It will be a long, drifting four years thereafter in which we'll all wish for an actual president.I wish these people would make up their minds. That was Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel "right-wing guy" columnist Patrick McIlheran, pondering the End Times following on January 20, 2009.
McIlheran, like a number of his fellow "right-wing guys," has taken to facetiously attributing to Barack Obama qualities and more recently narratives (the "best summary yet," according to McIlheran) from the Gospels otherwise reserved to Jesus Christ. Obama even merits the upper case pronoun "He."
It's confusing, because other "right-wing guys" (and gals) prefer a likening unto Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin.
I asked Rick Esenberg, because he's often the most sensible of the lot, what's up with the Messianic analogies, and he attributed them to Obama's "over the top rhetoric" and "overbearing self importance."
Those explanations didn't strike me as particularly analogous to the Christ of the Gospels — at least not in a flattering sense — but in clarifying, Esenberg dismissed my inquiries because I "don't believe what Christians do," and put the Obama-as-Messiah meme down to his impression that Obama is "acting out of place," hence the facetious Saviour references.
What not believing what Christians do has to do with anything, I have no idea, especially when not all Christians believe the same things. But the upshot, apparently, is that Obama is nothing like a Messiah, and that's why he's being compared to one. Go figure.
Is Obama acting like a Messiah? I guess they think he is.
Over the top rhetoric and overbearing self importance might justify the Hitler and Stalin comparisons but of course they're different comparisons than the ones to Christ. At least, I hope they are.
Christ is introduced into the equation as an expression of sarcasm, Christ being one of the necessary components of the joke, evidently, whereas the conservatives who see parallels between Obama and totalitarian dictators notable for their brutality are actually serious.
But I think McIlheran's got it all figured out: Obama is just not going to be an "actual" president at all. If I didn't know better, I'd think these folks have already — to coin a phrase — given up the ghost, and are working at undermining Obama's legitimacy well in advance.
Bless their hearts.
7 comments:
But the upshot, apparently, is that Obama is nothing like a Messiah, and that's why he's being compared to one. Go figure.
No. It's that he is nothing like a Messiah but thinks yhat he is. The comparison as you belatedly recognize is a sarcasm that goes well beyond the political right.
We need a president who understands that kairos is for queers.
It's that he is nothing like a Messiah but thinks that he is.
You mean you think he thinks that he is.
Meanwhile, McCain is the one campaigning as "A Leader We Can Believe In." It's no fault of Obama's that he is the more charismatic of the two.
Obama of course being singular among candidates for President of the USA in having some powerful sense of self-importance... As if facts and consistency mattered to the spinners, including the (allegedly sensible) torque-obsessed Esenberg.
Still, if anyone should be cynical about a candidate's claimed intentions to effect change, it should be conservatives who thrummed piously to the vibe of Bush 2000: Bringing honor, integrity, and dignity back to the White House. Their mistrust of Obama is understandable. Their lack of a sense of shame, however, and their insinuations that Obama is peculiar in having over-the-top rhetoric, not so much.
What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve Him?
You say messiah, I say meshugana. Let's call the whole thing off.
What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve [h]im?
I told you: Facts don't matter. Consistency doesn't matter. Obama and his people are the ones with the leadership cult. Period.
But at least we are blindly following a higher quality of leader who asks us to learn a foreign language versus someone who has trouble with English.
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