.
They personally identify too much with the man, and pour their own views of the world into an empty vessel.
They have an image of Him that is not necessarily reality – but it’s an image they will leap to defend at the slightest provocation.
They simply assume that he agrees with them on everything, and any criticism of Him is considered a criticism of them.
Anyone in media who questions Him will be blacklisted and taken to the wood shed, so don’t expect any critical appraisal of His actions, nor should anyone expect any criticism in general.
It…is…verboten!
On the flip side, I’m already starting to see signs of Obama Fatigue.
People who during the election were somewhat quiet regarding their political views, due to the hostile environment, I now see speaking out more freely and damn the consequences.
I’m also starting to hear more from people who are just now finding out a few more details about The One – and they don’t like what they’re finding out.
I also had the pleasure of speaking with a very nice 22 year old last week. She was most adamant in her dislike for The One.
If she’s any indication of her circle of friends, and if this is any indication of where the current sub-culture’s are heading, The One and His disciples may be in for a rude awakening….
The college where I work is basically shutting down tomorrow for the inauguration. They claim ALL such events are important, but it’s amazing they didn’t do it 4 or 8 years ago 😉
I do think it is important in the sense of the first black president. Maybe now, we can finally put all this racial turmoil behind us. However, the fawning and slobbering over this event on the left is beyond weird.
Neo… your cohort Doc Sanity has an interesting post regarding this vis-a-vis BDS, etc.
Irrational and aciduously fanned by Obama’s contemporary version of the Fifties’ Mad Men.
The date may change, but there’s a sucker born every minute, and Obama & Company has his number.
it’s everything you said + everything the commenters have said + Barack’s hyping of himelf and his own Inaugural.
Barack’s hyping of himself is plodding and overdone. However, if he could dial it back a bit – to somewhere withing the realm of good taste – I would not begrudge him. Barack is beginning his permanent campaign. Such is only good politics, i.e. it will only gain him more power; will only gain him more influence over Congress. I don’t blame him. I just note a lack of gracefulness which is … embarrassing.
Barack believes not so much in the power of ideas, of the Constitution, of the American people. Rather, Barack believes in the power of Barack. As a symbol, or a charismatic persona, or something. Power of Barack.
I still find it hard to believe there are so many people out there who are so proud of themselves for being sensitive enough to vote for a minority and yet spent so much time vilifying Sara Palin – and even Hillary Clinton. The American Taliban ?
What I am most afraid of is that they will all become so enraptured during the coronation/inaguration that they’ll all turn and run into the Potomac.
I agree with much that has been said here…Democrats are gleeful because they won and they can release about 10% of their white guilt, the first-time voters or young adults (18-25) are excited because Obama appeals to them because his platform was vacuous (Hope & Change) and now they can wear a t-shirt one day with Obama’s face on it and wear their Che t-shirts the next day. African Americans are excited for obvious reasons and deserve to be.
I was down at Union Station in DC last week. There were the usual hipsters/beautiful people with their Obama gear. There were also a lot of older Blacks, aged 60 and above, who were beaming. They lived through segregation and I am sure none of them believed an African American would be elected president in their lifetime.
I didn’t vote for Obama and I fear more the Democrats in Congress than Obama, but the joy and pride I could see in the faces of these folks was truly moving.
For the sake of the country, I hope he proves to be different than many of us expect, although I am skeptical.
But for at least the segment of the population that carries true joy and pride, a group that endured the ugliness of Jim Crow, I can truly say I am happy.
It’s not about race — at least, not much. This is a pure personality cult. Obama has reached out to all the Americans who feel inadequate, whose spiritual needs are unsatisfied by religion, who feel that society owes them something, who feel alienated. He has offered them something to believe in: himself.
And that’s what they want. Their lives and souls are empty. They have no sense of self, they have no faith in anything, and Obama has just plugged himself into that void in their spirits. They will do anything for him now. They will give him unlimited power. They will ignore his failures. They will do whatever is asked, make any sacrifice, commit any crime that he wants them to. They will follow him into the fire.
Look at the bright hopeful faces of the young people in Triumph of the Will. Those young men (and women) had a similar void in their lives, and another charismatic outsider came to fill it.
The worst predictions of the worst alarmists aren’t even close to what’s going to happen to America and the world now. George Orwell was merely off by 25 years.
A number of conservatives have welcomed this coming catastrophe, thinking that things must get worse before they can get better, and after Carter came Reagan, etc. But they’re forgetting one thing: Obama isn’t going to play by the rules. He isn’t an American and doesn’t think like one. He’s going to run this country like Robert Mugabe. The Constitution is just a scrap of paper to him, valuable only when it is useful. He is going to build a one-party third world state here, with a private army of thugs, plundering the rich and anyone who opposes him, and the whole apparatus. It’s not going to get better in our lifetimes.
Quite frankly, I find it disturbing that Obama has immodestly donned the symbolism of Abraham Lincoln. This kind of bombast is undignified and I think the fact that the people go along with it says volumes about the intellectual decline in the nation.
I have been avoiding the television as much as possible. I will be working tomorrow and I don’t have time for this nonsense. I’m working at home today, and in the background I have an FM classical music station on. Taking a break here to read neo’s blog before I get back to spreadsheets, reports, and a web conference with others in the office in Portsmouth.
The most important job of the President of the United States is that of Commander in Chief of the armed forces. Barack Obama is very unqualified for this job, to utter an understatement. This is a guy who if he had been applying for a federal job that required a security clearance would not get the security clearance and would not get the job. But the dopey kiddies and lassies who voted for this man override good standards and rationality.
I wish him well. I hope for the nation’s sake that he does well. I really do. Because I’m an American first before I am a conservative. I will not criticize Obama the same way the other people celebrating tomorrow savaged President Bush. And that’s another reason why I’m not in the mood to celebrate the inauguration of President Obama: I truly detest the people who savaged and trashed George Bush. I will never forget or forgive what these people have done. I wish President Obama well, but I don’t wish his supporters on the Left well. If I could spit on those people I would.
