November 2, 2012, 10:37 AM
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"Your first time shouldn't be with just anybody. You want to do it with a great guy."
So begins the now famous official Barack Obama for President campaign ad that was released last week. The ad depicts a young woman named Lena Dunham, who is apparently a celebrity among Americans in their teens and 20s.
After that opening line, Ms. Dunham continues on for another minute and a half discussing how having sex for the first time and voting for Barack Obama for president are really the same thing, and how young women don't want to be accused of either being virgins or of having passed up on their chance to cast their votes for Obama next Tuesday.
I've never been particularly interested in so-called "women's issues." It never seemed to me that any party or politician was particularly good or bad for me due to the way they thought of women. That all changed with the Dunham ad for Obama.
With this ad, Obama convinced me he is a misogynist.
The Obama campaign's use of a double entendre to compare sex - the most personal, intimate act we engage in as human beings, with voting - the most public act we engage in as human beings - is a scandal.
It is demeaning and contemptuous of women. It reduces us to sexual objects. When called on to vote, as far as Obama is concerned, as slaves to our passions, we make our decisions not based on our capacity for rational choice. Rather we choose our leaders solely on the basis of our sexual desires.
Beyond the ad's bald attempt to impersonalize, generalize and cheapen the most personal act human beings engage in, the ad is repulsive because it takes for granted that what happens in our private lives is the government's business.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but this is a totalitarian position.
THE WHOLE point of liberal democracy is to put a barrier between a person's personal life and his or her government. A liberal democracy is founded on the notion of limited government. It assumes there are a lot of places where government has no role to play. And first and foremost among those places is the bedroom.
The theory behind limited government is that if the government is permitted in our private space then we are no longer free. When - as in the case of the Dunham ad - a political campaign conveys the message that there is something personally wrong with not actively supporting its candidate, it communicates the message that it sees no distinction between personal and public life, and therefore rejects the basic notion of freedom from government. And this is repugnant, not just for women, but for everyone who values freedom.
One of the oddest aspects of the Obama sex ad is that to believe that this sort of message can be effective, the campaign had to ignore mountains of data about the demographic group the ad targets - young college-educated women.
According to just about every piece of survey data collected over the past 20 years, young women in America today are more accomplished, more professionally driven, and more intellectually successful than their male counterparts. That the Obama campaign believes the votes of this successful, smart group of women can be won by appealing to their basest urges rather than their capacity to reason is demeaning and perverse and, one would think, counterproductive.
But it isn't surprising.
The fact is that the Obama campaign - and indeed, the Obama presidency - has treated the American people with unprecedented arrogance and contempt. On issue after issue, Obama and his minions have eschewed intellectual argumentation.
On issue after issue they have preferred instead to attack Obama's detractors as stupid, backwards, bigoted, bellicose and evil.
For instance, however one feels about current events in the Middle East, there is a legitimate - indeed critical - argument to be had about the nature of the Islamist forces the Obama administration is supporting from Cairo, Egypt, to Alexandria, Virginia.
The Muslim Brotherhood is the most popular movement in the Islamic world. It is also a totalitarian, misogynist, anti-Jewish, anti-Christian and anti-American movement. It seeks Islamic global supremacy, the genocide of Jewry, the subjugation of Christianity and the destruction of the United States.
There is an intellectual case to be made for appeasing these popular, popularly elected forces.
There is a (stronger) intellectual case to be made for opposing them. But rather than make any of the hard arguments for appeasing the Muslim Brotherhood, the Obama administration has deflected the issue by castigating everyone who opposes its appeasement policies as racist, McCarthyite warmongers.
If women who don't support Obama are prudish geeks, Americans who oppose his appeasement policies are bloodthirsty bigots.
Then there was the attack in Benghazi on September 11 and the general Islamic assaults on US embassies throughout the Muslim world that day.
The acts of aggression that Muslims carried out against several US embassies on September 11 and since have all been acts of war against America.
