For the first time ever in my adulthood, in my political life, in my existence on this planet, I have made a donation to a Republican political candidate.
It felt... not so strange, really. OK. It has not turned me into a right-wing Bush-loving fundamentalist lunatic. Nope.
It just meant I thought $25 to Senator John McCain to fund his unscripted, open questions from anyone bus tour was a good idea.
If the Democrats had a candidate who was able to do anything coherent without a teleprompter and a speech in his hand, this wouldn't have been something I would even have considered.
Originally posted in the comments of Larry Johnson's NoQuarter. Edited for posting here.
I am, frankly, amazed that none of the press and so few of the Democratic bloggers are writing about the frightening strategic underpinnings of what Obama did to win the nomination, and likely will do to attempt to win the general election. This is not "my horse didn't win the race" blarney of a disheartened Clinton supporter. No, the Obama’s campaign brilliant bloodthirstiness raises warning signs for anyone who understands that, underneath all of scrapping and fighting for political power within this hybrid democratic-republican system of ours, there is something unshakeable and unmoveable about core human values such as freedom, democracy, individualism, truth, and honor. For, when the situation is looked at with alert, skeptical eyes, it appears all too clear that the ghostwriters of the Obama Campaign story learned the lessons of this moment's three prequels well. Unfortunately for America, those three prequels are the book Animal Farm (George Orwell), Hitler's rise to power in 1930s-40s Germany, and the rise of Oprah-style Marketing in the mid-1990s. His campaign has been based on these three strategies:
Animal Farm (Orwellian): If you haven't read Animal Farm, perhaps you might want to go read it now. It's short, gripping, and chilling, and was and should be required reading to graduate from high school. Obama's campaign learned the lessons of Animal Farm well. It uses double-speak and triple-talk to make words mean the opposite of what they mean, while taking advantage of the desires within less critical people's emotional framework for transformation and happiness. “Hope” and “Change” have become touchy-feely good-sounding emotional touchstones, repeated over and over in a consistent yet brilliant message, presented in an emotional backlit logo that appeals to the aspirations in all of us, designed to allow the words to take on whatever personal meaning diverse audiences want them to, meaning nothing while meaning everything all at once. The Obama campaign has never attempted to provide any rational or reasoned factual basis that Obama has in fact ever produced any real hope or change in the past, save for the lovingly-crafted symbolism of his personal background. “Moving beyond the partisanship of the past” has become the new Animal Farm-esque phrase that in the bad old days was labeled “not taking a stand, saying anything to anyone to make them vote for you, and triangulating an issue.” While Obama’s campaign deliberately enlisted northeastern-based “noblesse oblige” media oligarchs to halo-light the symbolism of his rather ordinary birth to an American free-spirit and a Kenyan intellectual, it also sent out “salt of the people” politicans such as South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn to smear his primary opponent and her husband (two-term Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and the 42nd President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton) as racists. The strategy worked shockingly well. After the South Carolina primary, Obama's percentage in the African American vote increased from a 55/45 split to a 90/10 split in most all the remaining primaries. In a final use of the lessons from Animal Farm, he uses sweet and courtly language against his opponent and women in general that “innocently” reinforces established anti-woman and anti-feminist stereotypes. He deliberately and divisively used existing memes to turn his opponents strengths into weaknesses: toughness and tenacity were trumpeted as “does and says anything to win.” Started off the negative campaigning with "Harry and Louise" conservative-style attacks on his opponent's universal health care plan while pushing the storyline that the opponent is being negative and using the "Republican playbook." What's next? We are already seeing Sen. Obama use the next wedges: accusing Sen. John McCain of questioning his patriotism (code for racism) and “innocently” using subtle and not-so-subtle age-related smears. The Animal Farm Revolution is almost complete. Are “some animals are more equal than others"?
Hitlerian: The fascist movement in Germany of the 1930s and 1940s demanded three things: a radically new ideology that said the way things had always worked was wrong, a profound sense of personal devotion and undying loyalty to an almost God-like central charismatic figure, and crushing, top-down control of imaging, communication, and symbolism of the new movement. Sound familiar? Sen. Obama’s campaign is selling millions upon millions of Americans the idea that there is a new way of doing politics that somehow has never been thought of before in the past 4000 years of recorded human history. It matters not that the factual record shows that Senator Obama has not actually produced any results this way in any of his elected positions, nor has he actually developed much of a reputation for reaching across the aisle to get things done, nor has he actually spent any time learning how to operate the levers of powers in Washington by which things do actually get done. None of this matters, because the mission was to find an idea that sells and to attach it to the man, enabled by a brilliant and machiavellian understanding of emotional need within human nature for everyone to just "get along." Obama hates debates because debating is not the point. Understanding the issues, having rational, intelligent alternatives, and being able to defend them in the public square is not the point. There will be no give and take with Obama, no debates, for he isn't interested in his ideas, only in fanning a flame of adoration that consolidates his authority. We have seen it throughout the campaign: the overt emphasis on powerful, sexy, and glitzy symbols (the beautiful O logo with the waves of the flag, and the simple fact that Obama stays thin and fashion-model-esque as a method of pushing a celebrity-esque adulation of himself.) He uses deeply resonant yet rationally shallow tools to hold mindsway over vast legions of people too hopeful, innocent, and trusting. He uses the tools of charisma-goguery well: the swooning choreographed rallies, the means nothing yet anything messaging, the insistence on breaking allegiance to anything that came before -- all serve the maintenance of the charismatic leader. And all are elements of the Hitlerian rise to power. “First he came for the b--ch, and I said nothing, for I was not a b--ch. Then he came for the old guy, and I said nothing, for I was not an old guy. Then he came for me. Why was there no one left to help me?”
Oprahmian: Obama has learned well at the knee of his secretive, masterful billionaire mentor. No "dirt" appears about Oprah Winfrey in any media because to get within 1000 miles of working with her you sign multi-page confidentiality and non-disclosure forms. She has absolute control over her message, her branding, and her empire. A marketing genius, she crafted a warm, sassy, vulnerable stage personality that has convinced millions of middle-aged white married women that she is their One True Source, in spite of the fact she has nothing at ll in common with them on virtually any level: she is obscenely wealthy ($50 million dollar estates are nothing to her), has never married, has no children, and who knows what else about her that remains out of bounds. Even her charity work is done a continent away, in South Africa, away from the prying eyes of American investigators and reporters. Oprah is smart. Oprah can Do No Wrong because there exists no independent critique on her anywhere. Obama has learned her tools and seeks to emulate her successes.