Karl Marx vs the Zeitgeist, or The Concept of Momentum Applied to Politics
August 13th, 2012 - 8:34 am
And here are some of the positive elements:
- Novelty. Barack Obama emerged from nowhere, close enough, presented the freshest of faces on a tired campaign scene.
- Melanin. The prospect of America’s “first black president” (that’s to say, America’s “first half-black president”) warmed the cockles of every liberal heart.
- Mystery. Who was this young, articulate, half-black man? We didn’t — we still don’t — really know. He had no record to speak of and his past was shrouded in a veritable library of sealed documents.
- Showmanship. Obama is a mean man with a teleprompter, no doubt about that. He and his team constructed an inveigling persona. The Greek columns were the least of it. It was a reassuring air of reasonableness, what one liberal friend of mine refers to as Obama’s “pragmatism.” (Yes, in the same sense that Lenin, for example, was a pragmatist.) And fianlly,
- Promises, promises, promises. Obama was going to be
- America’s first post-racialist president.
- He promised that we would cut the annual deficit in half by the end of his first term.
- He promised that unemployment would be under 6% by the end of his first term.
- He promised that his $50 billion bailout of GM would restore the flailing carmaker to profitabilty.
- He promised that the $800 billion “stimulus” package would create “millions”of jobs.
Out of such stuff is momentum made.
In the last two days I’ve read over a dozen reactions from a flock of pragmatic ideological capons (e.g., Davids Axelrod and Corn, an NYT editorialist, a New Yorker sophisticate) who damn Ryan and an ideologue, Tea Party demigod, and radical. Some speak of the many good things he threatens to attenuate (better yet, destroy, shred, uproot and obliterate). Math is not mentioned anywhere. It seems the very word horrifies, terrifies and nauseates these idealists.
It helps that they’re both morons.
Let us hope Messrs. Romney and Ryan don’t hand us a VAT without removing taxation of income (and dividends and capital gains). I say: No VAT, cause even if they do remove those other taxes, they will come back. Also and in the meantime, let them seek to eliminate the big ripoff that is taxation of dividends and capital gains – which don’t count inflation in the calculation of return. I predict that in the name of fiscal responsibility, these two would hand us huge new tax obligations. After all, that’s what Republicans – especially the Northeastern types – do well.
The prime fall back position when losing a debate, or not really understanding a debate, is to call one’s opponent stupid, a moron, retarded, infantile, ignorant etc. etc. etc.
“It helps that they’re both morons.”
John J, if only it were so. Morons they (I assume that you mean Axelrod and Corn) are not. They represent a very cleverly managed and highly effective Big Media/administration cabal that will pound the internet, the press, and the airwaves with an effective non-stop depiction of Romney-Ryan as cold, heartless, radical right-wing extremists from now to election day and the largely uninformed electorate will buy it when the chips are down. Many may unenthusiastically vote for Obama “ ‘cause I sure don’t want to lose my Medicare”. Now we learn that Candy Crowley and Bob Schieffer and their ilk will moderate the debates. What a disaster that promises to be relative to either Ryan or Romney getting out a substantive message. Axelrod probably cleverly stacked that deck and the nitwits at the GOP bought into it. I wish you were correct. If only we were up against morons then I would share the optimism of the author which I do not given that the morons more likely reside in the GOP hierarchy.
Obama and his minions are morons at governing, but they are quite skilled at campaigning and lying, and they will have the MSM to help them. I think we will win, and might well win big, but it wont be easy, and will require constant vigalance and work. They are quite willing to pander and promise anything to win, no matter how unrealistic the promise. The big difference now is at least some former Obama voters remember his promisses from last time, and how they actualy came out. Hopefully enough of the rubes have woken up to see Obama for what he is, and not fall for the same shtick twice.
They say only a brilliant mind can appreciate brilliance. Do you suppose that is also true of a moronic mind? ABO2012
The thing that I keep repeating to myself (as well as in comments) is this:
We do not need or desire the left’s approval or endorsement of our candidate. In fact, the more horrified they are of our candidate, the better indication it is that we are on the right track.
Shove it back in their faces: we don’t want your approval. YOU do not get to decide who represents our views.
See you in November.
We do not need the lefts approval, but we do need to win the middle to get the required winning margin. I beleive we can, because many in the middle are seeing Obama for the failure that he is. But this also means we have to have some appeal outside out own echo chamber, fortunately I think the basic tea party message, properly communicated, is actually quite mainstream.
