Barack Obama, the tragic hero
Strapped in, Barack Obama at the wheel, you and I are in for a wild ride, aren’t we? This ride is going to knock us about a bit but, in the end, we will come out all right.
The mistake Mr. Obama and his allies have made was in failing to let John McCain, like Herbert Hoover, idle the car of state four more years at the filling station. Only four more years: then they just might have had enough political fuel to drive us all full speed together up the mountain and over the cliff. As it is, they could not wait, and Mr. Obama has taken the wheel and pulled too soon out of the station. This car’s half-filled tank is consequently destined to run dry, leaving Mr. Obama to walk the last mile to the cliff alone in his own shoes.
The irony is that the inexplicably, impenetrably angry Mr. McCain had stood eager at the pump—his hair white, his face red, a mad grimace marching across his famously empathetic face—to fill that tank to the brim, given only a chance.
Mr. Obama seems an honest, exceptionally intelligent man whose millenial belief is that his socialism can redeem a fallen world. Because in fact his socialism cannot redeem it, the year 2009 will be remembered as Act I of a dramatical tragedy of Shakespearian proportions. Let us call the play Obama, as Shakespeare might have done if he had lived to see cars, filling stations and the modern welfare state. Mr. Obama is writing the play’s lines even as we speak.
Conservatives know that the kinds of things Mr. Obama wants to do simply will not work. Mr. Obama’s most earnest intentions will not avail him. Fundamentally, though Mr. Obama correctly believes in human dignity, he incorrectly believes in human equality and disbelieves in the pervasive consequences of the Fall. Thus the fall will be his own.
See the slogan on the masthead.
The Republican party is not what will defeat Barack Obama, the tragic hero. Events are what will defeat him in the end.
HJH
P.S. You and I have have heard repeatedly that Bush is Hoover, but this is mere wishful thinking on the Democrats’ part. The correct analogy is that McCain is Hoover. Bush by this admittedly strained logic is Woodrow Wilson and Obama is George McGovern. You need not bother however to explain all this to the next dazed Democrat you meet, for Democrats’ Obamanian illusions, not having yet met the harsh test of reality, remain still impervious to mere wisdom, reason or historical lesson. Come 2010, may it be so soon, these dazed Democrats will learn.
One almost feels sorry for them. In this Indian summer of 1968, as it were, that 1968 is almost over—permanently at last—is not something they yet realize.
—Howard—
March 5th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Howard, this was an uplifting and inspiring post, one that I would, in most part like to agree with fully. I hope it is as you project.
I have to disagree most strongly with you on one point, however, where you have written, “Mr. Obama seems an honest, exceptionally intelligent man…” I cannot imagine how you can think BO to be an honest man. Every thing he does shows calculated fraud and deception. He is an accomplished liar, far exceeding the average politician. He is truly a snake charmer. To call him an honest man is an insult to honest men everywhere. I do hope you will retract this affront to us all. I object to being lumped into the same category with BO!
To go one step further, I might observe that traditonal tragic heroes were pretty classy folks. They did the right thing, even at great personal cost. Earlier this evening I read a post over at American Thinker that described the gift exchange between BO and Gordon Brown, PM of Great Britain during Brown’s recent visit. Brown gave BO a fancy pen holder carved from the timbers of a particular historic naval vessel, a sister ship of one whose timbers are found in a desk already in the Oval Office. In return, BO gave Brown a DVD of classic American movies. Pretty cheap! The man has no class at all! As head of state, he simply does not get it.
March 17th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Dr.D:
You have been right about other things in the past and so I cannot deny that you may well be right about Mr. Obama. Certainly I am susceptible to charm, whether snake charm or of the more honest variety. Nonetheless, my flawed read of Mr. Obama as of this date is that he has excelled throughout his life at finding a way to make his way forward among all kinds of people. To me this is an admirable trait.
That Americans should elect to the presidency a man about whom we truly know so little is one of the stranger national political developments in my memory. Not knowing was an excellent reason to deny Mr. Obama the White House, but now that he has it I for one am prepared to let him start with his reputation intact.
Your remarks are warmly welcomed. It is always good to hear from you.
Regarding the tragic heroes, it seems to me that you make a valid point.
Howard
August 24th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
[…] you realize that, following a last, brief Indian summer, dated January through July, 2009, the awful spirit of the seemingly never-ending year 1968 passes […]