Give me a freakin’ break

Yes, Barack had worked tirelessly on behalf of the American people, especially those who elected him in 2008. His followers needed to re-elect him to a second term, so that he could continue to accomplish the promises he made, thus, realizing his vision of America as a more perfect political union or “heaven here on earth.” Then, as I began to contemplate ways to assist Barack in his 2012 re-election bid something miraculous happened. I felt God’s (His) Spirit beckoning me in my dreams at night. Listening, cautiously, I learned that Jesus walked the earth to create a more civilized society, Martin (Luther King) walked the earth to create a more justified society, but, Apostle Barack, the name he was called in my dreams, would walk the earth to create a more equalized society, for the middle class and working poor. Apostle Barack, the next young leader with a new cause, had been taken to the mountaintop and allowed to see over the other side. He had the answers to unlock the kingdom of “heaven here on earth” for his followers. The answers were repeated – over and over – in speeches Barack had made from his presidential announcement to his inaugural address. Those speeches or his teachings contained the answers to the middle class and working poor people living in a “heaven here on earth.” For when the answers were unlocked and enacted, Apostle Barack’s vision of America would be realized.

And now a word from the actual Messiah: “My kingdom is not of this world.”

Where would American politics be without secular messianic claptrap? From the Puritan’s City on a Hill to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic to Teddy  Roosevelt standing at Armageddon and battling for the Lord to the fusion of conservative Christianity with the GOP to Clinton’s “New Covenant” to the glorification of The One, Americans have gone in for the identification of the Kingdom of Heaven with the American Way.  We never seem to learn.

It’s brought out some of the best and the worst in us.  We retain the Puritan impulse to be social improvers and provide uplift. It provided the moral spark for abolition and the Civil Rights Act. But we also retain the Puritan certitude that our way is God’s way (even when we stop believing in God) and therefore we have the right to launch wars tell others how many kids they are entitled to.

The funny part is, we all can see how odious it is–when the other party is doing it.  So all this Obama worship is shrugged off by lefties as mere hyperbole, but fills conservatives with nameless dread (since secular messianism is another word for “incipient antichrist worship”) while Bush’s placid conviction that launching a disastrous war in Iraq was “God’s will” was likewise seen by many conservatives as “biblical” while lefties (rightly) perceived it as stunningly arrogant.

Secular messianism is part of the DNA of America.  It will only end in tears.