The conventional wisdom is that Obama is the man of the future. It’s argued that he represents what the younger generation desires. But what if, on the contrary, Obama actually represented the last gasp of the past? When Thomas Sowell writes about Obama’s “worn-out economic ideas” can he really be serious? Michael Ledeen argues in dead earnest that BHO’s ideas are mostly obsolete.
“Paradoxically, Obama is in some ways more a victim of age than McCain, although of a different sort. Obama is an advocate of ideas that have aged to the point of dementia. He’s an old-fashioned radical, and the leftist ideas that inspire him are no longer relevant to our world. As Hegel used to say, the world changes, and the ideas that once described reality, and could be used to effectively change it when necessary, no longer apply to the changed world. Obama’s political ideas have aged, which is why they have no policy saliency. They’re just words, fossilized remnants of a civilization that no longer exists.”
It may be objected that simply because ideas are old they are not necessarily in decline. Perhaps they are notions “whose time has come”. But the site Gene Expression describes the results of interesting experiment which suggest Leftist ideas are now past their prime. The author did a frequency count of terms which are strongly associated with the leftist ideology in archives of JSTOR by year. JSTOR is an archive of academic journals. The result of the frequency counts are startling to say the least.
(click on the link for the analysis)
Fernandez concludes:
While it would be foolish to conclude on the basis of such slender evidence that the ideological ground is crumbling under Obama’s feet it would explain the curious brittleness of his campaign. The unremitting assault by the Action Wires, street-men from ACORN, spokesmen with no apparent concern even for the appearance of fairness and even government prosecutors upon his critics more resembles the behavior of the desperate rather than the supremely confident. The despite the bold front, it may be the case that for Ayers and company it’s now or never. If the long term trends are running against them, then it is Power now, by any means necessary.
There is something very old fashioned about a machine politician from Chicago who associates with 1960s bombers, black racists preachers and convicted swindlers and who hobnobs with San Francisco billionaires and Hollywood stars while speaking of disdain about the working class.
1 comment:
Interesting post. While the Obama campaign may be employing yesterday's tropes and jargon, it doesn't necessarily follow that it seeks to implement yesterday's program. What we do know is that it seeks power, and it is using methods of stealth and suasion that have worked in the recent historical past. We also know that this campaign has the support of 40-45% of the electorate -- a remarkable fact considering the weakness of the candidate (his name, origins, resume and racial profile) and the somewhat normal socio-economic conditions that still prevail. Tweak either, a slightly stronger candidate and/or slightly weaker conditions, throw in the updated campaign and the total press support that this campaign enjoys, well, it shouldn't be too hard to install Obama II -- one who, if history is any guide, will pose even more of a menace. And, we can be sure, he is watching this campaign season with great interest.
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