A Reason to Believe

A Reason to Believe
A few weeks ago, before the term became common coin, I was running around, thinking that this Obama thing was like the "cult of personality." To my chagrin, the idea struck a number of people. Oh well, pride goeth before the fall. I hadn’t posted right away, because I had the germ of an idea brewing, namely that the Obama mania is just one more indicator of a larger phenomenon.Despite our diverse ethnic and racial makeup, the character of our Puritan forbears has formed a current running through American society for centuries. The advent of the boomer generation brought under attack those institutions which channeled these inclinations. It made of morality and its attendant religious practices an irrelevancy and of governmental authority a subject fit for cynicism and mockery. Deprived of its natural venues in civics and religion, this puritan zeal has manifested in a number of intriguing ways.

We now have civic “sins” like smoking and transfats, the denunciation of which at times rivals the oratory of Jonathan Edwards. The topic of global warming, for instance, has taken on quasi religious overtones with all of the characteristic sanctimoniousness on the part of believers. And then there is Obama. For all I know, he may be a marvelous person and might make a decent president. I don’t think so, but it’s within the realm of possibility. What I fail to see and hear is the cause for all of this devotion.

I must be immune or something. As I see it, all he’s proposed so far involves the disbursements of huge amounts of money, money which has to come from somewhere. And read his counter to McCain’s criticism of his approach to Cuba. I’m starting to form the impression that he’s going to feed us lip service all the way to Havana as he prepares to sit down with the Dons.

So as I watch these mass rallies that have taken on the aura of revival meetings, the messianic overtones with which he is imbued by his followers and see nothing to merit it, I have to find some way to make sense of it all. I’ve come to the conclusion that the faith, its natural course denied, has deviated course into other outlets, because as human beings we need to believe in something greater than ourselves. Therein lies the great mistake of the boomers, and I count myself as one: hubris.

The Long, Tough Road to the White House

Fred Thompson has dropped out of the race. And despite whatever qualifications he might have brought to the job- I really like him- it's probably best he did. How can I say that? Easy, because he didn't want it enough.

An examination of our political history in the last 3 or 4 decades supports this view. How in the world, you want to ask yourself, did Jimmy Carter get to the presidency? Well, those of us who were around at the time can answer that he began campaigning long before the traditional starting date. There were other factors to be sure, but he built his name recognition one small Southern town at a time. And the man who eventually defeated him? It seems that every convention of my childhood Reagan was running for the nomination. A supporter of Papa Bush, I remember thinking when he was edged out by Reagan that all you had to do was keep running. Of course, I soon learned that I was very wrong about the Gipper, but my theory has some merit.

Take John McCain's victory in South Carolina. Turns out that he's been visiting, read campaigning, for the past few years. When it came time for the actual primary, he had all his ducks(Reverends) in a row. And if he never makes it to the White House, that victory had to be sweet, since it was his bitter defeat there that effectively put the kibosh on his 2000 run. Giuliani seems to have squandered his front-runner status by essentially sitting out the first few contests. His only chance now is to get in the fight like he means it. Obama has learned that lesson, showing that he has the stomach to take on the Bilary.

In the end, it's not necessarily bad that Americans reward persistence and determination. And this crazy system of ours might actually work as a Darwinian process of selection so that only the strongest make it to that last match up.

And this year, I'm afraid the-wants-it-bad award has to go Hillary. Heck, even I would love to reward her singe-minded determination. Runners up, though, have to be McCain, Obama, and Romney in that order with the last two tied. Let's see how this leading indicator holds up.