My favorite blog blast (from a certain RaysZ28_2009) in response to an article about Democrats who think Ryan is a decent guy, although wrong:
“Believe the Lies, Believe the hype! Because this guy has an axe to grind, just as his mentor Adolf Hitler did! He is destroying America from within, and this country will be back to Slave Labor, and picking Cotton. Believe that. his views & radical ideals are that only the strong survive. He believes the rest are sub-humans. Where does that come from? Hitler and the Nazi’s. This guy is even more of threat on American values as he is disguising his real values under false hoods. Wake up America, you’re getting the wool pulled over your eyes by his Big Corporate backed Thugs!”
Can anyone here top that?
Interesting comment, but typical of the guy. (I Googled his username – he offers his pearls of wisdom at a number of liberal websites.) He did present a list of reforms aimed at Congress that I could sort of get behind – term limits, etc. However, he still seems to believe that because Republicans have issues with Obama’s healthcare plan, we want children and old ladies and black people to die in the street. Sadly, he is not someone to be taken seriously.
America has never been more divided.
You are right, and this unprecedented division is a gift from a president who promissed in 2008 to bring both parties together and end division among the races. Instead he has proven to be one of the most divisive leaders in our history, and today is running one of our most devisive campaigns. Yet another broken Obama promise.
I always ignore the ranting of anyone who doesn’t know that Nazism, fascism, etc. were statist, left wing philosophies. That’s so basic that it makes anything else they might say suspect.
Marxism is back and it must fought tooth and nail. Here’s the best response to the new Marxism as embodied in the Left-wing intellectual establishment and in the person of Barack Obama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt58gg1DQGk
Hope you’re right. But there are still a lot of liberals out there who would NEVER vote for a Republican, no matter how screwed-up the Democrat incumbent is. You know he still has the African-American vote. Seems like we’re depending on the “silent majority” again – and you know how dependable they are. I can’t take predications seriously. We’ll only know if America is still infatuated when the last vote is counted.
Bugs is right. My upscale white (a key Obama demographic) friends would never vote a Republican, no matter how qualified, or how bad the Democrat choice is. Because Republicans represent icky stuff like guns and religion and self reliance–and therefore, by their mental extension, murder and racism and greed.
Sigh.
My estimate is about 35% will vote for obama regardless, and about 10% more probably will. That leaves a potential 55% for us. If we get that 55% it will give us a pretty big win. At the very least we must make sure we get 51%, or better yet 52-54 to allow for vote fraud. Fortunately most of the critical swing states have repub governors now, so it is a little harder for the dems to do fraud there. Expected dem fraud in states like CA, NY, and Ill wont matter anyway, since the dems will win there anyway.
For those interested in writing history, take heed: the MOMENT was the Chic-fil-a moment. That’s when we saw the 2010 giant begin to awake from his nap. Now we see the RR ticket being mobbed by polite, neat, clean crowds, everywhere they go, while Obama definitely must be checking his deodorant and mouthwash to see why he’s so alone.
Well, his initials are BO. And so are his “policies”, such as they might be.
Far from being inevitable or even likely, Barack Obama was an accident of history. Despite mistakes by a perhaps over-confident Hillary Clinton, he still could only finish in a tie for the nomination. The Democrat brain trust basically awarded it to him, he didn’t really win it. And despite McCain’s anemic campaign, he basically pulled ahead in September. Whatever her faults, the choice of Sarah Palin energized the base and threw the Obama campaign for a loop. McCain, in my view, basically lost the election after Lehman Bros. collapsed and he “suspended” his campaign to deal with the crisis, then shortly reversed himself. Perhaps his actions made voters feel he was too easily rattled to handle crises. In contrast, Barack Obama appeared cool and unruffled – now we know it was probably a reflection of his habit of voting “present” and/or letting others do the work (like Obamacare and the Stimulus) rather than any indication of some leadership wisdom and/or mojo.
Stuff fell into place for Barack Obama in 2008 and, just like the novice gambler with a run of beginner’s luck at the crap table, he made the mistake of taking luck for skill. The former has probably run out and there never was much of the latter.
“And despite McCain’s anemic campaign, he basically pulled ahead in September. Whatever her faults, the choice of Sarah Palin energized the base and threw the Obama campaign for a loop. McCain, in my view, basically lost the election after Lehman Bros. collapsed and he “suspended” his campaign to deal with the crisis, then shortly reversed himself. Perhaps his actions made voters feel he was too easily rattled to handle crises.”
