[lbo-talk] Obama and the Cult of Personality

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Tue Jan 20 15:30:31 PST 2009


On Tue, 20 Jan 2009, ken hanly wrote:


> Watching all the hoopla re the inauguration and all the marketing hype
> re Obama as president and the mass uncritical acceptance of Obama I am
> reminded of all the criticism in the west of the Stalin and Mao cult of
> personality.

On a slightest alarmist note, Patricia Williams thinks at a lot of it can be attributed to:

<quote>

a kind of Wizard

of Oz-ish fizzy relief about George W. Bush's exit--as in Ding Dong,

the Wicked Warlock is melting into a nice little past-tense puddle.

There's a giddily celebratory sweeping out of the indubitably,

absolutely, completely, very worst president in our history. So many

bad things have happened in the past eight years that it's hard to

keep them all in one's head at one time. Another friend says he hung

a list in the hallway of his apartment building, tabulating all the

really awful things he blames Bush for. Other neighbors added to it.

At first, he said, he was going to use it to host an inauguration

party at which people would knock back a shot for each phenomenally

inept executive flub. But then, he says, "I realized we'd all be

drunk for a year."

In any event, it's a great list; the sheer length of it reminds one

how dizzyingly mismanaged the executive office has been. Here are a

few of the highlights, to get you in the mood of groveling gratitude

for the new course we are about to embark upon:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090202/williams

Pax Americana and the aspiration to consolidate a global American

empire. The Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive warfare. Hurricane Katrina

and "heckuva job, Brownie." The explicit rejection of the Geneva

Conventions. John Yoo's and Alberto Gonzales's redefinition of

torture. Paul Wolfowitz as head of the World Bank subsidizing his

girlfriend. Ahmad Chalabi. The FCC allowing greater consolidation of

media. The outing of Valerie Plame. The manipulations asserting that

there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The addled handling

of Harriet Miers's nomination to the Supreme Court. Opposition to

stem cell research. The looting of the National Museum of Iraq, and

the burning of Baghdad's National Library. Donald Rumsfeld's remarks

that rioting in Iraq was the sign of a liberated people and that

Iraq was no more violent than some American cities. Stacking the

Civil Rights Commission with conservatives, like Abigail Thernstrom,

who want to overturn sections of the Voting Rights Act. The shooting

death of Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari and injury of

journalist Giuliana Sgrena at the hands of American soldiers. The

appointment of ultraconservatives John Roberts and Samuel Alito to

the Supreme Court. Cheney filling his friend with birdshot. The USA

Patriot Act. Doing away with habeas corpus. The National Security

Agency's warrantless wiretapping of citizens' phone calls and

e-mails. The notion of an unchecked, unaccountable "unitary

executive." The failure to keep official numbers of dead Iraqi

civilians. The forbidding of photographs, or even visibility, of

American military dead. The multilayered, high-level lying about how

football hero Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan. Halliburton

taking kickbacks from Kuwaiti oil suppliers. Paul Bremer dispensing

billions of dollars for contracts in Iraq, which disappeared, never

to be accounted for or recovered. Blackwater mercenaries accused of

murdering Iraqi civilians. "Military tribunals" established outside

the military justice system, with no due process or right to an

attorney or to cross-examination or even to know the charges. The

silly disparagement of the national anthem sung in Spanish. Bush

talking directly to God. Abu Ghraib. Profiling Arab, Muslim and

Latino immigrants. Guantánamo. Extraordinary rendition. Lousy

veterans' benefits. Lousy veterans' hospitals. The failure to

provide soldiers with reinforced armored vehicles ("You go to war

with the army you have," explained Rumsfeld). The refusal to

recognize post-traumatic stress disorder as a legitimate condition.

Monica Goodling's political litmus tests in hiring for nonpolitical

posts in the Justice Department. Expelling Helen Thomas from the

White House press room and putting in fake reporter "Jeff Gannon" to

throw adoring softball questions. John Ashcroft's draping of

bare-breasted sculptures in the Justice Department. His subpoenas of

more than 2,500 records of abortions performed at public hospitals.

Gonzales firing US Attorneys around the country for political

reasons. Oh, and did I forget the economy?

<end excerpt>

Michael



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