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« on: March 18, 2015, 04:36:48 PM » |
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The Patriot Post - Alexander's Column 3-18-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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BO: I Love Me, I Love Me Not...
GOP Must Understand Obama's Motives to Defeat His Actions
By Mark Alexander
Mar. 18, 2015
“He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.” –Benjamin Franklin (1758.)
There’s an old adage about advanced academic degrees: “The more you learn, the more you discover you don’t know.” Thus, you can learn so much that you know almost nothing – until you’ve learned your way to idiocy! This, unfortunately, is all too obvious among the many professional pontificators on college and university campuses.
Over the course of three decades, I earned a few advanced degrees, but that academic knowledge is tempered by the reality checks that come with real world experience – though the idiocy factor can creep in with complacency.
My first graduate degree was in psychology and the last was in public affairs. (Yes, after the Clinton years “public affairs” acquired a whole new connotation.) While the public policy studies have most directly informed my career, the psych degree was useful, too. Regardless of one’s profession, some understanding and insight into human behavior is often useful.
In Mario Puzo’s 1969 novel, “The Godfather,” mobster Michael Corleone recalled this advice from his father, Don Vito Corleone: “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” That’s a paraphrase from the most influential military philosopher in history, Sun Tzu Changqing, the Chinese general credited with authoring “The Art of War” (c. 400 BC). Indeed, Sun’s chapter on “Intelligence and Espionage” advises that the best way to defeat your enemy is to know him well.
To know one’s adversary, don’t start with his actions. Instead, start with the underlying motivation for his actions. That insight will help predict future actions, and thus shape useful countermeasures. This is true in any contest, whether in military combat or in the marketplace of ideas.
Over the last six years, the battle for American ideas – for those principles that will define our nation’s future – has been characterized by more political discord than any other period in at least 50 years. Some would argue 150 years.
That contest is framed by conservatives on the Right, who endeavor to contain, if not repel, Barack Hussein Obama’s1 frontal assault on Liberty. A resurgence of Grassroots conservatives2 in 2010 gave Republicans control of the House, but that did little to stop Obama. In 2014, Republicans kept their stranglehold on the House while decimating Democrats3 in the Senate and, notably, in gubernatorial and statehouse elections across the nation. This was a deep win for Republicans and particularly conservatives.
But despite those gains, Obama, an ideological Socialist4, and his leftist cadres5 across the nation, have managed to regain full control of the political battlefield. In fact, it would seem they never broke stride.
One significant reason old guard Republican “leaders” have been so ineffective against Obama is because they lack the political spine6 of up-and-coming conservatives elected in recent years.
In addition to a dearth of backbone, they also lack an understanding of Obama’s motives – which is to say his underlying personality disorder.
Barack Obama is a textbook case study in Narcissistic Personality Disorder7, as outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – the standard reference used for psychiatric evaluation. (Somebody get Dr. Charles Krauthammer on the line.)
By definition, narcissists are deeply insecure and, consequently, have an unrelenting need to be admired by others. Their low self-esteem is often imprinted from early childhood, and for many it is associated with ineffective fathering8 or, worse, parental abandonment. Narcissists have a grandiose sense of self and of entitlement, and they have an excessive dependence upon others for self-definition and self-esteem regulation. Though they may project an image of great confidence, it is nothing more than a facade. The most malignant form of narcissism is accompanied by intelligence and charisma, which enables the deception of others in order to secure positions of power and influence.
The diagnostic criteria for NPD includes a “pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts,” which manifests as “a grandiose sense of self-importance; … a preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love; and a belief that he or she is ‘special’ and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions),” and the subject “lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others … shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes.”
Does this sound like anyone you know? Perhaps a certain “community organizer” who convinced a mindless majority of voters to crown him king9?
Most associate narcissism with “self-love,” but the root of narcissism is self-loathing. Obama’s reckless unwillingness to seek common ground and common good with others is not due to his hatred of Republicans, but his hatred of himself.
To understand just how much he hates himself, look no further than his faux White House bio10, which has not been altered since 2009. Obama recreated his life narrative: “[My] story is the American story – values from the heartland, a middle-class upbringing in a strong family, hard work and education as the means of getting ahead, and the conviction that a life so blessed should be lived in service to others.”
“The American story”? “Values from the heartland”? |
