Cult Of Personality

Every year on February 6th I do a tongue-in-cheek “Reagan’s Birthday” celebration.  Oh, we do do a special dinner at home, and I do talk about the Cold War, the demise of which President Reagan was the primary architect.  But that’s just being a good parent.

And while I make noise about wanting to make Reagan’s Birthday (formerly “Reaganmas”) a national holiday – c’mon.  Even Reagan wouldn’t want that. 

The tongue, in every case, is lodged firmly in cheek.

Because people who treat their leaders like subjects of cultish adoration?  They’re just plain wierd:

Wondering what to give a presidential candidate on his birthday? Minnesota supporters of Barack Obama are celebrating their guy’s 47th birthday today with “house parties” across the state.

As I sit trying to write this, a lot of snarky comebacks suggest themselves. 

None of them are any better than the vision of the “events” themselves.

24 thoughts on “Cult Of Personality

  1. That is really weird, having your friends over to celebrate the Obamalama’s brithday.

  2. They’re merely celebrating the birth of The One. Just like Christians the world over make a big deal out of December 25. Look for The Lamb’s baby picture to be photoshopped in to a bucolic Hawaiian manger scene (all the rooms at the Honolulu Hilton were taken).

  3. Nonsense, you treat Reagan with exactly the same cultish adoration, if not moreso, than Obama’s supporters treat him.

    1. You rather naively believe Reagan won the cold war – the cold war was a 60 year process which Reagan was the end point of, not the primary architect. The Soviet Union was in massive decay before Regan took office and was doomed before his programs became impactful.

    2. You naively think that Reagan was some sort of ‘true conservative’ despite the fact that he exploded the debt, raised taxes massively, and in the end, caved on trying to eliminate Social Secuirty, when he was schooled by Claude Pepper and the AARP- in short, he gave in to political pressure, something a ‘true conservative’ would never do.

    The fact is, this is just knee-jerk self defense against being called a hypocrite for doing in spades what you are (wrongly) accusing liberals of doing – most of us liberals recognize Obama as merely a potential hope, not THE hope, for real change. Many of us are very dubious of his intent, let alone his ability.

    Conversely, you neo-kooks were so incenced about Reagan not getting on the 76 ticket you virtually shut down the convention – and you’ve gone about naming building after building after Reagan, and I think if you could erect a shrine, you would, because god knows you’ve started a religion. Conflating campaign rallies tongue-in-cheek dedicated to Obama’s birthday with cultism, when you define cultism yourself, is just further evidence of your insecurities and vulnerability to the label of hypocrisy. Spinning this into something it isn’t seems like protesting a bit too much – and one wonders why? Or maybe one doesn’t – after all, we all KNOW, who the true ONE is – namely Reagan – in your mind.

  4. Speaking of cults, did you see the NRA placed a paid spy in the employ of at least two gun-control organizatons, one of which was a volunteer/non-profit?

    Talk about paranoid.

  5. the cold war was a 60 year process which Reagan was the end point of,

    so you’re saying the Cold War started in the late 1920s – oh do elucidate!

  6. the cold war was a 60 year process which Reagan was the end point of,

    just to get this straight peev

    it was Calvin Coolidge’s Cold War is that caused the market to crash in ’29 and drove the country into an economic depression and ultimately led to WWII?

  7. Conversely, you neo-kooks were so incenced about Reagan not getting on the 76 ticket you virtually shut down the convention.

    I was 12 years old in 1976. Mitch is a contemporary of mine. Oddly, I don’t think we were involved in this.

    And anyone who was a “neo-kook” in 1976 would hardly be neo-anything some 32 years later.

    For your next learned treatise on election cycles that are 32 years past, perhaps you can share your thoughts about the crucial role of Milton Shapp.

    It’s 2008, good sir. Let’s stay on topic, por favor.

  8. Speaking of cults, did you see the NRA placed a paid spy in the employ of at least two gun-control organizatons, one of which was a volunteer/non-profit?

    And the NRA is a non-profit, too. Your point? Are we supposed to view being a non-profit as some holy, exalted state?

    I’m surprised a mole wouldn’t be outed sooner, though. Those are pretty small organizations you’re talking about.

  9. Even my dyed-in-the-wool left-leaner friends who adore Oback Barama wouldn’t have a birthday celebration for him.

    Who are these people???

  10. Any comment from Penigma that starts off with “Nonsense,” you know is just going to be chock full of idiocy, and he delivered yet again!

    As for me, I was a brash 1 year old in 1976, and a few years later I thought it was neat that we had a president with the last name of “Ray Gun.”

  11. In 1976 I had hair halfway down my back and was listening to Woodstock. Yeah, I was naively incensed alright.

    Nice revisionist history on Reagan raising the national debt, though. I wonder if Peev remembers how many times the Democrat Congress over rode his vetos in the 80s. I suspect not.

