Unless Barack Obama really does believe that he’s a secular messiah, it has got to be a little disconcerting to see the lengths to which his devotees are going to show their belief in him and his – his—what?
Honestly, what is it? What do they believe this long, cool drink of water will do, if he wins in November? Will there be magic? Will the Pelosi lie down with the Boehner, the God-fearing with the god-denying, and will there be rainbows?
And if there isn’t — or aren’t – what then?
“We’re gonna spread happiness! We’re gonna spread freedom! Obama’s gonna change it….Obama’s gonna lead ‘em.”
That is the voice of a sweet-faced Californian girl, courtesy of YouTube – until yesterday morning when it was yanked from the site. The video represents the latest and most earnest demonstration of the degree to which some Democrats have lost their minds, you really must.
Here’s what it showed: In a light-washed, book-lined room on “a recent Sunday,” beautiful multi-hued children sang a paean to Chicago pol Barack Obama, while their parents beamed joyfully from the corner.
The children wore clean blue t-shirts bearing the slogans “Hope” and, with a nod to John Lennon, “Imagine Hope.” There was even a frizzled baby-boomer flutist accompanying this un-spontaneous display of Unity, Harmony, and Ghastliness.
Now I realize that YouTube, like the rest of the Internet, has produced a kind of democratic free-for-all, and hurrah for that. Yet surely something is out of whack when citizens of a democratic republic are flinging themselves – and their children – at the feet of a messianic Caesar in the apparent belief that this ambitious 47-year-old memoirist will “change the world.”
In the clip, as the children sang you could see them glancing around for approval. Their faces beamed as they received it, and their little voices rose: “Sing with all your heart: for our children, for our families, nations all join as one!” At this point, the tykes clasped their own hands, demonstrating Oneness.
I feel almost a fool to take the bait, but, really, “nations join as one?” Are we not the American people, electing an American president, who will be president of the United States of America? Not to get all technical about the job description, but that’s traditionally what every fourth November 4th has involved.
And charming though Greeks and Uzbeks may be, I doubt they wish to form a more perfect union with us any more than we do with them; in the case of Russia, and Venezuela, we know they manifestly do not.
Perhaps lyrics like these, warbled by sweet children, amount to nothing more than a bit of optimistic vapor. It would be easier to think so if Obama’s most fervent followers were not so creepily sincere.
I’m not talking here, obviously, about regular Democrats who have a natural interest in wanting their guy to win. Seeing children chant “change, change, change, yes, we can, can, can” brings home the degree to which the adoration of Barack Obama has traveled beyond normal politics into a realm of deep weirdness.
“I myself just see it as another example of magical thinking by people who regard traditional religion as superstition,” a friend remarked dryly after watching the YouTube video.
“The election of Obama will be the liberal Rapture. We’ll be treated to the sight of millions of Obama supporters floating skyward on January 20th. Should be fun,” my friend said.
Obama is leading in the polls, if only just. The people who un-ironically drive around with “Believe” stickers on their car bumpers, who dress their sons and daughters in “Kids for Obama” t-shirts – along with those who spray-paint the Illinois senator’s face on signs and buildings – may soon get their heart’s desire. They will have, if not Rapture, certainly rapture.
And then? Even from the White House, it’s hard to see what Obama can possibly do that will satisfy these yearning, surging, spiritually starved people.
In the highest precincts of the Obama team, as they contemplate victory, that has got to be a disconcerting thought.
Examiner columnist Meghan Cox Gurdon is a former foreign correspondent and a regular contributor to the books pages of The Wall Street Journal. Her Examiner column appears on Thursdays.
