Leader Worship Gets Worse

That Obama pledge video people have been linking to is creepy and disturbing. Too bad it’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Today’s USA Today featured an article about schools and streets already being named after Obama, including one government school on Long Island that became Barack Obama Elementary School shortly after the election.

Especially scary is this quote from the school’s principal: “The children take such pride over the name being changed and knowing they represent such a strong individual.”

The children represent him? The myth that our government represents us is bad enough; the idea that people now think we exist to represent our so-called leader is terrifying.

As even this mainstream-media article notes, this kind of worship for a sitting president is unprecedented in American history.

Some libertarians see this as an opportunity for people to be disillusioned when Obama fails, but I don’t. Given these people’s unquestioning adoration for Obama — and his status in their minds as someone as untouchable as Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King — whatever goes wrong will not be his fault, no matter what. Instead, it will be the fault of anyone who has attempted to restrain him in any way. When he fails, they will be ready and willing to give him more power — all that he says he needs.

A politician receiving unprecedented worship deserves unprecedented scorn and ridicule. We have our work cut out for us.

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9:42 pm on January 26, 2009