Phony Intimacy

 – by Tibor Machan

Dr. Tibor Machan

Mrs. Obama was praised for reporting in her speech at the Democratic National Convention that President Obama takes his mission to be a personal one, that he treats the citizenry intimately, attending to the private problems of citizens.
Actually, it is a very bad thing that Mr. Obama treats his role as president of the USA as a personal one. It is not. He is supposed to be guarding the basic public ideas and ideals of the country and not attending to people's personal affairs.
Personalizing politics is the road to totalitarianism − it tends to make one into a micro-manager of everyone's life in the country. Not only is that a futile effort but it is utterly insulting to the citizenry, as if we couldn't deal with our challenges without the president's meddling in our affairs. It leads to the strong arm policies of a Stalin, the practices of police states in which the government takes the role of micro-managing the country's population. That is the way of the police as bully, not as peacekeeper.
The American Founders understood that a free country isn't the laboratory of master politicians − czars, monarchs, Caesars, etc.
Obama doesn't get, or more likely doesn't like, it!