I have just spent some time browsing in the NYT online archives for articles about GWB’s inauguration in 2001. 10,000 protestors lined the streets, angry about the election controversy. An egg was thrown at the limo carrying the President-elect. An article commented on the absence of Hollywood celebs, in marked contrast to the inauguraton of Bill Clinton in 1993. The anti-Bush climate already existed before the man took the oath of office. There is a very different tone of voice in the articles compared to what i am reading in the hooptedo about BHO’s inaugural. The CNN (coronation news network) coverage of the train trip from Balitimore and the concert on the mall was revealing in that the correspondents were able to remove their masks and engage in speculative forecasting about what a great era is starting in DC, hope, change and all that jazz. If there are any anti-Obama protests on Tuesday, I’d be surprised that they get a milli-second of coverage. I hope there aren’t any protests: the election is past us and BHO hasn’t yet taken office. It galls me that the hands running the controls of the print and video media continue to blur the distinction between reporting and commentating. Worse, they deny they are guilty of it.
There’s excitement about Obama because the media TELLS US we’re excited. They are projecting their own elation upon the viewers, even though 49 percent of American voters did not want Obama to be president.
And honestly, as far as history, the media needs to understand, Obama didn’t elect himself President, so he doesn’t deserve the credit they’re giving him. Maybe they should give the voters who elected him the credit, as much as I disagree with their choice. All he had to do was act the role of candidate and the liberal media campaigned for him.
Fred, I too find the Lincoln references to be the height of boorishness. Such a laudatory comparison is for others to make, not for Obama to suggest about himself (either verbally or implicitly).
I think we can safely call it all one big denial booster shot.
Insisting barbarians will love us if only we say the right words requires rather hefty kumbaya maintenence and peer group affirmation.
Barack does remind of Lincoln, except for: humility, selflessness, maturity, familiarity with classical values, superior logic, willingness to stand on principle. Otherwise: they both grew up in Illinois – except for, you know, Barack.
Neo, FredHjr, Occam’s Beard, all you guys – I love you.
The Lincoln comparisons make me want to puke. I’m not sure what type of person even sees such an absurdity and not be sickened by it. How dare a coddled little elitist like Barak Obama even suggest anything in common with such a man. I don’t see how America will stand 4 years of this self absorbed jerk.
Along with one writer above, I too remember Triumph of The Will.
With the Lincolnesque train ride I was reminded of the opening of “Triumph”: the image of The Hero descending from the clouds (Fokker Trimotor D-2000). And how scruffy and ordinary Adolph was on the ground.
Hysterical admirers – mostly women (sorry Neo) – lining the streets on the way to The Partei Tag.
How banal, how familiar.
The cult aspects of all this are getting insufficient attention. It smacks of Eva Peron or the young Castro. This could end badly.
Reminds me of the old joke about a guy at an elegant hotel who was asked why he’d been taken so long to go to the bathroom.
“I walked along the marble walkway past the inlaid mahongany paneling, turned left after the exquisite paintings and statuary, turned right at the crystal chandelier, and went through the carved doorway into the men’s room. There I walked past the gold-plated fixtures, stepped up to the urinal and unzipped, but on self-examination, it seemed so shabby, I finally just went across the street to the gas station.”
Dirtyjobs guy nailed it, “I think it’s a media, black, hipster and upper middle class liberal excitement. Traveling in other circles I don’t sense any extra thrill going down anyone’s legs even if they voted for the One.
That’s my observation too. Additionally, those in the military, that I have spoken with, aren’t happy at all. I would describe the mood I saw there as resigned.
In fact, I suspect that there is much more media manufactured, than genuine joy.
If I had to prophecy how this administration will all work out, I‘m afraid I would have to say that, of all the above visions, the terrible, violent and dark future foreseen by Trimegistus is closest to what I foresee. Like several others posting, I will not be watching the coronation of “Jive Turkey” tomorrow, and will thus miss all the attendant media genuflections, tears and slobbering, cries of Hallelujah!, rolling on the floor and speaking in tongues.
As bad as all this is–and it is–the “next” worry I have is that after Obama there will be an unbelievable groundswell in the MSM for both a woman and people of “other” colors” who will be seen-portrayed to have not had their “fair shot/turn” at the Presidency–but only if they are of the Donkey party. Now that the MSM has cast off any pretensions of even-handedness and have been emboldened by Obama’s election and the failure of anyone to call them to meaningful account, they will be even more active in their one-sided support for Democrats in the future–consistently using the racism meme to tar any Republican who is so foolish as to be highly critical of “progressive” values. And if the Elephants nominate a “person of color?” Hurling charges of “oreo,” “Uncle Tom” and “house negro” hasn’t stopped them before, has it? Just go back and look at how Condi Rice was savaged by some of the most racist political cartoons on record.
PS: What I left out in my above point is that, IMHO, all the Donkey party has to do in the future is nominate either a woman or a “person of color” and it will be well nigh impossible for the Republican candidate to gain any traction with ANY criticism of ANY policy position of the left whatsoever, as each such criticism will inevitably be portrayed as either racist or sexist.
Looks like a serious case of binge drinking to me. By that I mean that the desperate search for redemption (almost all the meanings would be applicable here) led a large group of people, and many more hangers on, to abuse the hopeychange brew being offered by Obama and his crew. Unfortunately, after a “night” of revelry, i.e. beginning January 21st, the party goers will be brought the bill and the realization that, well… all parties must end and the real world must again be dealt with.
I’m with you, Occam’s Beard & FredHjr — Let them have their celebration and fun. Each President is entitled to it, as are their big money people entitled to have their moment in the light of the powers that be.
But this Lincoln stuff, has particularly annoyed me. Hello? The guy is from HAWAII! Remember? He never had an ancestor who was a slave. Daddy came right over from Africa. And, fact is, (which I bet at least half of his supporters don’t know) — he’s HALF WHITE. And it was the white part of his family that didn’t cut out and brought him up. It’s the gimmickry tha gets me. The train ride. Using Lincoln’s Bible. (A plain old bible isn’t good enough for this guy to swear his oath?) The all of a sudden “Lincoln is his idol.” A few months back it was John F. Kennedy gimmickry, dressing him similarly and spouting platitudes in hopes of annointing him the “new” Kennedy (which, in all truth, if one thinks about it — might not be all that complementary. He’s martyred more for his assassination, and the words of his extraodinay speech writers. And then there was all that dressing Michelle up like Jackie, fom the hairdo, 3/4 sleeve fitted suits, and the chic costume of the wealthy loafer: the white oxford shirt, cuffs rolled to the elbow and tthe de rigeur khaki pants, and loafers………
It’s the gimmickry, more than anything, that I find annoying. Campaign is over; election won. Yet campaign leaders have just moved into the white house and are still doing the same stuff. Let’s just give the guy a chance and see if he can handle the job on his own. Period. I guess I find it so obvious, that I, personally, find such contrivances an insult to my intelligence. Others eat it up, tho.
