Even star Ingrid Bergman, a
ccording to her biographer, was mystified by the movie's enduring popularity, stating: "I made so many films which were more important, but the only one people ever want to talk about is that one with Bogart...I feel about
Casablanca that it has a life of its own. There is something mystical about it. It seems to have filled a need, a need that was there before the film, a need that the film filled." So what is it about
Casablanca that continues to capture our imagination?
In fact the timeless themes in
Casablanca are quintessential American values, expressed cinematically. First is our fixation with tough, cynical guys with soft interiors, who obscure tender hearts of gold behind a flinty exterior. We love guys who fight for freedom, back the right side -- regardless of the risk, who hate fascism and tyranny, and push aback against bullies. Most importantly is the triumph of true love over convenience and selfishness, and sacrificing for good of others, even to the point of death.
Barack seems to love the very opposite, being more government control, and less freedom for Americans. Would that Obama could bring his nettled mind and confused psyche back to a place to venerate the traditional American values of freedom, liberty and defense of property! Then, we would not be in our current malaise and crisis of identity, veering on the edge of ruin for a handful of Marxist, magic beans!
I. Casablanca: Battle Over Timeless Themes --Darkness Versus Light
Casablanca was released in 1942, at the height of World War II, when it was unclear which side would prevail. Humphrey Bogart, already an established star, plays the world-weary Richard "Rick" Blain, an American expat saloon keeper and casino owner in Casablanca, Morocco. The
story of Casablanca is summarized here:
Rick is the owner of a cafe in the transitional town of Casablanca in North Africa during the end of the Second World War. He lives an isolated life and refuses to take sides in the war even though he has a history of fighting against the Nazis. Years ago, Rick was in Paris with a young woman named Ilsa. The two were deeply in love but didn't know much about each other (they chose to keep it that way). On the eve of the German invasion of Paris, they had planned to leave the city together but Ilsa never showed up. Rick has lived in bitter resentment in Casablanca ever since. One day, Ilsa arrives in Casablanca with Victor Laslo, a leader in of the French Freedom fighters against the Nazis. They are searching for exit visas to escape to America. Rick has the exit visas but refuses to help on account of his painful past with Ilsa. Rick and Ilsa fight over their painful memories and Ilsa finally reveals that Victor Laslo is her husband but she had thought him dead while in Paris. She found out that he was alive prior to her planned escape with Rick and chose to return to Victor and help him with the freedom fighting cause. Ilsa reveals that she is still deeply in love with Rick and leaves her life in Rick's hands. Rick arranges to escape Casablanca with Ilsa but in the end sends Ilsa off to America with Victor Laslo, sacrificing his chance to be with Ilsa to become a patriot fighting against the Nazis again.
It is a bit of a shock when viewers are initially presented with Rick's apparently uncaring, cynical persona as the owner of a small Moroccan casino bar, under French occupation. But we are pleased when Rick's hard-bitten exterior briefly vanishes to reveal the heart of a humanitarian. The movie ends with Rick risking his life to help the woman he loves and her famous husband make an escape to America to help coordinate the global, underground fight against Nazi terrorism and tyranny.
II. Who Would Barack be Cast as a Freedom Fighter or Nazi?
So what modern politicians would be cast in
Casablanca's timeless story? To answer that, we need to determine what the Nazis believed. Beyond the vague speeches of Hitler, the Nazis took direction from Hitler's book
Mein Kampf (My Struggle) and the
25 Points Platform of the Nazi Party.
The National Socialist German Workers Party or NSDAP platform was launched in 1920 by Adolf Hitler:
The program is the political foundation of the NSDAP and accordingly the primary political law of the State. It has been made brief and clear intentionally. All legal precepts must be applied in the spirit of the party program. Since the taking over of control, the Fuehrer has succeeded in the realization of essential portions of the Party program from the fundamentals to the detail.
The Party Program of the NSDAP was proclaimed on 24 February, 1920 by Adolf Hitler at the first large Party gathering in Munich and since that day has remained unaltered. Within the national socialist philosophy is summarized in 25 points.
Of course, the Democrats would not agree with all the Nazi's policies. But on the following points they do agree:
A.Lebensraum: "Living Space"--German Sacred Territory & Land Reform
The Nazis taught that Germany must be reunited with its holy territory, encompassing the notion of ancient Teutonic lands, soil won by blood.
Lebensraum is defined by Princeton as:
Was one of the major political ideas of Adolf Hitler, and an important component of Nazi ideology. It excused expansionist policies of Nazi Germany, aiming to provide extra space for the growth of the German population, for a Greater Germany. In Hitler's book Mein Kampf, he detailed his belief that the German people needed Lebensraum ("living space", i.e. land and raw materials), and that it should be found in the East. It was the stated policy of the Nazis to kill, deport, or enslave the Polish, Russian and other Slavic populations, whom they considered inferior, and to repopulate the land with Germanic peoples.
