Worshipping Obama
Churlish right-wingers will likely keep complaining about the “cult of Obama.” I won’t indulge in that easy cynicism. I will note, however, that as I stumbled home, tired and scotch-afflicted for the first time in my life, I talked to one of my best friends about her meeting with a literary agent, and she said roughly the following:
As I often do in weighty moments, I prayed to God — but I kept seeing an image of Barack Obama. I kept saying to myself, “No, God, not Obama,” and I concentrated on images of Christ on the cross. But I kept seeing Obama smiling, until I finally decided that I would just give up and pray to Obama.
A lot of interesting and wonderful things happened tonight. I met someone really cool, and I experienced some amusing television mishaps. The word “mishaps” reminds me of the Pulp song “Mis-Shapes,” which sounds like a boozy smack on the lips. Thank you, Jarvis Cocker. This is borrowed nostalgia. I knew a beautiful Tamil girl from the forensics team, Anita, who was ahead of the curve — Meat is Murder T-shirts, etc. — and I wish I appreciated her more at the time.
One of many small things I like about our new First Family: Sasha Obama, the little one, bears a striking resemblance to my middle sister when she was a kid. This kind of convergence makes me really marvel: the descendants of Bengali peasants, new-fangled American aristocrats: we’re made of the same stuff. As my dear friend Andrew Sullivan has been saying all week, Happy America, folks.
P.S. Jonah Goldberg writes=:
Um, so, quick question: By pointing to Reihan’s post am I being churlish for saying this anecdote supports the cult of Obama argument perfectly?
The post was intended as a joke. I thought this was very clear. I apologize to readers who were confused. As it happens, my friend ended her anecdote by noting that she’s become a parody of liberal secularism.
Did you ask her if it worked in any way? I mean, material rewards, peace of mind, waves of sensual pleasure, heavens opened up and a Prius fell on ad smote her enemies, anything like that?
— Sanjay · Jan 21, 06:55 PM · #
It’s “easy cynicism” to simply note the obvious fact that the Cult of Obama is creepy as hell? I didn’t vote for the guy, but he doesn’t personally bother me nearly as much as his more fanatical true believers do.
— P · Jan 21, 09:16 PM · #
So…it would be churlish to see your friend has having a serious problem? Well, not really, as long as you don’t buy into any of the Jesus stuff. If you’re not buying in it’s just young, fun, and nutty, right? Fun and nutty sophistication! Definitely more fun to indulge this sort of thing than be the mood killer churlish guy that sees this and thinks ‘what the…?!’ That guy is no fun! No fun at all. Andrew Sullivan is great, isn’t he? Great and dear.
— Michael · Jan 21, 09:20 PM · #
How exactly does the act of someone “praying to Obama” not perfectly describe a “cult of Obama?” Or perhaps I’m just being churlish.
— Shane · Jan 21, 09:21 PM · #
Umm. Your post makes no sense( Your book does, however). It’s bad manners to imply that people have made Obama a cult figure? And you then give an example of someone replacing GOD with Obama in prayer? WTH?
Your “best friend” needs help. Spiritually as well as psychologically.
— Chris · Jan 21, 09:23 PM · #
Oh, yes, “It was a joke”, that’s a very convincing defense of your initial
posting. Nobody was confused. You accuse those who dislike the cult of
Obama of being churlish, provide an example of the cult of Obama, and
then MoveOn to the next phase of your worship of The One.
Very progressive of you. Very progressive, indeed. So what is the proper attitude
to be adopted when praying to your Obama-god, please?
Enlighten us all…
— nobody · Jan 21, 09:56 PM · #
You can’t really expect Jonah Goldberg, of all people, to understand humor (or the rest of the commenters on this post, for that matter). Conservative “writers” and blog commenters are humorless by definition.
— mantis · Jan 21, 10:04 PM · #
Mantis, that’s obviously not true. The vast majority of regular readers of TAS get the joke, and most of them are conservatives. As for our visitors, well, I’m sure they understand a lot of things I never will.
— Reihan · Jan 21, 10:07 PM · #
“…tired and scotch-afflicted for the first time in my life,…”
First time in your life you’ve been tired??
— S2 · Jan 21, 10:11 PM · #
Obama is like Philip K Dick’s Palmer Eldritch. He has permeated into the very fabric of reality and our thoughts.
— pkd · Jan 21, 10:13 PM · #
If Obama is political Viagra, the media are at that stage in the ad where the announcer warns that, if leg tingles persist for over six months, see your doctor.
— Neo · Jan 21, 10:40 PM · #
Sounds like someone had delusional idiots for friends. I’d be careful to hide the cutlery when they’re visiting.
— balconesfault · Jan 21, 10:40 PM · #
Okay, I’m about to join the scotch-afflicted, so if you’d clarify something for me before I get drunk and scorn the internet, I’d appreciate it (you have about 27 minutes).
Was your friend parodying liberal secularism, or has she, as you wrote, become the parody? Thirsty minds want to know . . .
— JA · Jan 21, 10:50 PM · #
You Obama “followers” are as creepy as hell. To think there are such weak minded people in this country that they worship a government official as though he was a god. Castro-esque. You liberals are going to give us all 4 years of unbelievable material and laughs. Keep it up. You are definitely not what our founding fathers envisioned. I don’t think you’re even what JFK would have envisioned. Very disturbing. Worshiping at the alter of the almighty government!
— Timmeh · Jan 22, 01:15 AM · #
People are glad to have a President Obama because President Bush did such a lousy, incompetent job as President… egregiously bad.
I just hope Obama will be able to fix Bush’s disasters.
— David · Jan 22, 05:01 AM · #
I don’t even have to pray to Obama, anymore. I have progressed to the point where I have spontaneous mystical experiences in which I lose my ego and have a direct encounter with the ultimate reality that is Obama-ness. In those moments, when the doors of perception are cleansed, everything appears as it really is: taller, calmer, and better at basketball. It’s going to be a great 8 years.
— ByronTheBulb · Jan 22, 06:16 AM · #
Byron, you know what would be cool? If every time one of us dies, Obama gets just a little bit taller.
— Sanjay · Jan 22, 04:11 PM · #
The only thing creepy about “the cult of Obama” is that it only took the right wing machinery about half an election cycle to fabricate it out of whole cloth as a response to the new president’s overwhelming popularity.
Nobody worships Barack Obama. A lot of people are starstruck by him, as their parents (or, I suppose, grandparents) were struck by Kennedy some 50 years prior, but this myth of “the Obamassiah” is nothing more than typical alarmist twaddle coming from the right whenever somebody to their left goes on the record as having any sort of admiration for the new president. It’s worse than pathetic.
Did the left ever accuse of Bush’s most ferocious supporters of worshipping the man as an idol? Of course not. It would never occur to them to do so, since the left doesn’t have to indulge such delusions to build a case against their political opponents.
— Paul · Jan 30, 10:51 PM · #