If McCain had had the sense to let the “too big to fail” institutions fail, then the Tea Party sentiments already stirring would have rallied to him and he would be President. Palin was no error, she was all that prevented a far worse defeat. Without her he’d have lost by 5 points more.
” In contrast, Barack Obama appeared cool and unruffled ”
knowing events before they happen allowed him to enjoy the events taking place that were designed to propel him into power.
“Far from being inevitable or even likely, Barack Obama was an accident of history . . . .”
Hardly inevitable as you point out. Even with the momentum that Roger Kimball notes, 47% of the electorate did not buy into the “lightbringer” myth in 2008. For all of Obama’s blank slate, for all of his teleprompter presence, for all of McCain’s poor campaign, for all of McCain’s poor decision to suspend his campaign and return to Washington and for all of the hatred and animosity directed toward G. W. Bush and lusting for change, Obama still won by only 6%.
Now, has Obama created enough buyers’ remorse that at least 4% of the electorate who voted FOR him in 2008 will vote AGAINST him in 2012?
One additional note. This country was founded by immigrants who arrived here to work and build THEIR future, not to work an build someone else’s future; it’s in our DNA. In pushing the themes of “you didn’t build that” and “shared prosperity” Obama clearly reveals himself as un-American in spirit. He simply doesn’t comprehend that even if one’s income is modest one takes pride in his/her own accomplishments, whether that is educating one’s children, a modest boat on the lake or a small cabin in the mountains. Obama’s own pronouncements refute the hollow Democrat claim to be “for the working man” and those people who work and take pride in that work at any level, have noticed.
In a recent poll (either Gallup or Rasmussen) they asked voters who voted for McCain or Obama in 2008 whether they were changing. About 4%, former McCain voters said they would change to Obama. About 9% former Obama voters said they would go to romney. That gives a net 5% advantage in defections for Romney, probably enough to provide the margin you asked for, since that should give us a 10% swing.
I agree with #6 Obama was one of those perfect storm, improbable series of happenstance, that lead to unmitigated disaster… like the Titanic. The leftist activists like Code Pink and the Cindy Sheehan bunch; plus a complicit media hammering away at Bush day after day after day, left the country in a state of numbness to the status quo politicians, which was their plan. Though it probably worked better than even they imagined.
It allowed them to foist upon the less informed this brand called Obama; shiny, new, different, a breath of fresh air from the partisan bickering. Like new Coke. It wasn’t until after everyone tasted it that they realized it was crap and they wanted to return to original recipe. Even some Democrats, though they wouldn’t admit it openly, wished Hillary had gotten the nod instead of the neophyte. Remember all the leaders in the ‘black community’ that trashed Obama, up until it looked like he might win, then suddenly he was the second coming. I remember seeing a video someone sent me from the tube showing Whoopi Goldberg saying that Obama’s experience didn’t matter, it would be good for the country to have a black president, we can worry about policy later.
Yes, McCain ran a horrible campaign, but he was a horrible choice. The treatment Palin received, which I fully expected the day I heard about the announcement, sitting in a Chic-Fil-A drive through no less, showed that no pick will appease those antagonistic to our cause. Palin didn’t bring any women voters to the party because liberal women voters aren’t for women, unless they wholeheartedly support the party dogma. This is why I’m glad Romney picked Ryan, instead of making some token attempt to appear inclusive by pandering to a certain voting bloc. That really doesn’t look inclusive at all, it looks disingenuous.
“. . . plus a complicit media hammering away at Bush day after day after day . . . .”
Force the Media to Do Its Job: Vote Republican
Welcome on Board Roger. For a year I’ve been saying “Ride Right Through them They’re Demoralized as Hell” as every objective metric and every action by people with actual skin in the game are running away from these guys.
If the media didn’t prop them up, these guys wouldn’t be breaking 40% let alone 50
Obama always has been an empty suit, a media creation of George Soros. Time for the grownups to take back the keys.
It has occurred to me recently that we saw a real political revolution in 1994. Unfortunately many of those elected that year had promised they would not be career politicians, and kept their promises. It is an unfortunate fact that we need the career politicians to get things done in the swamp that is Washington, DC. At this point in time we also need Tea Party members to hold leadership’s feet squarely in the flames.
The Obama implosion was made, not born. It started shortly after the last time the Republicans owned both houses and the presidency, then blew their chance. It was that short span of time that borned the nascent Tea Party.
In the ’08 election many conservatives sat out the presidential election in a conscious efforttyo school the Republicans and the people. The Republicans were to learn the meaning of “representative”. The people were to learn how a Marxist governs under the guise of American style liberalism. The ’10 mid-terms were a stiff swatting of the Republicans and a gathering of a head of steam that will be powerfully directed in November.
