Obama's not that cool

There has been some recent talk about a cult of Obama, and I can't help but notice that some people truly do think Obama walks on water.

I am here today to tell you--he's not that cool. In fact, he's more than likely an arrogant, prick asshole.

Let me explain. I like Obama. I think he is a powerful symbol, a good leader, a great speaker, and he is getting some practical reform accomplished that I support.

BUT, he not only wanted to be President of the United States, he actually followed through with it. And that, because of the requirements of our celebrity-machine fueled statist-corporate system, necessarily makes you an arrogant prick asshole.

His arrogance has been well-documented. Even people on the inside of his campaign admit he has a rather large ego. You have to be rather cocky to run for President, to be able to shake so many hands and give so many speeches without making yourself sick. As President, you are a celebrity. And therefore you have to relish the limelight and desire having (in the immortal words of Tupac) all-eyes-on-me.

Now, why is he a prick-asshole, you may ask? For similar reasons, in order to be a President-celebrity one has to be willing to compromise, to shift your beliefs, to sell out. Obama clearly demonstrated his willingness to do this when he a) sold out his pastor of 20 plus years, the man he claimed help him find his spirituality and b) he ponied up for Wall Street but told GM to take a hike.

These actions make him an opportunist, not necessarily an asshole (although the pastor thing is pretty harsh). The reason he is a prick-asshole is that he wanted to be and succeeded at becoming President. Yes, the President is the leader of "the freest country on earth." But he is also the leader of the largest military-state and corporate institution on earth. He is basically the biggest General and CEO of the biggest army and multinational corporation in the world. Those guys (mostly, they are men)are all assholes. You have to be willing to sacrifice millions for your own interests, to oppress people the world over, to treat people as numbered cogs in the machine, to favor the rich over the poor, to give the orders to kill and imprison, and to do whatever else it takes to maintain and increase your institution's power. Obama does all this on a daily basis.

In my opinion, this makes Obama not that cool. Certainly not cool enough for a cult, and certainly not cool enough for the pass that most of the left gives him. If we had a real left in this country, Obama would be on the right, defending the military and corporate interests that helped get him in office and that he now controls. Sure, he seems cool under fire. Sure, he's attractive AND intelligent (unlike our previous arrogant prick asshole). Sure, he's a great speaker. Sure, he's a great symbol. But let's not get carried away. He's still a power-hungry, money-grubbing, oppression-inducing, and violence-perpetuating arrogant prick asshole in my book. And that goes for anyone who wants to be President, especially if they actually become one. The celebrity-corporate-militarist-statist system ensures that they will become an even bigger a-p-a over the course of their term.

I'll bet some of you are saying, "No, Cheney-Rove-Bush were the arrogant prick assholes." I couldn't agree more. But Obama is closer to Bush ideologically and politically than to my beliefs. Is it really cool to be that close to Bush? In my tally, I think not.

I only hope that, for the sake of ethics, Obama remembers that he is responsible for so much death, destruction, and deception. If so, then maybe his political pragmatism will actually mean two steps forward without the (all too common) four steps back.