Obama says we're, "Selfish."

[brassmonkey]

As if I needed another reason to hate the man and what he stands for.

October 31, 2008 10:58 AM
On the stump this week, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has pushed back against Sen. John McCain's description of his tax policies.
"The reason that we want to do this, change our tax code, is not because I have anything against the rich," Obama said in Sarasota, Florida, yesterday. "I love rich people! I want all of you to be rich. Go for it. That’s the America dream, that’s the American way, that’s terrific.
"The point is, though, that -- and it’s not just charity, it’s not just that I want to help the middle class and working people who are trying to get in the middle class -- it’s that when we actually make sure that everybody’s got a shot – when young people can all go to college, when everybody’s got decent health care, when everybody’s got a little more money at the end of the month – then guess what? Everybody starts spending that money, they decide maybe I can afford a new car, maybe I can afford a computer for my child. They can buy the products and services that businesses are selling and everybody is better off. All boats rise. That’s what happened in the 1990s, that’s what we need to restore. And that’s what I’m gonna do as president of the United States of America.
"John McCain and Sarah Palin they call this socialistic," Obama continued. "You know I don’t know when, when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness."
It's unclear if this was a nod to the Ayn Rand book "The Virtue of Selfishness," with all that the invocation of Rand implies.
It would seem to be, given the themes of Rand's work, what happens when independent achievers are demonized.
Which would fit with this description of those who want to keep their hard-earned tax dollars as "selfish."
Atlas may not be shrugging, but Obama is.

[homebase]

Dan Mitchel of the Cato Institute explains...

Senator Obama's Social Security Tax Plan

[brassmonkey]

Another great find, homebase.. The negative aspects of an Obama presidency just keep bubbling to the surface. I just feel that the facts are simply things that the Libs and uneducated voters need to push out of the way in order to get to that lever and cast their ignorant or unamerican vote....

[homebase]

Perhaps Brass, it is not so much "ignorance" or "uneducated" (or it is education) as much as it is a different belief system. I agree that the principles of the lib/left beliefs are totally unamerican and anti US Constitution!

Paul Revere may need to ride again! eh? Not "the British are coming" but the British are here!

What appears below is an attempt to analyse most aspects of Leftist political thinking and display the psychological and sociological roots of such thinking in an historical context.

"For a hundred years or more the defining division in politics, in Britain and elsewhere, was about the role of the state. Essentially progressives believed in its ability to improve society; Conservatives feared its interference stifled personal liberty.

-- Anthony Blair, Labour Party Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. (2006)

"To me, conservative means believing in a minimum amount of government and a maximum amount of freedom -- and keeping government out of people's lives and business -- and leaving people alone,"

-- Lyn Nofziger, long-time U.S. Republican insider (2005)

THE MOTIVATIONS OF POLITICAL LEFTISTS

By John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.)

Summary of this monograph:

Summary of the summary: Leftists hate the world around them and want to change it. Conservatives just want to be left alone.

It is now clear that Rightists are not systematically opposed to change but that "Western" Leftists seek it eagerly -- so attitude to social change is the defining characteristic of the political Left rather than of the political Right. Rightism ("conservatism") and Leftism are not opposites or mirror images, however, so Rightists in general are neither for nor against change as such. When they do want change, the changes that they favour are usually ones that remove or reduce interference in their lives by others.

The Leftist's dissatisfaction with the world about him and his burning desire to change it can come from many sources but for Leftist leaders and other preachers of Leftism in the economically successful "Western" democracies ("liberals" in contemporary North American terms), the major motivation is to fulfil the ego needs of the Leftist himself -- needs for self-advertisement, self-promotion, excitement, influence and ultimately power. And the prime source of power is the state, so Leftists love the state.

Leftists do not like all changes. Because power is their underlying motivation Leftists/liberals dislike the power-reducing changes that conservatives favour -- such as neo-liberal (pro-market) change. Change of that sort threatens the Leftist's access to power. We also see the primacy of power in the old Soviet system. We saw there that Leftists who have gained power suddenly become very opposed to change. Change is just an instrument they use to gain their ultimate goal of power. And why is power sought so single-mindedly? Why the single-minded egotism? At its deepest level, Leftism appears to be psychopathic -- with the psychopathic disregard for all norms, morals, standards and ethics in the ruthless quest for personal praise and satisfaction.

It is because of their quest for power that Leftists come into conflict with conservatives. History shows that what has always motivated conservatives is resistance to government power -- in particular government encroachment on individual rights and liberties. So conservatives may either favour or oppose change to promote that cause.

A description of the political attitude domain in terms of two dimensions rather than a single Left/Right dimension is rejected on both empirical and theoretical grounds. The pervasiveness and evolutionary origins of egotism and reality denial generally are also briefly considered.

The characteristic causal chain proposed for preachers of Leftism, then, is as follows: Psychopathic personality > high ego need > hatred of an indifferent world > need for change > need for power > love of the State