This election is a scene is a well coreographed play put on by ordinary people exercising naked sovereignty.
” It started shortly after the last time the Republicans owned both houses and the presidency, then blew their chance.”
The Republicans gained control of both Houses after 50 some odd years, they then – in too many cases – started to emulate the only example most of them knew – the Democrats. That wasn’t why they were elected, the public noticed after a while, and tossed them out. Even now, the have a leadership in the House that wants to be Dem-lite, which longs for the “good old days” when they were in the minority. Get all the perks, and blame the Democrats was their mantra. Too many don’t want to lead or govern.
I should further explain what I meant by stating the 2010 elections were a swatting of the Republicans. As we all know the Republicans made heady gains that year. The notable bit is the rejection of crony capitalism and establishment republicanism. As far as is may raise a question as to why I didn’t say we schooled the Democrats; it is because I believe them to be incorrrigible, beyond accepting advise and instruction. The only good outcome for that party is to join the soviets in the dustbin of history.
Aw man! Mike Mahoney @10 and 11: On my more optimistic days this is how I view the reasons behind events of the past 12 years. Oh God, let it be this is how we’ll see these days through the lens of history. Thanks for writing your explanations so well.
If this scenario plays out, the ‘time-zone’ description will apply to the election of 2012: In the eastern time zone Obama wins no state south of Maryland. Obama wins only four states west of the eastern time zone.
It’s taken for granted that WV and IN are in Romney’s column. If Mike M correctly details the hearts of Americans, Obama will also lose NH, OH, MI, and stay up late for it- even Oregon.
I think a better way to phrase 2010 is the Tea Party schooled the repub establishment in the primaries, and schooled the dems in the general. We did the same in the primaries this year, and I hope for the same in the general.
Back in 2009, a few of us were saying that 2010 would be a referendum on Obama, and that the Dems would be crushed in the mid-terms. It seemed obvious by what we were reading and what we were hearing. In 2012, Obama will lose by a landslide. Again, I’m not a political expert, but what I see and hear every day is … deeper, more intense, than what I was hearing in 2010.
well, O won fools. I know people who voted for the first time in their entire lives. They didn’t know facts, they didn’t know figures, they didn’t even know the minimal bit about responsible citizenry. Since at least one has decided to never vote again b/c he didn’t do what she wanted- I’m good. I’m not sure the other irresponsible first time voters will come out for O.
And that photograph is entirely beautiful. Made my morning!
If Bush was the gutter like Obama says, he sure looks like up from Obama.
Has there been a worse campaign performance than that delivered by John McCain?
No, there has not. We know this because when the NC launched an ad campaign against Barack Hussein attacking his having terrorists, racists and fellow travelers for his mentors, McCain responded by denouncing the ads, warning that state’s Republican Committee to Cease and Resist [no sic] and to pull the campaign immediately.
The war hero shirked his duty to act in the interests of truth and to mount an opposition based on that. This is necessary to have a true opposition party. No candidate has ever quit on a campaign; we’ll see whether Mitt does the same.
This was by no means an easy read but I’m very determined. After reviewing the elements that influenced the outcome of the 2008 elections, the writer should have closed with a fervent hope for a different (read better) outcome. “half-Black president”? Since when has half-black been a racial designation in the USA? “add more than $5 trillion to the federal debt in less than four years” when? how? why? “$800 billion in stimulus money would be spent primarily to line the pockets of Obama’s union supporters”? Un-be-liev-able!! This is/was a petty, disingenuous, partisan, hyperbole-masked untruth presented as journalsim and, Mr. Kimball, you ought to be ashamed. I’ve never read anything by you and after this, I never will.
Obaloney and the Left offer an adolescent world (or “vision”) that looks very much like our colleges and universities. “Diversity,” “Bogus Rights” and “Social Justice” represent emotions with which the Lefties can control us all from the top down.
Romney and Ryan offer us reality: we’re going broke and need to begin to act like responsible adults. We should not condone the killing of innocent life. We have been invaded by millions of illegal aliens and need to defend ourselves.
Obama-Biden does have a superior correlation of farces, however.
what one liberal friend of mine refers to as Obama’s “pragmatism”
That should have been a BIG RED FLAG right there. When a liberal calls someone “pragmatic” that always means the person is a liberal ideologue. (When a liberal calls someone an “ideologue” it means the person does not march in lockstep with liberal dogma.)
