This originally appeared at Huffington Post on October 4, 2009.
There is a limitless supply of videos chronicling the August teabaggery, but this is the one I found most interesting: a woman declaring that “Obama is not God.” It perfectly encapsulates the mind of the American right:
She was repeating a meme given voice by Jon Voight in June at a Republican fundraiser. The actor,
who hosted the dinner, delivered a particularly harsh rebuke to Obama, saying he was “embarrassed” by the president and that Obama’s leadership would cause the “downfall” of the country.”We are becoming a weak nation,” he said, calling Obama a “false prophet” and his administration the “Obama oppression.”
Of course, this meme is really an exercise in psychological projection. Denying their own mental habits, the wingnut ascribes those habits to the president. Projection is a profoundly subtle psychological process because it takes place internally, yet it is an important way the closed mind keeps itself uninformed about itself — as well as the larger world.
In other words, it helps them avoid facing facts. “Belief” replaces facts, such as this one: to date, no one has quoted Obama claiming to be God. In his speeches, calls to divine authority have been limited to scriptural allusions on such issues as reducing poverty. None of them posit a special calling for himself. Indeed, he has yet to claim any special powers of communication with the divine.
On the other hand, right-wing conservatives make exactly these claims all the time. Michele Bachmann, for example, has been courting the teabagger demographic. In an interview with the arch-birther website Wing Nut Daily World Net Daily, Bachmann claimed — amidst quotes about abortion, “death panels,” and the moral danger of compact fluorescent bulbs(!) — that God had “called” her to run for Congress and might yet “call” her to run for president.
Bachmann, who regularly infuses her rhetoric with blood imagery and overwrought religious hyperbole, came to office via the message-machine of the evangelical church. Railing against the “attitudes, values and beliefs” of the Goals 2000 program, she was invited by other right-wing education activists to run for Congress.
It’s worth noting that the Goals 2000 curriculum seems rather uncontroversial: getting guns and drugs out of schools, emphasizing math and science skills, etc. Presumably, Bachmann was upset by the part where students were asked to identify with children from another culture and religion — like, say, Hawaii. We can’t have the kids think of other people as human, after all.
The representative from Minnesota is perhaps the best example of this, but by no means the only one. Indeed, the entire “C Street Family” story is about public piety matched by private self-dealing and hypocrisy. One need only watch video of Senator James Inhofe talking about a trip to Africa and contrast it with his denialism of global warming to see that his agenda is faith-based. Like so many on the right, science is made to serve belief, and that science which contradicts belief is to not to be believed.
Of course, this meme has actually been with us a long time. It’s the latest manifestation of the “Obama is antichrist” meme:
This silliness is a direct result of manufactured fear within the evangelical movement. “Informed” by films like Left Behind and The Omega Code, the wingnut mind has seized on Obama’s global background and middle name to invent a narrative of Satanic influence. Xenophobia is a consistent strain of modern apocalyptic narratives.
This meme is a form of wishful thinking from the party of faith-based policy: if Obama is illegitimate in the eyes of God, then it is a Christian’s duty to oppose him, no matter what he actually does. Thus questions of policy, like scientific studies, are no longer argued on their own merits, but on the sole merit of opposition to the evil president.
This delegitimating of a president — and, by extension, his agenda — explains the odd crowing reaction of Republicans to the failed Chicago Olympic bid. It is as if Obama has lost some sheen of idolatrous perfection and been “revealed” as a fraudulent prophet; but only a wingnut would ever think of a politician as a prophet.
This meme also shows up in right-wing coverage of various nontroversies. For instance, Obama’s announced back-to-school speech brought condemnation for encouraging “a worship-like reverence” and “indoctrinating” students. None of those fears materialized. Glenn Beck used a video of high school step-dancers to promote the idea of a secret Negro army of Obama goons, claiming — again — that “indoctrination” was going on.
More recently, we’ve seen a video of schoolchildren singing a song about the country’s first black president (during Black History month) given national exposure as “proof” the president is encouraging an actual cult of personality, and video of a mock funeral for wealthcare portrayed as prayer to Obama.
Yet the origin of this narrative has nothing at all to do with anything the president has said or done. Nor can it be traced to any actions of his supporters. Indeed, “The One” was a satirical meme from the right in last year’s election.
So where do they get these cockamamie ideas? Maybe this video can explain it:
