The New Imperial Cult

The President of the United States bears the ever-increasing weight of responsibility, a weight that only grows only more massive as time rolls on. Now, more than ever, we place our demands and desires before the door of the oval office.

Obama’s intercessions in the Gulf oil-spill were only necessary because the people clamored for action. While we already have a legal system in place to deal with liability, Obama strong-armed BP into creating an alternative one, not primarily because it would be better, but because we demand action.

From the bank bailouts to the economic stimulus package, we have demonstrated that we prefer actions to results. We demand our country be like a Michael Bay movie; flash and explosions without purpose or motivation. We don’t care what happens, as long as it does, and fast. We beg for a figure with the splendor of a modern celebrity and the power of an ancient deity. In other times, we would have constructed a temple; today we’ll just give him a star in Hollywood.

With the possible exception of the Civil War, there have never been more crises then when America was founded. Shoe-horned onto a continent surrounded by entrenched empires on one side and hostile natives on the other, the leaders at the time had far more to be concerned about then we today every have. Yet, instead of pounding a bully pulpit and demanding more authority, they deliberately limited it.

This worship hardly started with Obama, but he wears it best. We have come a long way from the unassuming chief magistrate the framers had in mind. Today, voters are whipped into frenzy, one mock crisis at a time. Bill Clinton exemplified this when he said “we must also protect our children by standing firm in our determination to ban the advertising and marketing of cigarettes that endanger their lives”. Thankfully, the dire consequences of cigarette advertising have been narrowly averted, and society was made safe again.

We ask for jobs, but all we get is inflation. We ask for protection, eventually, we realize that the president is not a deity. Instead of realizing our blasphemy, we decide that we simply chose the wrong one, and start our search for god-king anew. Our latest pick has described his ascension as the moment the “oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal”.

George Washington might have rejected kingship, but today we’ll elect no man who is not willing to wear the crown.