The rioters who stormed the US embassies in Egypt, Tunis and Yemen and replaced the American flag with the flag of al-Qaida all violated sovereign US territory and carried out acts of war. The US had the right, under international law, to repel and respond with military force against the rioters as well as against their governments. Instead the White House blamed the acts of war on a US citizen who posted a video on YouTube.
Then there was Benghazi. In Benghazi, jihadists took this collective aggression a step further. They attacked the US Consulate and a US government safe house with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Their goal was to murder all the US citizens inside the compounds. In the event, they successfully murdered four Americans, including the US ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens.
In the six weeks that have passed since the attack in Benghazi, despite administration attempts to stonewall, and despite the US's media's inexcusable lack of interest in the story, information has continuously dribbled out indicating that Obama and his senior advisers knew in real time what was happening on the ground. It has also come out that they rejected multiple requests from multiple sources to employ military power readily available to save the lives of the Americans on the ground.
There may be good reasons that Obama and his top aides denied those repeated requests for assistance and allowed the American citizens pinned down in Benghazi to die. But Obama and his aides have not provided any.
Rather than defend their actions, Obama and his advisers first sought to cover up what happened by blaming the acts of war on that YouTube video.
When that line of argument collapsed of its own absurdity, Obama shifted to blaming the messenger.
His campaign accused everyone asking for facts and truthful explanations about what happened in Benghazi of trying to politicize the attack.
Obama himself has twice struck the Captain Renault pose and declared himself "Shocked, shocked!" that anyone would dare to insinuate that he did not do everything in his power to save the lives of the Americans whose lives he failed to save.
The reason specific sectors of a society usually feel compelled to vote on the basis of their sectoral interests rather than their general interests as citizens of their country is that they feel that one candidate or party specifically endangers their sectoral interests. Hence, the Lena Dunham ad, which insults women specifically, compels women to vote as women against Obama.
In the case of Obama's appeasement of the Muslim world, there is no specific group that is hurt more than any other group by his policies.
As we saw in Libya, Egypt, Tunis, Yemen and beyond, his appeasement policies endanger all Americans equally.
This is not the case with Obama's treatment of Israel and Jews. Obama's supporters always highlight statements he has made and actions he has taken in relation to Israel and Jews that are relatively supportive of both.
To be sure, like every other US president, Obama has made some statements, and taken some actions, that have been supportive of Jews and of Israel. But unlike most other US presidents, he has made far more statements and taken far more actions that have been contemptuous and hostile to Israel and Jews. And this is inexcusable.
It is inexcusable that Obama uses coded anti- Semitic language to blame America's economic woes on "fat cat bankers." It is inexcusable that his secretary of state and his senior advisers have repeatedly made references to the so-called Israel Lobby to explain why America is supposedly hamstrung in its ability to sell Israel to the wolves.
It is inexcusable that Obama sends his surrogates before the cameras to refer to Israel's prime minister as "ungrateful," or to castigate Israel for permitting Jews to build homes in Jerusalem on land they own and for permitting Jews to exercise their legal rights to their property - simply because they are Jews.
Israel is the US's most important ally in the Middle East. As such, it deserves to be treated well by the US - all the time. Any move to treat Israel with contempt is an unprovoked hostile act and therefore inexcusable.
So, too, US Jews have a right to make an honest living doing anything they wish - including working on Wall Street or owning a casino in Las Vegas. Jews have a right to be treated with respect by the US government. They should not have to be concerned about having their reputations maligned by politicians who use anti-Semitic tropes to gain political advantage.
Obama's contemptuous vilification of Israel and successful American Jews make him bad for Jews specifically. Just as the Dunham ad exposes his underlying hostility towards women and so makes clear that women's interests are imperiled by his presidency, so Obama's repeated hostile treatment of Israel and American Jews make him a specific danger to Jewish interests.
MANY WOULD-BE deep thinkers have proclaimed that the presidential election is a choice between two competing narratives. But that isn't an accurate description of the race.
