As President Obama has been taking heat for his economic policies and health care plan, his approval ratings have plummeted. According to the most recent Rasmussen poll, Obama’s approval index rating has now dipped to -14, as compared to his +28 rating earlier in the year. Whereas in January 65% approved of the job he was doing, now that number is at 48%. This is a dramatic change of national opinion since Obama took office just seven short months ago. But no one should be surprised at this. As American politics has morphed into a celebrity show (even as celebrities have become politicians), this has changed many aspects of our political process. And one of the more outstanding impacts is in the turbulence of public opinion regarding those who hold public office.
Celebrities, of course, are here one day and gone the next. Today’s most popular singers and TV stars are quickly forgotten, even reviled as passé seemingly overnight. Once a star isn’t “cool” anymore, he or she is dismissed. Or if, like Ozzy Osbourne or Paris Hilton, they refuse to be dismissed, they become objects of public ridicule. So when politicians leverage the entertainment world and take their campaigns to late night TV, effectively becoming celebrities themselves, it should not come as any shock if in a short period of time the public turns on them because, well, they’re just not “cool” anymore. And because they cannot be so easily dismissed or forgotten, since they (usually) serve their full terms, they must suffer public ridicule—almost as a matter of course, notwithstanding the merits or demerits of their policies.
Long before the 2008 election I predicted Obama would win, if only because he was the more telegenic of the two candidates. (Since 1960 the more telegenic candidate has won in every U.S. presidential election. So much for substance when it comes to American presidential politics….) I also expected that the Obama “cool” factor would wear off early in his term so that his policies would have to stand or fall on their own merits. Obama’s declining approval ratings and the furor over his health care plan have confirmed this. It appears that from here on out very little will come easy for this president, amazingly despite the Democrat majority in both houses of Congress. It will be interesting to see how he negotiates the rough road ahead when his celebrity currency of “cool” has all been spent.
Elvis Presley—who, oddly enough, was posthumous father-in-law to Jacko—knows that both men followed the same basic pattern of descent. Like Presley, Jackson was surrounded by a posse of enablers—people who catered to his whims, including providing him with drugs, while ignoring his declining health, just so they could maintain his approval and, of course, financially benefit. Sadly, the parallels to the Elvis tragedy are many.
This pattern is not reserved for mega-stars, by the way, but seems to apply, to some degree, to anyone who finds himself in a position of power and prestige. Remember that money fuels this machine, so the more money, the more ugly the potential results. The likes of Howard Hughes, Elvis Presley, and, now, Michael Jackson just happen to be the more glaring cases, because of the circumstances of their deaths—tragic neglect despite their many “caretakers.” But as tragic as these stories are, who knows how the moral neglect in these and similar cases has resulted in deaths of an even more tragic nature—the deaths of the souls of the rich and famous.
short, we just don’t want our kids to have fame and fortune. Some rare celebrities do appear to make it through this “eye of the needle” with their faith and moral compass intact (Bono seems, thus far, to be an example—though at a dear price, I’m sure he would admit). But we would prefer that our kids—or anyone we love, for that matter—not be subjected to the moral-spiritual poisons of celebrity.