A cult of personality arises when a country's leader uses mass media to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are often found in dictatorships and Stalinist governments.
A cult of personality is similar to general hero worship, except that it is created specifically for political leaders. However, the term may be applied by analogy to refer to adulation of religious or non-political leaders.
I was in total amusement today when I heard Barry tell the democrat caucus to stay the course and pass healthcare reform and cap & tax bills. What is he thinking? I noticed most of the questions posed were from democrats who are up for re-election in November. Specter, Lincoln, Bennett, Boxer and Bayh to name a few, are in serious hot water. Some are trailing by double digits in their districts. Obama is really desperate to go in front of his sycophants to plead his dying policies. I am still rather suspicious when it comes to the healthcare reform bill. I trust them as far as I can throw them. They exude a persistent arrogance and distain for the American public. We must realize, if they get this healthcare disaster passed, they will go down in liberal history. They have attempted to takeover healthcare for the last 50 years. However, the democrats are not complete fools, (Freudian slip!) they are not going down on the Obama Titanic. It seems his vision of America is not what the American people see as our vision. His Presidency is in shambles, his key advisors are in hot water, testifying daily in front of a bunch of unhappy congressional committees. Rahm has offended the whole mentally challenged community. They will not accept his apology. The problem with Obama is that he believes his own press. He has never been challenged. He has been protected his whole life. Now, he is peeing in the tall weeds with the big dogs. Criticism runs rampant, your every word and move is dissected by everyone. He has a hard time with people opposing his ideas, talking about his ears, promoting a conservative view and he will demonize anyone and everyone. This is what a narcissist does, verbatim. If you have noticed, he will throw you under the Obama bus if you are of no use to his career or agenda. He is the master of the "game of blame." I think President Bush has been such a gentleman and has shown so such class in regards to the Obama administration's onslaught of blame. Another chuckle I had is when Obamamessiah stated that the reason his policies are not popular is because he hasn't explained them clearly and precisely to the American people. This is the same man who has set the number of speeches record. He has never met a teleprompter he didn't like. Yes, he really needs a teleprompter to speak. If he doesn't, he stumbles and says the wrong things and gets himself in trouble. In example, his comment about Las Vegas for the second time. If I were him, (and that is a scary thought) I would never travel to Nevada. Then again, he has done so much for their economy. As a patriotic American, I drive around all day long, burning fossil fuels, and calling my representaives to voice my opinions. They don't even want to take my calls anymore. Please do the same, phone them, email them and visit them. It is your civic duty. It is your country. They work for you. You can fire them next November. "Government is not the answer."
Even the Obama girl is smitten:
Obama Appears Blinded by His Own Ideological Biases
By Jonah Goldberg
"I am not an ideologue," President Obama insisted at his truly refreshing confab with the Republican caucus in Baltimore last Friday. When he heard some incredulous murmurs and chuckles from the audience in response to the idea that the most sincerely ideological president in a generation is no ideologue, he added a somewhat plaintive, "I'm not."
The president's defensiveness isn't surprising. He holds his self-definition as a pragmatist dear, and not just because it polls well.
It's clear from interviews that he is very fond of the notion that he is above ideological squabbles and is a clear-eyed appraiser of facts and adjudicator of political disagreements. He's described himself as a "pragmatist," even a "ruthless pragmatist," countless times.
The evidence offered that Obama is no ideologue rests almost entirely on two contentions: He has annoyed some members of his ideological base, and because he says so.
Here, for instance, is New York Times columnist David Brooks, an Obama confidant and champion of Obama's nonideological street cred, asserting that Obama is loyal only to facts, evidence and logic (a theme Obama echoed in his Q&A with the GOP). Obama, Brooks writes, "is beholden to no ideological camp, and there is no group in his political base that he has not angered at some point in his first year."
If this gruel were any thinner, it would be water. Every president annoys his base. Are we therefore to believe that no president has ever been an ideologue? And how has Obama angered his base? Not by tacking to the center but by not going fast enough in pursuit of their shared common goals.
As for Obama's personal testimony, so what? Is this the one instance in American history when a politician's self-serving statements are to be taken at face value? Besides, how many times have we heard from the left that right-wing ideologues are in denial about what "really" drives them (the answer, we're frequently told: greed, racism, homophobia, etc). Is denial only a conservative malady? Certainly not.
