The Cult-of-Obama narrative

[Dogmudgeon]

Take a look at the General Discussion: Primaries page. Fully 10% of the threads are about the Obama Cult narrative. I've seen that as high as 15% -- 12 threads per page on my monitor. In the past two or three days, the Narrative of the Cult of Obama has gripped DU.

Gripped it, I say. The Obama supporters are beside themselves with outrage.

Did you ever check out those threads? Nearly all of them are posted by Obama partisans! Most of them are sarcastic -- sorry, I mean ironic -- posts like "I'm proud to be an Obama cultist". But still posted by Obama partisans.

I'll tell you, in my years on the Internet, I have never seen as devastated a response as the Great Obama Cult narrative has generated. And one could make a good case that it has provoked as strong a reaction as it has because it's true, and the truth hurts, etc.

So I'll make these suggestions to the Obamafolk so they won't have to endure this agony any longer. (Sorry, follow Hillbots. I love a good fight, but as a Liberal, I am pledged to inflict no gratuitous pain. Fighting should be about skill, not sadism.) I make these suggestions in sincerity and friendship.

1. Stop gathering by the thousands to chant slogans. A few spontaneous shouts of "O-BA-MA!" are fine. But the videos of Obama rallies are starting to look like low-budget versions of Triumph of the Will. Who needs it? And you don't deserve it.

2. If you have an Inspiring conversion story about how you "came to Obama", be discreet. You wouldn't broadcast the details of how you lost your virginity, would you? Plus, these conversion stories are scary to some of us, especially those of us from Jewish and Cambodian families. In which case, we actually would rather hear the details of how you lost your virginity.

3. Barack Obama is a gifted orator. So somebody advise him to stop with the televangelist act -- the meaningless slogans, the repetitive phrases, the rhetorical colons. I am sure that within days, there will be an Official Random Obama Speech Generator implemented as a Java-script. A short Java-script.

4. I'm glad you have a lot of professional musicians and entertainment celebrities in your fold. Most people don't really care about that one way or another. But most people also find it a little grating that the opinion of a musician or actor is given so much importance (especially John Lennon, who is not endorsing anyone this year).

Imagine if we paid that kind of attention to athletes. It's easy if you can.

5. We're happy that you're so stoked. But don't assume that the rest of us are the enemies of hope, optimism, and the future just because we don't share your devotion to Obama. It IS possible to be optimistic and believe in the future WITHOUT being an Obama partisan. The world got along very well until Obama declared his candidacy last year. Up until then, we were just enemies of Jesus.

6. Finally, if you want to stop the bad "meme" from propagating, stop posting it. There must be close to 300 "cult" threads now in the active GDP queue and archives. They will stay in the archive forever, to be spidered by Google and Yahoo, and exist as a record of the Obama campaign until the Earth is destroyed by the Eighth Markab Invader Force in the year 17,308.

Those of you who have come to know and love me probably know that I heartily approve of partisan warfare in the spirit of good, clean political fun. It's cathartic, it's invigorating, and it keeps us ready to do battle with the real ratbastards of the world. We Democrats need to toughen our hides and learn to grit our teeth hard enough to bite a cro-bar in half. It's good and good for you!

So shake off the "Cult" blow and find something new to blame us Hilbots for. The day this fight is settled, we all have to go out for some R&R, get loaded and laid, and return to the field of battle ready to bag us some elephant tusks.

Hear our war cry -- Dignity! Solidarity! Victory!

(And a chrous of Kumbaya.)

--p!

[godai]

1. Agree."if you want to stop the bad "meme" from propagating, stop posting it."

There is nothing to be gaining by playing this game. It will scare voters if this becomes a story.

[Bitwit1234]

13. It sure as hell is a cult....just like the ones for Spears, Hilton and all

the rest...they switch from one to the other. In six months the crew will move to someone else...if they don't ruin America with this one first. why in the heck don't the go to Mexico, or Canada they need a bunch of jerks.

[Steely_Dan]

2. Very well written...n/t

[The Traveler]

3. That's what I'm talkin' about

You wrote: So shake off the "Cult" blow and find something new to blame us Hilbots for. The day this fight is settled, we all have to go out for some R&R, get loaded and laid, and return to the field of battle ready to bag us some elephant tusks.

What more could I add to that?

Of course, no longer having a dog in this hunt, you'll forgive me if I find a kind of perverse amusement in some of the Ombamite/Hillbot jousting going on around here. I'm gonna just sit back and ...



:hide: :popcorn: :rofl:

[Extend a Hand]

4. Chanting slogans

for a significant part of the population seems to be important (and not just in the political arena). It bugged me at first. But really, if people ENJOY it and it generates excitement, why not let folks have their fun?



