Ranting to /dev/null

Barack Obama is Mark Antony

Last night I had the privilege of watching the National Shakespeare Company perform Julius Caesar. During Mark Antony's famous speech in Act III, scene ii, I was struck that Barack Obama resembles nothing more than Antony delivering his treacherous speech at Caesar's funeral.

Granted, no one has been recently assassinated, but just as Caesar's death left a power vacuum in Rome, so the regular change in the American presidency creates something similar, where rival factions vie for power.

What jumped out at me was just how skillfully Antony manipulated the crowd. "Here is a mourning Rome, a dangerous Rome," and Antony's safety is by no means sure. He takes the platform just vacated by Brutus, whose speech moved the citizens to call for his coronation. If Antony is to survive, let alone succeed in his ambitions, subtlety is required.

And what subtlety is there. He continually refers to Brutus and his cohorts as "honorable men," seven times in all, but so artfully weaves his words that by the time he is finished, "honorable man" has come to mean "traitor." Finally, he claims that

I am no orator, as Brutus is;
But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man,
That love my friend; and that they know full well
That gave me public leave to speak of him:
For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
To stir men's blood: I only speak right on;
I tell you that which you yourselves do know;

before directing the people's wrath directly at Brutus, all the while declaiming his intention to do so:

...but were I Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue
In every wound of Caesar, that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.

Mutiny there is. Antony this reveals himself as a golden-tongued, deceitful, rabble-rouser.

So is Obama. What are his claims? "Change we can believe in"? "Yes we can"? He who has long decried the influence of money in politics, yea, even to accusing the Republicans of preparing a vicious smear campaign with undisclosed 527 funding, has abandoned his promise to participate in public campaign financing, limiting his spending to the $84.1 million each candidate is eligible to receive. Why? Because he wants to and can spend more than that. That's all. These mysterious 527s? None seem to be in evidence, and the only real smears thus far in the campaign have come from Obama (okay, and Hillary, but she's deservedly and blessedly out). "Yes we can" indeed: apparently what "we" can do is spend more money on a presidential campaign than any candidate in history while simultaneously accusing our opponents of "gaming" a "broken" system in order to spend more money. McCain will be very lucky if his campaign and independent spending combined even approaches what Obama has raised so far.

This is supposed to be a breathtaking new kind of politics? No, I call this for what it is: cynical, manipulative, opportunism. Antony would be proud.

Posted by ryan at June 21, 2008 10:43 AM | TrackBack