Palin was not an “unfortunate” choice – without her, McCain would have been clobbered even worse than he was.
I agree Palin was not the reason mcCain lost, and might have even helped him. But she still made serious errors, and allowed the leftist media to trap her in some embarassing misstatements, and get characterized as not smart. Fortunately I think Ryan will not get caught that way, because he has more national experience, and after going through the “pushing grannie off the cliff” attacks, he is also better prepared than palin was for the dem/msm smear machine. Ryan is also really smart, and cannot be hit with the usual dem “they are stupid” campaign. In Ryans case it will have to be the “he is a crazy extremist” campaign.
Your words to God’s ears, but the media — generally still almost completely in the tank for Obama — are a huge factor. Bob Schieffer and the other lefty boobs as debate “moderators”? Can Romney/Ryan cut through that fog? Here’s hoping, because this is really the armaggedon election.
There is one thing in this excellent article which I must dispute.
“Who was this young, articulate, half-black man? We didn’t — we still don’t — really know.”
No, we know exactly who he is. The King of Pointland.
http://www.alcyone.com/max/lit/flatland/20.html
There is one thing which can beat us, and we know it’s coming: a “Daisy” campaign. What we really need is some group which will parody The One’s attack ads as they come out.
Ideally, I’d like to end with the scene from Rome, reading “Marc Antony” as “Romney”:
“He paints his eyes like a prostitute, worships dogs and reptiles, and dances in vile Nilotic rites.”
There must be some people out there with the ability to do this.
Here’s what Romney should do. Start with the Reagan/Carter debates. Say the name of every presidential debate moderator since 1980, state that they were democrat and state that he/she voted for the democrat presidential candidate each and every time. End with the current hosts and state “you’re both democrats and you’re both going to vote for President Obama”. Then ask, “America, what are democrats afraid of? The answer is, they’re afraid of a fair fight.”
Just more propaganda making all the negatives Obama’s fault. Don’t believe it.
Sure, nothing is Obamas fault. That is one of things that most disgusts me about this president, nothing is ever his fault. He should change the famous Truman sign to “the buck starts here”.
MARX WAS RIGHT!
Historical inevitability runs on the railroad tracks of the planet’s geography and the laws of physics, according to the profile of humans, which includes their nuttiness.
Marx was almost right on that Surplus Value thingy. The surplus value is stolen from the factory’s powerplant and machines and then the owners, managers, and labor fight over it with variable divisions of the boodle. Marx did not look up from his bearded face in the pie to see where it came from and how it managed to be stolen.
MUNICH WAS THE LAWS OF PHYSICS AT WORK
Before going, the RAF chief told Chamberlain that the RAF could operate maybe two weeks and then they were done. The general in charge of the French Air Force told PM Daladier, who went with Chamberlain to Munich, that “You have no Air Force, NO AIR FORCE!” The forces at work in the laws of physics as they played out here were set up by war-hating legislatures in 1920-1938.
Human psychology was ignored by Chamberlain and Daladier. Has they dressed like Field Marshals, roared and slapped tables and wall maps with riding crops while stamping feet of jackboots in making points and delivering blood-curdling threats, endangering the personal sanitation control of onlookers, (this looks a lot like speaking truth to power) the result might have been different. After all, it is often easy to hustle a deductive reasoner who is embedded in an authoritarian belief system.
Reality Check: Obama Administration Refuses To Tell Judge If NDAA is Being Illegally Enforced?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZjXHjkzMD4&feature=plcp
“4. An unfortunate VP pick by John McCain. Unfortunate, I mean, in terms of the moment’s momentum.”
Silly statement. No empirical evidence to back it up. She in fact gave their campaign its only momentum, which the weirdly masochistic McCain seemed bent on squandering, and did.
This is mostly a crock. Roger is mainly sore that his side can’t generate any magic in the populace that the other side can. Where to begin? OK, start with the S&P report on the downgrade of the credit rating (I don’t have the link, I bet you can find it). Look on p.4 on where the blame is: you’ll see the words “REPUBLICAN CONGRESS”. OK… stop yammering.
Are you saying that Obama has absolutely no responsibility in the credit downgrade? Due to Obama’s actions, the Republicans were taking their own action to stop Obama. It’s what congress is supposed to do. Obama’s actions were at fault, regardless of what a report says.
What, hyper-articulate Roger Kimball is reduced to calling Paul Ryan “super-articulate” ? Can Ms. Palin please coin us a new term again?
The promises sure did pile up. Like a train wreck in India.