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Liberals regret Obama’s desire to be like the rest of us poor slobs.

By: Brian Hibbert (Diary)  |  February 6th, 2010 at 08:22 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Last night Bill Maher was on the Jay Leno show. Leno asked Maher what he thinks of the “New” Obama. Maher seemed a bit upset with the shift saying he didn’t like Obama’s shift to populism. He didn’t want Obama to be a common man. “He’s not a populist, he’s an elitist. That’s what I like about him. He’s smarter that the rest of us.” (To loud cheering in the audience.) Then he went on a rant about Obama doing populist things.

There’s so many things wrong with that statement that it makes my head hurt.

First is the very problem with the people who think there should be an elitist class that rules us. Sorry, that one goes against the very fiber of my being. This country was founded upon the principle that all people were created equal and that each person should rule himself. When he gets cheers to a statement like that it makes me weep for the soul of this country. What is wrong with those people! Don’t they know what they’re cheering for! “Yes! Yes! A king, we need a king!”*

I really can’t get past that one. I was going to go on about how Obama isn’t really smarter than the rest of us, but that’s irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if Obama’s smarter than the average bear or dumb as a rock. He was elected president, not king. It seems that’s the heart of the difference between leftist ideologies and conservatism. Leftist seem to think that there are people who are better than themselves (or more commonly that they are part of the elite) who can decide what is best for those who are too stupid to be part of the elite. Conservatives think that people are best left to decide their own lives and paths for themselves.

Why are people so ignorant of history and ignorant of the evils of tyrannical government control over their lives? Why do people think that other men can rule over them and make better decisions about their lives than they can make themselves? I can’t answer those questions. I can only keep asking them. It makes me sad that I have to ask it.

*Biblical reference and paraphrase of 1 Samuel 8. Prior to this time Israel had Judges rather than rulers and as it said in the last line of Judges (NIV) “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.” People haven’t changed much since the time of Saul and David have they? God desires that people be free, but many people want to be ruled. Vassar’s equating of socialist ideologies with Lewis’s enemy is making more sense every day.

COMMENTS

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  • nessa

    I’ve been assigned several honey-do’s this morning, I’ll try to sneak back and check the conversation here later. When Mrs Nessa isn’t looking…

  • Richard Mullins

    in the fact that he spoke the truth of what they think. The leftists really want to have an elitist in the WH because it fits their ideas. So when their ideal person is doing the elitist thing, they get really mad. It’s to be expected.

  • http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

    don’t know history… at all. I’m by no means an expert and often get dates and facts wrong but the overall sum total tells me that kings and queens are petulant and vengeful of the smallest slight.

    Even the courtiers must step lightly because those in favor today can quite easily be out of favor tomorrow… not to mention beheadings and the like. That tends to happen when you concentrate too much power in the hands of too few.

    • Brian Hibbert

      I mentioned 1 Samuel 8 above. It’s a chapter that goes back thousands of years, and yet the wisdom of it applies still today. The interchange between Samuel and “the people” is:

      “10 Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle [b] and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day.”

      19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

      This all can still fit with current circumstances. There are people warning of what an oppressive government will mean to the people. Yet the people still cry “Make us just like Europe! We need the government to take care of us!”. As I said, it saddens me.

      • http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

        who did exactly as Samuel warned,and more, who was supplanted by another king who, though loved by God, also had his weaknesses and sins.

        It saddens me, too.

  • http://slcliberty.blogivists.com randy streu

    In essence, it comes down to responsibility. From the top to the bottom, Statist populism* is about finding a scapegoat. The folks at the bottom want somebody else to be responsible for their “successes” so that they don’t have to take the blame for their own failures.

    At the top, where the egos are considerably larger, they recognize their own “achievements” but where they fail, they seek to find somebody to pin it on.

    Economy is a great example of this: The statists* believe they’ve helped society by creating a redistribution of wealth and bastardizing Capitalism beyond recognition, but where the system THEY CREATED hurts the lower class, they blame Capitalists.

    *From here on out, so-called “liberals” aka “progressives” will not be referred to as such by me, because the labels are grossly inaccurate. They will be called Statists, and their system not merely populism, but the more accurate statist populism. Out of a spirit of fairness, you see.

  • http://thesandsinstitute.org Vassar Bushmills

    StG

    • Brian Hibbert

      What do you think?

      P.S. Why not get your own account and respond as yourself?

  • izoneguy
    • itrytobenice

      That’s the picture he sees.

  • eburke

    Well, yeah, if by ‘us’ you mean you and the rest of your dumb (site rule redacted word) lib buddies.

    • itrytobenice

      “Every time you think you’ve seen the rock bottom of liberal stupidity, there they are again, drilling away with diamond bits and miles of casing.”

      I got that from a commenter at Ace of Spades and laughed.

      • eburke
  • eburke

    something that I’ve always felt and known in my gut which is that at it’s core modern liberalism is an elitist movement.

    It’s why the government has to control every single aspect of our lives from not allowing us to eat trans-fats, mandating seat-belts, and not allowing private property owners to decide if they’d make more money being a smoke-free environment than one that allows smoking, all the way to affirmative action programs for minorities that are too helpless and stupid to make it on their own. And do we even want to get into the hypocrisy of the AlGore’s of the world consuming more energy than 10 average families and climate change advocates flying in on 140 private jets and renting 2,000 limos while telling the rest of the peasants to cut down on their energy use.

