8 thoughts on “The Barack Obama Cargo Cult”

  1. By this logic the Reagan cult collapsed in 1982, and the Clinton cult in 1994; Obama’s approval ratings are as good as theirs were at the same point in their first terms.

    People who pay little or no taxes voted for Obama in overwhelming numbers, while the taxpaying middle class as a group gave him the fewest votes of any income group. This supports the stereotype that Obama voters, in general, are the recipients of entitlement payments and government largesse, while the Tea Party/anti-Obama activists are the ones footing the bill for that largesse.

    This is a fantasy. The federal income tax is not the only tax, and the recipients of the vast majority of entitlement payments — citizens over 65 — were the only age group to vote for McCain over Obama.

  2. As liberals will claim when convenient, Medicare and Social Security aren’t taxes – they’re investments in our future. With massive downwards redistributionism wedged in. But ignore that aspect, as usual.

  3. I suspect Obama’s poll numbers are higher than his actual support. That is, I suspect he’s liked personally much more than his policies (or else people are afraid for PC reasons — the racists! — to express personal disapproval of him to pollsters).

    Just look at Congress’s approval numbers, bearing in mind Congress has been executing his will without the benefit of his blackness, his slim good looks, his resonant speaking voice and erudite, thoughtful manner. People hate Congress. But I think that’s more reflective of what Obama’s numbers would look like if he himself looked more like Harry Reid.

    Now not too dissimilar arguments could be made — were made — about Reagan in 1982, Mr. Teflon himself, and maybe they were true. (No such arguments were made about Clinton, to my recall). But Reagan and Clinton bounced back, the former because his policies worked and the economy came roaring back, the latter because he triangulated and stabbed his lefty friends in the back. Assuming Jim despises the thought of Obama triangulating, he can only hope that Obama will discover a second, heretofore unknown Promised Land for which lefties have been searching these past five centuries: a massive command economy route to Reagan levels of economic boom.

    It may happen. Nothing is impossible. But I’d bet on quantum black holes from the LHC swallowing the Earth first.

  4. By this logic the Reagan cult collapsed in 1982, and the Clinton cult in 1994; Obama’s approval ratings are as good as theirs were at the same point in their first terms.

    And why shouldn’t Barry’s approval numbers be good? Single-handedly, he has ruined the Demonrats and discredited the progressive agenda for a generation. Heck, I’m tempted to give the kid a kudos or three myself…

  5. “discredited the progressive agenda for a generation?”
    That’s wishful thinking. People like Jim don’t get it and won’t get it. Some Americans are a net cost to our society. Not a net benefit. And these folks are happy to be taking from others. Some are very wealthy and manipulate the legislatures to put $$$ in their pockets. Others of them are poor and vote themselves welfare. Still another class votes themselves government jobs. Meanwhile those of us in the productive private sector who give more than we take, are getting screwed by the parasites, looters and moochers.

    We haven’t even won the damn mid-term elections yet – the margin of voter fraud remains to be seen. We didn’t get in this mess quickly and we won’t get out soon. Back to my first point – only time will tell if we get TANSTAAFL or not. The human tendency want something for nothing is very powerful. And its what the socialists depend on.

  6. “By this logic the Reagan cult collapsed in 1982, and the Clinton cult in 1994; Obama’s approval ratings are as good as theirs were at the same point in their first terms.”

    That is quite reassuring. Both Reagan and Clinton had inherited economic troubles from their predecessors but things had turned around a lot more by this time in the election cycle, nonetheless, both Reagan and Clinton had major setbacks in Congress requiring adjustments in their governing programs. One can yet hope for the same this time.

  7. And the cargo cultists, like Jim, incapable of understanding the moral difference between their worship of John Frum and the island Christians’ worship, proclaimed the two paths towards prosperity to be equal and equivalent, thus inadvertently demonstrating that cultural relativism is not solely an affliction of the postmodern.

  8. That’s wishful thinking. People like Jim don’t get it and won’t get it. Some Americans are a net cost to our society. Not a net benefit.

    Point taken. I will amend my statement to: “…discredited the progressive agenda for a generation among those who, unlike Jim, are a net benefit to society”.

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