Only Republican nominee Mitt Romney is presenting a narrative. In his narrative, the US faces very difficult problems in domestic and foreign policy alike. Romney has laid out his priorities for which problems he wishes to contend with, and has presented policies he will adopt to do so if he is elected next Tuesday.
On the other hand, by Obama's telling, the real problems America faces are all the result of the empowerment of his political opponents and America's allies.
Benghazi wouldn't be a problem if his political opponents weren't talking about it. Jihadists aren't a problem. The problem is the people who say they are a problem. The national debt isn't a problem. The problem is the "fat cat bankers."
Women will vote for him because we are dimwitted sex objects. And Jews will vote for him because we are taken in by his occasional Borscht Belt schmaltz platitudes about Hanukka.
God help us all if his contemptuous assessment of his countrymen is borne out next Tuesday.
Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.
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Barack Obama has proven himself to be totally disrespectful of his fellow Americans in every action and inaction since his election in 2008. Sadly his behavior which is indicative of an actor on a world stage has continued to mesmerize otherwise supposedly intelligent people. You have summed it up perfectly,"God help us all if his contemptuous assessment of his countrymen is borne out next Tuesday." Thank you once again, Caroline for a job well done. Shabbat shalom and HaShem's blessings on you, your loved ones and all Klal Yisrael.
Thank you Caroline!!!!
“THE WHOLE point of liberal democracy is to put a barrier between a person's personal life and his or her government. A liberal democracy is founded on the notion of limited government. It assumes there are a lot of places where government has no role to play. And first and foremost among those places is the bedroom.”
This is absolutely correct!
One of the best discussions on this is a lecture given at Harvard Law School October 18th, 2007.
I could try to paraphrase it, but I wouldn’t do it justice.
It would be better to just read it. lol
http://www.allofliferedeemed.co.uk/Clouser/RCKuyperLecture.pdf
This is based on a Judeo-Christian worldview.
Terry
P.S. Read the footnotes, they have some interesting expansions that weren’t in the actual spoken lecture.
I can only hope that American Jews listen to the result of the absentee votes coming from Israel...500 lbs of ballots primarily for Romney. I pray that American Jews, along with other Americans who love and support Israel, will open their eyes to the danger of a second Obama Presidency. Caroline, keep up the great work. Your opinions are very influential and I will continue to distribute your column to my American network of 'Friends & Family.'
If Obama is elected I can just see Obama, Axelrod and Plouffe next Wednesday laughing themselves blue in the face at how they were able to fool the people they consideer to be rubes once again.
"THE WHOLE point of liberal democracy is to put a barrier between a person's personal life and his or her government."
But we are no longer that. We are in fact the result of a Marxist/Media coup which has both the power to destroy, slowly and carefully, so as not to awaken the wrath which will surely come and suppress any information it doesn't like. Show trials and new Beria's cannot be far behind or they will not survive.
As for Israel, she is a faithful enemy ally of the US and these people need have no other reason than that. But of course, they do anyway. May He above bless and protect and guide Israel and the many many friends of Israel within the US and around the world. We watch for now but we will answer in time, beginning with the defeat of this president and his media friends in just a few days time. But this is only the beginning of that, the hounds are loose and tracking those responsible and this time those who would yank on their leashes will be bitten and savaged as well.
'Women will vote for him because we are dimwitted sex objects. And Jews will vote for him because we are taken in....'
It's very easy to grasp how a nobody like Obama could rise to such heights of power is so short a time.
Please believe me ,God is in complete control and He has given a wicked and perverted nation that has turned away from Him and His blessings the leader it deserves.
You are powerless along with your vote to bless what is now cursed except by your own personal repentance and turning back to the LORD and His commandments with all your heart.
Time is short because it's going to get much worse real fast.
Look around this nation ,it is cursed from the top (Obama) to the bottom (Staten island).
The people will vote for him because they are just like him,liars,evil,corrupt,perverse and damned.
When the righteous increase, the people rejoice,
But when a wicked man rules, people groan.
