Obama Syndrome

President Obama's overall performance rating has been constantly above 50%. This week the daily tracking poll had it at 54%. Since the election we have wondered how he won so easily and people still believe he is doing a good job. Right after the election I wrote as to why he was re-elected. Now that some time has passed, and some of the shock has worn off, I began to think after seeing this poll result.

Another factor that led to this new look is the on-street interview where Jimmy Kimmel asked people what they thought about the Super Bowl, even though it had yet to be played. One man went so far as to say he lost $200 on the Ravens. Some went on about Beyonce and her performance at halftime.

This made me realize these people have something in common with the Obama voter. Society is divided by two types of people. There are those that consider themselves the normal, and those that want to be seen as normal. Those people answering questions about the nonexistent Super Bowl didn't want to be seen as someone who was not informed about one of the largest events of the year. These few people feared saying, “I don't care about sports.”

I believe the same thing can be said for many of the Obama supporters. Obama presents himself as current and cool. In many peer groups you are not considered cool if you don't believe Obama is the greatest president ever. We live in a world where not saying the popular things can stigmatize a person.

Those of us on the political right are used to being frowned upon as some kook, yet we are not afraid to speak our mind. In the country of today, especially in some regions, it's unpopular to support the Constitution of the United States. Newsweek gave 1000 people the US citizenship test. 70% of the testers didn't know the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. We even have college professors telling us we no longer need the Constitution.

Americans are controlled by peer groups and the main stream media. If we have 70% of Americans who are clueless about the Constitution, then they cannot comprehend the political right’s way of thinking. The sad part is that they only want to be seen as cool and part of the in crowd. Until the political right becomes cool, we are facing a loosing battle. It is because of the cool factor, the Obama Syndrome, that most conservatives are over 40.

The Obama Syndrome is simple, it is the cool factor. Obama, as do most politicians, speaks to the crowd in front of them. They tell people what they want to hear. They want to believe that the man they see as Joe cool played no part in the economic collapse. They don't want to believe the cool party, the democrats, could have played a major role in the economic collapse that might yet destroy the country. During the Great Depression people wanted to see FDR as their savior and not as the man that was prolonging their poverty. If being cool was as important in those days as it is today, I might called it the Roosevelt Syndrome.

We must find a way to make the Constitution cool if we are to overcome the Obama syndrome. I know from school that making history cool can be a nearly impossible task. The only way to understand the Constitution is to know how it was founded.

Another area that is rarely seen as cool, is economics. Economics is the great divide between the political left and right. The left tends to forget how to count as long as they can grow government. They believe in the collective and not the individual when it comes to economics. In social areas the left embraces individualism, while economically they believe in the collective.

It's cool to care about the less fortunate. There is no difference between the left and right when it comes to caring for the poor. The difference lies in how they care. The left just shrugs and says, “Government needs to tax the rich and take care of the poor.” Those on the right would rather give the money themselves. Statistics show that conservatives are far more generous when it comes to charity.

The political right, which many seem to think is only the Republican Party, covers a lot of different individuals. Libertarians are a part of the right. Libertarians tend to be fiscally conservative while being socially liberal. One would think that libertarianism would be the one that was cool. I think the problem is that libertarianism tends to get lost, and is sometimes divided among the three major parties.

If we are to succeed we must find a way to make the political right cool. I believe the far right hurts the cause because they are easily portrayed as old, white and unwilling to budge socially. As long as the left can paint the right with that brush, it will never become the cool party. The Republican Party will forever fight for a spot at the political table. For now, and the foreseeable future, the Obama Syndrome will rule.