His Mysterious Majesty
Sirs, I here present unto you
Queen Elizabeth,
your undoubted Queen:
Wherefore all you who are come this day
to do your homage and service,
Are you willing to do the same?
The People signify their willingness and joy, by loud and repeated acclamations, all with one voice crying out,
GOD SAVE QUEEN ELIZABETH.
Then the trumpets shall sound.

[From the British Coronation Ceremony, June 2, 1953]


One of my favorite bumper stickers of all time appeared in 1960, when Barry Goldwater first sought the Republican nomination:

“Kennedy for King, Goldwater for President!”

The lavish love-fest of the media with Jack Kennedy back then was so smarmy that it was laughable. So was “Camelot.” But those poseurs were on to something -- there is something special about the royals. They are exempt from criticism, above the fray, and respected by all as a symbol of the unity of the realm.

That might go a long way to explain the magical portrayal of Obama that his handlers have projected to the world, courtesy of a swooning popular culture and a media in sheer rapture. There are some distinctions, of course: while Elizabeth’s coronation was followed by an Anglican Mass, Obama’s secular coronation was acclaimed by the masses on the Mall. But religious symbols fairly oozed around him: ministers anointed the Capitol doors; Oprah produced an elaborate YouTube video, featuring a Hollywood cast of thousands, chanting in unison, “I pledge, to be a servant to our president, and all mankind.”

This is nothing new in our collapsing culture, where secularism has long vied to displace religion not only in practice and principle, but in symbol. Why else would John F. Kennedy’s grave boast an “eternal flame” (probably the only one he ever had), than to anoint him as a secular saint, even a martyr?

These Manichees know what they are doing. Why else did George Washington, who could easily have been acclaimed king of the liberated colonies had he so desired, reject all trappings of royalty and serve only two terms in office? Our Founding Fathers believed that a republican government had no place for royalty. It was our Constitution that was revered – if we obeyed it. But Obama adroitly stakes his majestic claim by pretending to rise above politics: “we simply cannot afford the same old gridlock and partisan posturing in Washington.” In the past, these tired words were just pleasant banalities; but Obama, who is a cross between a secular savior and Lady Di, employs them to make his “change” not only irreversible, but unassailable – by secular divine right.

Hence, thou shalt not defy Our Dear Leader. However, if you want to deify him, no problem! On the Left, the full-court press is well under way. At New York University, a medieval literature professor urges her students to consider who is the most likely person in our time to receive the stigmata: it is Obama, she assures them. At George Mason University in Virginia, a history teacher surprises the students in her “Introduction To American History” course. “You’ve probably studied all this in high school, so we’re going to concentrate on Obama this semester,” she coos. Quiz at eleven.

The message is plain: Obama’s pedestal is so high that to criticize him is tantamount to a secular sin against the civil society that he so benevolently deigns to save and to rule. That is what “change” is really all about.

Maya Angelou is a laughable poet, but she has a zealot’s grip on the secular scripture: “We needed him. We the race needed him. We the American people, we needed him. And out of that great need, I believe he came. Barack Obama, Senator Barack Obama came,” she told the BBC.

Obama came. Oprah and Maya are his prophets. This is what we’re up against.

Tell It To The Judge

“Thou Shalt Not Steal. The Government Hates Competition”

[Sign in Dr. Ron Paul’s Congressional Office]

“The [ethical] bar that we set is the highest that any administration in the country has ever set,” says Obama’s White House, echoing Bill Clinton’s unforgettable promise to produce “the most ethical administration in history.” In order to fulfill that pledge, Obama has apparently hired every Clinton retread still living -- but it hasn’t helped.

“The problem with socialism,” Maggie Thatcher once said, “is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” Well, Obama’s administration wants socialism, all right, but they sure don’t want to pay for it with their money. The ethical bloom has come off the royal rose as one leading Democrat after another has suddenly discovered, to his surprise, that, they simply forgot to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars of back taxes that they owed.

Among this veritable multitude, three deserve particular notice.

Obama’s nominee for Treasury, Timothy Geithner, apologized, then apologized deeply, for his “careless mistake” of not paying the IRS tens of thousands of dollars, and was then confirmed, thus putting a successful tax cheat in charge of the IRS. Even more reprehensible are Chris Dodd and Tom Daschle, who deserve a category all their own. Dodd, the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, got a secret sweetheart deal worth $75,000 from a bank that he bailed out. Because he is a pro-abortion Catholic Democrat, the media have not called it a bribe. He will continue to be in charge of handing out taxpayer money to some banks, but not others.

Then there’s “Catholic” Tom Daschle. Twenty years ago he dumped his first wife and married a young Washington lobbyist. In 2003, when his bishop told him to stop identifying himself as a Catholic, Senator Daschle (who lost his bid for re-election in 2004), took to the Senate floor to denounce his bishop as a member of the ‘religious right.’ Since 2004, he has made five million dollars as a Washington insider. He just forgot to pay taxes on a lot of it.

None of these frauds will go to jail, of course. Meanwhile, one Randall Bradley Jones, who ran six houses of prostitution in Houston (which means that he is in a similar line of business), faces five years in federal prison. His crime? Not paying his income taxes.

Losers Claim Victory

Conservatism is up for grabs these days, and so is the GOP. So now appears a crowd of “experts” who support a “broader” Republican Party (Nelson Rockefeller, call your office). That new, improved party needs the thirty million or so votes that pro-family forces have delivered in the past, of course but it suggests that, well, maybe we can just shut up about our principles, because, well, that’s why we lost.

Not surprisingly, the touted “reformers” are actually the same crowd that advocated the worldwide crusade for democracy abroad and “big government” conservatism at home that brought the GOP crashing to defeat in 2006 and disaster in 2008. Life has never been their priority, but during the Bush years they held their nose and put up with us. Now, through a constant barrage of “broadening,” they want us to believe that a pro-life GOP would just be too “narrow” to win. They have a lot of support in the media and, naturally, among Democrats, since their success would condemn the GOP to permanent minority status.