Proverbs 29:2
Thank you for this wonderful article; thank you for phrasing so succinctly a thought I hadn't quite been able to put into words:
"THE WHOLE point of liberal democracy is to put a barrier between a person's personal life and his or her government."
Definitely some food for thought and conversation around the Shabbat table tonight.
"God help us all if his contemptuous assessment of his countrymen is borne out next Tuesday." - Even if he loses, it will be bourne out because almost half the country will have voted for him, according to all surveys. People vote according to information they have; an overwhelming majority get it from the media; an overwhelming majority of US media are militantly pro-Obama. So here you are. Obama and his advisors are not stupid: they know both the media and the electorate.
I agree that the ad is base and demeaning to women. Then again, I am a man. The group that produced this ad is relying on focus group and polling data as to how the message will resonate with the target demographic. Clearly, they have data to support the proposition that this type of sexual reference to politics is effective with college educated women. I think they are correct. Many young, educated women I know respond to this type of propaganda and little else. If you suggets to them that electing a Republican will end abortion rights in places like California and New York, they believe it. (Never mind the fact that we have had five Republican presidents since Roe v Wade and abortion is as available as ever.) In fact, they tend to display a shallow understanding of economic and foreign policy issues and tend not to follow along. I think Obama knows his supporters better than we do.
Dear Caroline:
I have long admired your insights into Israel, the Middle East and American policies and actions. But today you have surpassed yourself in identifying the essence of what is wrong with the current president of the United States.
Regardless of the result of the upcoming election God Bless Canada, Israel and the United States.
Our sovereign G-d must be so absolutely furious with us to have installed such a contemptuous, maniacal, racist, divisive man in such a power position. Read 2 Chronicles 7:14 and pray...vote prolife!
The name of the young deluded woman in your article was Dunham. Hmmmmmmm! Wasn't Obama's mother's maiden name Dunham??? Hmmmmmmm!!
One of the best you ever have written. I´ve tears in my eyes.
Enough of the stonewalling, out right lies and deceit from this so called commander-in-chief. His father is the devil himself. And so are all those who follow him and his cohorts, flat out demonically controlled bi-peds.
This is an excellent column. Truth doesn't get any truer. Now a question for you and the readership: Is Lena Dunham any relation to the late Stanley Ann Dunham, Obama's white mother?
Hi Caroline,
re Obama's women's issues:
Unfortunately, there are far too many collegiate women who are prime candidates for Obama's/Dunham's moronic video. Here's a prime example (sophomore or junior at Bowling Green State University):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXAvt1SiKMg
Bowling Green State University is a bastion of liberal brainwashing, an achievement based on the dumbing down of students and professors literally lying to them. For years a huge photo of Obama "This is what a feminist looks like" adorned a hallway leading to BGSU's Women's Center, despite O's misogynist past actions and despite laws that prohibit tax-payer funded educational institutions from supporting candidates.
Regardless.
The good news is that misogynist ads like the Dunham ad appeal to a base already for Obama while horrifying quite a few mature female Obama supporters. O certainly lost a lot more than he gained by this shot-in-the-foot!
You should be ashamed of your ignorance and close mindedness! Devious pursuits of the left?! Ha. It's called progressive. What's devious is the rights fervor to keep us from evolving and how adamant they all are in making sure we never move forward as one nation. I am proud to be an American, but aghast at how many of you choose to live with such hatred and fear in your lives, not to mention a total lack of respect for others. Choose compassion, love and acceptance. Strive for equality and freedom. Fight so that everyone has the opportunity to live a happy, healthy life.
what can you do when the radicals control the media, people prefer food stamps to working, the american jews distance themselves from israel and your own country is a leftist mess, why on earth you allow 1.5 million hostile arabs to live in your country????/
Very long winded. All you need to say that Obama is Muslim, inculcating Muslim values. Muslim values are mysogyny and antisemitism, supremacism and contempt for all who are not Muslims.
