Obama and the Cross, Part II

Barack Obama, the current incarnation of progressive, inclusive politics has made a conscience strategic decision to drape himself around the religious symbol of the cross in order to get elected president of a country whose Constitution specifically and unambiguously prohibits the federal government of that country from establishing a State Religion.

Looking for as many votes as he can garner, Obama has chosen to define himself, and wear that definition on his sleeve, as a christian. Coincidentally enough, the majority of United States citizens identify themselves as christians as well.

For three decades or so it has been the reactionary forces of the right-wing of the Republican Party that have added the cloak of christianity as a second layer of clothing to the cloak of the Flag in their political machinations. These have been tactics deplored by progressives, liberals, Democrats in general.

Al Gore didn't resort to co-opting this cynical--and very dangerous--tactic, but he lost the election; John Kerry avoided emulating the tactic: he lost the election too.
Barack, as intelligent and cynical a candidate we've seen in generations, perhaps rivaling Nixon himself in those categories, wasn't going to lose because voters thought him "unholy," lacking faith.

So his campaign flyers show him standing almost as if at a church pulpit with a seemingly glowing white cross behind him. "I am the candidate of Jesus," is the unspoken message. Even Reagan and Bush 2 were not as flagrant in their hypocrisy as this picture, surely worth a thousand words to its intended victims.

Some Obama stalwarts argue that this tactic was prompted and made necessary by the rumors being spread that Barack was some sort of closet Muslim. And the only way to counter those scurrilous rumors was by heavy-handedly proclaim his allegiance to christ.

That argument only says that it is more important that Obama win the election than that one of the pillars of the nation's Constitution be defended, win or lose. Barack has chosen the path of, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." And thereby he has lost his soul, and joined the ranks of Nixon, Reagan, Bush 2, HRC and the rest of the overly ambitious who run for the office of President of the United States.

[Note: Though these views may reflect a deep naivete on the writer's part, they much more reflect disappointment in a man who really had a chance to be a revolutionarily different candidate in an age dominated by the crassness of PR flacks and their ilk.]