45 Comments

1. ridgerunner:

Who could possibly object to these youngsters demonstrating their deep understanding of public policy? And under that cover, the organized format spreads. And then the message changes to something hostile.

Oct 3, 2008 - 4:37 am 2. Lifeofthemind:

There is a stream; one could call it a tradition, of pseudo militaristic posturing in the black community. Think of Marcus Garvey and his feathered hat. Urban youth wear militarized clothing and rank insignia. This is not the same as the counter culture adaptation of cast off uniforms in the 1960s. That was a rejection of the values of the military and even a feminization of the trappings of power. Those of the white pacifist left have persistently misjudged this in assuming that Blacks were their allies when the Blacks were not seeking to eliminate power but to acquire it. At first thought these youths in the video were part of The Nation of Islam’s highly militarized Fruit of Islam.

To some extent this phenomena may be derivative of forms that were prevalent in the wider white community during the late 19th century to 20th century. Funny costumes and regimentation became the province of John Phillip Souza and the Pasadena Doo Dah parade. This has no connection to the functional discipline of the real military. Cub scouts and Boy (and Girl) Scouts focused on practical skills and leadership development. On the Net I have read that the emphasis has increasingly shifted to self esteem building, with a drop of enthusiasm by some children and parents.

Oct 3, 2008 - 5:06 am 3. wretchard:

Despite the packaging differences, what unites the “Sing for Change” video and the one above is that they are Obama-centric. Like Buick and Cadillac. Both by General Motors. Interestingly, the source of authority in both cases is not the US Constitution, nor even God nor Country. It’s Obama. Obama’s going to lead us. Obama’s going to inspire us. O-ba-ma. Of course, Obama has not got nothing to do with this wave of adulation. It’s all spontaneous you see.

But my personal problem with all this is that I regard Obama as just a man, someone who in principle is my equal. More than that, I regard him as the mere equal of any of these young men in the Urban Community Leadership Academy video: fed with the same food, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as Obama is. That principle is what democracy is all about. And I’m beginning to wonder whether that isn’t what the election is all about.

Oct 3, 2008 - 5:16 am 4. Panday:

Ah. Obamajugend. How nice.

Oct 3, 2008 - 5:32 am 5. qwerty1:

What if Senator Obama wins and these “next architect” do not become architects? What does the future hold if the disappointment is wide spread?

Oct 3, 2008 - 6:03 am 6. Bart Hall (Kansas, USA):

Does this not provide at least a bit of insight into what Obama’s mandatory “volunteerism” will be like?

What strikes me increasingly about Obama is the extent to which he is mentally and emotionally entrapped in his college years. His proposal for a nuclear freeze and sharp warhead reductions is right out of 1982, even if those reductions already occurred half a generation ago.

His social and community organizing is straight out of eastern Europe 25 years ago, as this video demonstrates. My in-laws are from Hungary, and the east Europeans want nothing more to do with this sort of thing. Ever.

The world has changed. Obama remains stuck in his college years. Not unlike all the anti-war Baby Boomers at the heart of the Obama campaign, who remain unable to flip their mental calendars past 1970.

Oct 3, 2008 - 6:11 am 7. Cetera:

I can’t believe how creepy and crazy it is that they enter the room chanting “Alpha, Omega” for Obama. He really does have supporters that are more cult-like than political supporters. Limbaugh was way out in front of everyone when he started mocking BHO as the “messiah.” These jokers actually believe it.

Revelations 21:

3
I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them (as their God).
4
He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, (for) the old order has passed away.”
5
The one who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then he said, “Write these words down, for they are trustworthy and true.”
6
He said to me, “They are accomplished. I (am) the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give a gift from the spring of life-giving water.

Oct 3, 2008 - 6:18 am 8. goesh:

Obama is their father, is that what this message is? Given the obesity of some of them, they certainly haven’t suscribed to Obama’s health care pland now have they??

Oct 3, 2008 - 6:21 am 9. wretchard:

What if Senator Obama wins and these “next architect” do not become architects? What does the future hold if the disappointment is wide spread?

I honestly think that if Obama becomes President, the example he has provided illustrating that a person isn’t inherently limited to any arbitrary limit will be his greatest contribution to history. But it will also be the greatest potential source of betrayal. The morning after he wins everyone in the video above will discover that while Obama lives in the White House, they will still live in Kansas City. The problem with Obama’s campaign is that there is too much of magical about it. I think readers in the Third World will immediately see where I’m going. It’s easy to make people in the Third World believe in magic.

