Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Audacity, Hope, Etc. (Prologue)
Several months ago, while the Democratic primary was still raging, I made a promise to myself that when a candidate was finally selected, I would do some “know thine enemy” research by reading either The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama, or It Takes A Village by Hillary Clinton. If I were locked in a room with only those two books, I’d pick up Hillary’s book first. But hey, I didn’t get much say in who was selected to be the nominee.
Anyway, a couple days ago I put a paper bag over my head and went to the library to pick up The Audacity of Hope. I managed to get out without anyone recognizing me, thank goodness. Now I’m using the most recent issue of National Review as a bookmark, or as a convenient outer cover, whichever is more appropriate for the situation in which I find myself.
I have asked myself several times recently why I insist on torturing myself. The simple reason is that I want to know first-hand who this guy is, what he believes, and what he intends to do to this country. I’ve learned that if you can’t speak with someone directly, the best way to get into their head is to read their writing. Sometimes the writing is impenetrable, sometimes it’s murky, sometimes it’s crystal clear, and even if the content itself fails to enlighten, the style, the straightforwardness or lack thereof, and the language used tends to give valuable information about the person’s mindset and paradigm. Obama’s book seems halfway between crystal clear and murky, simply because without some grounding in the history and the language of progressivism, it sounds like an offer you can’t refuse. Why can’t we all get along? Do you really not care about your neighbor? When did you stop beating your wife?
My intent is to do a post about each chapter, more as a selection of reactions and comments as they come to me, rather than as essays. Something may blow up into an essay, but I’ll deal with that if it happens. We’ll see how long the informal style works.
-----
The Prologue:
The first thing I noticed is that it is well-written, and there is no ghost author. This is pure, unvarnished Obama (up to editing, obviously). But there can be no claim that the words here are not his and his alone.
It’s part “I’m so cool, everyone wants to be my friend”, part “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”, part “We’re all in this together” collectivism foreshadowing. It has an air of excessive sincerity that only politicians and car salesmen can achieve.
The thing that concerns me the most is the seeming immersion in progressive rhetoric and ideology. He acknowledges cultural problems, and hasn’t really commented on solutions for them yet (it is the prologue, after all). Then he goes into the modern equivalent of “a chicken in every pot” rhetoric (living wage, health care, etc), implying that if we all band together, presumably with government leadership, we can get it all straightened out. The thing that popped to mind during that passage was how much he sounds like the real live socialists and communists I know. The rhetoric is the same.
I’m trying to decide if I’m seeing what I expect to see in it, or if it’s actually there. Thus far, it feels like the guy is nothing more than progressivism from the last 100 years, warmed over, repackaged, and represented for an audience ignorant of it’s own history. However, I acknowledge at this point that I’ve got rhetoric and no specific policy points, which I assume are coming. I am sure the following chapters will enlighten me as to if my assumptions about progressive policy points reliably following progressive rhetoric are accurate.
Comments
-
When you’re through, we’ll take up a collection for soap and brush, so you can get the slime off.
I appreciate not having to read it myself (I doubt I’d have the patience).
Mrs. du Toit | 6/25/2008 03:55 PM CDT -
Why can’t we all get along?
Because some people don’t want to get along, and if we try to force them to do it anyway, then it’s not reasonable to call their behavior (or our choice to force unwanted behavior on them) “getting along” anymore.
Do you really not care about your neighbor?
Of course I care about my neighbor. That’s why I don’t want to force him to spend more than half his earnings on things he doesn’t get to choose and is almost certain to disagree with in many cases. Why don’t YOU care about your neighbors that much?
But then, I was literally born in the epicenter of American leftism, and grew up not merely surrounded by such nonsense but even believing most of it myself in my foolish younger days, so perhaps I’ve just had more practice refuting it.
Matt | 6/26/2008 05:24 PM CDT -
God.
It is a far, far, better thing than any anthropoid has ever done.
I salute you.toad | 6/27/2008 07:58 AM CDT -
I just can’t force myself to try and “learn my enemy” by reading their twaddle ... raises my blood pressure too much.
The only reason that BHO is where he is today ... as distinguished from the huge mass of Latter Day Socialists ... is good ole affirmative action. I haven’t heard one single new comment out of him ... just the same old recycled socialist-pretending-to-be-a-liberal bushwah.
Scary times, these.
We survived Carter, can we survive the ressurection?pete in Midland | 6/27/2008 11:37 AM CDT
