PrintMarch 9, 2009
Obama's Political Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome
In the field of Psychiatry, Munchausen by Proxy is a disease of a child's custodian, usually a mother, who induces sickness, real or imagined in her child (sometimes resulting in death) in order to gain sympathy and to portray herself as the heroine. The child accepts his/her abuse as "normal" in exchange for a perception of safety provided by the caretaker. The adolescent child has no other choice.
Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome* (MPS) was named after Baron von Munchausen, an eighteenth-century German dignitary known for telling outlandish stories.
In the political arena President Obama has purposely recreated a version of Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome by following the Hoover/FDR model of economic destruction, increasing taxation and regulation during a recession. Obama is compounding the damage by destroying the domestic nuclear, oil and coal industries at the same time. It should be obvious that, we need to double or triple our domestic energy production and reduce absurd government regulations. It is imperative that we double and eventually triple our GDP as soon as possible to pay for Obama's rampant spending in unproductive areas.
Instead of an adolescent child, Obama's victim is ultimately the forgotten man: the taxpayer, who actually creates wealth and pays the bills. The unspoken agreement is that the "forgotten man" will trade his freedom for the illusion of security.
As H.L. Mencken pointed out three generations ago:
"The average man doesn't want to be free. He wants to be safe."
Franklin D. Roosevelt pioneered the Democrats' model of the political version of Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome by exploiting uncertainty in the aftermath of the stock market crash of 1929, and by refusing to work with the Hoover Administration on the severe economic problems then facing the Country.
The annihilating event that followed the crash was deflation, brought about through government over-reaction and over-regulation. The economy continued to deteriorate because of uncertainty during the interregnum. Despite repeated pleas from Hoover (like G.W. Bush later) to work together towards a resolution, Roosevelt (like Obama) was clearly not interested; the continued crisis only strengthened his mandate for his (new) "New Deal" policies.
Roosevelt rolled into Office on March 4th, 1933 as the restless self confident hero who would save us from the evils of Laissez-faire Capitalism. As he made clear in his First Inaugural Address:
"This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."
The country cared little that much of FDR's "New Deal" policies had been originated by Hoover, or that Roosevelt and his "Brain Trust" viewed the Country's dire situation as chance to experiment.
Action was called for and what mattered most was change.
FDR (Obama) appeared to be so caring and attentive, few suspected any wrongdoing. Just as in the case of the abusive parent, FDR (Obama) was jovial, cool, and unusually calm in the face of serious adversity.
In both versions of MPS, blame is typically placed on a previous caregiver as part of the deception and to provide a scapegoat. In the political version of MPS, instead of an incompetent nanny the New Dealers (and Obama) create populist villains, Hoover, Wall Street, Bankers, or G.W. Bush.
The denial of reality is crucial.
Roosevelt was able to successfully perpetrate the initial abuse because the science of international global economics was in its infancy. The mobilization and technical boom brought about by WW I, coupled with laissez-faire capitalism, led to the boom of the Roaring Twenties. This put an end to agricultural based economies of the past.
Hoover proved to be Roosevelt's perfect fall guy, largely because Hoover failed to understand the enormity of the problem of deflation and he retreated into personal depression. This withdrawal made Hoover an easy scapegoat.
The simple truth was that Roosevelt and Hoover were remarkably similar men. Their principle difference was that Hoover believed in staying within Constitutional boundaries. Roosevelt (Obama) viewed the Constitution as an impediment to progress. Both men made major mistakes largely because neither understood the ability of free markets to self-correct without government intervention. The simple proof that the New Deal policies did not work was the recession inside the Depression in the autumn of 1937.
"American Capitalism did not break in 1929. The crash did not cause the Depression. It was a necessary correction of a too-high stock market, but not a necessary disaster." Pg.5, The Forgotten Man
Coolidge's laissez-faire policies had in fact worked, the Dow Jones Stock Market Index would not equal its high of 381 on September 3rd, 1933 until the 1950's and full employment would not return until 1943.
Just as the MPS parent needs crisis and chaos to succeed in the abuse of a child, Obama Democrats create the crisis and chaos necessary for MPS to succeed in their abuse of the forgotten man.
The Obama Administration cynically follows FDR's model. As Obama's new Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel revealed:
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before."
H.L. Mencken also said:
"Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods."
That statement has never been truer than it is today.
*Munchausen by proxy syndrome (MBPS), or Factitious Disorder by Proxy, as it's listed in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition, Text Revision, also known as DSM-IV-TR).