But what appears to be magic is really, on closer inspection, effort and sweat. Obama has worked hard and has been helped by political correctness. He has also been aided by luck. But to an outside observer his progress may appear effortless. So they’ll think it’s easy. And when they discover it isn’t, that’s when the sense of betrayal sets in. How many attendees at this Community Leadership Academy think they’ve been vouchsafed the magic formula? The one they came for? How many will be disappointed to discover they haven’t really received it?

Nothing so parts a person from his money as a miracle. The greatest miracles are those who can effortlessly abstract money from your wallet. I knew a crooked pastor back when. He wasn’t always a pastor. Before becoming a man of the cloth he was the administrator of a public school teacher’s pension fund, which he thoroughly looted. Then, having paid off a judge to ensure he escaped the puny toils of Philippine justice, he decided, after a decent interval, to become a preacher man, where he did a roaring trade confiding the secrets to salvation to the credulous, in exchange for consideration. Of course, it’s doubtful whether he knew the first thing about salvation. But that made surprisingly little difference; he provided the appearance of knowing something. And in this world, pretending to know is almost as good as actually knowing, at least when before those who don’t know better. Barnum dictum that “there’s a sucker born every minute” is the most profound and cynical commentary of the human condition ever written.

Oct 3, 2008 - 6:23 am 10. Habu:

Obamajugend

Oct 3, 2008 - 6:26 am 11. slade:

Did someone mention transnationalism.

Generally speaking, the transnationalists tend to emphasize the interdependence between the United States and the rest of the world, while the nationalists tend instead to focus more on preserving American autonomy. The transnationalists believe in and promote the blending of international and domestic law; while nationalists continue to maintain a rigid separation of domestic from foreign law. The transnationalists view domestic courts as having a critical role to play in domesticating international law into U.S. law, while nationalists argue instead that only the political branches can internalize international law. The transnationalists believe that U.S. courts can and should use their interpretive powers to promote the development of a global legal system, while the nationalists tend to claim that U.S. courts should limit their attention to the development of a national system. Finally, the transnationalists urge that the power of the executive branch should be constrained by judicial review and the concept of international comity, while the nationalists tend to believe that federal courts should give extraordinarily broad deference to executive power in foreign affairs.…

“Read the whole thing”. I’ve been slow to get on the Supreme Court Boat as one of my top tier issues, but I’m there now. As confirmed by “ic”, this Paulson Plan as revised extends protection to European Central Banks.

h/t Elephant Bar

Oct 3, 2008 - 6:32 am 12. slade:

But what appears to be magic is really, on closer inspection, effort and sweat. – Wretchard

Unless you have a special friend in high places.

[S]ometimes we’re only looking at academics or people who’ve been in the [lower] court. If we can find people who have life experience and they understand what it means to be on the outside, what it means to have the system not work for them, that’s the kind of person I want on the Supreme Court.

We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that’s the criteria by which I’m going to be selecting my judges.

I think it is fair to say that we DO know a good deal about the man behind the curtain of sing-alongs and magic. Don’t know if he can pull a rabbit out his hat but I expect he can stack a deck.

h/t Elephant Bar

Oct 3, 2008 - 6:44 am 13. kaba:

Because of Obama they may all be vaporized in a terrorist borne flash of destruction.

Oct 3, 2008 - 6:54 am 14. slade:

Barnum dictum that “there’s a sucker born every minute” is the most profound and cynical commentary of the human condition ever written. – Wretchard

The Middle Class disappeared as the country became polarized between suckers and cynics. The huge surprise of the last two weeks was the overwhelming opposition to the “Plan” (those pesky plans – damned if you do and damned if you don’t). It obviously didn’t come from the suckers and the cynics aren’t usually that vocal. So I am guessing the Middle Class made a stage appearance.

Which is good in the long run.

As the media sweats bullets trying to merge the streets of Main and Wall into one integrated national psyche with overlapping interests. While Wall St blows smoke up the @ss of Main St, Middle America is standing fast.

Oct 3, 2008 - 7:08 am 15. Zim:

I remember in high school how some of the kids worshipped idols like Ozzy Osborne, Madonna (the veiny, fake British accented one) and assorted sports figures.