Last thing: it has been said that the cost of this inauguration is going to outspend anything in the past by far. I find that a bit hard to swallow given that Wednesday — and, possibly tomorrow, President Obama is going to be preaching from his podium the doom and gloom we are in for…how it is worse than anything this country has ever seen….and how only GOVERNMENT — (specifically) HIS GOVERNMENT — can save us all.
I guess if people can believe in Tony Roberts, and Scientology, they can believe this guy, huh?
Neo,
As we enter into these joyous days ahead, please start taking notes about our president’s sanity. Half of me thinks he’s a clever charlatan and sighs with relief. The other half thinks he actually believes in his divinity and shudders.
That’s the question, isn’t it, buffoon or charlatan? Of course, it should be remembered that one can be both a buffoon AND a charalatan….
Like Scottie says, anything besides praise is verboten.
So, I guess caricatures of Obama drawn as a monkey like Bush was will never be seen in MSM cartoons on any editorial page.
It may be interesting to see how much things are going to tighten up over the years coming, about just what is and what is not acceptable behavior concerning vocal or written opinion about Barack and democrats in general.
I am hoping Obama’s success will make our youth turn their baseball caps around, or throw them away, pull up their pants and put on a belt, pay attention and STAY in school, and try to become something or somebody.
My view is identical to that of Trimegistus and Wolla. The ship of state is slowly but gradually, inexorably capsizing- a great rollover, eerily quiet- and cannot be righted by the doomed souls trapped within.
The only levity in how I approach Obama is when I call him Obonga. It’s a name that’s making the rounds because he’s admitted his pot use and taking bong hits in his youth – frequently. Otherwise, I’m going to stay away from calling him names the way the BDS folks did with President Bush.
There are some on the right who think we should not be gentlemen about how we approach Pres. Obama. I disagree with them. My historical/cultural time horizon is long term. If our country and our civilization survive, it will survive because ordinary citizens like me chose to take the high road and show how to be a good citizen and human being. The immorality and nihilism out there – and believe me IT’S OUT THERE – is destroying our civilization and country. We need to demonstrate a credible witness to a true counter cultural way of living.
The Sixties asswipes thought they were showing us the counterculture. They did show us something, but their counterculture was deliberately fashioned to DESTROY our culture. I want to live a true counter cultural life.
Wow these comments remind of the opening scenes from Woody Allen’s Annie Hall where he says his take on his life is like that of old ladies complaining about a Catskills restaurant, one says “the food is so terrible and the other says, yes, and the portions are so small.”
It seems you complaining and critcize and yet you can’t get enough of it! Change the channel!
I did not vote for him, I don’t find him all that magical and I am so bored with the hype, that I, a news junkie, am spending almost no time watching the news shows anymore.
But I do hope with all my might that he and his team can find some solutions to our economic problems because we are all in trouble.
I do plan to watch the inauguration, it’s a fine, historic moment. And then I will wait to see what his administration plans to do.
Godspeed, President Obama.
Spoot, sorry to say I don’t share your optimism about our Dear Leader. By definition, everything he ran on (what little substance there was in his campaign) will do nothing but make things worse. There’s not enough money in the pockets of the productive workers he wants to steal to pay back all the IOUs he’s given to all those who voted for him.
Tomorrow I’ll be wearing a black armband in mourning for the country we just lost.
It was his policies that I voted against.
It is America that I want to succeed.
For that to happen Obama has to work for policies and solutions that he didn’t run on.
Godspeed America. 🙂
I can sum up the prevailing attitude in one phrase:
“He’s Barack, and he’s beautiful!”
I too have limited my television viewing lately, because I’m tired of the mass hysteria and mesmerism, and feel oddly unmoved by the build-up to tomorrow’s proceedings. As a student of American culture, I think we’re seeing the inevitable result of wall-to-wall television, radio, and internet coverage’s power to convince the mass of people to think – and above all, feel – a certain way. From CNN to NPR to AOL’s little “news flags,” we’re being corralled like sheep into accepting “conventional wisdom” as truth. For those of us who like to think for ourselves, it’s an uncomfortable time.
If you haven’t already seen it, check out a minor movie from a few years back called “Idiocracy,” starring Luke Wilson. It’s about a totally average guy who gets frozen in an Army experiment, and then forgotten for centuries until he’s finally unthawed in a dystopian future century where everyone is a MORON. He’s now the smartest man in the world! I watched the movie with my teenaged sons and they both commented that we are now way closer to that dystopian future than they liked…
I already know something that he is planning to put in place that will harm the economy and the nation: the carbon tax regime. Ya know… we gots to stop dat man made global warming, dude!
Just one example of a policy that I cannot support and a reason why I did not vote for him.
I don’t necessarily share the darkest views expressed above – though I can definitely sympathize with the sentiments behind those views and why one would hold them.
An awful lot has to go wrong before things got to that degree of disintegration.
I remember the Carter years, and if we can survive those we can survive any lightweight up to that level of incompetence.
The danger is if Obonga is worse. Not so sure we can survive that as a nation. And if he is, then God help us all cause it’s gonna be real ugly. The fashionistas screeching about revolution in their Che T-shirts will realize too late exactly just how bloodily unpleasant such events are.
Given the freely spread promises (“Obama gonna buy my gas and pay my mortgage!” – serious quote as heard on the evening news during the election.) and how precious little there is in the way of national treasury at the moment, complicated by financial scandels for whom the culprits are not being held accountable, complicated by a US dollar on the verge of collapse, and things can get decidedly much worse than Carter was ever able to inflict upon us.
The problem is there is always a new generation coming along that has to learn the tired old lessons of the past all over again before they understand what they are actually doing when they enter the voting booth – and unfortunately we all have to collectively pay for their short view of history.
About the best response is to lay it on thick and often every time The One breaks another campaign promise to His devoted disciples, and every time The One makes a mistake toss out the live and let live approach and criticize him full chorus – after all, the democrats set up the rules we now live by so we might as well get on with it.
The only remaining obstacle is how to neutralize the MSM. Regardless of how much the MSM has been pronounced a dead industry, it’s absolutely true that the MSM had a great deal to do with inflicting the current travesty on this nation.
How to hold them to account while eliminating their power niche is the question of the day….
What exactly does wishing Obama to be successful entail?
Over half the country on some kind of govt support? Union membership up 20%? Inefficient green jobs all over creation making firewood into a reasonable alternative? Toasters and spatulas made in America for $200.00?
I’ve heard the mans rhetoric for at least a year and hope he fails in every concievable way. His idea of success is my idea of failure.