Of course Obama is an ideologue. The important question is whether he is sufficiently self-aware to recognize the truth.
I for one would be horrified to learn that the president is working from the assumption that ideological biases are something only other people have. That is the surest route to hubris and groupthink (which might explain Obama's political predicament).
Obama routinely insinuates that all of the facts are on his side. He invokes a confabulated consensus of experts to suggest that there is no legitimate reason for anyone to disagree with his agenda. After all, with the eggheads and "facts" in his corner, only the other side's ideological blinders -- or stupidity -- could account for any dissent.
On healthcare, for instance. Obama promised to be the last president to ever grapple with healthcare, because his reforms would be so sweeping, so authoritative, that no such reforms would ever be necessary again. So far, Obama's only concession of error in the this fiasco is his failure to "explain it better."
What I really don't understand is what's so great about allegedly value-free pragmatism and so bad about supposedly unthinking ideology? The truth is that the vast majority of the time, pragmatism isn't value-free and ideology isn't unthinking.
Ideologies don't require blinding yourself to the facts; rather, they help you prioritize what you are going to do with the facts. Indeed, the very question of deciding what to be pragmatic about -- this but not that -- requires applying an ideological test.
The president invokes his or America's "values" to justify a ban on waterboarding, passage of universal healthcare, sustaining legalized abortion, higher taxes for the wealthy, gay equality and -- coming soon -- a more expedient system for selecting a college football champion. Those all involve pursuing ideological ends, even if that fact is obscured with rhetorical blather about pragmatic means.
A truly "ruthless pragmatist" might opt for summarily executing enemy combatants after torturing them with hot pokers. He might abandon anyone who can't afford health insurance to rot. He might ban abortion on the grounds that Social Security needs more young people or eliminate college football entirely as a needless distraction and a drain on resources.
The philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote in 1909 that if everyone becomes a pragmatist, then "ironclads and Maxim guns must be the ultimate arbiters of metaphysical truth." Russell's point was that there's nothing within pragmatism to delineate the proper and just limits of pragmatism. We must look outside pragmatism for that.
Our values, customs, traditions and principles provide the insulation against the corrosive acid of undiluted pragmatism. When you bundle these things together, it's often called an ideology, and there's no reason to apologize for having one.
Daft statement of the day:
"She makes enough to pay 200 news reporters $75,000 a year!" demands a veteran producer. "It's complete insanity." CBS Katie Couric's salary
Ego, Obama's Achilles' Heel
By Lloyd Marcus
The Obama regime had all the power: the White House and a majority in the House and the Senate. Team Obama owns the liberal media. Because the media selected him, they have a vested interest in protecting his presidency. Obama also had the American people in his corner; youths considered him a rock star, blacks saw him as their Great Black Hope, and naïve whites thought that casting their vote for a black guy would finally put an end to them being called racist.
Our master of deception president accuses Republicans of standing in the way of his government-run health care plan. In reality, the Republicans do not have enough votes to stop any item on Obama's unprecedented, far-left, radical agenda. Obama believed that he could silence all dissent from "we the people" by playing the race card. Yes, Obama the all-powerful seemed unstoppable. Who could have ever predicted that the weight of Obama's own arrogance would trigger his demise? Ego is Obama's Achilles' heel.
Almost from day one, Obama began unconstitutionally usurping power by nationalizing banks and the auto industry. While deceitfully preaching unity, Obama was like the guy in cowboy movies who stands on the steps of the jailhouse. He masterfully works the crowd into a frenzy and demands that they drag out the accused prisoner and hang him. This is what Obama figuratively did to corporate executives, CEOs and anyone who opposed his agenda. It is not unfair to suggest that the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) thugs who beat up a black conservative at a town hall meeting -- in other words, Obama's posse -- were inspired by Obama's orders for his supporters to attack his opposition by "hitting back harder."
In President Obama, I see a bully. During his State of the Union address, Obama used his (pardon the pun) "bully pulpit" to bully the free market, banks, insurance companies, Republicans, and even the Supreme Court. Obama governs the Chicago way: no compromise -- simply destroy your opponent. Mr. Clout Goes to Washington would be the perfect title of a movie about his reign.
