the cult of obama
by Ari Holtz
Published: July 30, 2008
Recently, while stopping by The Royale, a local St. Louis watering hole, I discovered a new addition to their wall mural of fleurs-de-lis - a large, three-paneled painting of three Barack Obamas with the words hope, change and progress underneath in a style that owes as much to George Orwell as it does to Andy Warhol. A few nights later, while walking through the Loop neighborhood, I saw in a boutique window - you know the kind, $80 t-shirts and $300 jeans - a pink woman’s T-shirt with “Obama” spelled in rhinestones across the chest.
Color this Obama supporter disturbed.
No, there is nothing wrong with an Obama supporter painting an Obama mural on a local building, despite its unfortunate associations to images of Joseph Stalin and Kim Jong-il. Neither is it a problem that a local designer wants to capitalize on Obama’s popularity by turning him into fashion. The problem is that these are just two small symptoms of a larger disease that has infected Obama’s candidacy. The sickness is the cult of personality.
Obama’s campaign has always been about change, but it used to be about bringing America together, uniting the country in order to accomplish pragmatic goals to improve the lives of everyday Americans. In effect, it was about us. Us coming together, us healing around divisions and wounds to move forward and lift the country out of its morass. Along the way, though, the campaign became about Obama himself.
T-shirts with his face on them are everywhere. He briefly broke out a personalized seal for himself, reminiscent of the presidential seal. His supporters greet him with tears of joy, as they would Miley Cyrus or the Pope. Obama announced moving his August speech at the Democratic Convention from the usual 20,000 seat arena to a 76,000 seat football stadium. Yes, he’s popular. We know. But he isn’t, actually, a rock star or pontiff.
As the above examples illustrate, some of the responsibility for Obama’s transformation from the candidate who inspires to a figure of near-worship lies with his supporters, while some lies with the candidate and his campaign. The people, not the campaign, are the ones wearing the shirts, fainting at the rallies, and creating the adoring web sites. This makes sense. The country is not doing well by just about any measure. Our economy is dismal, our foreign policy is without direction, our world standing is low and we are in two wars. The public is furious (at worst) and disapproving (at best) of our president. We want to be saved.
Along comes a candidate speaking of hope and unity, of putting these bleak times behind us. He is biracial and speaks of being bipartisan, he is young and charismatic and carries an aura of newness, of the future, of a new day. We buy in. We can’t help it. We want progress. We want something new. Why wouldn’t we? The last eight years, whether you lean Republican or Democrat, have been abysmal.
Further, to get a bit archetypal on you, people are generally just suckers for the narrative that Obama is occupying. A chosen one comes out of nowhere, an unlikely underdog facing immense odds, yet defeats them all and leads his people to salvation. This is the story of so many great religions, as well as that of our most beloved and successful movies. It is not a coincidence that Star Wars, The Matrix and Lord of the Rings have been as successful as they have. People are primed for that plot. Karl Rove was quoted some months ago as saying that Obama thought he was the Messiah, but he could also be viewed as Luke Skywalker, Neo or Frodo Baggins.
Obama, though, hasn’t exactly been resisting this hero-creation. The faux presidential seal? The convention speech in front of 76,000? The recent Berlin speech in front of 200,000?
It’s tempting to revel in being turned into a savior-hero figure, both personally in terms of one’s ego and pragmatically in terms of getting elected. But Obama must resist this. American greatness is not about superhuman image and the exaltation of a leader, but the greatness of the people. Our great leaders inspire us to do great things, whether it is to defeat tyranny in World War II, reach the moon or achieve civil rights for all races. Obama needs to not bask in the light that the public wants to shine on him, but rather reflect it back onto America.
Barack Obama will achieve greatness if he can move us to meet our wondrous potential as a nation, not if he can get us to bask in his transcendent glow.
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July 31st, 2008 at 1:06 pm
But remember, Obama is trying to get elected right now, not lead a nation. Some element of the “cult of personality” is required for a candidate to even campaign, with the understanding (I hope) that the ego will finally play second to the American people once the candidate is elected.
July 31st, 2008 at 1:14 pm
And that point right there is an illustration of the ignorance of the system/people. Because winning best personality doesn’t mean you are best leader of the American people.
So, yes, Mark, that’s mostly true - except a candidate gaining an “ego” from it, in the self-important sense, is not a good sign. I would hope he remains firmly based in what is important, regardless of having to play to the game of ignorance. Signs of an inflating ego signify he’s getting caught up in it all.
July 31st, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Given how often Bush goes against all the poles and the will of the people, and what experts say I think even if Obama was developing an ego it would be hard to surpass the one that’s already in office.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:31 pm
75% of americans want off-shore drilling, obama doesnt. Lets not get carried away here.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:56 pm
For someone to even consider themselves qualified to be Commander and Chief of the United States of America requires a significant amount of ego. McCain has one, Obama has one, and ever other presidential candidate in history has had one. It’s a job requirement.
But I agree that a candidate’s self-important campaign mentality should not carry through to their presidency. And usually it doesn’t, but it is something to keep an eye on now that we have a very celebrity-like candidate in Barack Obama. If he gets elected, people will be quick to compare-and-contrast.
July 31st, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Nicholas, 51 million people also re-elected GW in 2004. “The public” doesn’t get it right every time.
Sometimes, we need our politicians to do what we need not what we want. Off-shore drilling MAY help us in 10 years. We need solutions now.
