On the Vacant Stares of the Faithful

I know you've seen it. The glassy eyes. The slack-jawed mouth. The almost inaudible gurgle of rage whenever you question even the most basic of their beliefs. That's right, I'm talking about supporters of Barack Obama.

Now, before you flood Prof C with hate mail, hear me out. There are people campaigning for the Senator from Illinois that frankly scare the shit out of me. Not since I was a wee-l'il Rhino in the fundamentalist household I was raised in have I seen such unconditional devotion to someone.

"He's going to bring change!" they say with a deranged glint in their eyes.

"He's America's salvation!" they proclaim as I slowly back away, looking for a weapon to protect me from this clearly insane individual.

If I ask, as any rational person would, "What change is he going to bring?", I tend to get the usual blather about being a "Washington outsider" or "Obama isn't a slave to corporate interests". If I point out that Obama has taken millions in donations from the same corporate interests that McCain has (in some cases even more), these Obamaists turn to rage, like I just pooped on the Koran, puked on the Torah and rubbed a holy cracker on my taint all at the same time.

Case in point: A couple of weeks ago, I was enjoying a bottle (or three) of wine with some friends with some of their friends from out of town. Now, these visiting cronies of my homies were of the glassy-eyed Obamaite type, and after listening to them twitter on for an hour about how Obama is the US's [i]only[/i] chance of redemption, I casually remarked "I'm still not sure about this Obama guy". From the look they gave me I thought for a second I said something different, something like "I don't see what the big deal is with raping four-year olds". I then had the pleasure of being called an "ignorant racist" because I'm not 1001% in support of Jesus Mohammed Obama (blessings be upon him). Instead of addressing any complaints I had about Obama, they instead listed off all the ways I'm ignorant, an idiot, how I'm buying into the "right-wing media", how I need to learn to "think for myself". Hmmm, I thought I was thinking for myself when I questioned the endless 5-second sound bites of a first term Senator running for president.

This happened a couple of weeks ago. What's happened with "America's only hope for salvation" in the mean-time? He's embraced Faith-Based initiative programs, he's backed off his earlier stance of "bringing the troops home" (he still wants the troops out of Iraq, they'll just go to Afghanistan and Pakistan now instead of back to the USofA), he's practically done everything but offer hand-jobs to center-of-the-spectrum voters. Call it flip-flopping, call it smart campaigning, none of this has really surprised me. Why?

[i]He's a fucking politician.[/i]

[i]This[/i] is what those waiting on their knees for Obamaunion fail to remember. Obama is going to say a lot of shit to a lot of people to get elected. Most of the shit he says is going to be meaningless after he gets elected. It's not that I don't want everything Obama says to be true, it's just that I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it to happen.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all supporters of Obama are of the glassy-eyed fundy-type. I just find it surprising that you see the slack-jawed devotion for a democratic contender for Prez usually only found in listeners of Sean Hannity. I'm not even bashing Obama. I've met Obama, sat down, ate a cheese sandwich with him and discussed how the Bears are going to suck this year. OK, I haven't actually met Obama, but I have been to a few of his speaking engagements (the benefits of working in news). He is one charismatic motherfucker, and as a co-worker put it, "he comes off as more of a rock star than a politician". Maybe it's my background in philosophy getting the better of me, where I view anything with "flash" as subterfuge to hide lack of depth. I don't really know. Even though I'm not ready to kneel down and drink the Obama juice, I'm still going to vote for him. Who the fuck else would I vote for, Cynthia McKinney?