Leadership emanates from the top down. Mary Kay of MK Cosmetics said, "The speed of the leader is the speed of the gang." Obama's number one and two enforcers, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, equal (if not surpass) his unbelievable arrogance. At town hall meetings across America, "we the people" passionately said "no" to government-run health care. As an exclamation point to our national "no," hundreds of thousands of protesters showed up in Washington, D.C. Unbelievably, the Reid/Pelosi tag-team are still conniving and scheming to force Obamacare down our throats. Remarkably arrogant.
While the Obama regime appeared powerful, unstoppable, and spreading "like a green bay tree," a change was happening across America. Americans were awakening from their Night of the Living Dead Obama zombie trance. His speeches are no longer heard by many as the voice of a messiah.
Republican Scott Brown's shocking win in Massachusetts confirmed that Obama's spell has been broken. Even after Obama's emergency visit, the Senate seat owned by Democrats for almost half a century was lost -- a devastating affirmation of Obama's declining power.
But who is responsible for the fall of the "chosen one"? Not the Republicans. While the Tea Party movement has played an extremely vital role, Obama's biggest problem has been his arrogance and his ego. Contemptuously, Obama believes he can use America's ignorance of history and the facts, his superior intellect, and his amazing oratorical skills to ignore the Constitution and the will of the American people. Obama arrogantly remains relentless in his quest to implement his rejected overreaching agenda.
I have received gloom-and-doom e-mails saying, "Lloyd, you tea party folks are just wasting your time. Our government is corrupt and nothing will change it." My response: "So, your solution is we sit on our hands and do nothing. Thanks for sharing."
Despite our big bad president's continued huffing and puffing and threats to blow America's house down, his power is rapidly declining. This is why when confronting evil, one should never give up. Keep moving forward, fighting the good fight, and doing what makes sense and feels right to do. You never know what tomorrow may bring. In politics, as in life, things can change on a dime.
A month ago, freedom and liberty were on life support. Obama's government-run health care, cap-and-trade, and the rest of his socialistic agenda appeared to be unstoppable "done deals."
Today, Obama's promise to "fundamentally transform America" appears to be down for the count. This makes me feel like singing, "The sun will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there'll be sun..."
The Bible says, "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree" (Psalms 37:35). A classic scenario is evil appearing to be all-powerful only to be defeated. Wow, what an accurate description of the collapsing Obama administration.
-Lloyd Marcus, (black) Unhyphenated American, singer/songwriter, entertainer, author, artist, and Tea Party patriot
LloydMarcus.com
Writings of Our Founding Fathers
Federalist Papers
Federalist No. 12
The Utility of the Union In Respect to Revenue
From the New York Packet.
Tuesday, November 27, 1787.
Author: Alexander Hamilton
To the People of the State of New York:
THE effects of Union upon the commercial prosperity of the States have been sufficiently delineated. Its tendency to promote the interests of revenue will be the subject of our present inquiry.
The prosperity of commerce is now perceived and acknowledged by all enlightened statesmen to be the most useful as well as the most productive source of national wealth, and has accordingly become a primary object of their political cares. By multipying the means of gratification, by promoting the introduction and circulation of the precious metals, those darling objects of human avarice and enterprise, it serves to vivify and invigorate the channels of industry, and to make them flow with greater activity and copiousness. The assiduous merchant, the laborious husbandman, the active mechanic, and the industrious manufacturer,--all orders of men, look forward with eager expectation and growing alacrity to this pleasing reward of their toils. The often-agitated question between agriculture and commerce has, from indubitable experience, received a decision which has silenced the rivalship that once subsisted between them, and has proved, to the satisfaction of their friends, that their interests are intimately blended and interwoven. It has been found in various countries that, in proportion as commerce has flourished, land has risen in value. And how could it have happened otherwise? Could that which procures a freer vent for the products of the earth, which furnishes new incitements to the cultivation of land, which is the most powerful instrument in increasing the quantity of money in a state--could that, in fine, which is the faithful handmaid of labor and industry, in every shape, fail to augment that article, which is the prolific parent of far the greatest part of the objects upon which they are exerted? It is astonishing that so simple a truth should ever have had an adversary; and it is one, among a multitude of proofs, how apt a spirit of ill-informed jealousy, or of too great abstraction and refinement, is to lead men astray from the plainest truths of reason and conviction.