Once there was a rumour that Ozzy had been killed in a car accident and one the the “metal Heads”, a skinny-stringy haired blond kid who was repeating the 9th grade for the third time broke down in sobbing tears in the middle of Art class. The guy was inconsolable.

This kind of idol worship isn’t unusual for this age group. Puberty sucks, and many cast about for role models to follow because the ones at home have failed them or aren’t even around.

Now the 40 year-old parents in the children singing videos, that’ creepy and alarming.

Oct 3, 2008 - 7:23 am 16. ozymandias888:

Obama Youth. Or perhaps Greater American Youth Movement (GAYM). The organization could train and recruit for an adult Storm Regiment. The key might be the disbandment of Boy Scouts (due to refusal to admit gay troop leaders, perhaps), and a monopolization of those activities under the the GDJB (pardon me – the GAYM – the GDJB was the Grossdeutsche Jegendbewegung, aka the Greater German Youth Movement, aka the Hitler Youth. I don’t know how I could confuse the two.)

Oct 3, 2008 - 8:04 am 17. Eggplant:

It seems the response time to Wretchard’s blog has been really slow the last couple of days. Are the moonbats running a DoS attack against it?

William Kristol has written another excellent Op-Ed, refer to:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/643llejs.asp

To summarize it: McCain has taken a significant political hit due to the economy. Sarah Palin has performed well and McCain’s campaign is poised for a comeback provided the House of Representatives votes through the bailout. One may disagree with the wisdom of the bailout (I do) but having the Messiah as President would ultimately be far worse for the economy. If the only way to keep the Messiah out of the White House is to vote for the bailout then the bailout should happen.

Oct 3, 2008 - 8:32 am 18. slade:

Service problems started last evening just before the debate.

On-going.

Oct 3, 2008 - 8:36 am 19. fred:

slade,

With justices like Harold Koh on the Court, we are definitely headed in the direction of civil war. If you rescind, even gradually in pieces here and there, the founding document and contract that the American people have with their government and WITH EACH OTHER, such a radical alteration of our identity can only be cataclysmic.

The nation is sleepwalking into a catastrophe.

Oct 3, 2008 - 8:59 am 20. fred:

Harold Koh and his compatriots on the Court are playing with fire. If catastrophe happens and we lurch into civil war, people like him will be frogmarched up the gallows’ steps.

On a certain level, I don’t think these people – the socialists and transnationalists – fully understand what they are doing. The consequences of their grab for power will be sanguinary for the nation and for themselves.

And to think that law school administrators who hire and promote people like Koh think he’s wiser than Thomas Jefferson????

Oct 3, 2008 - 9:04 am 21. Alexis:

That makes one wonder what kinds of remoras are swimming with the big Shark.

Song of Mack the Knife (Three Penny Opera):

Und der Haifisch, der hat Zaehne
Und die traegt er im Gesicht
Und Macheath, der hat ein Messer
Doch das Messer sieht man nicht

Loose translation:

Oh the shark, he has teeth
He bares them in open
And Mackie has a knife
A knife he keeps hidden

Can Americans wind up with Mack the Knife in the Oval Office?

Yes we can.

Oct 3, 2008 - 9:05 am 22. NahnCee:

Surely *that* would be an impeachable situation.

Oct 3, 2008 - 9:16 am 23. Roderick Reilly:

fred:

I don’t share your optimism about Americans going into open rebellion over the possible changes under an Obama administration. The kinds of freedoms that will be curtailed are simply not widely practiced by a majority of Americans. A bumper sticker I saw a few months back said it well, “Go Ahead and Take Some of My Liberties, I Wasn’t Using Them Anyway.”

However, severe economic troubles coupled with continued imposition of massive undocumented immigration, along with other types of transnational phenomena that ordinary Americans can feel at a personal level, may fuel enough anger to cause an upheaval.

Other things that could cause great anger are: 1) Hard evidence of massive voter fraud, particularly if illegal aliens end up voting by at least the tens of or hundreds of thousands. 2) Quality jobs leaving the country at an accellerating rate due to punitive taxes and regulations on corporations.

