The Blind Faith Of Politics As Religion And... Romance?

Louis Farrakhan said the following at a February speech to a nation of islam convention...

“You are the instruments that God is gonna use to bring about universal change, and that is why Barack has captured the youth,” Farrakhan said. “And he has involved young people in a political process that they didn’t care anything about. That’s a sign. When the Messiah speaks, the youth will hear, and the Messiah is absolutely speaking.”

The person to whom Farrakhan was referring, made a campaign speech in New Hampshire this weekend, where he "humbly" vowed to change the world:

"I want you to believe," said the candidate, clad in an open-necked shirt and barn jacket. "Not so much believe just in me but believe in yourselves. Believe in the future. Believe in the future we can build together. I'm confident together we can't fail."

There was a carnival atmosphere among the crowd of some 4,000, who almost drowned Mr Obama out as he reached his crescendo and said: "I promise you. We won't just win New Hampshire. We will win this election and, you and I together, we're going to change the country and change the world."

After the event, a 69-year old supporter gushed: "We feel we're on the brink of a whole new life in this country".

Ain't that the truth...

Thomas Sowell's latest column helps to clarify the new trend, by revealing its roots in the most ancient of human behavior: love.

Telling a friend that the love of his life is a phony and dangerous is not likely to get him to change his mind. But it may cost you a friend.
It is much the same story with true believers in Barack Obama. They have made up their minds and not only don't want to be confused by the facts, they resent being told the facts.
An e-mail from a reader mentioned trying to tell his sister why he was voting against Obama but, when he tried to argue some facts, she cut him short:
"You don't like him and I do!" she said.

End of discussion.

Those last two sentences sum up what politics have become in the New Age of Obama. You can't get into a meaty political discussion without it turning into an attempt to convert someone to another religion, and they won't convert because they are, quite literally, in love with their candidate.

Well, just as true faith makes room to include doubts, true love involves truly seeing what one is looking at, warts and all. "Blind Faith" is to leave stuff out; true faith, like true love, keeps things in, good and bad, exhausting our reason and judgement by forcing us to constantly re-examine the good in light of the bad, our hopes in light of our doubts.

In his autobiography "Mark It And Strike It", comedian Steve Allen explained why his first marriage failed so miserably:

"We were in love with the idea of being in love, and not really in love with each other".

I think that's an even better way to summarize the 2008 US Presidential election.