O.K., Steve, wishing Obama to be successful means that a miracle happens and somehow his policy preferences are thwarted. I don’t have any illusions as to what the likely outcome is going to be.
Dick Morris is saying just right, as I am typing these words: “We are going to enter the Obama administration as ourselves – the United States of America, a Constitutional Republic – and we will leave it as France, a socialist democracy.”
Yes, yes, yes, plus excessive media hype. These people know no shame. And I’m afraid those who perceive cultish behavior are correct (I remember Riefenstahl too). But what I *really* don’t want to see is the Chicago Democratic kleptocracy become the Democratic national kleptocracy. We’re already on our way.
But what I *really* don’t want to see is the Chicago Democratic kleptocracy become the Democratic national kleptocracy. We’re already on our way.
Historical Maps of Illinois’s Political Corruption
When I saw the “Coronation” title, I couldn’t believe it because that’s what I have been saying.
There is a religious zeal to the participants of the “celebration” that I find unsettling too.
I love that some one spelled CNN as the Coronation News Network. It’s so sensational.
You’re all making perfect sense.
Oh, I can think of a few parallels between Lincoln and Obama, but I had probably better keep my mouth shut about that.
rickl,
I wouldn’t wish for that. Biden’s worse, as his judgment on every foreign policy and defense issue since he entered the Senate in 1973 has been wrong. Beginning with agreeing with the House to cut off funding for South Vietnam’s government. Lay the tragedy of the Fall of Saigon right at his desk. Then, later on he was opposed to Carter and Reagan’s military buildup to check the Soviets. He was wrong about the Pershing II missiles and the cruise missiles in Western Europe to check the Soviets. He was wrong about ballistic missile defense and HE IS STILL WRONG ABOUT MISSILE DEFENSE!
Biden’s a blowhard. I’d rather take my chances with Obonga.
The Republic is dead, or close to it. We’ve been a democracy for a long time now (at least since the 17th Amendment was ratified) and it will lead to our ruin, as the Founders clearly foresaw.
FredHjr:
Oh, hi. I was writing my comment while you were posting yours.
I wasn’t just alluding to assassination. There was another little incident that happened during Lincoln’s administration.
I’m not wishing for anything. I’m just seeing a catastrophe in the making and there’s nothing I can do about it. And knowing it will swallow me, too.
“from the reports you read.”
And where, pray, do you get those “reports?”
rickl,
Do you think a large number of the kiddies and lassies who voted for Obonga could learn from that mistake? I am looking a economic models, operating under certain assumptions, and I see a prediction of a sub par economic recovery with unemployment still high in 2012. Plus, there will be foreign policy disasters.
Given that likely scenario, will these kids learn the lesson that my generation learned from 1976-1980?
…How to hold them to account while eliminating their power niche is the question of the day….
I’ve been thinking about that, too, Scottie. For all the hype and optimism, blogs are only a minor check on the MSM so far. Important, but dwarfed. And we are vulnerable. Most of us are blogging on free hosted space which can be removed at the push of a button. And, I’m not sure how safe we would be even if we paid and hosted our own individually.
There are a number of problems – reporter’s mindsets primarily, and they start at low-paying little rural stations, with reporters without much education and very little money. So the wealth envy thing is always present. Very few of them have any advanced math, so whenever something complicated like insurance of finance comes up, they are more than happy to skim over it, and print press releases.
In fact, I have been amazed to see the national media merely printing press releases, with little to no investigative journalism, no questioning minds, no delving into issues…
How do you fix that?
One thing, I know this from the local level, you cannot rail against them. You have to instead woo them, and invite them to your barbeque. If they are comfortable, you have a better shot, if you are against them, they will forever keep you and your issues at a distance.
Palin is a good example, she needs to stop now saying what they did wrong, let others say it, but she needs to drop it, and woo them instead. By 2011, Katie Couric has to think she is Palin’s best friend.
How we all survive the next four years, that’s another question.
FredHjr:
I hope so. But I’m especially worried about the creeping ACORN-ization of our electoral system. In this case Obama won by a margin larger than the voter registration fraud. But if it had been a close race, then fraud would have been the deciding factor and the election would have been stolen. Think Minnesota times 10. If we get to the point where our elections can no longer be trusted, where Republicans can only win by landslides and any close race will go to the Democrats via “recounts”, then things will get ugly.
Rose –
If I do not support gay marriage and you do, how do I go about “wooing” you?
If I support a strong national defense because there ARE threats against Americans and American interests, and you think the members of our military are idiots and any money spent on the military represents money “taken away” from social issues, how do I woo you?
It isn’t that I disagree with you – I just don’t know how this can be done on certain issues.
And besides, right now I’m so angry at how President Bush has been treated that I can scarcely stomach leftists, much less think about wooing them.
Deana
I agree, Deana, one hundred thousand percent. Believe me. And I am also angry. But our anger is working against us and turning people off – and in some cases it is merely a matter of words.
The activist wing of the Democratic Party has been ‘at war’ with all of us, and we don’t even know it. They spend an inordinate amount of time thinking and planning about how to “structure the debate” – how to “frame” the issue – about the “narrative; they want to see play out.
They are very good at planting the seeds of demonization, and letting it take hold like wildfire. They are very good at the easy rhetoric, the Chauncey Gardener style of communicating, and people hear the catchphrase, and say, click, I got it, and they move on, never asking any deeper questions… The left has been at work, creating ACORN and all of its spin-offs. For every issue they have dozens, if not thousands of “groups” that are really all a small core that cross-pollinates, and calls itself a growing coalition of ___ groups.
I don’t know how you fight that.
I don’t know the answers. I am trying to find them, because even on a local level I am struggling with those same dynamics.
But I agree with you – the way President Bush has been treated is disgusting and disgraceful. And unforgivable.
I can’t say much because I’m tired and need to get to bed but one thing that strikes me is that the very nature of being conservative works against us.
We don’t form groups to solve problems because we believe in the primacy and responsibility of the individual and family. But when you are a leftist, you believe that government and other groups are required to solve problems.
And Rose – why doesn’t the anger of those on the left work against them? Instead it just wears us all out and we give in because we are exhausted.
I know, though, that you are right. I know it. And yet, most of the times when I’ve calmly spoken with leftists about my beliefs and explained the reasoning behind them, I am met with (at best) astonished silence and disbelief. At worst, I am considered a fascist, bigoted, idiotic, uninformed woman (despite having more education than most people).