  12. Yoss:
    Any comment from Penigma that starts off with “Nonsense,” you know is just going to be chock full of idiocy, and he delivered yet again!

    Actually, Yoss, that’s just Penigma (and various other names) simply the title he uses on his comments.

  13. Yeah, I think my Literature professor called it “foreshadowing”… a small hint at what follows in the text you are about to read.

    For the record, I was 5-years-old, & my abusive parents took me to Carter rallies…

  14. Fascinating that peeve considerer himself arbitrator of who is and isn’t a true conservative. Didn’t he once say he, himself was in the middle? From that scale, this would make Reagan a far far far far right conservative. And this is assuming he was actually a slightly left of center liberal, which of course he was not. I really enjoy the revisionism about Reagan. Those folks that protested in the streets about Reagan starting a war with the powerful Soviet Union now say “Reagan had nothing to do with it, the Russians were as powerful as a kitten”. In other words, you folks had no problems with other people living with the steel toed boot on their necks and wanted to just appease, and now that those folks are free and iron curtain (for the moment) has lifted you want to deny credit to someone you hated more than you do Bush. Oh, and I was 15 in 76. My politics at the time were laser focused on coming up with a strategy to get into Linda’s panties. Sadly, I lost that one too. ’76 just wasnt a good year for me.

  15. In 76 I was trying to find a way to break it to my neighbor friend that I didn’t really care if he was drinking out of the King Kong glass from Burger King.

  16. This type of bizarre obsession is a perfectly explainable phenomonon among moonbats.

    They have banished every normal, healthy tradition and belief from their lives and spend their time skittering hither and yon for a suitable replacement to fill the empty void.

    When you say “Obama” a lefty hears “Obalma”.

    It’s the same mental deficiency that causes them to live in trees, sells crystals, scientology books and keeps the temple of Ek filled.

  17. Nonsense, you treat Reagan with exactly the same cultish adoration, if not moreso, than Obama’s supporters treat him.

    Ah. Again with the “I know you are but what am I?”.

    Well, OK, if you say so. :-`

    On to the revisionism:

    1. You rather naively believe Reagan won the cold war – the cold war was a 60 year process which Reagan was the end point of, not the primary architect.

    Unfortunately, that “60 year process” (huh? At that point, more like 40 years) was in the process of being dismantled and scuppered by the post-Vietnam retreat and by Carter. Reagan got it back on track, and in style.

    The Soviet Union was in massive decay before Regan took office and was doomed before his programs became impactful.

    I’ve asked you this before, the last time you brought out that bit of fiction. You never answered it then, and you won’t now, either. But I’ll ask again, just to show the audience how far ahead of the debate I am.

    Here goes: “Name the thinkers, intellectuals, advisors and pundits in 1976-1985 that actually believed the USSR was on the brink of failure”.

    You can’t, of course; there were almost none. Galbraith in ’82 said USSR was here to stay; in ’89, “Soviet Expert” Strobe Talbott said that the Soviets were in it for the long haul. The list goes on and on and on; there was scarcely a pundit at any level anywhere in any country that believed the Soviets were in any danger of collapse.

    Your points makes sense – provided that you have almost 20 years of hindsight on your side. At the time? Not so much.

    2. You naively think that Reagan was some sort of ‘true conservative’ despite the fact that he exploded the debt, raised taxes massively, and in the end, caved on trying to eliminate Social Secuirty, when he was schooled by Claude Pepper and the AARP- in short, he gave in to political pressure, something a ‘true conservative’ would never do.

    Patent rubbish:

    a) He had a Tic congress to deal with most of the time
    b) He was a pragmatist – i.e., “politician”.

    The fact is, this is just knee-jerk self defense against being called a hypocrite for doing in spades

    Oh, my gaws, Peev, the next time you want to do the “I know you are but what am I”, THINK OF SOMETHING ELSE. It is neither valid nor clever!

    Conversely, you neo-kooks were so incenced about Reagan not getting on the 76 ticket you virtually shut down the convention

    Not sure they were called “neocons” back then, not that actual history means much to you.

    Neo-kooks?

    Oh, good lord.

  18. Peev really seems to have a problem with the definition of neo-conservative. I think it’s become just a word that means someone bad, like gobdaw.

  19. As a writer/editor for a living, I’m disappointed that I’m just now learning of this word “gobdaw.” I think back to all my Peev-bashing limericks, and I can’t help but feel a well-placed gobdaw would have made them all the more awesome.

  20. Yoss-
    The proper intensfier for gobdaw is feckin. As in “yah’ feckin’ gobdaw!”.

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