Rock stars and jobs

By Published by The Editorial Board

Published: July 24, 2008

Are we electing a rock star president?

To the editor:

I have been asked several times lately if I can explain the popularity of Barack Obama. A reasonable question, as he is clearly the most unqualified candidate to seek the presidency in my lifetime — even more so than Jimmy Carter. Obama has no achievements to his credit, has poor judgment of other people, has never managed anything, has no grasp of economics and seems to think that his silver tongue is all that is necessary to subdue those who wish us dead.

I do wonder if Obama is merely ignorant of history or just plain stupid, in that the Marxist philosophy which he espouses as his route to “hope” and “change” has proven time and time again that it not only fails to produced the promised utopia, but always produces the opposite results. Instead of abundance, prosperity and accord, the history of this philosophy has always been one of scarcity, poverty and bitter discord.

I believe that Obama’s attraction, aside from the leftist kooks who have always agreed with the idea of a huge mommy state, is primarily to young voters, and I believe that there is a simple explanation for that. It is that they were raised on self-esteem rather than self-respect.

When I was a child, some students were made to repeat a grade if they didn’t learn enough during the school year. This surely caused some emotional distress for the students and their parents, but for the most part guaranteed that graduates could read and write, add and subtract.

When we played sports, we kept score. If we found ourselves on the short end of the score, we tried to do better. We were raised with the idea of self-respect, which was a result of triumph over adversity. The more daunting the challenge, the greater the rewards of success. We learned to view losing as a temporary setback which offered the opportunity for improvement, and with that, self-respect.

The young, starry-eyed Obama supporters — who act more like concert-goers than serious voters — have no concept of self-respect. They were raised on a steady diet of self-esteem, spared the embarrassment of failure. Many schools no longer have honor rolls, lest someone feel left out. Some don’t even give grades. Many youth sports don’t keep score, so there are no losers. And if they do keep score, at the end of the season everyone gets an identical trophy, so everyone’s a winner. The net result is a lack of understanding of the connection between effort and results. They can get results without effort.

What a shock it must be for these young people when they finish their education and set out in the real world. In the real world, they keep score. In the real world, if you can’t cut it, you get fired. In the real world, there is a connection between effort and results, and no one to spare your feelings.

But not in Obamaland. In Obamaland, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for!” and other such banalities which can mean almost anything to anybody. Once again, we can feel good about ourselves without any real work. In Obamaland, “Yes we can!” We’re not allowed to ask, “Yes, but how?”

None of the Obamaniacs ever pause to think that the great USS Utopia will someday have to leave the vast ocean of “can” and dock on the dry, inhospitable land of “do.” I’m afraid that they’ll be in for another shock when they discover, a year or two from now, that the Islamofascists still hate us, and that groceries are still expensive; in short, that the real world is still keeping score. They may even realize that Obama, despite his great pains to conceal the fact, is pure politician through and through, that he is no different than the rest who will say anything and throw anyone under the bus in order to get elected. He just gives a prettier speech, that’s all.

ROBERT HUDSON

To the editor:

In reference to the “new look” of the Danville Register & Bee, I hope that I am not alone in the opinion that I would rather read it in good ole black and white than to know that 12 people lost their jobs just so we could have it in color and a different layout.

As much reporting as you all do on the current economy in our area, one would think that you would be the last place to cut jobs. Besides that, the money that you supposedly saved by letting these people go is used up in the gas it takes to drive these colorful papers back from Lynchburg.

BRANDI COUSINS

Axton