Could a Practical Ignoramus Make it to the Highest Rungs of Power in America?
Kelly O'Connell , Bio and Archives--November 25, 2013
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I think that I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm gonna think I'm a better political director than my political director.Obviously, after spending a lifetime of dining on the Politically Correct flattery of his unctuous fans, Barack fell completely in love with the sound of his own voice. In the book The Obamas, Jodi Kantor describes and quotes Barack:
Obama had always had a high estimation of his ability to cast and run his operation. When David Plouffe, his campaign manager, first interviewed for a job with him in 2006, the senator gave him a warning: "I think I could probably do every job on the campaign better than the people I'll hire to do it," he said. "It's hard to give up control when that's all I've known."
At University of Chicago, Mr. Obama taught three courses, ascending to senior lecturer, a title otherwise carried only by a few federal judges. His most traditional course was in the due process and equal protection areas of constitutional law. His voting rights class traced the evolution of election law, from the disenfranchisement of blacks to contemporary debates over districting and campaign finance. His most original course, a historical and political seminar as much as a legal one, was on racism and law. Mr. Obama was especially eager for his charges to understand the horrors of the past, students say. He assigned a 1919 catalog of lynching victims, including some who were first raped or stripped of their ears and fingers, others who were pregnant or lynched with their children, and some whose charred bodies were sold off, bone fragment by bone fragment, to gawkers.Obama was popular with his students, but simply refused to engage with the University of Chicago faculty, according to the NY Times:
The Chicago law faculty is full of intellectually fiery friendships that burn across ideological lines. Three times a week, professors do combat over lunch at a special round table in the university's faculty club, and they share and defend their research in workshop discussions. Mr. Obama rarely attended, even when he was in town.While one might guess that Obama has always had the highest opinion of his own mind, other folks believe the reason he avoided the University of Chicago faculty, and skips other challenges is because he lacks confidence. Is this really possible? This is the claim in a Vanity Fair article, The Lonely Guy, that states,
Just how someone wired the way Obama is got so far in politics remains a puzzlement. His aloneness is generally regarded as springing from a surfeit of self-confidence, a certitude that he really does know best. But at least one former senior administration adviser has argued that the trait springs from the opposite source: a basic insecurity on the president's part, one that keeps him from surrounding himself with strong intellectual rivals in either the White House or the Cabinet.So which is it...the Obama as genius, or Barack as insecure know-nothing? In fact, his persona could best be described as the arrogant Obama as a mask to hide who he secretly knows himself to be--the failed intellectual, would-be-messiah, and hack politician driven only by blind ideology. Of course someone who blusters through life behind such a facade, yet refuses to be examined by anyone astute, is going to conduct themselves like an arrogant jackass, always condescending to others.
Marx believed society is dominated by conflicts between the powerful and the subjugated. The Marxists theorized that throughout history the government, the ruling classes, and capitalists have oppressed everyday working people, and it is only through revolution against these rulers that everyone will enjoy true freedom and equality in a classless society. They believed capitalists (owners of farms, factories, and shops) made their fortunes by exploiting the people, whom they called the proletariat. In Marx's ideal world, everyone would work hard to better themselves and cheerfully provide assistance to those unable to work. Marxists believed all farms and factories should be owned commonly. Such common ownership gave birth to the term "communism" describing this economic structure. Marx called the idea "economic determinism", as the economic conditions of the people would determine the political and social structures of such a society. Marxists also believed organized religion was a tool the governments and the ruling classes (also called the bourgeoisie) used to keep the people, or the proletariat, from thinking for themselves and being aware, or conscious, they were being exploited.
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Kelly O’Connell is an author and attorney. He was born on the West Coast, raised in Las Vegas, and matriculated from the University of Oregon. After laboring for the Reformed Church in Galway, Ireland, he returned to America and attended law school in Virginia, where he earned a JD and a Master’s degree in Government. He spent a stint working as a researcher and writer of academic articles at a Miami law school, focusing on ancient law and society. He has also been employed as a university Speech & Debate professor. He then returned West and worked as an assistant district attorney. Kelly is now is a private practitioner with a small law practice in New Mexico.