All politicans have egos, and rightfully so to a degree. If you don’t think you’re the best person for the job or if you don’t think you could get elected, you wouldn’t run. As for the faux-seal, I think Obama realized quickly it was a mis-step. But, it’s not like he’s spending much time actually creating the concept and designing the seal. That’s what campaign staffs are for.
McCain is just jealous he’s not the media darling any longer. As I read elsewhere, he’s been replaced by the newer model — the younger, better, more energetic version of himself. Now he knows what his first wife felt like when he replaced her with Cindy.
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:10 am
Sandra, the price of a barrell of oil will drop the day it’s announced that the OCS is opened for business and it will continue to drop over the next 10 years. Great “Cindy” line by the way.
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:05 am
Slim — I can’t take credit for the Cindy line. I saw something simliar to it in the comment sections of either the NYT or HuffPo. But, I thought it was worth adopting.
August 3rd, 2008 at 8:29 am
Sandra, I dont know what kind of dictatorship you are proposing, but in case you didnt know, we elect government officials to do what we the people want. As for oil, what do you propose? I hope its not what Obama wants, to “inflate your tires and get a check up.” You say we wont have more oil till 10 years from now, so we should have drilled 10 years ago and we wouldnt have this crisis today. You have to start sometime. Additionally, in some areas that we could drill in, we could get oil in less than 10 years, not to mention the price will go down even further when we start to drill because of future expectations of supply. In addition, we should also explore nuclear capabilities.
The problem with having a young Paris Hilton, i mean B.Hussein Obama running is that they have no experience under their belts. You dont see successful CEOs with only 3 years of experience, do you? Maybe Obama should go back to be a community organizer, or better yet a celebrity.
August 4th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
“So we should have drilled 10 years ago and we wouldnt have this crisis today.” … Should is the operative word, yes? You say we elect politicans to do what we want, yet 10 years ago there wasn’t anyone (except maybe Al Gore’s whose voice was not heard through the crowds of impeachment cries) who was actively pushing for our elected officials to foresee 2008’s gas prices and letting them know we WANTED them to do something about the impending energy crises. The focus 10 years ago, in the aftermath of the Jonesboro, Ark. school shootings and Charleton Heston’s election to the NRA, was gun control. Further, 10 years ago, Jesse Ventura was elected to be Minnesota’s Governor and JUSTIFIABLE impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton — which 66% of the country did not want — were launched. You used an awful lot of shoulds in your reply, yet those aren’t necessarily things the public actually want.
Paris Hilton SHOULD put on underwear once in a while, read a book, and go away already. Yet, the people seem to want her ditzy, naked, and using more than her 15 minutes of fame. I guess McCain’s just doing what the people want by using her in his ad instead of doing what someone with children younger than her SHOULD do, which is to ignore her. Maybe McCain SHOULD refund her parents’ campaign contributions while he’s at it. It seems like they would WANT him to.
August 4th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Added to clarify: “crowds of impeachment cries” were coming from Republican politicans not the actual people.
August 5th, 2008 at 7:20 am
MMMMM…..actually, all politicians are not actual people…is this not factual?
August 5th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Perhaps all this Obamania is actually ironic.
Seriously, though, is anyone really surprised that people who consider “raising awareness” (i.e. making sure that whoever knows what to do finds out about the problem so they can fix it) to be an effective instrument of social progress are embracing unreservedly a man who claims to have all the answers and be the solution to all our problems (”the day when the rise of the oceans began to slow,” excuse me?).
The plain truth about liberals and, more particularly, socialists, is that they have no faith in individuals to make a real difference, because they themselves are insecure about their own abilities, and project it onto the rest of us. In this mindset, the only way things are going to get better is if a great leader comes along and organizes (or coerces) a collective effort to solve our problems.
In Barack Obama, they see the only hope for solving this country’s problems (real and imagined). They are zealous because he is their last and only hope.
August 6th, 2008 at 3:34 am
“You used an awful lot of shoulds in your reply, yet those aren’t necessarily things the public actually want.”
Correction: The public wants to explore both off-shore drilling now and nuclear power.
You say that the public didnt want elected officials 10 years ago to drill. Well then according to you, our president should have done something even though the people didnt want it because he saw the crisis coming. So, its Bill’s fault. He had the chance and he refused to do it.
Why should we ignore Paris Hilton when we have another one roaming around the country? The comparison is flawless. Having two paris hiltons is worse than having one. So, at last we are trying to get rid of one.
August 12th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Right on Michael Gannon!
America was built on the premise that people aren’t all dumb and that just because a guy wears a crown doesn’t make him smarter than the rest.
We need to take responsibility for ourselves in our personal lives. We need to take responsibility for our government by actively choosing those who represent and serve us. We need to stop making excuses and pointing fingers.
Politician should be limited in what they can accomplish so that they aren’t allowed to railroad us. If we want less debt in America we need to balance our checkbooks. If we want less social programs we should pay for our own healthcare, groceries, etc.
People think my family is crazy because we qualify for many programs we refuse to use (medicaid, CHIP, foodstamps, housing assitance, etc.) Guess what? We DONT need them.
We pay for our own babies, healthcare, food, and rent. All on an income the federal government thinks is insufficient. Granted, we drive used cars, have our boys share a bedroom (heaven forbid!) eat healthy food instead of eating out a lot, and don’t actually own flat screen tv. But somehow we are still happy and healthy.
Oh, did I forget to mention we also try to keep our tires properly inflated. So much for the government coming up with a better plan.