Squaring the Culture

I’ve been laying off Barack Obama because I’ve pretty much decided that I know who he is, and don’t need to flog a dead horse, even if he’s riding one to the White House. However, Friday’s speech in which he slipped up and displayed his contempt for middle America has pried me back out of the closet.

In case you missed any of the furor over Obama’s gaffe last Friday, cruise over to Lou Minatti’s blog for a fascinating photo essay on Obama in his own words, beginning with this lively headline to the right.

We’ve seen this sort of contempt exposed in public before. Recall the string of sting operations staged by TV news journals to expose the supposed bigotry of middle America at NASCAR events and convenience stores. Or recall John Kerry’s woefully inaccurate observation about how a failed education can get you stuck in Iraq. Or Bill Clinton claiming that the government must keep its surpluses because the people “won’t spend it right.”

As a young liberal in high school and college, I held plenty of all-night gab fests with friends solving the problems of the world, and I continued to engage them as I was going through my religious and intellectual transformation. It was only in retrospect, late in the transformation, that I spotted the core belief that eventually came up in every discussion. It went like this:

“The average person in the street has not the faintest idea how to run his life…”

Because I’d said similar things, and because I knew the context of this statement, I also knew the unstated final clause to the sentence: “…but I do.”

The central belief of American liberalism, then and now, is that the liberal knows so much better than the average person what that person needs to do to make his or her life meaningful and safe for the planet that liberals must be given the means to control those men and women, and to instruct their children to reject their parents’ backwards, unthinking, religious instruction. The core of liberalism is hubris. It’s not an occasional flaw in the character of most liberals; it’s the core of their religion.

I should not have to point out how completely contrary this notion is to the spirit of the American Republic, in which every citizen is free to live according to his or her own conscience. The core belief of the religion that produced our nation’s Constitution was that every man, woman, and child owes his or her conscience to God alone. Ultimately, the foundation stone of American liberty is the Priesthood of the Believer.

One need not necessarily be a Christian to agree with the principles embodied in the Constitution, although frankly, it helps. However, I think it’s clear that one cannot believe “the average person needs someone like ME to tell them how to live” and still uphold universal suffrage and individual rights as guiding ideals. They may think of those as nice ideas, but will sacrifice them every time for their real, core issues. By virtue of the things most leading Democrats believe in their guts, Democrats will always, always favor tyranny over liberty.

Obama’s comment comes as a result of a curious dichotomy in his public persona. Obama’s public persona is carefully crafted to hide his true beliefs, as we’ve seen throughout this campaign. What he believes appears to be as close to hard-left ideology as one gets in America. However, his rhetorical power as a speaker comes from the sense he gives the audience that he’s speaking from the heart. That’s difficult to put on; he probably accomplishes it by speaking about things he really does believe, which would explain why his effort to hide his beliefs would require that his speeches remain unspecific. This means that in every speech, he’s taking the risk that his genuineness might expose something most people can’t swallow. Every now and then, he screws up. That’s what happened this Friday.

I wish there were a way to get this message across to the rank-and-file of the Democratic party, the average Democrat in the street who swallows and echoes the sound bites fed to them by their cynical leadership: “They don’t believe a word they’re saying to you, and they’re laughing at you for believing it.”

A hat tip to The Anchoress for pointing me to Lou Minatti’s photo essay, and for some thoughtful exposition on the topic herself. Also, pay attention to Ed Morrissey as he draws attention to how the press will try to divert attention from the core of arrogance, which at some level they have to know is their true Achilles’ heel.

Snob poster from Obi’s Sister, who took it from My Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, who got it from Michelle Malkin, who got it from a reader of hers called “Tennyson.” The word “incestuous” comes unfortunately to mind.

Update: Amused Cynic has a very funny collection of reactions to Obama’s comments entitled “Nothing makes an angry liberal angrier than being laughed at,” including a spoof on NPR human interest stories and a mock news story involving Hillary Clinton emptying 300 rounds into a human-shaped target. Snort-worthy for the bitterest small-town white…