Sheeple Watch #19: Hipness Is What It Is
by T.L. James | 6:29 pm, April 26, 2009 | Comments Off
Of course, as Bill Clinton would tell you, it depends on what is is.
I don’t know that I’d call what he has “hipness”, as much as I’d call it “the fawning adulation of unquestioning, sheep-like adherents to his cult of personality“.
During his first 100 days as president of the United States, Barack Obama revealed how different he is from all the white men who preceded him in the Oval Office, and the differences run deeper — in substance and style — than the color of his skin. {emphasis added}
Maybe it’s just me, but that gratuitous focus on the President’s race vs. the race of his predecessors seems a little, you know…racist.
Of course, I jest: it’s not actually racist to attach significance to the President’s hue. It’s enlightened. Progressive, you might say. You could even call it colorblind, if you’re prepared to forgive folks the understandable tendency to consider you a bit Orwellian as a result. Aside from the occasional idiotic outburts from isolated atavists who actually do object to Our Messiah on the basis of his pigmentation, comments about Obama are only racist when they concern his runaway stimulus/entitlement/pork spending, moral-hazard-reinforcing industry bailouts, and irresponsible, asymptotic accumulation of debt…just ask Janeane Garofalo.
Barack Hussein Obama is the nation’s first hip president.
This, of course, is subject to debate. But watch him walk. Listen to him talk. See the body language, the expressions, the clothes. He’s got attitude, rhythm, a sense of humor, contemporary tastes.
This much is clear: Whether dealing with the Wall Street mess, shifting troops from Iraq to Afghanistan or fumbling to fill his Cabinet, Obama leans heavily on personal panache to push political policies. Truth be told, his style is rooted in something elusive and hard to define. Pure and simple, it’s hip.
Whether firing executives of private companies, dancing around tough softballs at a prime-time press conference, or lounging with Third World socialist dictators after a long day of diplomacy, Barack looks suave and swinging in this hip perma-press business-suit ensemble from Hart Schaffner & Marx.
It’s so hip that school kids in Albany, N.Y., coined a term for it: “Baracking.” And it doesn’t stop there. Those in the know at Albany High greet each other by saying: “What’s up, my Obama?” and they respond to a sneeze with “Barack you.” Misbehavior is peer-corrected with the admonition, “Barack’s in the White House,” which translates, “Show some respect.”
Deborah Tannen, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, said it was “just really stunning” that kids were co-opting the president’s name as a term of endearment and identification.
“This is the most emblematic, positive thing that kids could say,” she said. “It’s connecting them to him, saying that there’s something special in the connection between them.”
I fear for the future. To the extent that they are not using this slang ironically (and that the whole thing isn’t just made up), these schoolkids are buying into a cult of personality – a dangerous social phenomenon which should never be seen as acceptable as regards a sitting President or other elected official.
At least there’s some hope at the end of all this hip hype:
To be sure, the track record for hip politicians isn’t promising. History suggests that the power of personality has limitations in politics. It sours under public scrutiny.
So can it last? Can Obama’s hipness survive the weight and responsibility of the office? Maybe there’s a reason presidents aren’t hip. War-making, secrecy, aging, unpopularity, sternness and sobriety — these are decidedly unhip. And all that could come in the next 100 days, because hipness is a trendy thing, subject to popular whim.
One can only hope that the hip wears off, that the public’s adoration of him sees a change to a more realistic regard of his policy positions and leadership abilities. There’s more to being an effective President than being charming and well-dressed, and there’s more to being an enduring success as President than having a loudly-bleating cult of sheeple singing your praises.
[via Michelle Malkin]
Tags: Barack Obama > cult of personality > racism > Sheeple
