The Triumph of Ideas over Personality

Don’t worry, this isn’t headed for some tough-slogging through heavy philosophy. It’s instead an appreciation for what is happening in America, and a foundation for optimism that Americans will rise out of the current morass with a stronger, more secure and more stable society and economy.

What is happening (among many other things) is a collective awakening to the singular importance of ideas over personalities. American ideas—enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution—are divinely inspired and speak directly to the heart of men and women (if you don’t know what they are, read a few essays on this site). They always have; they always will. And when Americans as a people insist on the highest and best adherence to those ideas by themselves and their elected leaders, the result will always be more of a self-governing nation on a path of progress.

A huge element of modern thinking—especially among those in the Pravda media—believes power resides in personality; that the struggles of the world can be solved by strong or gifted personalities. What these personalities believe about the nature of God and man is of little importance; what is important is their intellectual acumen and dexterity as they convince others to compromise, agree with or submit to them.

Barack Obama was elected President of the United States in large part because of this meme. The gifted orator, the post-partisan, the first black president, the citizen of the world, the hope and change—all of it was built around the cult of personality. But what Americans have awakened to in what has to be record time (barely a year after his inauguration) is that personalities are NOT what is important and in fact can be totally destructive of that which is right and good.

What is right and good springs from right ideas; and what is wrong and evil and destructive springs from wrong ideas. Barack Obama, over the course of a bizarre and highly dysfunctional ‘family’ life, has embraced a set of wrong ideas about God, man, truth, Christianity and America. Whether or not we assign him ‘blame’ for this isn’t really important; what is important is that we recognize that the ideas he embraces are wrong; they are antithetical to American ideals; and they will lead to nothing good. Doesn’t matter whether he can read a teleprompter very well; doesn’t matter if can make himself sound intelligent or articulate; doesn’t matter what his skin color is—what matters are the ideas he believes in.

Americans now know what ideas Obama believes in, and they reject those ideas in overwhelming numbers. They know nationalized healthcare violates their God-given freedom, just as profligate spending and borrowing violate that freedom for themselves and for succeeding generations. They don’t care anymore whether Obama seems like a nice guy; they don’t care about the historical significance of the first black President. They care about his ideas, and they don’t like them.

This is a very positive development and bodes well for the next several elections. Tea parties around the country are illustrating this phenomenon very powerfully. They aren’t built on personalities. As much as Pravda tries to name a specific leader for the purpose of demonizing him or her, it just doesn’t work. Because the tea parties are about ideas; they are about the ideas behind the founding of America; they reflect the stirring power of those ideas.

Pravda and our entertainment culture will continue to believe that celebrity worship and the cult of personality are what is really important, and they can be expected to pounce with all their foam and fury once specific American idea-based leaders emerge for elected office. But the American people are better than their media; it will be many years before they are again susceptible to being fooled by the lure of charismatic personality. Principles and ideas are going to matter, and politicians are not going to be permitted to slide into vagueness about the importance of American ‘first principles’ and ideas.

None of this means Americans are home free from the current crises; that the dark disaster that is the Obama administration is no longer dangerous. But once the wake up occurs—and it has— and the right ideas are again in the forefront of thought—and they are—the power of those right ideas starts to show itself in big changes that defeat and remove wrong ideas; in the emergence of new leaders; and in a restoration of both freedom and stability. We are seeing this happen right now, across the country. Nothing is going to stop it; nothing can stop it.

Right ideas are constant and, over time, are all that matter; personalities come and go. If the most clever and charismatic personality has only a feigned grasp of the right ideas, he or she will flounder and fail, and the cult of personality worship that surrounds him or her will collapse. Obama is finding this out; his Presidency is all but over as a result.

Paul Gable

March 12, 2010