General Discussion

2013-11-16T16:21:58+00:00

The current troubles of the Obama presidency can be read back into its beginnings. Rule by personal charisma has met its proper fate. The spell has been broken, and the magician stands exposed. We need no pollsters to tell us of the loss of faith in Mr. Obama's policiesand, more significantly, in the man himself. Charisma is like that. Crowds come together and they project their needs onto an imagined redeemer. The redeemer leaves the crowd to its imagination: For as long as the charismatic moment lastsa year, an erathe redeemer is above and beyond judgment. He glides through crises, he knits together groups of varied, often clashing, interests. Always there is that magical moment, and its beauty, as a reference point. ... In trying to grapple with, and write about, the Obama phenomenon, I found guidance in a book of breathtaking erudition, "Crowds and Power" (1962) by the Nobel laureate Elias Canetti. Born in Bulgaria in 1905 and educated in Vienna and Britain, Canetti was unmatched in his understanding of the passions, and the delusions, of crowds. The crowd is a "mysterious and universal phenomenon," he writes. It forms where there was nothing before. There comes a moment when "all who belong to the crowd get rid of their difference and feel equal." Density gives the illusion of equality, a blessed moment when "no one is greater or better than another." But the crowd also has a presentiment of its own disintegration, a time when those who belong to the crowd "creep back under their private burdens." Five years on, we can still recall how the Obama coalition was formed. There were the African-Americans justifiably proud of one of their own. There were upper-class white professionals who were drawn to the candidate's "cool." There were Latinos swayed by the promise of immigration reform. The white working class in the Rust Belt was the last bloc to embrace Mr. Obamahe wasn't one of them, but they put their reservations aside during an economic storm and voted for the redistributive state and its protections. There were no economic or cultural bonds among this coalition. There was the new leader, all things to all people. A nemesis awaited the promise of this new presidency: Mr. Obama would turn out to be among the most polarizing of American leaders. No, it wasn't his race, as Harry Reid would contend, that stirred up the opposition to him. It was his exalted views of himself, and his mission. The sharp lines were sharp between those who raised his banners and those who objected to his policies. America holds presidential elections, we know. But Mr. Obama took his victory as a plebiscite on his reading of the American social contract. A president who constantly reminded his critics that he had won at the ballot box was bound to deepen the opposition of his critics. A leader who set out to remake the health-care system in the country, a sixth of the national economy, on a razor-thin majority with no support whatsoever from the opposition party, misunderstood the nature of democratic politics. An election victory is the beginning of things, not the culmination. With Air Force One and the other prerogatives of office come the need for compromise, and for the disputations of democracy. A president who sought consensus would have never left his agenda on Capitol Hill in the hands of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/11/16/when_the_obama_magic_died_120680.html

Post removed Sat Nov 16, 2013, 12:21 PM Nov 2013

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Post removed (Original Post) Post removed Nov 2013 OP

Is this your retirement piece? JaneyVee Nov 2013 #1

wow. what a misleading, right wing hit piece. cali Nov 2013 #2

Do you agree that: cali Nov 2013 #3

nice RW smear job. some gems; dionysus Nov 2013 #4

JaneyVee

(19,877 posts)

1. Is this your retirement piece?

Reply to Post removed (Original post)

Sat Nov 16, 2013, 12:24 PM

Nov 2013

Please, just a reminder: he will be president the rest of 2013, all of 2014, all of 2015, all of 2016, and a month into 2017.

cali

(114,904 posts)

2. wow. what a misleading, right wing hit piece.

Reply to Post removed (Original post)

Sat Nov 16, 2013, 12:28 PM

Nov 2013

I certainly don't shy from criticizing the President but this is almost entirely a pile of shit.

cali

(114,904 posts)

3. Do you agree that:

Reply to Post removed (Original post)

Sat Nov 16, 2013, 12:31 PM

Nov 2013

President Obama hypnotized voters into supporting him?

Because that's what this dog shit piece is saying.

dionysus

(26,467 posts)

4. nice RW smear job. some gems;

Reply to Post removed (Original post)

Sat Nov 16, 2013, 12:31 PM

Nov 2013

"But the Reagan presidency was about America, and never about Ronald Reagan. Reagan was never a scold or a narcissist. He stood in awe of America, and of its capacity for renewal. There was forgiveness in Reagan, right alongside the belief in the things that mattered about America—free people charting their own path."

"It was after a walk on the White House grounds with his chief of staff, Denis McDonough, that Mr. Obama called off the attacks on the Syrian regime that he had threatened. If he had taken that walk with Henry Kissinger or George Shultz, one of those skilled statesmen might have explained to him the consequences of so abject a retreat. "

who the fuck you think you're fooling with this shit?