Obama and Morsi: Separated at Birth
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Mugs don't lie: Gaza vendor displaying popular souvenir mugs with Morsi (L), Abbas (C) and the beloved U.S. President.
Photo Credit: Wissam Nassar/Flash90
In Cairo, Morsi scribbles his decrees and in Washington DC, Obama scribbles his. There is an ocean between the two men, but there is a good deal that they have in common. Both are ideologues who piggybacked on public outrage over the national impact of international economic declines to climb to power and pursue their true agendas.
Without worries about the price of bread, the odds are good that Mubarak would be sitting in his old place and Morsi would be looking over the latest economic reports from the Brotherhood’s business networks and front groups. And without a sharp decline in American living standards, Mubarak would be receiving phone calls from President McCain urging him to democratize Egypt, while Obama would be rallying the troops at the latest SEIU event for taking back Congress.
Times of crisis are political hunting grounds for extremist groups whose ideologies would otherwise be unpalatable. Angry people are more willing to accept the previously unacceptable to shake up the system and punish those that they blame for their economic situation. They are in the long run, only punishing themselves, but the long run rarely wins elections. The short run however is the all-time ballot box winner.
But the problem with running on the old Bolshy platform of “Land, Bread and Peace” is that the people eventually expect you to deliver at least two of three. And ideologues are not interested in empowering people. They will hand out subsidized freebies to their supporters to win elections, but they won’t empower them economically, outside their network of subsidies, and peace is never on the table with folks who believe utopia is just a hundred years of war away.
There is a point midway between the cheering for hope and change, and the complete consolidation of power in the hands of a tyrannical system when the tyrant is vulnerable. That window is the one that opens when the people begin realizing that there is no land, bread or peace on the horizon. Their eyes haven’t opened, but their patience has run out.
Morsi has tried to cut the duration of the window as narrowly as possibly by moving quickly to consolidate his power, but that brought on a second crisis and a wave of popular protests. Triggering those protests prematurely may have been his plan, but that plan may have also backfired. The only way to tell will be retroactively.
Obama’s ObamaCare power grab was generally held to be premature, but even though the majority continues to oppose it, the man behind the program survived an election thanks to a hurricane and plenty of voter fraud. Morsi may similarly be able to survive his own power grab. An Islamist is, if nothing else, absolutely immune from the sort of human emotions that animate normal leaders.
The advantage of being an ideologue is that you simply do not care what infidels think and anyone who is not a member of your mental club is an infidel. Transnationalists, whether of the leftist or Islamist flavor, are men who live without a country. Their country is an imaginary global utopia, the infinite Reich of dreams, the Caliphate of their conspiracies and the World Revolution that can never be.
That disregard is what allows men like Obama and Morsi to survive the widespread hatred and contempt of a country, to sneeringly dismiss it, and get on with the program of taking it over. Bush and Mubarak could be hurt by how their own countrymen saw them. But Obama is not an American and Morsi is not an Egyptian. Obama is a Progressive and Morsi is an Islamist. Their approach to anyone outside that circle is limited to distinguishing between potential converts and useful idiots.
Bad leaders can be protested out of office. Ideologues can only be forced out of office. And that isn’t easy. Any movement with enough money, skills and leverage to take their man all the way to the top is not going to fold just because the streets are full of protesters or because legal action is being taken against them. The cadre of such movements consists of men with no regard for any of laws of a society and who are entirely willing to destroy a country rather than give it up.
tell a friendAbout the Author: Daniel Greenfield is an Israeli born blogger and columnist, and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. His work covers American, European and Israeli politics as well as the War on Terror. His writing can be found at http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/. The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of The Jewish Press.
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Obama and Morsi–two murdering Nazi-Islamo fascists.
Now if Obama were white and had a less unusual name, I'm wondering if this hateful screed would have been written.
It doesn't matter if you are black, blue, or green, facts don't lie.
there's no difference between Obama, the gulf monkeys, the Turks, the brotherhood and all other terrorist organizations, they all belong to the same gang, have the same Ideology and work for the same goals and all without exception should be tried for crimes against humanity.
I am fearful for the future of the U.S.
Why are you fearful? Is it because you don't respect the results of an election? Or is it the name of the president? Or is it that the president is black? It can't be because of Israel, because this president has been no less supportive than any predecessor and he has stood by Israel during Operation Amud Ha'anan. So what is it, Chaiya?
So Jay, You seriously are one of "those " who believe that people who are against Obama , are against him because he's black? You're silly. I bet you talk about "birthers" too. You are expressing the same mentality.
No, Steve. You are the one being silly. You added 2+2 and got 5. Opposition to the policies of Pres. Obama is, of course, not racist. But when opposition gets personal, vitriolic, irrational and infused with outright lies, then there's a good reason to suspect racism. Unfortunately, I've had enough interactions in person and on FB to have my suspicions confirmed in many cases.
Mr. Greenfiled, you are a vile person. No wonder the peace everyone clamors for will never come. People like you just spew hatred and wickedness all the time. Thank God, you live in the great USA. If you were in Israel, and wrote this piece of crap about Israel’s Prime Minister, the army would have your head.
Moreover, when you want to write about US citizens wanting and getting freebies therefore they won’t be empowered economically, take a look at Israel and their freebies given to their people based on all the aid provided by the Citizens of this great country. Yes, Israel’s Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman stated quiet emphatically: Men need not work – wives and state allowances can pay the bills Deputy health minister says it's 'absurd for both parents to work,' praises Netanyahu policies. Additionally, he also wants childcare allowances, just like the US Citizens. To the suggestion that perhaps one task the new government will face is cutting NIS 15 billion from the 2013 budget. Among the possible cuts are child allowances, which are of particular interest in his Haredi community where many have large families, Litzman replied:
"That's one of the things they wanted to do a few months ago when Netanyahu said he didn't have a majority to pass the budget. And one of the reasons there was no majority was that I would not have a hand in it."
Yes, Mr. Greenfiled even the Citizens of Israel wants freebies. However, those freebies come on the backs of US citizens (mind you are struggling themselves) in the form of financial and military aid, Israel receives. What a hypocrite.
You are right jay all this people are rasist hateful too