Keep in mind that the media will largely trumpet the administration’s and the left’s spin on those events: 1) they won’t report the voter fraud if they can help it, and 2) I have heard some Democrats in Congress proposing prosecuting corporations or their CEOs who attempt to move business overseas. The corporations will be tagged as the “villains,” and to a lot of ordinary people in bad economic times, they couldn’t care less as long as they have that coveted job, and the future consequences be damned.

Oct 3, 2008 - 9:27 am 24. Roderick Reilly:

To follow on my last comment:

I am not a defeatist, but am trying to be a realist. The good fight for American liberties should be fought, but we must think in terms of creative alternatives that maintain and restore personal freedoms (including eceonomic freedom) despite a government onslaught.

I don’t know off-hand what the specifics of such “creative alternatives” would be, but I can envision a kind of stealthy “virtual secession,” where many people and communities find ways to “drop out” of large portions of the functions of society with alternative schools, alternative employment (especially a lot of self-employment), creating new sectors of the underground economy, etc. At the same time, this “new American community” would encourage military service for its young. As it is, the kinds of people who are likey to go for this “secession” includes a majority of those who tend to fill the combat portions of our armed forces already. The latter point is to reinforce the spirit of the 2nd Ammendment by making sure that a disproportionate number of American citizens who have military experience belong to this new “other America,” and that the sentiments of the armed forces continue to be largely similar to those of the “secessionists.”

Crazy idea? Yes, but think: America’s powers-that-be have cavalierly allowed 12-20 million undocumented aliens into our midst, where, unlike that silly Bushism, they are not operating in the shadows, but in broad daylight, often with respectable jobs and decent housing and entire communities. As a matter of fact, they may now comprise a plurality of our working class. If millions of actual citizens began living “outside the law,” what would the elite and the government mechanisms they control really do? I’m not saying that they will do nothing, or not be alarmed — especially if the left holds the levers of civilian power — but it would be a major crisis for them that they may not be willing to combat effectively.

Democrats control Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and Wall Streeters are mostly moderate Democrats and liberal Republicans. Why shouldn’t a more conservative and libertarian ideology control the military?

Oct 3, 2008 - 9:45 am 25. Habu:

The diseased mind; a terrible thing to waste.

Obama amoeba ebola.

The anagram aspect of the Obama amoeba ebola was first discovered during the presidential campaign phase of the diseases onset. Obama went from leftist to centrist and began entering the bloodstream of acolytes and even small children. Defeat at the polls is the only known cure.

Oct 3, 2008 - 9:54 am 26. slade:

Right now the House vote on buying “trust” for $700B is pending.

Much of that trust could be regained if professionalism and responsibility could be reintroduced into government. While I expect this is unfair and closely related to the hysteria that is gripping the nation, I can’t help but contrast the input and performance of the economists with that of Congress.

To that end, I agree with others that this heinous bill should be passed, but not for technical reasons. One has to balance the “slim silver lining” that the money will be repaid with a possible profit to the taxpayer base with the near certainty that some measure of trust will be re-established.

Whether it is a trip wire or a tight wire, it’s going to be a white-knuckle decade.

America will not fail, but only if we forget that it could.

Oct 3, 2008 - 9:58 am 27. Habu:

Mr. Reilly,

It should be pointed out that the rights you so easily dismiss were not written for simply one generation, and the millions of citizens and millions of armed forces that have died supporting those freedoms are now cursing you existence. You further compound your cavalier attitude toward our rights by taking an unalloyed Marxist position of placing economics before the rights you believe can simply be trashed and never missed by the citizenry.

Well, Mr. Reilly, bumper sticker philosophy 101 isn’t much of an education as you have so adequately proved. If you choose not to exercise your rights then you can obviously do so.. But if you begin to impinge on the freedoms I have fought for as generation before me have fought for then you have dug your own grave.

No one is going to “take MY liberties” without a spirited rebuff of that attempt. You, I would imagine, will be at the mall.

Oct 3, 2008 - 10:17 am 28. Konyok:

Roderick Reilly said to fred:

“I don’t share your optimism about Americans going into open rebellion over the possible changes under an Obama administration.”

Optimism that Americans would engage in political violence against other Americans? Optimism?

fred is too timid to even TALK politics to a real person in front of him, but nourishes dreams of “frogwalking” leftie academics.

How about you guys get off of your asses and get to work?
There are 30 days to the election, stop your simpering and get ‘er done!