However, the 47 percent, plus the 2% who are the captive Jews, will keep him in power by convincing 2% more that Romney and Bibi are evil incarnate.
actually, the vast majority of Israel's media agrees with the above.
Amy, There are many collapsed civilizations from the past who thought they were evolving only to learn too late that they were in their final stage of collapse.
The dark pride that blinded them into believing they were little gods in control of their devolving destiny is what ails you.
Romney,Obama,Nobody's Fixing Anything,There is No Recovery Coming!
My take on the election - The majority are thieves who steal elections,evil,brainwashed,
stupid,corrupt,under God's judgment, and so it's probably going to be an Obama win.
Either way ,it's going to rapidly get much,much worse because the choice of 1 false messiah over the other is not going to alter the sure word of God.
http://youtu.be/dLwDRJkx0UM
The wicked shall be turned into hell,And all the nations that forget God.
Psalm 9:17
Caroline, you're a bold thinker with strong opinions, but I think the first ten paragraphs dealing with the Lena Dunham ad aren't worthy of the balance of your very compelling article. To posit that a President who advances womens' rights to make their own choices about whether to abort (or, given the pre-1960 retro discussions from some debates, even prevent!) their own pregnancies, and who champions equal pay for women (see Lily Ledbetter Equal Pay Act) as a misogynist stretches credulity, especially in a race against a candidate who opposes such things.
The rest of your article was as compelling as usual, which is to say "quite". I suggest that this election is best framed for friends of Israel as a truly difficult choice between ne candidate who is an unabashed ally of Israel but an otherwise retrograde candidate on equality and on many freedoms versus one who champions equality and (again, some) personal freedoms, but who is disconcertingly hostile to Israel.
"Not to put too fine a point on it" but pro-Israel arguments succeed when we highlight Israel's legal protections for the rights of women (and minorities), which it thankfully shares with the United States, not when we attempt attempt to label a champion of womens' rights as the opposite.
Keep on making us think, CG!
Wonderful assessment as usual. I am somewhat more optimistic due to the genius of the Founding Fathers and the system of checks and balances guaranteeing that the US remains a democracy and not a monarchy. While they did not put any safeguards against misanthropic (not just misogynistic) individuals who identify with groups most inimical to US interests being elected President, they did put in the safeguards in the legislature and judiciary -- and First Amendment protections -- to keep such individuals on a short leash. Even if r"l Obama is re-elected, Israel and the US will survive, and we'll have 4 years for true American leadership to emerge in the next presidential election.
The ad tried appealing to young women voters by using a comedic writer for the comedy HBO series, Girls. The ad is supposed to be funny. I don't get what the whole fuss is about. It may have been tasteless but going so far to say that Obama is misogynistic and totalitarian is a dramatic stretch.
Super summary of what is degrading, insulting, and upside-down with this administration and its blind support from the media that used to consider itself pursuers of "truth!" I feel so insulted and demoralized by the Obama attack on every positive goal we want to achieve: marriage, financial success, military strength for protection, unity of all Americans as Americans, etc. Thank you for this revealing piece!
Caroline,
Dunham's commercial played an insignificant role in the election compared to the gargantuan financial influence of Sheldon Adelson, whom you don't mention. How much of his support of Romney had to do with his desire to influence American-Israeli policy, and how much to further his own financial gains and ease his substantial legal troubles related to money-laundering? You say of Obama: "And Jews will vote for him because we are taken in by his occasional Borscht Belt schmaltz platitudes about Hanukka." Obama couldn't compete with Adelson on the Borscht Belt circuit; here is what he is quoted as having said in the aftermath of his failed mega-gamble: "“That’s how you spend money. Either that or become a Jewish husband — you spend a lot of money.” Adelson is every Jew's nightmare of a cringe-inducing anti-Semite, a caricature that could have been provided by gentile anti-Semites throughout history. Is there any money accepted by Israel from grossly self-interested "supporters" of the State that you don't consider tainted, that you don't feel hurts the Jewish people more than it helps them?