Fear of the Obama Jedi Mind Trick

I collect negative campaigning jpgs-- particularly the racist, sexist, and ageist ones that have surfaced over the course of this primary season. As far as Youtube videos go, "Barack Obama: Jedi Master" is my favorite because it highlights the incredible fear that some people have about Obama's speaking ability. Just as the "Obama as Hitler" jpg points out, some voters are irrationally afraid that Obama's oratory skills can transform Americans into mindless zombies, what the fearful call "Obamabots." What causes this irrational fear?

Some Democrats believe that if President Bush had Obama's oratory skills, we would live under a totalitarian regime by now. Bush terrified a good number of Democrats with his creation of the Department of Homeland Security; his establishment of the legal-rights suspending category of "enemy combatant"; his post-9/11 arrest of thousands without legal representation, phone calls to families, or due process; his Patriot Act; his national "REAL ID"; his domestic wire tapping; his sanctioning of waterboarding; the FBI's hacking into OnStar to listen to conversations in cars; Alberto Gonzalez's political dismissal of US Attorneys; etc. Way before Obama became a national phenomenon, I heard Democrats thank God that President Bush was inarticulate.

Obama's new face in national politics produces a blank screen on which many project their worst fears. For many Democrats, Bush's "totalitarian direction" is their worst fear, and Obama's charismatic oratory skills only intensify this fear.

Coincidentally, the "totalitarian direction" is the worst fear for a good number of Republicans as well. These Republicans cringe at the idea of a charismatically articulate "socialist"-- which is the hyperbolic term that allows conservatives to express their own fears of a "totalitarian direction."

Others (both Democrats and Republicans) fear terrorism more than they fear the "totalitarian direction." These people project onto the unknown of Barack Obama both anti-Americanism and an association with Muslim extremism. These people cling to arguments about flag pins, Reverend Wright, and a Muslim heritage as indicators that their worst fear is coming. In this way, they can make statements like, "The more I learn about Obama, the scarier he gets!" In other words, they "learn" dismissive statements that enable them to maintain their scary projections onto the blank screen of his identity.

This is why Obama has been able to close the gap in the polls the more time he has to campaign in a state. The more people experience him-- and not merely "learn" the dismissive statements about him that enable them to maintain their willful ignorance about him-- the more they can no longer project their fears onto Obama, because he's no longer a blank screen capable of supporting their projections. Not to reduce the role of either his charisma or oratory skills, but this is the secret of the "Obama magic." His engagement with people takes away their worst fears-- the ones they projected directly onto him.