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| Jonah Goldberg: Obama's political religion |
| 2008-02-13 |
| I'm getting a lot of email about Obama's candidacy and how it plays into my book. I think there's a lot one could say about it, though I haven't really thought it all through yet. The beauty of Hillary Clinton's "politics of meaning" was that there's an enormous paper trail — a book even — to work with. I've read bits of The Audacity of Hope, but none of the rest of Obama's stuff. Anyway here are some notes to ponder and elicit feedback. It's a bit choppy, but so be it. I think the most obvious place to start is whether Obama is promoting something like a political religion. The messianic nature of Obama's campaign has been noted by many for a long time now. He often sounds like he's reviving the social gospel. There's even a website called "Is Barack Obama the Messiah?" Many of the tropes of a political religion/liberal fascism are evident. He exalts unity as it's own reward. His talk of starting new and starting over often sounds like more than merely "turning the page" on the Bush-Clinton years. It sounds a bit like starting at Year Zero. . . . Go read the whole thing -- it's poli-sci geek stuff, but it's interesting. Joe Knippenberg, reviewing Obama's statements on religion writes: Obama speaks as if the first move of someone faithful to God’s word is to call for government action, not to act directly through his or her own charitable efforts. Those who don’t engage in political action of the sort he approves are apparently hypocrites, satisfied with mere words. His religious commitments are a kind of conversation-stopper, as the late Richard Rorty once said. This reminds me of perhaps my favorite vignette from the book: Walter Rauschenbusch offers the best short explanation of the Social Gospel for our purposes. A professor at the Rochester Theological Seminary and a onetime preacher on the outskirts of New York’s Hell’s Kitchen, the slender clergyman with a thin goatee had become the informal leader of the movement when he published Christianity and the Social Crisis in 1907. “[U]nless the ideal social order can supply men with food, warmth and comfort more efficiently than our present economic order,” he warned, “back we shall go to Capitalism . . . ‘The God that answereth by low food prices,’ ” he boomed, “let him be God.’" In other words, God had chosen his preferred economic system, and any religious faith, doctrine or revelation that suggested otherwise must be false. God is a socialist, dagnabit, and if a God who isn't a socialist speaks to you in a small, still voice, turn your back on Him. The state, according to Rauschenbusch was "the medium through which the people shall co-operate in their search for the kingdom of God and its righteousness.” In my book I concentrate on Hillary Clinton's "village" and her Politics of Meaning. But it seems to me that Obama is every bit the practitioner of his own politics of meaning and his own conception of a village-like community. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #2 Obama reminds of Jimmy Carter (the man from Plains) bursting on the scene to give America hope in the 70's. There were few concrete reasons to vote for him, but he attracted massive crowds, media adulation and won the presidency. I think there are a lot of people out there who don't remember that bit of history and we are therefore doomed to repeat it. |
| Posted by: DoDo 2008-02-13 14:56 |
| #1 What is the author assuming? Sounds a bit of a stretch. |
| Posted by: Captain Wheth5605 2008-02-13 13:45 |