How a Political Non-Entity Rose to Power

How a Political Non-Entity Rose to Power

  • Submitted By: jeev000
  • Date Submitted: 03/19/2009 5:13 AM
  • Category: Book Reports
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Barack Obama: How a Political Non-Entity Rose To Power (Part 2 of 4)
by Edward Cline (June 11, 2008)
Discussing Adolf Hitler's rise from a "provincial hot-head and rabble-rouser" in the 1920's to his electrifying effect on "disaffected" Germans in Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris, Ian Kershaw poses the paradox of how, among countless other "hot-heads" and "rabble-rousers" of the time, Hitler was so successful in establishing a rapport of anger and hatred, and then solves it at the same time:
"This in itself suggests that what had changed above all was the milieu and context in which Hitler operated; that we should look in the first instance less to his own personality than to the motives and actions of those who came to be Hitler's supporters, admirers, and devotees - and not least his powerful backers - to explain his first breakthrough on the political scene. For what becomes clear - without falling into the mistake of presuming that he was no more than the puppet of the 'ruling classes' - is that Hitler would have remained a political nonentity without the patronage and support he obtained from influential circles in Bavaria. During this period, Hitler was seldom, if ever, master of his own destiny. The key decisions - to take over the party leadership in 1921, to engage the putsch adventure in 1923 - were not carefully conceived actions, but desperate forward moves to save face - behavior characteristic of Hitler to the end." (pp. 132-133)
Senator Barack Obama, former Illinois state senator, former senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, and junior doyen of the Chicago welfare and community services machine, is also such a political nonentity -- one of among dozens in the political spectrum who hanker for the limelight and the power - who could not have risen to the top of the Democratic Party establishment without the patronage, endorsement and support of influential...

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