blogger interrupted

The absurdly pompous ass Charles Krauthammer’s latest overwrought column about Barack Obama was WAY more revealing of the truth about Mr. Krauthammer and his Republican friends than it was about Barack Obama.  Here’s a relevant summary, from a British paper (I’m paying attention to European media this week, so should you).

The senator’s neo-conservative critics don’t find him funny at all. Charles Krauthammer, the influential columnist, takes aim at the royal “we” in Obama’s slogan, “We are the ones we have been waiting for”, his narcissism and “the gaps between his estimation of himself and his actual achievements”. Having been in a live audience for Obama’s rolling cadences, I can understand Krauthammer’s frustration but feel he misses the point.

What moved Krauthammer into this catatonic fit that passes for opinion writing is the realization that the myths upon which the Republican claim for power rest are now becoming Barack Obama’s.  It’s happening, slowly but surely.   This week’s tour of capitols is just one brick in that wall.

And the…ahem….audacity of requesting to speak at the Brandenburg Gate, whose symbolism Republicans claim sole title over, well, that was the last straw for Mr. Krauthammer.  Cue twitching rage.

Barack Obama wants to speak at the Brandenburg Gate. He figures it would be a nice backdrop. The supporting cast — a cheering audience and a few fainting frauleins — would be a picturesque way to bolster his foreign policy credentials.

What Obama does not seem to understand is that the Brandenburg Gate is something you earn.

What exactly has Charles Krauthammer ever earned?  And why isn’t the fact that Barack Obama is now the single most important black man in American history since MLK “earning” anything, let alone the Brandenburg Gate?

Because the myth upon which Republican hegemony has rested is just that, a myth.  The Brandenburg Gate is one of the symbols in that myth.  The myth holds that all that is good and great about America resides in the Republican Party.  They stole the Brandenburg Gate from JFK, a man who actually fought to free it from the Nazis, and gave it to a Hollywood actor, who better played the part, and better objectified their power myth.

Barack Obama is no myth.  If the man who currently resides in the body of Charles Krauthammer had actually instead been born black and named Barack Obama, I would imagine that man wouldn’t have made it to Harvard Law School, let alone president.  As it is, the man who actually IS Barack Obama has accomplished more before becoming president, has changed more about America before becoming president, than any Republican, president or otherwise priveleged blow-hard like Krauthammer, ever, simply by being black, and getting this far in spite of that.  

And that is the great fear of Republicans.  That the mythological symbols of Republicanism which adorn the vapid emptiness of Republican Americanism, will transfer title to someone who actually represents America, in all its forms, and to someone who actually deserves it.  It’s actually helpful that the Bush White House refused Obama even the opportunity to speak in front of their myth…reposession of reality is somehow more satisfying when you have to take it by force.

When that transfer of title happens, what is left of Republicanism?

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