{"id":3515,"date":"2008-07-31T08:04:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-31T14:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/07\/heres-to-heresy\/"},"modified":"2008-07-31T08:04:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-31T14:04:00","slug":"heres-to-heresy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/07\/heres-to-heresy\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s to heresy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Jim Scarantino<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Let me say this up front: Here<\/a> and in The Weekly Alibi\u2019s blog<\/a> I\u2019ve written glowingly about Barack Obama\u2019s<\/a> explosion onto the national stage. His nomination is historic, hope-affirming.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

With that said, the cult of personality developing around Obama is getting scary.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen this before. At the far right of the political spectrum, a culture of worship surrounded George W. Bush<\/a> in 2000. By the time his criminal and dodgy military records surfaced, and the truth of his terrible inexperience began to break through his campaign\u2019s spin, for a large part of the electorate it was too late. They couldn\u2019t shake fervently held beliefs that W was The One to heal a troubled nation.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The first months in office revealed Bush to be a man unburdened by brilliance. His approval ratings sank. Then came 9\/11. He was again the nation\u2019s savior, the holy warrior, a prophetic leader imbued with superior judgment and wisdom.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Look where it got us. It has taken seven years for many of his worshippers to lose faith.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Prophet Obama<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Comes now another One: the Prophet Obama.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The July 21, 2008 cover of The New Yorker<\/a> satirized the wingnut slanders of Michelle<\/a> and Barack Obama. The cartoon drew Obama in Muslim mufti. He\u2019s fist-bumping Michelle, who wears an Angela Davis Fro and an AK-47 over her shoulder. The American flag burns in the fireplace. A bin Laden portrait hangs above the mantle. The setting is the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Outrage. Chest-beating. Pundits and bloggers demanding, if not the cartoonist\u2019s head, at least mass cancellations of New Yorker subscriptions. Op-eds in The Washington Post equated the cartoon to an attack on all black women for all time. Obama\u2019s champions and adversaries alike accused The New Yorker of practicing the politics of hate.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople,\u201d an exasperated John Stewart pleaded, \u201cit\u2019s only a cartoon.\u201d It was satire, for crying out loud, by a magazine that has lacerated Bush for eight years.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The reaction in some quarters was the equivalent of the Muslim world\u2019s reaction to a Danish cartoon lampooning the Prophet Mohammed.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That\u2019s scary.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Obama is human<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Obama is an impressive human being. But he still pulls his pants on one leg at a time. He\u2019s done admirable things (editor-in-chief of the Harvard Law Review, community organizing on Chicago<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s south side) and deplorable things (hanging with Bernadette Dohrn<\/a> and William Ayers<\/a>, whose group once bombed the U.S. Capitol; accepting help on his home purchase from mobster Tony Rezko<\/a>). Obama was right to oppose attacking Iraq<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>. He has good ideas on fighting poverty. Talking to Iran<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>, as he advocates, is smart.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But Obama is also dangerously wrong on energy policy. And by breaking his promise on campaign finance reform, he\u2019s shown himself to be a politician who won\u2019t let principle get between him and power.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

To zealous believers Obama is the American Messiah, a man without sin, a man of perfect ideals and the world\u2019s only salvation. Granted, that\u2019s hyperbolic. But even violating his promise to accept public campaign financing is treated as a virtue by his stalwarts. Criticisms of Obama, or questions about his background, amount to heresies. His campaign, like Bush\u2019s before him, encourages such thinking. It effectively stifles unwanted talk.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Obama infuses his speeches with religiosity. Like Bush, he weaves Biblical code words and symbolism into his pronouncements. His proposal for increasing government financing of religious institutions goes further than Bush\u2019s faith-based programs. Obama\u2019s \u201cJoshua Project\u201d will organize meetings in thousands of homes. The topic: Obama, God and faith. If you attend a church, you may recognize that he\u2019s mimicking one of the most intimate religious assemblies in America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>: the Bible study, small worship groups of mainline Protestant and Evangelical churches.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In 2004, the Bush-Cheney campaign did this in Ohio<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>. Democrats screamed. Now that Obama is doing it in 50 states, Democrats applaud the strategy as brilliant.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

An equal-opportunity heretic<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I am a panelist on KNME TV\u2019s weekly show, \u201cIn Focus\/The Line.\u201d<\/a> Recently we discussed The New Yorker cover. I wanted to point out that things have gone so far we\u2019re reluctant to mention Obama\u2019s middle name because merely saying it aloud is interpreted as attacking the candidate. It\u2019s just a name he was given. He had no say in the selection. But even John McCain<\/a> once felt compelled to apologize for a speaker who dared to say what comes between \u201cBarack\u201d and \u201cObama.\u201d I found myself succumbing to the very mindset I wanted to expose.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I regret my timidity. Obama\u2019s middle name is Hussein. There, I said it.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

To show I\u2019m an equal opportunity heretic: McCain proved his character in Vietnam<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>. He\u2019s been a courageous maverick on many issues. He was wrong on invading Iraq<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>, but right on the surge. He\u2019s also screwed up sometimes (Keating Five, infidelity, sucking up to the Religious Right). And his middle name is Sidney<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

So burn me at the stake.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Scarantino<\/a> has been recognized as one of the country\u2019s best political columnists by the American Association of Alternative Newsweeklies<\/a>. His work has been published in more than 50 newspapers. You can contact him at jrscarantino@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jim Scarantino Let me say this up front: Here and in The Weekly Alibi\u2019s blog I\u2019ve written glowingly about Barack Obama\u2019s explosion onto the national stage. His nomination is historic, hope-affirming. With that said, the cult of personality developing around Obama is getting scary. We\u2019ve seen this before. At the far right of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scarantino-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3515\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}