Please, Mr. President, Quit Your Day Job

When Barack Obama sings, sales of Al Green recordings go up.[1]


When Barack Obama rules, sales of Atlas Shrugged go up.[2]




NOTES


1. "Al Green sales skyrocket after Obama's impromptu song," UK Daily Mail Online, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093451/Al-Green-sales-skyrocket-Obamas-impromptu-song.html.


2. "Atlas felt a sense of deja vu," The Economist, http://www.economist.com/node/13185404. 


I constructed my sentences above in order to maintain parallelism, but actually it misses the deeper point that I like to make (and which the Economist article touches on). My criticism is not targeted to a single politician, Mr. Obama. It is apparent to me that the issue driving thinking people toward Ayn Rand's writing is the frightening expansion of Bush-Obama-style governments. Republicans and Democrats alike are the culprits. 


My advice for the President to "quit his day job" to pursue a singing career makes a cute title, but of course it wouldn't do a damned bit of good for him to quit. It would simply make room for the next politician to do damage in his own way. The problem is with our culture--a culture that puts such men in positions of power. Too many Americans have come to regard the government as an instrument of planning, control, and "redistribution," as opposed to an institution that safeguards individual rights. 


As long as the realm of politics remains the unprincipled, factional power-grab that it is, we will continue to see our ballots filled with the likes of Bush and Obama. (And Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, . . .)