Hello Mr. Kimball,

I’d like to comment, if I might, on the Obama phenomenon, this as one who has now spent 30 months in Iraq as a civilian advisor to the Iraqi police.

My comments, however brief, I think touch upon, however anemically, at least some of the things upon which both you (The Long March) and have Roger Scruton (An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Culture) have already poignantly and mellifluously written.

As has been observed, one can certainly concede how voting for McCain might not exactly confer upon one the Matthewsesque tingle up one’s leg (however irksome the imagery). Nonetheless, the Obama phenomenon has left me deeply concerned about the state of our society and democracy; this, as so many people seem to be so fully taken in by the theatrics of Obama’s soft, or “benign” demagogy. That rhetorical style and aesthetic imagery in this presidential election should now so dramatically come to trump executive substance and character, particularly in such troubled times, is truly stifling. That a man who, by virtue of his utterly self-absorbed biography and very self-serving life story, and very dubious “accomplishments”; that a man who is so little connected to the traditional narrative and values of this country, can ascend to the presidency– on a platform of implicit international apology for who and what we are as a nation– is to me both staggering and demoralizing.

For some time now, I’ve been concerned that our society has been becoming more and more debilitated by a culture of victimization, entitlement, and self-deluding fantasy. To my mind, the social and cultural phenomenon of Barak Obama is very much a product of this cultural malady. At the same, Obama, through his cult of personality, feeds into and perpetuates this cultural disorder, enjoining people to surrender the very real challenges of freedom for the illusory and nebulous promises of security and “change”. The Obama phenomenon, I suppose, is now but the logical consequence of this slowly metastasizing civic pathology in America– of social escape, cultural amnesia, and existential surrender. By my lights, it is a malignancy stoked by, among other things, the ceaseless proliferation of surreal forms of technology and superficial distraction in our very post-modern society, all of which tend to make the challenge of real living but an undeserved and inconvenient imposition, at worst, and a strange and curious mirage, at best. Meanwhile, amidst the creeping darkness of this election cycle (when we learn, by stark observation, that the democratic institution of the media in a free society, whose existence we once very much assumed, no longer exists in this country in any legitimate sense); amidst this growing dusk that announces the gathering storm of our American social and political infirmity; the values of personal discipline, responsibility, focus, and individual accomplishment/achievement are nowhere to be found.

It is not that America and Americans do not need myths. We do. In fact, it is the essence of human beings that we live through symbolic representations. Rather, it is a matter of asking what are the myths, and who are the myth-makers: what, exactly, is the national vision, the civic ideals, set forth? As for the mythmakers, what is their character? What are their accomplishments? What values do they represent?

All this, then, in a time of war and terror, leads one to ask: what exactly is the national myth that Obama is creating? What is his vision for America that will inspire Americans like myself, both in the military and in law enforcement, to render themselves willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for this country’s welfare and defense? To defend, after all, is to preserve. It is to conserve. It is not to “change” and subvert. But radical and careless subversion under Obama, however subtle and nuanced (or perhaps not), is, I suspect, exactly what we should prepare ourselves for.

Though, this impending demolition of America’s history and her traditions, the Great Erasure of America’s sacred myths, will not be borne out of malice, per se. Rather, it will be one borne of sheer carelessness, of fundamental ignorance. After all, from a man totally unconnected, on any personal level, to America’s sacred narrative and its traditions, little awareness about the value of what is being destroyed can be expected. So just as Hegel’s owl of Minerva flies at dusk, we may only be able to survey the full gravity and extent of the national damage after the smoke of the Obama presidency clears, at which time, we’ll hear the familiar refrain: “Oh. I didn’t know…”

For a man who joined the military at 17 inspired by the social, political, and cultural revolution of Ronald Reagan, and then who, at 34, sat for 3 days transfixed, and in tears, as he watched the Reagan funeral (the event that inspired my decision thereafter to deploy to Iraq as a police advisor), this, the “era of Obama,” is truly a journey of wandering in the wilderness.

For my part, the Obama myth is simply not one that I recognize.

Best,

Gerard Meehan