Excellent, yet sad article. How sad that we have so many unprincipled people that can be bought so easily.
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November 7, 2012
Victory of the Demagogue
By Hyatt Seligman
Our newly re-elected, incompetent President is good at one thing: Chicago style politics. Kill your opponent by character assassination and promise freebies to your base. That's exactly how he beat Mitt Romney, a good and decent man, a man of substance, who would have been a great president to turn our economic mess around.
Instead the community organizing, empty-suit incumbent won by pandering to the Democratic base and defaming and distorting Romney into an evil caricature. His simple plan of dividing and conquering through fear, envy and class warfare trumped all else, barely. Appeals to race, gender and emotion triumphed over economic reason and self-interest and the good of the country.
Yes, Obama is the master of the "basic instincts" of his self-centered, narcissistic base. It's not complicated once you understand the con. To blacks he was one of their own and that was really all that mattered. They were in the bag from the start, 95% plus. To Hispanics, he bought their vote with his illegal, dictatorial, but hugely popular, to them at least, executive order for amnesty to young illegals. Result? 70% plus from a community that is Catholic, church-going, hard working, anti-abortion and generally conservative. To women he trotted out the classic Democrat ploy, the fear of losing control over their bodies and even added a new wrinkle, the "right" to free contraceptives even if you're a law student on the cusp of making $150,000 a year to start. Result, a margin of some 9 points, especially in the suburbs. Yes, pandering to the self-absorbed pays.
Toss in a little scapegoating and blame-gaming through envy and class-warfare, just to make the base feel even more self-righteous, and you have a country divided almost fifty-fifty, but more importantly, a winning electoral strategy despite being the worst president since Jimmy Carter, perhaps the worst in modern history.
Such is the vapidity of the American people today. Iran going nuclear? Libya what? Muslim Brotherhood, is that a new rap group? Israel who? Hey, Obama killed Osama! I saw it on Nat Geo! He's the guy I trust on foreign policy. Amazing.
Articles: Victory of the Demagogue
********************************************************
November 7, 2012
Victory of the Demagogue
By Hyatt Seligman
Our newly re-elected, incompetent President is good at one thing: Chicago style politics. Kill your opponent by character assassination and promise freebies to your base. That's exactly how he beat Mitt Romney, a good and decent man, a man of substance, who would have been a great president to turn our economic mess around.
Instead the community organizing, empty-suit incumbent won by pandering to the Democratic base and defaming and distorting Romney into an evil caricature. His simple plan of dividing and conquering through fear, envy and class warfare trumped all else, barely. Appeals to race, gender and emotion triumphed over economic reason and self-interest and the good of the country.
Yes, Obama is the master of the "basic instincts" of his self-centered, narcissistic base. It's not complicated once you understand the con. To blacks he was one of their own and that was really all that mattered. They were in the bag from the start, 95% plus. To Hispanics, he bought their vote with his illegal, dictatorial, but hugely popular, to them at least, executive order for amnesty to young illegals. Result? 70% plus from a community that is Catholic, church-going, hard working, anti-abortion and generally conservative. To women he trotted out the classic Democrat ploy, the fear of losing control over their bodies and even added a new wrinkle, the "right" to free contraceptives even if you're a law student on the cusp of making $150,000 a year to start. Result, a margin of some 9 points, especially in the suburbs. Yes, pandering to the self-absorbed pays.
Toss in a little scapegoating and blame-gaming through envy and class-warfare, just to make the base feel even more self-righteous, and you have a country divided almost fifty-fifty, but more importantly, a winning electoral strategy despite being the worst president since Jimmy Carter, perhaps the worst in modern history.
Such is the vapidity of the American people today. Iran going nuclear? Libya what? Muslim Brotherhood, is that a new rap group? Israel who? Hey, Obama killed Osama! I saw it on Nat Geo! He's the guy I trust on foreign policy. Amazing.
Articles: Victory of the Demagogue