    That’s why these people are such blazing hypocrites when it comes to how they insist others live their lives while they live in the exact opposite manner (especially when it comes to racism). Their ‘moral superiority’ excuses them from living by the same rules they foist on the masses.

    Disgusting. Utterly disgusting.

  • rbdwiggins

    “Why are people so ignorant of history and ignorant of the evils of tyrannical government control over their lives? Why do people think that other men can rule over them and make better decisions about their lives than they can make themselves? I can?t answer those questions. I can only keep asking them. It makes me sad that I have to ask it.”

    The “Why?” is obvious. The solution will be like pulling teeth: Very painful to a certain segment of our society…

    • Brian Hibbert

      And fill in the gaps that the government schools leave out.

      I feel like an evangelist….

      • rbdwiggins

        after which, there’s little hope left for the gullible.

        Controlling, pressuring, educating and otherwise holding accountable the state-level committee responsible for textbook selection is a requisite part of the solution to reverse the effects of failed government schools.

  • penguin2

    people clamoured for a “king.” An already dependent populace was further brainwashed and propagandized into electing this one. Those that really thought he would rescue them will grow in discontent, but will stay stuck. Maher’s remark is so telling and I want to repeat it here:

    ?He?s not a populist, he?s an elitist. That?s what I like about him. He?s smarter that the rest of us.?

    Maher and his kind, drip with disdain and elitism, but at the end of the day, they will fade away into obscurity and irrelevance. I take comfort in knowing that. Obama, is not king, and whether he has only 3 years, or more, it will happen to him. At times, his personal poll numbers bother me, because I think that the people remain blind. OTOH, everything he has touched has turned to lead…..and thus far we have seen the people voting their dissatisfaction, even in a blue, blue state.
    The rhetorical question you ask in para.3 connects nicely with Pilgrim’s diary:

    http://www.redstate.com/pilgrim/2010/02/04/who-wrote-your-history-textbook/

    Jaded put a link in there today to this startling plan for North Carolina history books.

    People started coming to this country over 350 yrs. ago, fleeing tyranny in their homelands. They came seeking a new life, new opportunities, and freedom. They still arrive here today for those very same reasons.

    Americans do not like people who consider themselves smarter than the “rest of us.”

    • Brian Hibbert

      Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. – Benjamin Franklin

      I’m certain Franklin knew his Bible passages better than I know mine. He would have known the warnings against kings in 1 Samuel 8 and may have been referring to the passage when he made that statement. Or he may have been referring to other passages in the Bible. One of the overwhelming themes of the Bible is that people should stand up and do what’s right and be responsible for their own actions. No where does it suggest that people should willingly become the slave of others. (Note becoming the willing servant of others is not the same as being their slave.)

      When Good stands up to Evil, Evil blinks. – Vassar Bushmills

      This is a call to action. Good people must stand up to this evil.

      • eburke

        Christianity and religion played absolutely no role in the formation of our country. You obviously haven’t been studying your post-modernist history books as taught in our public schools.

        You…you…you…religious fundamentalist, anti-seperation of church and state, theocratic, right-wing bigot you.

        That is all.

      • mbecker908

        on that most famous of Bible verses, Hezekiah 1:1 – God helps those who help themselves.

        • http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

          Right there in Hezekiah 1:2 :)

  • Common_Cents

    He lashes out of his own frustration. I’m surprised he hasn’t self destructed already.

  • mikerazar

    Samuel was wiser than Bill Maher, or that Kings David and Solomon were better leaders than Obama? That is mighty close to sedition.

    • Brian Hibbert
  • itrytobenice

    or one of them anyway, is that they think they are *all* smarter than me.

    As a conservative, I am by definition a knuckle dragging cretin. As a liberal, they are an educated, enlightened member of an elite class.

    Their entire premise of governing is that I’m too stupid to breath all the air I need so I need to be regulated and controlled.

    I hate them for their condescension more than I hate them for their policies.

    • eburke

      Well…duh!!

      It’s a paean to your cretinness that it took you this long to figure that out.

      Try to do better in the future, k?

  • redneck_hippie

    poor slobs. Like when he abdicates his leadership to Reid and Pelosi on crafting reforms. (In order to be able to pin the blame on them when it all fails). The man’s a genius, I bow to him, abjectly.

  • Achance

    Comrade Obama doesn’t think he’s like us. He doesn’t want to be like us. He doesn’t want any of His useful idiots to think he’s like us. He and they are quite certain that they are vastly superior to we heathens, but they don’t mind trying to make us rubes think that they are like us.

  • debbbbbieh

    They do that at those tapings and sheeples will just follow along, even it’s to agree that they’re not so smart, which I guess is true, huh?

  • belcatar

    Weren’t these the same people who were referring to President Bush as “King George” and moaning about how he trampled the Constitution and hoarded all kinds of power and was generally evil?

    Obama has basically continued the policies of the previous administration, while adding some particularly odious twists of his own. But he gets a free pass.

    Amazing how groupthink can cloud a mind. Whoever says that “two heads are better than one” never met Organizing for America.

    • kyoufuu

      Bush was just some dumb texan power-hungry hick who answered to the devil Dick Cheney.

      At least that’s what the liberals around me seem to believe.