Be Not Idle

This one’s real, so believe the hype.
“Don’t Believe the Hype” is the sequel.
- a song by SNAP! playing on a rap by Public Enemy

Since neither my candidate nor my runnerup made it through the primaries, I watch the remaining candidates with interest and sometimes apprehension.  I must say I don’t like the tone of the campaign, even if it has an overall “hopeful” tone. If anecdotal evidence is to believed, including the comments from young voters in my area, Barack Obama very likely will become the next President of the United States. If so, he will have done it by appealing to people’s yearning for hope and a better future. It’s a clever strategy in many ways, but it’s also a deeply flawed one.

First, he’s going to displease many people. It’s not merely that he can’t please everyone, which goes without saying. By using vague terms like “hope” and “change”, he’s convinced voters - especially first-time voters - that he represents hopes and the changes THEY want. Perhaps some have looked into his voting record and expect his future behavior to mimic the past. However, I’ve been watching campaign coverage and shaking my head over comments by many Obama supporters. They sound positively unhinged. (And I use “positively” in both its denotations.)

For what is too much for you, meddle not, when shown things beyond human understanding. Their own opinion has misled many and false reasoning unbalanced their judgment. - Sirach 4:22-23

Whenever I hear emotional supporters waxing eloquent (or incoherently babbling) about how Mr. Obama makes them feel, I don’t get it. I keep thinking of Charles Guiteau, the man who assassinated President Garfield. Guiteau was mentally unstable, possibly schizophrenic. He tried to improve himself in various ways, including joining the “Christian” Oneida Community which practiced wife-swapping.  He shot Garfield because he believed the president wasn’t giving him the government job he deserved.  That was in 1881, when by all accounts voters believed politicians were public servants and not the Second Coming.

Unfortunately, the Obama campaign is acting like a church revival. Although he’s done nothing to equate himself with the Messiah, Mr. Obama does nothing to moderate the tone of adulation. I don’t mean the bizarre episode of the crowd applauding when he blew his nose. (Mr. Obama himself looked thunderstruck at the weirdness.) 

His supporters have embraced a religious motif. Campaign posters show Mr. Obama with a halo of light, with divine rays shining from his countenance.  One popular ad is a music video in which supporters literally sing his praises with a chorus of “O-ba-ma” that mimics to a T the gospel refrain of “Je-sus” and “Praise Je-sus” that echoes in Christian churches. 

I doubt it’s unintentional.

I wait for Mr. Obama to step out from the hype and say he’s not a messianic figure. Maybe he could dust off the old term “catalyst of change” from a previous Democratic candidacy (although I can’t remember if it was as recent as John Kerry or as far back as Paul Simon). At any rate, his supporters could get back to calling for votes to support him instead of sending out a call to worship.