This idea of holy living space which must be converted for a superior people has an echo in the modern leftist doctrines related to earth as a goddess, or GAIA, the fight against Global Warming, the re-wilding movement, and the
United Nations program Agenda 21. In brief, the left treats the earth as the one and only holy object which must be saved from the evils of capitalism, illiterate misuse and the crazy need to extract climate destroying petroleum. (see
Rewilding the World: Dispatches from the Conservation Revolution)
The left, through Agenda 21, wants "land reform" to dislocate humans from land, and return them to urban settings where they will no longer need cars, and to cut down on the misuse of energy, water and other precious resources. After this, former inhabitants, being big carnivores and large herbivores will be returned to the wild. This is how US Wilderness Areas are being used to drive humans off these spaces. Meanwhile, the UN will decide how the world needs land used in various countries. While it may seem strange to claim that the Nazis were into environmentalism, author Mark Musser has detailed the fact that the Nazis were the first modern environmentalists in
Nazi Oaks.
B. Anti-Semitism: Jews not of the Master Race
It is a shocking, yet undeniable aspect of modern leftism is its strong anti-Semitic character. For example, history's most influential socialist, Karl Marx, wrote on the issue of dealing with the troublesome Jews, called
On The Jewish Question. Marx believed Judaism was a vehicle for greedy Jewish "hucksterism," and generally claimed religion a hoax.
Both tyrannical leaders of the USSR, Vlad Lenin and Joe Stalin, were exceedingly anti-Jewish. Despite the fact that
Lenin, like Marx before him, was part Jewish, he still persecuted rabbis and dissolved synagogues. During the Russian Civil War, over 300,000 Jews were murdered in pogroms, although Lenin decried the practice. Stalin was even worse, harboring anti-Semitic instincts his whole life. Over 2 million Jews were killed in the Russian Holocaust during WWII. Stalin launched the Great Purge in 1939 to remove Jews from government, and he started an aggressive program to liquidate Jewish intellectuals in 1948.
The modern liberal Democrats have an embarrassing anti-Semitic record, despite most American Jews identifying themselves as such. Barack has already posted his flag in defending Islam, and his nonsensical support of Sharia radicals in Muslim Spring has proved an undying disaster. Consider the rejection of his favored Muslim Brethren party in Egypt, and with another return to chaos in Libya, while war in Syria continues.
Refusing to stand against Iranian nuclear ambitions, and suggesting Israel go back to its 1967 borders, it's unsurprising Barack Obama was recently described as America's most anti-Israel president. Recent articles on this topic include,
Senator Ted Cruz: Obama is most hostile U.S. president to Israel in modern times. Further, liberalism itself is now considered broadly anti-Israel, described in such recent essays as,
Rising Anti-Semitism on the Left, and
The Democrat Party and Jewish Anti-Semitism,
Is Obama the most anti-Israel president in the history of the USA?, and
Obama May Have the Most Anti-Christian, Anti-Israel Administration in History.
C. Nationalism of Industry
This policy, that the government should nationalize industry, is not difficult to establish. One need only look to ObamaCare to see how the US government, led by an exclusive vote by congressional Democrats, took over the American health care system. It's not relevant whether this takeover is working, although this entire undertaking is currently rated as a total failure. (see
The Obamacare Disaster Is Now Undeniable) Rather, it merely establishes that American Democrats and liberals agree with German National Socialists that industry should be infiltrated and reconfigured by the government.
D. Profit Sharing of All Large Industries
"Profit sharing" from all industries is essentially the demand for what
Obama called "spread the wealth" in his talk with Joe the Plumber. All socialism is based upon so-called "profit sharing." In the case of ObamaCare, any business with over 50 fulltime workers will pay a hefty penalty for healthcare.
E. Duty of the State to Provide for its People
Socialism demands an increase in the size of the welfare state. This is presupposed by both National Socialism (Nazi), and the Democrat party. For example, when Barack's spokesman claims that ObamaCare will allow those who decide not to work that they can take a break, this is what is in mind. Further, ObamaCare's mechanism is a clear socialist maneuver, where the wealthier subsidize the health care needs of the previously "uninsured." Salon magazine describes this,
Obamacare is Mostly a Wealth Redistribution Program. According to both the Nazis and Democrats, the government must care for the needs of all the people, regardless.
F. Duty of the Individuals to the State
The citizens of America, just like in Nazi Germany, also owe the state their undivided loyalty. For example, one cannot choose to opt out of ObamaCare without paying a hefty fine, for literally nothing!
Conclusion
Obviously, Barack could never play Rick from Casablanca, because even though he acts like he cares about nothing, Rick hated tyranny enough to risk his life to defeat it. Behind his cynical façade, Rick loved liberty and freedom so much that he gave up his casino to support it. Further, Rick even gives up the love of his life so that she and her husband, a great leader of the anti-Nazi underground, can escape and keep fighting the Nazis. In this he proves he understands real love.
Conversely, the crafty Obama has always pretended to love the Constitution, freedom and America. But since he really loves deception, keeping folks down in poverty, and using the government to take away rights and privileges, Barack would be a natural to play Casablanca's Nazi chief, Major Strasser. Finally, a natural to play Rick, if Bogart were replaced -- would obviously be Ronald Reagan.
