President as Antifederalist?
[Update 6-18-16:]
- incompetent (“in over his head”);
- suffering from a narcissistic personality disorder (“arrogant” or “out of touch”);
- a stealth Leninist (nihilist, opportunist, anti-imperialist, crypto-Islamist carrying out his African father’s failed mission), using black liberation theology to rev up his base, while tearing up the [racist] Constitution during the past week; or
- a noble centrist, a “moderate” who makes Democrats and even some neocons or conservatives proud to have voted for the first black (“African American”) president, and who has vindicated their belief in his sane and virtuous progressive commitments to human rights and community welfare, appropriately reining in selfish individualists.
- [Added 3-15-14: I am told that he is not only gay, but that Michelle is a man in drag]
As far as I know, I am one of the few who has defined his political base as incoherent , thus bringing together most of the items listed above: (See https://clarespark.com/2012/08/16/marx-rivals-and-our-enigmatic-president/, and https://clarespark.com/2010/04/05/is-potus-crazy/, and https://clarespark.com/2012/09/05/proto-fascism-and-the-democrat-peoples-community/. especially the sentence in bold face type: “It is conceivable to me that Obama’s family history (especially the abandonment by his father and who-knows-what-relationships with his doting mother and doting grandparents), set him up to be the perfect candidate for ambitious politicians in Chicago, who could count on the incoherent constituencies of the Democratic Party (big labor, public sector employees, cultural nationalist minorities–including those who profit from undocumented workers, dependents of the welfare state, feminists, gays, veterans of the civil rights movement, wealthy liberal Jews, post60s academics and journalists, Rooseveltian internationalists, environmentalists) to be taken in by his charisma and passionate promises for a national healing that would a. reconcile the irreconcilable demands and interests of his base; b. bring to pass an equally apocalyptic change inside the Washington Beltway; and c. through the power of diplomacy, effectuate an avowedly anti-imperialist “pro-peace” foreign policy. It makes sense too, in explaining his obvious rage at being criticized and blocked, to suspect that his “narcissistic supplies” are threatened. As for the grandiosity that characterizes the narcissist and other would-be healers or “moderates”, such a high opinion of himself attracts others who aspire to greatness and a cohesive human community, and who therefore tend to idealize him and overlook his contradictory statements and broken promises–for he could not and cannot please the diverse elements of the base that elected him and that continues to support him”).
If indeed, the Supreme Court does declare the ACA unconstitutional, and if there are other blows to the President’s self-esteem and conviction that he is ever the Chosen Leader of the 99%, the successful “uniter,” then it would not be unreasonable to predict some kind of crack-up. Should he “lose it” in some fashion or other (including the election), elements of his base will of course blame his opponents. These “reactionaries” will be viewed as variants of the American Assassin, as proto-Nazis or other power-grabbers, as having worn him down through the drip, drip, drip of their day in and day out attempts to undermine the resolve of the last best hope of suffering humanity. The last thing the diehard Obama supporters will examine is their own motives for having elected him in the first place.
In this blog, I have focused on the internal incoherence of the Democratic Party. For a look at differences inside their opponents, see https://clarespark.com/2009/12/16/perceptions-of-the-enemy-the-left-looks-at-the-right-and-vice-versa/. Note especially how populism can appear anywhere and is always destructive to sane political thought and assessments. For an example how the populist movement was co-opted by “progressives” see https://clarespark.com/2009/09/19/populism-progressivism-and-corporatist-liberalism-in-the-nation-1919/.
The Clare Spark Blog 
There is a reasonable suggestion that Frank Marshal Davis is Obama’s actual father.
What might be the psychological impact of claiming another man to be your father than the one you must publically assert?
Comment by Craig A. Zimmerman — September 12, 2014 @ 6:15 pm |
The psychology of POTUS fascinates many conservatives, but is irrelevant to his popularity, given the incoherence of his base. That was the subject of my blog.
Comment by clarelspark — September 12, 2014 @ 6:19 pm |
Reblogged this on YDS: The Clare Spark Blog and commented:
The terrible outcome of the healthcare law is now uppermost in our minds. So am reposting this blog that predicted a crackup if Obamacare ran into insurmountable obstacles.
Comment by clarelspark — November 15, 2013 @ 8:34 pm |
[…] [I am adding this query to what was a popular blog: If Obama is actually suffering from a narcissistic disorder, what might be the effect of close advisors stepping down? What would be the effect of substantial Republican gains on November 2? For a follow-up blog that quotes this one see https://clarespark.com/2012/04/06/diagnosing-potus/.%5D […]
Pingback by Is POTUS Crazy? | YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — October 1, 2013 @ 9:20 pm |
[…] My most popular blogs have dealt with the enigma of POTUS, with a consensus among many of my readers that he is a narcissist, possibly of the most malignant and incurable variety. This blog makes the claim that Obama’s personality is the wrong focus of attention. We do better to look at the incoherence of the base that elected him, and what is the bond that links him to such disparate sectors of the electorate, ranging from Wall Street liberals, Hollywood moguls and celebrities, teachers unions, the AFL-CIO, youth culture, environmentalists, and “racial” minorities, including liberal Jews still tied to the New Deal embraced by their parents. (See https://clarespark.com/2012/04/06/diagnosing-potus/.) […]
Pingback by Who is Barack Obama? | YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — May 15, 2013 @ 7:41 pm |
[…] had already listed most of the incoherent elements in the Democratic Party base right here: https://clarespark.com/2012/04/06/diagnosing-potus/. Historians are all aware that jamming competing interest groups into one “community” is a […]
Pingback by Protofascism and the Democratic “people’s community” « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — September 7, 2012 @ 8:32 pm |
[…] had already listed most of the incoherent elements in the Democratic Party base right here: https://clarespark.com/2012/04/06/diagnosing-potus/. Historians are all aware that jamming competing interest groups into one “community” is a […]
Pingback by Proto-fascism and the Democrat “people’s community” « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — September 5, 2012 @ 6:52 pm |
[…] This is for Labor Day, September 3, 2012. I am trying to understand why a political party with such obvious internal conflicts of interest as the Democratic Party, is able to allege solidarity within what they now call “the middle class” (hence departing from their older appeals to the working class and forcing together groups with conflicting interests: see https://clarespark.com/2012/04/06/diagnosing-potus/. […]
Pingback by Eros and the problem of solidarity « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — September 3, 2012 @ 7:34 pm |
[…] [For a related blog see https://clarespark.com/2012/04/06/diagnosing-potus/.%5D […]
Pingback by Marx, rivals, and our enigmatic President « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — August 16, 2012 @ 11:01 pm |
In 1964, Fact Magazine ran an article in which it was alleged that Barry Goldwater was insane. It included testimonials from psychiatrists. Even then, that seemed to indicate a form of malpractice on the part of those therapists.
Comment by Claude Horvath — April 9, 2012 @ 5:50 am |
Wouldn’t this characterization of Obama–family history, incoherent appeal to diverse constituencies, big ego–apply to any serious presidental candidate?
Comment by david gansel — April 6, 2012 @ 11:06 pm |
Dave Gansel is correct about incoherence and ego, but Obama’s particular family history is unusual, as is the liberal guilt experienced by many Democrats who are tied to the civil rights movement and the programs that followed, including affirmative action and multiculturalism/anti-imperialism. Consider too whether or not a presidential candidate promises [apocalyptic] hope and change, healing the divisions in our society through more statism. That is the part I find protofascist and it scares me.
Comment by clarespark — April 6, 2012 @ 11:12 pm |