(Perhaps drinking some Georgian wine might clear your heads … )

Oct 3, 2008 - 10:37 am 29. Konyok:

Of course Mr. Reilly might be hard at work.

Dezinfomatsia dlya pobyeda sotsializma!

Oct 3, 2008 - 10:40 am 30. veracious:

ozymandias888:

Ya, Hilterjungen, but even more the Brown Shirts to be. Allow the power shift – or else. To be translated into the Waffen SS, in time. Wise tyrannies are sure to divide the power of the nation into more than one agency. So they can be played against each other. The most loyal agencies receive the newest toys, mostly used to oversee the unfaithful.

Perhaps I’m too cryptic, the SS had a larger component the army of the SS, the Waffen SS. This army grew in size to nearly equal the Wehmacht and was given the best toys.

Even before all this, the proper military headquarters of the Wehmacht (OKH), filled with proper military leaders, was softened by the formation of the politically correct OKW.

The founding fathers didn’t want political parties & certainly not just two effects. These two just point their fingers at each other, pretending the other did it. While both do mostly the same things, offering no real deltas.

It’s all about metaphors; pattern recognition…

Oct 3, 2008 - 11:27 am 31. Ex-fetus:

Didn’t bother me at all. I buy my ammo by the block. I saw a target rich environment that needed servicing. It would be illegal today, but maybe not tomorrow. And if not tomorrow, then one day soon.
With Ohio allowing anyone to vote, this will be another 2000 election, with the results being determine by a judge in December or January. Maybe this time we can make the switch from ballots to bullets and finish this for at least one generation. Or go to the system they used when I was last in the PI, where voter registration drives meant Thompsons being used on those that might vote against you.
I figure it wouldn’t take but a week to 10 days before the left decided that going back to ballots was a good idea and that vote rigging was NOT ever going to be an Olympic event.

“Revolutionary war is an antitoxin which not only eliminates the enemy’s poison but also purges us of our own filth.”
- Chairman Mao Zedong (Tse-tung)

Oct 3, 2008 - 12:00 pm 32. bobal:

One hopes Obama’s health care plan includes weight loss focus groups.

Oct 3, 2008 - 12:01 pm 33. Konyok:

This morning I overheard a loud conversation about last night’s debate between two college girls on the bus. One very pretty young mixed race student was telling her companion: “I just don’t want an uneducated person in that position. She doesn’t even have a law degree!” I was trying to keep my nose in my book, but that made me chuckle to myself. When the talkative one went on to say: “You know, Hitler was elected in a democratic election. They just want to vote for somebody just like them.” At that, I had to turn around and ask her what significance the statistic had that ~95% of African Americans are polled as supporing Barack Obama. She went blank for a moment and responded that not ALL of them vote on the basis of race.

I pose to the club this question: What significance does this appearance of the Nazi trope on all sides have? Is it some kind of weird desire for wish fulfillment? Is there some kind of will to chaos afoot in our country? Have we simply reached a toxic critical mass from Hollywood images? Anomie?

With a month before the election we have supposed adults posting revolution fantasies on this forum – fight or flee? The first few times I thought maybe it was cathartic, but, the election is a month away!!

The presidential election in the world’s most successful and long lasting constitutional republic is a month away and people who think enough of their own opinions to post them in this forum are nonchalantly talking about overthrowing or seriously weakening the inheritance from our forefathers because they feel a pea under their mattress and yet, they themselves have been too passive, lazy or inattentive to remove the damned thing.

Our republic is not founded on personalities, but on institutions and processes. If we allow our opponents to take those institutions because we are either too lethargic to act or too paralyzed by perfectionism to seek out allies, it is our own fault. If we damage or destroy our civic institutions in a belated effort to evict our opponents, it is all the more our fault and we are in mortal risk of becoming the greater evil ourselves.

Conservatives! Master thy selves! Man up! Put aside the dark reveries and get thee to work!

Oct 3, 2008 - 12:09 pm 34. whiskey:

Konyok — the results of an Obama victory would be catastrophic. I don’t think as a practical matter there will be ANY rebellion, rather simply total control, given the urbanized, Westernized, rather comfortable life people lead.

Witness Georgia.

What is likely to happen in an Obama Administration is first, massive and permanent funding of ACORN and La Raza to the tune of billions, creating a hard-left organization exploiting racial grievances and such against the White Middle Class.

But more important, we will see a massive influx of aliens from Mexico, offered instant amnesty and citizenship. To permanently stack the deck, to a permanent Democratic majority by simply erasing the current 65%-75% White Majority by importing Mexican citizens as American ones.

What is likely to happen then is low-level animosity by Whites made sudden minorities (and despised ones at that) in their own country. As minorities (and despised ones) there won’t be anything major they can do, but that tension will be there.

Oct 3, 2008 - 12:38 pm 35. fred:

Konyok,

My experience has been that a lot of attempted political discussions and debates among ordinary citizens degenerate into emotional nonsense. They stop listening and they tell you that you are not going to change their minds. I tend to keep a tight reign on my emotions and try to be rational with people. But that only works with people who are similarly rational.

I actually got my wife to see how dangerous Obama is, but my wife is a lot like me, calm and rational. But just yesterday my wife witnessed a shouting match at work whereby one woman was actually shouting at another, “You’re voting for McCain? You’re an ill-educated idiot and a traitor to us women!” My wife retreated from that scene when she heard it. The Obamabots are nasty and they are emotional. My wife’s sister and husband are like that too: full-blown BDS, with all the attendent elation over hope and change.

Unnecessary conflict is a waste of energy and time. And you cannot cancel out a lot of people’s intellectual sloth.

Oct 3, 2008 - 12:39 pm 36. Konyok:

fred,

Verbal confrontations are “unnecessary conflict,” but political violence is OK?

Back to first principles, my friend. What is it that we want to defend?

Oct 3, 2008 - 12:44 pm 37. Konyok:

whiskey,

So, therefore, what? We go all chicken little with 30 days left?

Oct 3, 2008 - 12:46 pm 38. bobal:

I pose to the club this question: What significance does this appearance of the Nazi trope on all sides have? Is it some kind of weird desire for wish fulfillment? Is there some kind of will to chaos afoot in our country? Have we simply reached a toxic critical mass from Hollywood images? Anomie?

I’d say too many people with too much time on their hands thinking things in time have some ultimate importance.

Those chubbies in the video don’t seem to be a vanguard revolutionary formation to me. But then, idle hands are the devils workshop, and, never give a rifle to a melancholy bore.

Oct 3, 2008 - 12:46 pm 39. El_Heffe:

Eggplant said:

“To summarize it: McCain has taken a significant political hit due to the economy. Sarah Palin has performed well and McCain’s campaign is poised for a comeback provided the House of Representatives votes through the bailout. One may disagree with the wisdom of the bailout (I do) but having the Messiah as President would ultimately be far worse for the economy. If the only way to keep the Messiah out of the White House is to vote for the bailout then the bailout should happen.”

eggplant accurately summarizes the Kristol piece … but I disagree with Kristol.

I think it is a mistake to let the timing of the election rush us, into a wrong headed sollution to a “problem” that has been decades in the making.

I place “problem” in quotes because a case can be made that certain people did this deliberately, and other certain people knew about it and were running interference for it, all for the sake of lining their own pockets at what would ultimately become the american public’s expense. In other words this wasnt entirely an accident, it was done on purpose, and by people that were not entirely ignorant of the consequences. Though the law of unintended consequences also made a brief appearance (ie. public outcry squashing the house bill on monday).

It’s unfortunate that the crisis should come to a head right before such a significant election (though perhaps not coincidental), but short term thinking is bound to worsen the situation over time.

I guess you could say that I want to have my cake and eat it too. See Obama lose in November (I was a Romney supporter early on) and still see us move forward with a well thought out response to the banking mess. I like to think its not an either/or situation, but what is done is done at this point.

Im steeling my self right now to vote against every incumbent on every ballot that I ever encounter for the rest of my life. The idea of term limits is a decent one but the mice that guard the cheese will never do that to themselves, so we will never see it (done right) in law. … But what if mysteriously every time either party runs an incumbent the other party (the non-incumbent) takes the seat. I like to think that eventually the parties would get the message and stop running incumbents. Im talking about a cultural change amont the electorate that would knock the cycle of self-interest out of round at a minimum … maybe even break it.

Oct 3, 2008 - 12:56 pm 40. Eggplant:

El_Heffe said:

“… I disagree with Kristol. I think it is a mistake to let the timing of the election rush us, into a wrong headed sollution to a “problem” that has been decades in the making. ”

Again, I don’t like the bailout either, particularly with all the pork that was attached to it. However if you didn’t like the bailout, then just imagine how much you’ll dislike the legislation coming from a liberal Democrat controlled Congress with the Messiah as President.