Like I said – it is exhausting. And being a conservative hasn’t made me any friends.
Deana
Hope is always irrational, just as fear. Both are emotions, proportional in intensity to desire and percieved uncertainty of outcome. Here desire to open a new page of history, clean of original sin of of racism, is tremendous and maniacal, as all utopian dreams usually are, and uncertainty is high, too, because Obama is the most opaque person on proscenium of US politics in living memory. So the psychotic atmosphere of this event is thick and charged.
Right now it’s all reminding me of an old Popeye cartoon in which Olive Oil becomes president. It must have dated from the FDR days because all the donkeys in Congress love her and all the elephants reject her. Extreme partisanship. No matter, President OO, not to be confused with President O, takes out a machine gun that shoots Cupid’s arrows and rat!-tat!-tat!-tat!…it’s a love fest.
Olive Oil of course was merely a harmless idiot.
Immunity to mass psychoses is a rare, but precious virtue. Susceptibility to them – the most obvious pitfall of democracy. Exactly this makes necessary limitations imposed on it, such as constitution and limited government.
“… Is it merely because of the historic nature of the inauguration, based on Obama’s race? Or is it more? Is this the flip side of the mania that was Bush Derangement Syndrome? And if so, is this hope as irrational as that hatred was?
Yes, yes, and yes.
I can name in 4 words whats at the core of the modern leftist success.
Conformity by Guilt Trip.
While conservatism is stuck on displaying its superior ideas through logic, we are getting our clocks cleaned by a tsunami of carefully crafted pop culture narratives meant to shame people into a political belief. And it works!
Our ideas can’t flourish for the same reason some of the best music will never make it in the top 40 billboard charts. We don’t have the marketing infrastructure to gain the exposure.
We’ll be on our way once we figure pop culture, and not debate forums, is the battlefield. Just look at global warming for overwhelming evidence of this. They purposely choose commercial soundbites and avoid logical debate like the plague.
Deana, you should form a group.
There are people out there who will agree with you. You can usually tell who they are because they aren’t making a show of their politics, they are involved in charitable and community organization, and they have a sense of humor. If you live near them, they are great neighbors and fun to be around.
I have lived a long time in Blue States and Europe: you learn to pick up the tells.
Conservatives need to stop telling themselves what they can’t do, get organized, and have some fun.
It isn’t an Inauguration or a Coronation; it is a Deification.
Youtube, Facebook, the so-called social media are wide open to anybody with a camera and a computer. Hell, even the Kremlin has a twitter address.
What’s wrong with us anyway?
Yes–The promise of Hope and Change has arrived, now it is time to see if Obama is merely a Great Speaker who can inspire the people, or a Leader who can deliver on those speeches.
Just thought I’d interrupt the flow of the echo chamber.
The election of a candidate who is the son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother is historic by any measure. The symbolic attributes of this event make it one that many Americans, especially veterans of the civil rights movement, have waited a lifetime to see. Had McCain been the victor there would have been a similar, if slightly less extravagant, outpouring of “we’re witnessing history” hype surrounding Sarah Palin as the first female VP.
Bush entered office in a very different historic moment, not as the clear victor of an election, but in the unusual situation of being declared the victor by a split Supreme Court that sided with the Republicans in a case over the vote recount in Florida … where Bush’s brother was Governor and also where the Secretary of State who was responsible for conducting the vote headed his campaign. If this had happened in the Ukraine with a pro-Russian leader being installed as the result most who comment here would be screaming that the USA not recognize the results as valid.
It is also worth remembering that no one, including much of the conservative punditry, thought foreign or military matters were GWB’s strong suits when he entered office. Certainly his Vietnam era service in the Air National Guard was sufficiently questionable that his readiness to be Commander in Chief was hardly clear-cut. When Bush entered office the US had built up a budget surplus, the Russians and Chinese were settling into being business partners rather than ideological enemies, the Balkan crisis was winding down, the Israeli Palestinian conflict was relatively calm, and the Taliban and Al Qaeda were not considered particularly relevant entities to the lives of most Americans. The expectations when he entered office were that he would work well across party lines, as he had done as Governor in Texas, and be a friend of big business, not much more.
Bush leaves office having presided over an administration that leaves the incoming Obama team with the War on a Noun, the military occupation of Iraq, a hot conflict in Afghanistan getting hotter, a nuclear Pakistan on the verge of chaos, the greatest worldwide financial crisis in at least a century … among other difficulties.
As virgil xenophon noted, “one can be both a buffoon AND a charalatan….” as the outgoing President so frequently proved during his two terms in office.
Trimegistus offers a comment so filled with paranoia and venom that were it offered by a liberal as an example of the early and virulent spread of ODS it would be denounced by the punditry on the right as a caricature invented by liberals to scare moderates. There are more comments here linking Obama to Hitler than you could find Bush/Hitler links on most lefty blogs.
Among the “true believers” on Neo’s blog one sees an outpouring of thinly disguised racial animosity and seemingly a perverse longing to see the President of the United States fail in order to justify a partisan political POV. All Americans had better hope and pray that the incoming administration is up to the challenges ahead and do everything in their power to help it and the country succeed in the difficult times we face.
I understand why this group was excited. And I understand why a majority of blacks feel like MLK’s vision has been realized. I think a majority of whites (the ones who aren’t pimping grievance for political gain) are kind of wondering what all the shouting is about. Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Bill Cosby and Oprah were America’s favorites two decades ago. These folks aren’t surprised that a black politician can win an election. Blacks have been winning popularity contests for years.
Stan, it’s like you read my mind (creepy 😉
I’m black and I voted for L. Douglas Wilder, an African-American for governor of VA. To me, to vote for a black leader for the capital state of the former Confederate States of America struck me more than what’s going on today. *Especially* since Obama did not do much for his own black folk in Chi-town when he was Senator. So today is par for the course; another politician enters the White House as President.
Mr. White, please take note of Rachel’s response following yours. She tells us she’s a black woman. And for you to hint that we in the echo chamber cast racial aspersions about this President’s victory is enough evidence that you read into our thoughts in a way that lays bare your Left bias. Oh, but only conservatives are racists, while the Left is pure in that regard! Rachel would agree with me on this: the fact that white people voted for Obama because he’s black is racist. Anyway, and I think she would agree with me on this point as well, the vast majority of us have moved on from the debate over race DECADES ago. And most of us were on Dr. King’s side in that struggle.
So, Mr. White, we did not need a lecture from you about how eeeeeevillll Pres. Bush was and how we are now rescued from tyranny. You tried to be subtle about it, but the mask dropped a bit early in your oration.
