Attack Machine is on a subject we have discussed recently: the desire of some voters, mainly on the left, to seek more from politicians, or from government, than can be possibly delivered.
We recall that, when Christ arrived in Jerusalem, much of the enthusiastic crowd who greeted him with palm leaves were counting on him to be a political, if not military, savior for Judea - not a saver of souls for Judea and the world. Indeed, that was the meaning of the palms.
The piece, Obama as Messiah, quotes Oprah:
“We need a leader who’s going to touch our souls. Who’s going to make us feel differently about one another. Who’s going to remind us that we are one another’s keepers. That we are only as strong as the weakest among us.”
“Are you the one?” It’s a question the entire nation is asking — is he the one? South Carolina — I do believe he’s the one.”
I am only as strong as the weakest amongst me? Give me a break. It's a sad day when people equate their government with their country, and seek inspiration, strength or - God forbid - spiritual injections from political leaders. It is infantile, un-American, and too close to blasphemy in its sentiment. False idols, false gods.
It's pitiful. Pitiful because in a land of hard-won freedom we have earned the adult privilege of building our own lives, by our own individual lights, informed by our own spirits and our own gifts and our own beliefs. Therein lies the beauty and the grandeur of it - the faith in the individual - and that is why we hire random jerks to do the grimy government work: it's so they can protect us from enemies and tyranny, and to keep us free to pursue our personal goals in our own ways, as best we can.
That is all I ask of these job-seekers. If anybody imagines that a politician or the government will change their life for the better, they are nuts. It does not take much history education to know that.
In fact, the only reason we ever mention politics on this blog is because we wish to be left alone, and because some other arrogant jerks without normal difficult jobs, with the fantasy that they somehow know better than us, wish to bother us and to abscond with our hard-won freedoms and our hard-earned shekels - representing our sweat and time and tears and, in fact, our lives - to keep their stupid easy jobs. We do not appreciate that particular scam.