It's probably effective at bringing in "new converts".

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[IndianaJones]

5. the Branch Obamians don't like being called a cult....or being brainwashed. nt.

[MethuenProgressive]

6. "Hope!" "Change!" Reagan won with empty sloganeering and fluffy happy speak...

Why shouldn't His disciple emulate Him?

[JKaiser]

7. Maybe Obama should be a self-help speaker

[Missy M]

8. That is what he reminds me of....

a self-help speaker that gets people all pumped up but in the end the people's lives never change, they remain the same.

[niceypoo]

10. They dont stop to think that all the high and mighty slogans

and speeches are the product of slick, paid, professional speech writers, not some evangelistic higher calling.

[JKaiser]

11. It's a sad thing..

Seeing people cry because they are moved by words instead of his plans for the future and past accomplishments and it makes me wonder who writes his speeches? Obama is a motivational speaker nothing more..

[magatte]

22. Tha tis called integrity, principles and vision... people cry because for too long those running

for office have made a mockery of those words.

Hillary Cliton being a prime example of this.

It has nothing to do with being a "motivational speaker", you twit. The guy hasn't come from nowhere has he. He is a three term Illinois Senator and a prominent and active US senator with countless achievements.

[Missy M]

31. Come on, that's all he is....

with a large following of awestruck fans. He was an obscure state legislator who has some backing from the powers that be. Do you really think he has come this far on his own. I hardly think so. What is his vision, nothing but words. He leaves me totally cold. I would rather be a "twit" (silly word) than a blind follower of a preacher. He would be good selling motivational books and videos on cable TV.

[niceypoo]

9. Obamites are afraid it is true

So they try to deflect it by obsessing over it

[blogslut]

12. Revealing responses in this thread

:)

[lwcon]

14. Nice! n/t

___

The Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy, now at my new home: Correntewire.com

[seedubyah]

15. better now than later....

Great post. Many of Obama's supporters are already starting to feel uncomfortable with the whole cult thing. It's good to get this out in the open now - because the media will have a field day with this if Obama becomes the candidate and this slack-jawed true-believerism isn't tamped down in the Obama ranks.

[robbedvoter]

16. Also, may of the sources cited (LA Times, bloggers) are Obama supporters themselves

who are trying - for their candidate's sake to temper the fervor.
They know what they speak of - as it's starting to creep more and more outsiders - and it's not a vote getter.

[CyberPieHole]

17. Excellent post. Kicked and rec. n/t

[Scriptor Ignotus]

18. pretty reasonable

but let me point out what you don't seem to understand:

the things Obama is doing and the things his supporters do that annoy you, or scare you or whatever: are working!

He is extremely competitive with Hillary and six months ago nobody would ever have believed that this was possible. So why should he suddenly stop doing what has brought him closer to victory than any pundit could have predicted? We stop doing what is winning over voters?

Nothing he does is going to please everybody, so the only option is to do what turns on the most amount of voters. Hence the great speeches, the lack of policy details, the celebrity endorsements. These things work, you just don't approve of them.

But I'm not sure you realize that these things are all deliberate.

[incapsulated]

19. lol, a great and funny post, thank you. :o)

:D

[Neecy]

20. Funny....

Someone who doesn't have a profile telling me how to be a Democrat...

Fuck you.

[Dogmudgeon]

25. Oooh, Neecy, you're getting me hot with that kind of talk

You cult girls are so dirty!
:loveya:

--p!

[alteredstate]

26. Yeah, why would someone hide their profile?

[Dogmudgeon]

27. Because we got some "interesting" e-mail?

Naah. There's got to be an ulterior motive.

:tinfoilhat:

--p!

[alteredstate]

29. I didn't realize that email addresses show up in profiles.

[Dogmudgeon]

30. Neither did I, but they were finding it

Probably searched on my nickname and some of the information I put in. So I just turned it off.

What do you want to know? And why does it matter?

--p!

[windoe]

21. Americans are so vulnerable right now-

we have been so completely betrayed by our leaders and representatives, creating a very dangerous vacuum. We hunger for trust, for unity, for dignity and for compassion, and face in the world. This hunger is so great that many people overlook issues that need to be clarified and discussed.
I would very much like to see more actual policies and events being discussed in DU rather than the superficial posts sounding too much like the MSM FauxNoiseNetwork!!

[SaveOurDemocracy]

23. Great post, Pigwidgeon ... K&R

[QC]

24. KICK! n/t

[Cameron27]

28. Nicely said,

and funny too!

K&R