Here in Jakarta, things are reaching a fever pitch among a number of the expats and wealthy locals. Several inaugural events, costing up to US$100, are going on as I write. This in a country where most people live on less than $2 per day (less than $5 in Jakarta). Although I’m appalled at the excesses as much as anyone else on this site, I do understand why. Indonesia is the 4th most populous nation in the world, but Indonesians feel that their country is ignored except when something bad happens here. They believe that maybe now the most powerful man and nation on earth will pay a little attention to their country for reasons other than those having to do with terrorism, human rights violations, disasters ranging from capsized ferry boats to tsunamis, or economic hardship. Obama’s the first American president with any sort of connection to Indonesia, and Indonesians are hoping that American perception of their country changes for the better because of that. Of course, not everyone on this huge archipelago is so bewitched. The Balinese, who appreciated Bush’s approach to terrorism, are less impressed. “We liked Bush” they say, “John Howard, too”.
The good news for me is that the hype will probably wear off pretty quickly out here. Indonesia has its own elections coming up later in the year, beginning in April, and the media coverage of that is already starting to reach the saturation point. I “hope” the coverage “changes” focus from Washington very soon.
FredHjr —
yes, it’s all about race … it’s a media, black, hipster and upper middle class liberal excitement … Blacks have been winning popularity contests for years … the coronation of “Jive Turkey” … we gots to stop dat man made global warming, dude …
No undertones of racial animosity in any of these soundbites from various comments, just my projections.
And please re-read my comment; while I have criticisms of Bush, I did not lecture nor did I call him evil. I also did not indicate the Bush years were in any way a “tyranny” from which we are about to be delivered. Rather I pointed out he entered office under historic circumstances (the Supreme Court deciding his victory) at a time when we were at peace and had a surplus. Obama takes office under far more dire circumstances and all Americans, regardless of any partisan position we may hold, had better hope and pray for his administration to be successful.
A profoundly stupid comment, on every level.
At peace? No we weren’t. We just hadn’t realized yet that we were at war. By the same token, FDR and Truman led us into war. The war was imposed on us in each case.
The surplus was illusory, and arose in part because of tax windfalls from the dot com bubble. Adults will recall that the recession started in 3Q 2000, before Bush even took office. It’s no more fair to blame Bush for that than it would be to blame Obama for the present situation.
And then there was that little unpleasantness in Sept 2001, which did the economy no favors for several years thereafter. That, plus skyrocketing oil prices – following increasing consumption by China and India, primarily – did not help. War spending was also a factor, don’t get me wrong, but a far bigger factor in the present financial predicament is Democratic pandering to minority voters by forcing banks to loan to uncreditworthy borrowers.
Last, the Supreme Court did not decide the election. It merely prevented Gore (for whom I voted) from continuing his months-long effort to Franken the election.
So, grow up.
Regarding Rose’s response much earlier and the question of how to counteract the MSM….
I’ve given it quite a bit of thought as well, and likewise have no real solutions to offer as of yet. I have some thoughts and suggestions, but nothing that is a concrete solution to the problem.
Consider a few facts regarding the current media environment.
First up is broadcast media.
ABC, CBS, and NBC have been losing viewers for years, predominantly to other forms of entertainment and information – think CNN, FOX, and the wide range of cable/satellite programming.
This is a positive trend but has not yet gone far enough because the influence of these 3 companies still permeates pop culture to the extent that national elections can be affected.
As proof, consider the SNL skit regarding Palin that left many useful idiots with the impression that Palin said she could “see Russia from her house”.
That was a prime example of how MSM can affect perceptions of the general public to portray a candidate as stupid, and that is the effect that has to be counteracted on a pop culture level somehow.
I’ve even heard of some young useful idiots lauding The Daily Show as a source of information!
The only way I can imagine to counteract such a pervasive influence is for those of alternative political views to start putting their money where their mouth is and make conscious decisions regarding where their money goes.
Every nickel and dime from the smallest advertising expenditure by local companies to what movie productions get funded by right leaning wealthy investors should be considered carefully with this question in mind – are political and social views that counter significantly from the views of the advertiser or investor being compromised by the companies being approached with advertising or investment capital?
If so, find an alternative means of advertising or investing. It will take a bit of work, but they are out there. Too bad there isn’t some sort of web site that lists these kinds of companies (hint hint to any enterprising internet types)!
Next up is the print media. It’s no big secret that several of the MSM print outlets are going through hard times. Even our local News and Observer (aka the Views and Disturber) has had to lay off quite a few employees.
Again, where are the viewers who supported these dinosaur business models in the past going? Some are obviously older types for whom age is finally taking it’s toll – but those viewers are not being replaced.
So where are new viewers going for information?
Obviously you have the internet – but then you end up with most people looking for sites that have the views they already tend to agree with.
I, for instance, have absolutely no interest in getting any *information* from the Puffington Host – yet there are obviously a lot of useful idiots who do go there to be told what to think.
Perhaps it’s the combination of the faltering influence of the broadcast media and it’s entertainment branch combined with a host of left wingnut websites that support and reinforce those left wingnut views that’s the real crux of the problem for those of us with either a rightish or libertarian point of view?
How do non-left wingnut types counter such a combination? There is no single entity that can be identified to be counteracted – it’s a synergy kind of thing between these different elements.
Sure you can try to neutralize one of the elements, but if you don’t have an overarching strategy to deal with all of it you still fail.
It’s like trying to poke a hole in the ocean – more water will just flow in to fill the void.
I would suggest the best way is to provide concrete alternative forms of information that are solidly backed by facts for starters.
Don’t even try to bias it one way or the other, just get the basic facts out in a non-partisan manner.
I believe most people, if exposed to non-biased information long enough, will eventually pick up on the partisanship in the MSM when they are exposed to it once more after getting non-biased information.
Such self-enlightenment goes much farther than any attempt at convincing someone as it’s an internal thought process.
At least that way anyone using such sources can use facts to counteract “feelings” expressed by the left and these sources can be viewed and noted as reliable sources of information free of bias.
Aside from that one condition, I would also suggest that the non-left wingnuts be entertaining, and yes – learn the pop-culture language and how it works.
Pop(ular) culture has been around for as long as man has, in one form or another, it’s just taken on it’s current name within the past few decades and the entertainment industry – which is largely made up of leftwingnuts – has used it to their advantage for decades now.
Their influence in turn is seen every day in the movies and other forms of entertainment that we all watch.