We need to keep our eye on the ball. The immediate objective is to keep the Messiah out of the White House. After that we can focus on replacing liberal congressmen with fiscal conservatives.

Oct 3, 2008 - 1:10 pm 41. Konyok:

Ex-fetus,

Mao also said: “The revolutionary army is to the people as the fish is to the ocean.”

I’m sorry. I just don’t see the revolutionary condition. You’re all fired up, but the people aren’t with you.

The only thing that you would achieve would be to hasten the bad juju and make it even more popular. (Timothy McVeigh had heroic music in his head, too. What was the result of Oklahoma City? The constitutionalist cause was set back for more than a decade.)

Can you or whiskey prevent any of the catastrophes that you fear with threats of political violence? Will you inspire the people to rise up and follow your brave example? What levels of collateral damage are you willing to risk? How much collateral damage do you think that you would be allowed before you, yourself are ratted out and shot like a dog?

I surely believe that an Obama presidency would give aid and comfort to our enemies. So, you would advocate that we double his glee with a civil conflict, or, even better, a race war!!

Oh, I guess that you think it would be a quick and clean, surgical affair. We’ll frog march the culprits to the gallows and everything will return to normal.
How in the wide world of sports do you expect me, or anybody else, to have even a molecule of confidence that you would have the political skill or power to return things to “normal,” if you can’t manage a few political victories under constitutional order? How would you control all of the bad men let loose across the land during a civil conflict?

What about our sons and daughters in the military and law enforcement? Shall they abandon their oaths to defend the constitution? Oh, that’s right, you have a purer, more exquisite interpretation of the constitution. (Sounds like taqfir to me … )

Political violence is a profound thing. Only fools contemplate it lightly.

In the here-and-now presidential campaign, the chance that our opponents might capitalize on these intemperate postings weighs more heavily for me than any momentary thrill you might get from them.

First, we work our asses off to elect John McCain. Then we either celebrate or mourn the result. Then we work our asses off to nudge things in a better direction. Only when every, and I mean EVERY, legal effort has been expended will I ever tolerate or entertain talk of political violence.

Oct 3, 2008 - 1:18 pm 42. wretchard:

I pose to the club this question: What significance does this appearance of the Nazi trope on all sides have? Is it some kind of weird desire for wish fulfillment? Is there some kind of will to chaos afoot in our country? Have we simply reached a toxic critical mass from Hollywood images? Anomie?

Obama’s candidacy is at one level a cultural phenomenon, partly because he’s a “blank slate” on which certain people can project their political fantasies. Marginal groups are specially prone to projecting their fantasies. How much of the fantastic emanates from Obama himself and how much from fringe groups attaching themselves to BHO’s star or imagining he is the AntiChrist?

There’s an argument to be made that some of the bad vibes come from Obama’s campaign decisions. Shepherd Fairy, one of his artists has the “Obey Obama” theme. Then there was the logo, the visual themes. Finally there are the Action Wires and the Acorn earmark. The “Sing for Change” video was apparenly produced by a professional crew. So it’s probable that a part of BHO’s campaign at least, is not averse to this cult of personality.

Having said that, at least some of Obama’s opponents wish to see him as Hitler for the worst of reasons. The dilemma is that there may objectively be some reason to think that parts of BHO’s campaign are in fact not salubrious, such as for example, the Ayers people. The problem is how to denounce that type of Obama backer without making cause with the genuine bigots.

Oct 3, 2008 - 1:21 pm 43. Steynian 262 « Free Mark Steyn!:

[...] Marching cadence: ObaMesSiah Alpha?! Omega?! “Yes. We. Can.” [...]

Oct 3, 2008 - 5:41 pm 44. Chicago Boyz » Blog Archive » Foster’s Clip – and Others Floating Out There:

[...] strange results.  Of course, that is why political fervor is both compelling – and disturbing.  Belmont Club discusses [...]

Oct 4, 2008 - 10:08 am 45. New Paltz Journal » Blog Archive » The Obama freicorps prototype:

[...] (Richard Fernandez) puzzles over the video in this post at The Belmont [...]

Oct 5, 2008 - 9:00 am

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