Obama On Inner and Outer Circles of Leadership

In The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare (Penguin Classics), by G.K. Chesterton. Chesterton describes anarchists this way:

This is a vast philosophic movement, consisting of an outer and inner ring. The outer ring- the main mass of their supporters- are merely anarchists; that is, men who believe that rules and formulas have destroyed human happiness. They believe that all the evil results of human crime are the results of the system that has called it a punishment. They do not believe that the crime creates the punishment. They believe that the punishment has created the crime. These people talk about 'a happy time coming,' 'the paradise of the future,' 'mankind freed from the bondage of vice and the bondage of virtue,' and so on.

And so also the men of the inner circle speak. But in their mouths these happy phrases have a horrible meaning. They are under no illusions; they are too intellectual to think that man upon this earth can ever be quite free of original sin and the struggle. And they mean death. When they say that mankind shall be free at last, they mean that mankind shall commit suicide. When they talk of a paradise without right or wrong, they mean the grave. They have but two objects, to destroy first humanity and then themselves.

In my post Book Review: The Man Who Was Thursday I noted that:

Chesterton might have called them anarchists or philosophers, and later they might go by other names like fascist or communist, but to me, their ideas about economic suicide for no reason, their dislike of labeling things right and wrong, and their views on life and mark them as the modern Democratic Party. And at the center of the inner circle there is a man who speaks to applauding crowds and says pleasing phrases, but he is under no illusions, and his actions have terrible consequences for our great nation.

The idea of an inner circle of committed revolutionaries surrounded by an outer circle of people who are more moderate in their views is an idea that I have never read or heard about before. Reading it in Chesterton's book was the first time I had ever even thought about viewing the world in this way.

President Obama, on the other hand, jumps quickly to viewing the world this way, and in a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black he has ascribed his personal world view to his enemies, the American people who go to Tea Parties.

Via The Politico story Obama dissects demonstrations:

Obama describes tea party movement this way: "There's some folks who just weren't sure whether I was born in the United States, whether I was a socialist. So there's that segment of it, which I think is just dug in ideologically." "Then," he continued, "I think that there's a broader circle around that core group of people, who are legitimately concerned about the deficit, who are legitimately concerned that the federal government may be taking on too much."

Obama sees in the Tea Party movement structure and order that he is familiar with- an inner circle preaching bad things, and an outer circle who are being fooled into following the movement, but both circles are bad and wrong and do not have legitimate views.

Now, I've been to Tea Parties (see my posts Best State of the Union Address Ever, My Report from the Birmingham Healthcare Rally, or Report from Peters Townhall Sept 09) and to be honest, I don't have the slightest freaking clue what Obama is talking about. I saw the core of Tea Parties as people with legitimate views about spending and government power, and a couple hanger's on who even Tea Party people didn't like who talked about Obama's birth certificate and who waved posters of Obama as Hitler. But, there was no inner and outer core of organization to the Tea Parties- they are just masses of concerned patriots who are trying to make the world a better place.

On the other hand, let's take a look at the Democratic Party... it increasingly is attempting to centralize all decisions with Pelosi, Reid, and Obama, Democratic members of Congress increasingly have 95% party line voting records (like my Congressman Peters, who is as far from moderate and independent as possible), and money that flows into the Democratic Party increasingly flows to the inner circle and then out again. That party, as it is increasingly becoming, is an inner circle of men preaching destruction (pro-abortion, pro-economic destruction, anti-allies, pro-war) surrounded by an outer circle of people duped and who chant hope and change and say the most naive and stupid ideas about the role of government in making people better.

The Democrats fit Obama's narrative better than the Tea Party movement- an inner core of devoted liberals surrounded by a mass of weak willed 'Blue Dogs' who follow orders when push comes to shove.

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