Celebrity Apartheid Week: the Cult of Personality

When people elect a leader, they want someone who- at the very least- can manage their country, if not be a consummate statesman like Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln or Sir John A. Macdonald.


What happens when they get a celebrity instead?


If there is anyone who embodies the qualities of a vacuous self-promoter it is Barack Hussein Obama, the forty-fourth president of the Union.


How did the Americans go from this:

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

To this:

“Lately, we’ve heard a lot of professional politicians talking down these new sources of energy,” .... “They dismiss wind power and solar power.  They make jokes about biofuels and electric cars.  They were against raising fuel standards because apparently they like gas guzzling cars better.  We’re trying to move towards the future, and they want to keep us stuck in the past.”
...


“If some of these folks were around when Columbus set sail, they probably would have been founding members of the Flat Earth Society. Maybe they would have agreed with one of the pioneers of the radio who apparently said, “Television won’t last. It’s a flash in the pan.” Or one of Henry Ford’s advisors who was quoted saying, “The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only…a fad.” I can’t prove this, but I do not think that man got the promotion he was looking for. They might have even sided with one of my predecessors, President Rutherford B. Hayes, who reportedly said this about the telephone: “It’s a great invention but who would ever want to use one?” I hear that quote kept him off Mt. Rushmore.”

It would be one thing if Obama was honest about not being scientifically-minded but his snide insinuations that anyone who dares question the dubious merits of solar and wind power on an industrial scale as a total ignoramus serves to show the levels to which he would sink to hide his own ignorance while putting others down. It's the kind of ploy an uninformed pundit might use to sound superior until reality hits him like a cold splash of water. It must be why he is tapping into the strategic petroleum reserves.



But I digress.....



Obama, perhaps the least vetted candidate in US history, has come up with such gems as "our planet began to heal", "fifty-seven states" and "Austrian" as a language. He declared he would meet the mad theocratic state of Iran without pre-conditions, can count his vote against the Born Alive Act as perhaps the only active thing he has done in his time as senator aside from being present and lost the US' much-coveted triple A rating. He stymied the much needed Keystone Pipeline and took the time to call political puppet activist Sandra Fluke 'for his daughters'.


Have you ever heard such pretentious twaddle?


One could go on and on about his inexperience, idiocy and vanity. Anyone looking on this train wreck of an administration can arrive at plethora of conclusions ranging from gross incompetence to deliberate ruination of the free world.



But what does it say when the electorate refuses to see what is right in front of them?



It's one thing when Obama promotes himself, however shamelessly and without the substance to back it up. When others gush about his abilities, mythical or actual, the effect he has on the world and how everyone should feel humbled to just be in his presence, Obama becomes less of a legendary statesman and more of a movie hero whose make-up is removed in the same trailer as his body double.



Obama is Spock? Was Spock the most useless member of the Enterprise's crew, a shameless braggart and did things that defied logic? From what I've seen, Obama is one of the most divisive and illogical commanders-in-chief to occupy the Oval Office. How logical and tolerant is it to threaten the Catholic Church, open one's heart and mind to academic race-monger Derrick Bell and screw Americans out of affordable gas? As Spock would say, illogical.

How could anyone confuse me with him? Illogical.

I don't want to know what Chris Matthews' bent is or listen to any more of doddering Joe Biden's slobbering praise of his running mate. These are just two examples of how utterly absurd the cult of personality surrounding Obama is. It is without fore or afterthought.



If Obama cannot be praised, he must be excused. Tired of his poor leadership and equally weary of cries of racism, much of the American electorate does wonder why the country isn't moving in the right direction. George Bush (who hasn't been in the White House since 2008) is as good a whipping boy as any but will anyone believe that by the end of this year (if they still do)? The Great Political Hope and Change mannequin is the reason why gas prices are high, why the coveted triple A rating has been revoked and why relations with both Israel and Canada, traditionally two of the US' allies, are strained. Is it racist to point out that Obama's refusal to drill for oil or trade for Canada's oil has made him look foolish and Canada's prime minister Stephen Harper come out swinging? Pax Canadiana, anyone?


Obama's erstwhile supporters can either accept their incredible error of voting for this empty suit in 2008 or they can continue living in denial and try avoiding the inevitable realisation that their vote and their reason for that vote was a failure.


It's up to them. Smoke and mirrors don't last.



Speaking of cult of personality....



Nothing says "leadership of ludicrous proportions" like the third in the Kim dynasty, Kim Jong-Eun. Is this a satire or is it so close to North Korean propaganda that it's scary? You decide.







Two leaders whose authority is without question (or else!) and will lead their countries into a new age.



I won't hold my breath.


(With great thanks)