The ability of a country to pay taxes must always be proportioned, in a great degree, to the quantity of money in circulation, and to the celerity with which it circulates. Commerce, contributing to both these objects, must of necessity render the payment of taxes easier, and facilitate the requisite supplies to the treasury. The hereditary dominions of the Emperor of Germany contain a great extent of fertile, cultivated, and populous territory, a large proportion of which is situated in mild and luxuriant climates. In some parts of this territory are to be found the best gold and silver mines in Europe. And yet, from the want of the fostering influence of commerce, that monarch can boast but slender revenues. He has several times been compelled to owe obligations to the pecuniary succors of other nations for the preservation of his essential interests, and is unable, upon the strength of his own resources, to sustain a long or continued war.
But it is not in this aspect of the subject alone that Union will be seen to conduce to the purpose of revenue. There are other points of view, in which its influence will appear more immediate and decisive. It is evident from the state of the country, from the habits of the people, from the experience we have had on the point itself, that it is impracticable to raise any very considerable sums by direct taxation. Tax laws have in vain been multiplied; new methods to enforce the collection have in vain been tried; the public expectation has been uniformly disappointed, and the treasuries of the States have remained empty. The popular system of administration inherent in the nature of popular government, coinciding with the real scarcity of money incident to a languid and mutilated state of trade, has hitherto defeated every experiment for extensive collections, and has at length taught the different legislatures the folly of attempting them.
No person acquainted with what happens in other countries will be surprised at this circumstance. In so opulent a nation as that of Britain, where direct taxes from superior wealth must be much more tolerable, and, from the vigor of the government, much more practicable, than in America, far the greatest part of the national revenue is derived from taxes of the indirect kind, from imposts, and from excises. Duties on imported articles form a large branch of this latter description.
In America, it is evident that we must a long time depend for the means of revenue chiefly on such duties. In most parts of it, excises must be confined within a narrow compass. The genius of the people will ill brook the inquisitive and peremptory spirit of excise laws. The pockets of the farmers, on the other hand, will reluctantly yield but scanty supplies, in the unwelcome shape of impositions on their houses and lands; and personal property is too precarious and invisible a fund to be laid hold of in any other way than by the inperceptible agency of taxes on consumption.
If these remarks have any foundation, that state of things which will best enable us to improve and extend so valuable a resource must be best adapted to our political welfare. And it cannot admit of a serious doubt, that this state of things must rest on the basis of a general Union. As far as this would be conducive to the interests of commerce, so far it must tend to the extension of the revenue to be drawn from that source. As far as it would contribute to rendering regulations for the collection of the duties more simple and efficacious, so far it must serve to answer the purposes of making the same rate of duties more productive, and of putting it into the power of the government to increase the rate without prejudice to trade.
The relative situation of these States; the number of rivers with which they are intersected, and of bays that wash there shores; the facility of communication in every direction; the affinity of language and manners; the familiar habits of intercourse; --all these are circumstances that would conspire to render an illicit trade between them a matter of little difficulty, and would insure frequent evasions of the commercial regulations of each other. The separate States or confederacies would be necessitated by mutual jealousy to avoid the temptations to that kind of trade by the lowness of their duties. The temper of our governments, for a long time to come, would not permit those rigorous precautions by which the European nations guard the avenues into their respective countries, as well by land as by water; and which, even there, are found insufficient obstacles to the adventurous stratagems of avarice.
In France, there is an army of patrols (as they are called) constantly employed to secure their fiscal regulations against the inroads of the dealers in contraband trade. Mr. Neckar computes the number of these patrols at upwards of twenty thousand. This shows the immense difficulty in preventing that species of traffic, where there is an inland communication, and places in a strong light the disadvantages with which the collection of duties in this country would be encumbered, if by disunion the States should be placed in a situation, with respect to each other, resembling that of France with respect to her neighbors. The arbitrary and vexatious powers with which the patrols are necessarily armed, would be intolerable in a free country.
