Obama is a rock star

Matt Friedeman - Guest Columnist - 6/10/2008 12:00:00 PMvar addthis_pub = 'onenewsnow';

Had a reporter and a cameraman in my office last week taping an interview on the presidential race in our state.  What will happen?  Could a red state turn an odd shade of blue?  Will the state with the largest proportion of blacks lurch to the left because of the historic presumptive Democratic nominee?

After the interview, I have found, the real questions usually begin -- and often I am the one asking them.  "What do you think about this guy?" I asked the cameraman, a member of the fraternity of true blue collar laborers of the media.
 
"Oh, man," he admitted more than swooned.  "He's a rock star."
 
And what of rock stars?  It didn't sound like the man behind the lens was applauding the concept, but he did in fact acknowledge that America seems to be gushing over a candidate with a certain appeal that is viscerally emotional and hard to contain.
 
Contain?  A San Francisco columnist appeared ready to do the New Age faint the other day.  He wrote about Obama the "Lightworker."  Yes, capitalize that word.  And then pile on top of it "isn't really one of us," "powerful luminosity" and "a unique high vibration integrity."  But the starry-eyed columnist wasn't even close to done.  "Rare kind of attuned being," "these kind of people actually help us evolve," "they are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul."

 
More.  "There simply is no denying that extra kick ... There's a vast amount of positive energy swirling about ... this energy has now found a conduit, a lightning rod ... People and emotions and ideas of high and positive vibration are automatically drawn to him."
 
You read this stuff and you think, My goodness, some people have finally found their god.  But then you wonder if this god won't reach under his chin after the election, grab the edge of the mask and yank off the façade to reveal himself as the man who told us in language we weren't listening to and a voting record that was obfuscated by a cult of personality that I am indeed the One.
 
The One who promised to raise your taxes; buddy up with our sworn enemies over a latte; grow government in an attempt to assuage every conceivable un-addressed woe; appoint to the courts "moderates" who reflect the most liberal justices we currently have (thus re-redefining moderation); push further the boundaries of life by supporting partial-birth abortion and even refusing to protect children accidentally born alive because the abortionist missed; and redefine marriage so that marriage doesn't matter much anymore.
 
And here's what is wrong.  To some people in this nation, that kind of a leader is god-like.  Not really just one of us.  A rock star.  Lightworker.  Their daydream.
 
Come hither, you who are googley-eyed.  Snap out of it.  Remember the lines out of the movie Broadcast News years ago?   It was a Hollywood, Left-coast production, so maybe you might. 

Aaron Altman (played by Albert Brooks) is talking to best friend Jane Craig (Holly Hunter) about her new love interest.
 
Aaron:  "You can't end up with Tom, because it totally goes against everything that you're about.  I know you care about him ... so don't get me wrong when I tell you that Tom, while being a very nice guy, is the devil."
 
Jane (disgusted):  "This isn't friendship -- you're crazy, you know that?"
 
Aaron (defensively):  "What do you think the devil is going to look like if he's around?  C'mon, nobody's going to be taken in by a guy with a long, red, pointed tail ... c'mon, what's he going to sound like?  'AAARRRGGGHHH'?"
 
"No ... he'll be attractive, he'll be nice and helpful, he'll get a job where he influences a great God-fearing nation.  He'll never do an evil thing ... never deliberately hurt a living thing.  He'll just bit by little bit lower our standards where they're important ... just pokes along, flash over substance ... he personifies everything you've been fighting against." 

The Candidate -- attractive, nice and helpful, just wanting to influence this great God-fearing nation.  He pats his opponents on the head and tells them that yes, he understands their concerns.  He mesmerizes the masses with speeches that the Hollywood crowd swears remind them of Kennedy and King.  He is convincing; really likeable.  People log on to their computers and can't help sending in millions.  The light behind his head on the magazine cover produces that "powerful luminosity."
 
But bit by bit he lowers our standards.  With his Lightworker, rock-star methods he slowly begins to change the way we think, feel, and act -- about everything.
 
It no doubt surprises some theological "progressives" that there are still people who believe in devils.  Less astonishing is the fact that many of us recognize the reality of political devils -- specifically, those presaged in the words of a scriptwriter named Brooks.