[K. DeCourcey: I wrote this article in 2013.]

Many conservative commentators have been stating the obvious recently, which is a new understanding of Barack Obama’s modus operandi.  They have been making the point that Obama does not govern, that not only will he not accept responsibility for the failure of his policies, but that he seems to avoid all association with his own policies and often blames his opposition for the failure of those policies.  They have also been observing that rather than govern, Barack Obama continues to campaign.  These commentators are not new to political warfare, so it’s surprising that they have figured out the what of Barack Obama’s M.O.  but fall short of explaining the why, that they have yet to connect all the dots.

In Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, Tom Wolfe describes the evolution of mau-mauing (which derived its name from the Mau-Mau Uprising in Kenya in 1952), a new industry of the late 1960’s where special-interest groups staged protests at various bureaucratic offices until an official (the flak catcher) agreed to negotiate the terms of what can best be defined as a peace settlement.  The peace settlement almost always involved a transfer of funds from the flak catchers to the mau-mauers or one of their designees.  This became good business for those special-interest groups and it became part of the regular operations of many government entities.

As a sort of sequel to Tom Wolfe’s essay, Kenneth R.  Timmerman details in Shakedown how the “Reverend” Jesse Jackson expanded the business of mau-mauing to corporations.  Essentially, Timmerman explains, Jesse Jackson would target a corporation, accuse them of discriminatory practices and then shake them down for a contribution to his Rainbow Push Coalition or one of their designees.  Often the mere threat of a protest was enough to coerce the corporate flak catcher into a peace settlement.

It was a natural step in the evolution of this industry to incorporate all special-interest groups from the local to the national level by offering franchise in the big business we can now refer to as Shakedown, Inc.  These franchises have eagerly employed the strategy of accusation, demonstration, and intimidation to obtain funding and power for their special-interest groups.

As is well known, Barack Obama started his political career as a Community Organizer.  While he and his career builders try to portray this part of his resume as fighting for justice, what they are loath to admit is that Community Organizer is little more than the job title of an intern in the Chicago branch of Shakedown, Inc.  And that such an internship is designed specifically to provide the experience and to establish the network necessary for those who want to make a political career of mau-mauing.

The Community Organizer is not a new position.  It is the in-your-face version of the more clandestine agent provocateur (the subversive leftist revolutionaries during the Spanish Civil War) that Orwell described in Homage to Catalonia.  The Community Organizer employs intense provocation to create a state of constant agitation.  This state of constant agitation is the political and cultural atmosphere that the ruling class on the left has worked so hard to create over the past decades, because the agitated state is one that desires and demands resolution.  As long as there is a state of agitation, the left can continue to campaign for increased power and to demand passage of the policies they claim will lead to resolution.  As they succeed in increasing their power and pushing their leftist agenda, they either deny complete resolution of the problem or shift focus to other grievances, thereby maintaining the state of agitation.  Thus resolution becomes an ever retreating goal line.

This partly explains why Barack Obama will not allow himself to be attached to his policies.  As good capitalists, executives at Shakedown, Inc.  know that to acknowledge resolution would require them to relinquish that share of their market.  This helps to explain why his recent State of the Union address was little more than the same campaign speech he has delivered for years.  You know the one, where he accuses his opponents of being the cause of all the ills of the nation and the world and promises to fix all those problems without ever explaining how.  But this is actually the lesser part of the explanation as to why he will not allow the failure of his policies to be attached to himself and why the media (the PR firm for Shakedown, Inc.) seem to be actively aiding him in deflecting that association.

The conservative commentators explain why Barack Obama never actually governs despite the fact that he occupies the highest executive office in politics.  Their explanation is that he doesn’t want to risk being associated with failure for both egotistical and political reasons.  They are correct, but again they are only explaining the what and don’t address why Barack Obama chooses to campaign rather than govern, and this is where they need to connect the dots.

The mau-mauers don’t want to be directly identified as the agent behind any significant policy – even if it is not an outright failure –because then they are responsible for the effect of that change.  And if they can be accused of being the one responsible for the harmful effect of a particular policy, then they run the risk of becoming the flak catcher.

That is a violation of the core principles of Shakedown, Inc..  The success of Shakedown, Inc.  is based on the power derived from intimidation.  The mau-mauers are those who wield this power and the flak catchers are the sniveling cowards scurrying to appease the mau-mauers.  Not only is it the ultimate career-killer to become a flak catcher (tantamount to losing “street cred”), it also threatens the monopoly of Shakedown, Inc.

If Barack Obama, the current CEO of Shakedown, Inc., can be treated like a flak catcher, then any flak catcher can steel his nerve, borrow some audacity, adopt the business model of Shakedown, Inc., and become a mau-mauer.  And the management of Shakedown, Inc.  knows that the greatest threat to their monopoly is competition.

So it is not surprising that Barack Obama does not act like a true executive.  It is far safer to vote Present on legislation than to draft and promote legislation.  As CEO of Shakedown, Inc., his directive is to shake down the flak catchers for a peace settlement of funds (cash preferred but checks accepted) that he can redistribute to his cronies (such as the public-sector unions and green energy) or concession (a change in policy or position, but cash preferred) and to ensure that soon after settlement, the state of agitation resumes.

Without exception, this results in moving the national economy and culture further to the left and requires Americans to give up more of their earnings, their moral standards, and their liberty.

Barack Obama is perfectly willing to take credit for any event that can be spun as a win for the nation or some crony sector.  But he will do so in such a way that, if necessary, he can later dissociate himself from the event.  Taking credit for the success of mau-mauing proves the importance of having him serve as the CEO of Shakedown, Inc.  It validates the benefits of his power.

That’s good PR for Shakedown, Inc.  And that keeps their customers coming back for more.

By not allowing responsibility for his policies to be attached to him, when his opponents point out how his policies are harming the nation and even the crony sectors he claims to be helping (such as the soaring unemployment rate of recent college graduates and African Americans), the CEO of Shakedown Inc.  can simply resort to mau-mauing by accusing the flak catchers of obstructing progress and national healing.  The CEO of Shakedown, Inc., thus uses the very failures his policies create as a grievance to mau-mau for greater power and further contributions and concessions from you and me, the ultimate flak catchers.

 

 

 

 

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