The only solution I have for that is for those on the political center or right to start producing entertainment that can compete with that produced by the left and allow the marketplace to decide which product to support.
If the alternative programming becomes more successful than that produced by the left – THEN you will see executives modify their programming accordingly to continue to compete.
I’m not suggesting that we end up with a cookie cutter right wing media that looks like it stepped out of the 1950’s – I’m quite libertarian in my own personal views and don’t give a crap what someone does in their own life as long as it doesn’t affect me – unfortunately this past election is definitely going to affect me so I no longer have a choice in the matter.
I’m simply suggesting that an alternative pop culture media be cultivated – just as the internet became an alternative source of information for those turning away from broadcast and print.
Last but not least, I suggest everyone give a little more thought to where their own money goes personally.
If you know that a certain company has publicly taken a stand to support policies you disagree with – why in hell would you in turn give your money to them? Find someplace more in tune with your own ideas to spend your money at.
Anybody else have any ideas????
Scottie
I’m not upset at you, whatever it might sound like. I understand where you’re coming from. However —
I’m getting very tired of people — last week Mark Steyn — telling those of us who produce entertainment to hurry up and write some really good, entertaining books; create some spectacular, conservative movies; etc. and that this will, by itself, swamp the swamp of the left — as it were.
Unfortunately given the scale of marketing in the present world, entertainment industry is NOT a meritocracy in any way and at any level.
There are several of us, creative types who are what would be called right leaning. Writers, artists, screen writers, support people of various kinds. However and uniformly, the gatekeepers — those who actually give the go-ahead, the money, etc — are not only left but loony left.
I was discussing this with my husband today and he said something of the virtues of keeping one’s mouth shut until one made it. Yes. And that used to work. But right now, if you want the gatekeepers to get enthused you have to support at least one and preferrably more of their “hot buttons.”
Like you I’m a Libertarian — and very laissez faire about it — I could easily endorse things like same-sex marriage. At least in the sense I could “endorse” any marriage, my not giving a hang how my neighbor’s live .
Ah, but that’s not enough. Unless you vocally push the whole shebang — and in these recent years this is very much a matter of “peace” and BDS — you’ll still not get the gatekeepers “push.” You won’t get their enthusiasm. You won’t get financing. Your movie will not get shown. Your book won’t be on the shelves. The perception WILL be that there’s nothing like that out there. People can’t love what they can’t find.
As an example — there is a movie out there called Second Hand Lions. If you haven’t seen it, see it. On quality alone, as a family movie, it SHOULD have become a blockbuster. Did it? No, mostly ignored. Is it a startlingly conservative movie? Well, not really. But it is DEFINITELY not a “liberal” pov movie with glamour and push surrounding it..
Even those odd non-left movies that do become blockbusters — The Passion and 300, say — end up not resulting in follow up. The gatekeepers would NEVER allow it. Also after ONE movie like that gets through, the gates close even more firmly — and the gates exist at every level, from financing to distribution to publicity.
Books… Most books that get published these days have to ENDORSE the men bad, women good, individual bad, communal good, Christian bad, pagan good ideas. ALL of them. And they have to be obvious about it, too. Neutral will not get you anywhere.
I was talking to my child about what they read in school and how it moves their perception of what is “normal” and informs their views of the world at a very early age. And how most of those books are so terrifyingly BAD (this coming from a child rarely seen without book at end of fingers) that no one would buy them except for the school assigning them. (Most of these books are about oppressed minorities and their rage, and some of what are considered ‘minorities’ would either shock you or make you laugh. Hint, very little of it has to do with race.) however, the school assigns them, and therefore they are bestsellers.
Baen books (baenbooks.com) deserves your attention and your support, if you can. It is the only surviving science fiction house not preaching either doom & gloom brought on by capitalism or some bizarre echo-lesbian-love in future that could not work. Or simply porno disguised as novels. If you used to read speculative fiction before the “New Wave” boomers made it a sub-branch of literary, you’ll probably like them or at least SOME of their authors. (There’s a wide variety.)
It’s the only publishing house I can think of — other than explicitly political houses — where you’re not required to be leftist — though they publish leftists, too. And hard right wing — and the result is the gate keepers in distribution kick in. I and several friends, when looking for a particular Baen book or other, got told “we don’t carry them. They’re right wing.” (If they’re polite. “fascist” or worse if they’re not.) They also insist Baen does only mil fic, which is far, far from true.
I gather — don’t know anyone inside and only lurk in their online bar — they do all right, but the fact is, most people won’t even know they exist. They’re not on the shelves, so the quality of the work doesn’t matter.
So… look… us creative types down here on the shop floor are working as hard as we can. A lot of us are being consigned to obscurity for refusing to sell out (if we deserve it otherwise, I don’t know, no one lets us find out.) Stop telling us to produce “good” conservative stuff. Start worrying about the mechanics of marketing and marketing organizations that will emphasize the good conservative (or apolitical) stuff.
Stop worrying about how the conservatives can get “with” pop culture. A lot of us younger libertarian types are very much “with it.” Our voices just don’t get through. Watched television, recently? think the uniform assumptions hard left built into the shows are because ONLY leftists are creative, or only leftists interested in tv?
No. it’s because they’ve figured out HOW to stop us. We’re landing on the beaches in numbers, but they hold all the narrow passes to the interior. Stop telling us to jump out of the boats faster and start figuring out how to unblock the routes.
P.
Agreed. More later
I’m going with BDS. The same haters are now followers.
Portia is great. Write more.
I keep wondering about the gatekeepers who turned down the first Harry Potter book. What did they think their job was? And why did they think they were any good at it?
The weird thing is, when you can get the the production and distribution going, “conservative” culture makes bags of money. I’m not sure people understood how conservative Tolkien was. C.S. Lewis was more obviously not “progressive.” And yet their stories yield blockbuster movies.
Compare that to the lameness of the last Star Wars movies. I’m not saying that they were wretched because they were explicitly progressive, but facile progressive posturing was symptomatic of a fundamental inability to think very deeply about much of anything.
There is a business opportunity in here somewhere.
The problem here is that ideology trumps business sense.
The Hollywood Left–by which I mean the vast majority of those in Hollywood–writers, directors, producers, actors, agents, studio heads and executives–at least starting at the time of the “Hollywood Ten” in WWII, have bought into a whole leftist world-view, with it’s attendant morality, “causes,” good guys and bad guys, things acceptable and things not, those who are “in” and those who are “out”–a whole demonology–and they know how they fit into this scheme of things, and it usually pays off very well for many of them; it’s like a pyramidal medieval political and social order, in which each person has his place and function in the hierarchy.
