Or at least that’s the rhetoric du jour being hustled in the O-Ring. Like many demagogues, the tall, dark candidate is a Rorschach for the disappointed entitlement of the masses. (Is there a Leni Riefenstahl in the house?) He appeals to “those who want to believe,†he says. Believe in what? He reaches out “to those who believe in change.†But change from what, to what? Without any content, he can be all things to all people, just like other demagogues who whipped “the people†into a frenzy over a half century ago. But then, hey, who remembers that stuff? It’s the past, and in this post modern climate, the past is just a four-letter word.
We’re tired of money and interests, he tells the adoring crowds. Yet he fails to tell them just how all of these “dreams†and all of these “hopes†are going to be actualized without money, and with no investment of interests.
His people, he assures the cheering crowd, have chosen the future. As if it wouldn’t arrive without him. Alas, it’s been said before, but those who refuse to remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
O man has maintained his anonymity. He is an abstraction, a personality. The people to whom he appeals don’t want reasons, they don’t want specifics. They sure as hell don’t want any actual discussion about tired old stuff like “issues.†They just want an illusion – slogan-driven magic. The check is in the mail. And no one asks just how that’s going to happen, or who is going to pay.
You can bet that John McCain is going to ask what all those generic platitudes are going to cost.
