The absurdity of this adulation is that Obama’s legacy will be almost nonexistent in terms of policy. Republicans in Congress and the administration are currently busy dismantling ObamaCare and the Climate Action Plan, among many other things. In terms of politics, Obama leaves the Democratic Party in ruins and unable to offer much resistance.
Apparently that isn’t what his presidency was really about. Judging from these tributes, he is regarded almost as a kind of spiritual leader. But that’s not right, either, because spiritually he didn’t lead so much as he followed. (For example, he flipped his position on gay marriage at the exact moment the polls flipped.) It is perhaps more accurate to say that Obama functions as a kind of spiritual talisman.
The need for this sense of a personal bond with the president, for the adulation of a wise leader, goes way beyond the desire to achieve any particular political goal. It is a fundamental need that is inherent in modern leftism. Their whole agenda is to give more power and authority to the government. So it is of paramount importance to them that the government is run by the right kind of people, people with the right kind of education, the proper progressive values and attitude—in short, people like them.
That’s what Obama meant to them. He was their president, which means: at last, one of their kind was given the reins of supreme executive power. Republicans were bad because they didn’t just get out of his way and let him exercise it.
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