To have to give all this up is to give up who they have made themselves, who they believe they are, and this is not an easy thing. Moreover, since each individual gets a lot out of this system–money, power, glamor, peer approval, self-esteem, an out group to hate, and the satisfaction of knowing they are “right”–subverting or destroying this system is going to be extremely hard to do.
Look, they are churning out these crap movies, featuring crap actors, and despite these serial flops that are turning off their audience in increasing numbers, and causing the collapse of ticket and DVD sales and–one by one–the collapse of studios, they have convinced themselves that they are turning out many great films on important topics, each with it’s heart and mind in the “right place,” that these barely sentient actors are “first rate”–look at all the awards they get from their fellow “artistes”–and that they are doing the important work of “enlightening” all the knuckle-dragging boobs out there in “flyover country”–so, despite the losses, they will continue to spew out this crap; that is why I say, much more than just money is involved here.
Well, the thing that gets to me is the way we too buy into the liberal narrative and their stereotypes of conservatives.
In a thread above there’s a critter going on about how President Bush won’t do charitable work in retirement becaus eof his “ideology.” He didn’t justify it because this is QED to the left– “he’s a conservative, therefore he’s a social darwinist and doesn’t give a damn.”
It was clear the poster had no clue this was a stereotype and one that is completely at odds with reality.
I don’t think most conservatives buy into this. Most conservatives and libertarians I know are up to their elbows in charitable work, so we know better.
BUT we totally buy into a lot of the other leftist stereotypes. And the worst of these is “Non liberals are not creative.”
Think about it. Go over bestsellers and major movie directors. Count the percentage of conservatives. If conservatives were a race with those percentages in ANY industry everyone would be screaming “discrimination” Absolutely the same with music and art.
The left’s explanation for this — just like their explanation for why there are few conservative professors “conservatives are dumb” said with more or less class — is “conservatives are not creative. They are conformists. Of course they’re not artists.”
And we — by the repeated appeals to the right to be “creative” buy into this myth and beat ourselves up with the idea that none of our own are producing anything worth promoting and selling.
Ye sweet angels and fishies. Let’s analyze that, shall we?
How creative is the latest Hollywood love story where she’s sensitive, caring and some sort of an activist, and he’s uncaring until she converts him to her — liberal, of course — point of view? Or the latest “Us troops are to blame” story?
What’s actually happening is that most popular entertainment has become stultifyingly UNcreative. I stopped watching TV when I could tell not only how the show was going to end, but also which turning points there would be, step by step, in the first five minutes. I watch very few movies anymore for the same reason. I USED to live with a book in my hands. I USED to buy something like twenty, thirty books a month. Nowadays I have half a dozen authors on my pre-order list and I often have trouble finding anything else new to read. At least in fiction. I have retreated to non fic — where the bias is often as obvious, but more filterable — and to re-reading the old stuff. Not because I don’t want new stuff — I do — but because the new stuff is BORING.
I don’t want you to think it’s because I don’t like different political opinions. There are plenty of writers who are good despite being left loony. Plenty of musicians — groan — who are great despite their lyrics being.. well… insane left. And I don’t want you to think I’m one of those people who always prefers the familiar to the old. I’m very not that way. In fact, I spend considerable time LOOKING for new stuff and being disappointed.
When the whole point of a story is that men are bad… even if it were a point I agreed with — it’s not. People are people — it would be BORING. The point has been made over and over and over again. Not only is there nothing new about it, there is no risk involved in making it. Not long ago I heard a book hailed for being “against racism.” It was, apparently, a brave piece of speaking truth to power.
Will you tell me who the overt racists in power are? (Don’t count inverse racism.) Will you tell me how this woman could be speaking truth to power when NO ONE IN POWER would dare say anything against it, much less swat her? Same for feminism, prejudice against the handicapped, etc, etc.
On the other hand, let’s look at the type of personality it takes to come through our schools — with their indocrination machinery — and emerge a conservative. Conformist? Non creative? Only in liberal minds!
I know they — and a lot of conservatives — say we prefer “real world” work, like doctors or engineers or… Yeah, maybe. Maybe that comes to an extent with the personality that analyzes things. BUT the sad fact is some of us are vocationally inclined to art despite what our mode of learning, etc. might be. Artistic bend, (like mental illness with which it’s often associated) runs in families. In my nearby relations, we have musicians, painters, poets, writers and a game designer. (A new form of the disease, I suppose.) We do read a lot about history and science, but our work is mostly in what everyone would consider “artistic.”
What we’re seeing is a situation in which the left are the ones who hold the power but behave as if those in power were still — if they ever existed, I’m seriously beginning to doubt it if only because I see what they write aoubt what is hapening now — the “old right” who believed in women barefoot and pregnant, different races in different places and sex firmly in whatever closet it belonged in.
This is very sweet if you are a liberal artist. First, everyone up the chain of command, including those in actual political power — even Republicans bow to PC — believe exactly as you do. Second, they will tell you how brave you are for challenging power. So you get the benes of establishment AND being a rebel. And all you have to do is be willing to parrot “daring discoveries” that have become part of the social ethos decades ago. (Which either has to mean you believe in them or you have no conscience and, of course, you have a very high threshold of boredom.)
Except for co-opting the rebel myth, this is not an unusual situation. Aristrocracy always rewards their pet artists.
It might be simply the way things are in the long run of human history. And I wouldn’t bat an eye, except for the obvious fact that conservatives too buy into the liberal stereotypes.
Don’t. We are creative. They’re by and large conformists. Unfortunately, they are “the man.” And “the man” will keep you down unless you “sell out” to them. (Irony meant and tongue firmly in cheek.)
Portia and Wolla Dalbo, there is presumably still a market out there that is under served. The obstacle is lack of attention (encouragement) to non-ideological and anti-collectivist art.
We know that there are groups who talk about anti-collectivist ideas and can move huge volumes of books, movies tix etc. The problem is, they are housed in churches, and so tainted.
The question is how to create mainstream groups without religious affiliation who are interested in consuming these works as a social experience, the equivalent of Oprah’s Book Club.
I argue that the ability to have someone with whom you can talk about a work and what it means is at the heart of a consumer experience that produces big sales volume.
Could there be such a thing as a conservative women’s magazine?
Could there be a movement for men’s book clubs that would read general fiction? This was the heart of the Harry Potter phenomenon: boys would read them.