If, on the contrary, there be but one government pervading all the States, there will be, as to the principal part of our commerce, but ONE SIDE to guard--the ATLANTIC COAST. Vessels arriving directly from foreign countries, laden with valuable cargoes, would rarely choose to hazard themselves to the complicated and critical perils which would attend attempts to unlade prior to their coming into port. They would have to dread both the dangers of the coast, and of detection, as well after as before their arrival at the places of their final destination. An ordinary degree of vigilance would be competent to the prevention of any material infractions upon the rights of the revenue. A few armed vessels, judiciously stationed at the entrances of our ports, might at a small expense be made useful sentinels of the laws. And the government having the same interest to provide against violations everywhere, the co-operation of its measures in each State would have a powerful tendency to render them effectual. Here also we should preserve by Union, an advantage which nature holds out to us, and which would be relinquished by separation. The United States lie at a great distance from Europe, and at a considerable distance from all other places with which they would have extensive connections of foreign trade. The passage from them to us, in a few hours, or in a single night, as between the coasts of France and Britain, and of other neighboring nations, would be impracticable. This is a prodigious security against a direct contraband with foreign countries; but a circuitous contraband to one State, through the medium of another, would be both easy and safe. The difference between a direct importation from abroad, and an indirect importation through the channel of a neighboring State, in small parcels, according to time and opportunity, with the additional facilities of inland communication, must be palpable to every man of discernment.
It is therefore evident, that one national government would be able, at much less expense, to extend the duties on imports, beyond comparison, further than would be practicable to the States separately, or to any partial confederacies. Hitherto, I believe, it may safely be asserted, that these duties have not upon an average exceeded in any State three per cent. In France they are estimated to be about fifteen per cent., and in Britain they exceed this proportion. [1] There seems to be nothing to hinder their being increased in this country to at least treble their present amount. The single article of ardent spirits, under federal regulation, might be made to furnish a considerable revenue. Upon a ratio to the importation into this State, the whole quantity imported into the United States may be estimated at four millions of gallons; which, at a shilling per gallon, would produce two hundred thousand pounds. That article would well bear this rate of duty; and if it should tend to diminish the consumption of it, such an effect would be equally favorable to the agriculture, to the economy, to the morals, and to the health of the society. There is, perhaps, nothing so much a subject of national extravagance as these spirits.
What will be the consequence, if we are not able to avail ourselves of the resource in question in its full extent? A nation cannot long exist without revenues. Destitute of this essential support, it must resign its independence, and sink into the degraded condition of a province. This is an extremity to which no government will of choice accede. Revenue, therefore, must be had at all events. In this country, if the principal part be not drawn from commerce, it must fall with oppressive weight upon land. It has been already intimated that excises, in their true signification, are too little in unison with the feelings of the people, to admit of great use being made of that mode of taxation; nor, indeed, in the States where almost the sole employment is agriculture, are the objects proper for excise sufficiently numerous to permit very ample collections in that way. Personal estate (as has been before remarked), from the difficulty in tracing it, cannot be subjected to large contributions, by any other means than by taxes on consumption. In populous cities, it may be enough the subject of conjecture, to occasion the oppression of individuals, without much aggregate benefit to the State; but beyond these circles, it must, in a great measure, escape the eye and the hand of the tax-gatherer. As the necessities of the State, nevertheless, must be satisfied in some mode or other, the defect of other resources must throw the principal weight of public burdens on the possessors of land. And as, on the other hand, the wants of the government can never obtain an adequate supply, unless all the sources of revenue are open to its demands, the finances of the community, under such embarrassments, cannot be put into a situation consistent with its respectability or its security. Thus we shall not even have the consolations of a full treasury, to atone for the oppression of that valuable class of the citizens who are employed in the cultivation of the soil. But public and private distress will keep pace with each other in gloomy concert; and unite in deploring the infatuation of those counsels which led to disunion.
PUBLIUS.
Quote du jour:
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
Thomas Paine
References:
http://www.hotair.com/
http://www.wnd.com/
http://www.biggovernment.com/
http://www.newsmax.com/
http://www.drudgereport.com/
http://www.americanthinker.com/
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/
http://www.thehill.com/
http://www.youtube.com/
http://www.foundingfathers.com/
http://www.lloydmarcus.com/
Jonah Goldberg
Library of Congress/Federalist Papers
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