Barack Obama and Étienne de Silhouette
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008I read this quote from the daily devotional Our Daily Bread (October 23). Does it resemble an issue in our current American presidential election?
In the 18th century, silhouettes (shadow profiles traced and cut from black paper) were a popular alternative to costly portraits. The word took its name from the French controller general of finance, Étienne de Silhouette. During the Seven Years War against England, he tried to raise revenues by heavily taxing the wealthy. Victims of his high taxes complained and used the word silhouette to refer to their wealth being reduced to a mere shadow of what it once was.
The writer goes on to mention that Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians, and then the prophet Jeremiah was lamenting over the city of God being a shadow of its former existence. I pray this will not be the case with the USA.
I’m not a political activist or a spin guru. I’m just an average guy living paycheck to paycheck trying to make ends meet (like many of you). So, with Joe the Plummer taking the heat for asking a simple question about how the Obama tax plan will affect him (and perhaps millions of other hard working Americans), I have cause to fear what the repercussions of this post might bring! But I see a couple of insights regarding Obama and a silhouette:
- A silhouette is a creative and beautiful shadow of the real thing. Obama has been great at winning over younger voters, but do they really know where he stands on the issues, or does it even matter? Many black Americans may vote for him because he’s half Kenyan, many 20-somethings may vote for him because he’s not a “geezer,” others may be voting for change, any change, not realizing the not all change is for their benefit. I love this video piece from Peter Doocy during the Democratic National Convention this past summer. He makes a remarkable parallel between this generation voting for president (many for the first time) and voting for their favorite American Idol.
- A silhouette is outlined in detail, but the core of the image is hidden. Who knows the real stories behind several issues: “spread the wealth,” involvement and influence in ACORN, apparent discepancies in his birth certificate(s), his Indonesian Islamic school record indicating his nationality as Indonesian (and religion as Islam, which was likely the faith of his mother’s husband at the time – I do not question his faith in Christianity), government run health care as pseudo-socialism, championing the cause of common working class people yet forsaking the basic right to life, the shadow of the whole “associations” issue with Ayers, Rezko, and his mentor and pastor Jeremiah Wright.
- The original Silhouette heavily taxed the wealthy. Do we see a parallel here? Perhaps research into this 18th century event would reveal the extent of the complaints of the affluent. According to Wikipedia, Silhouette was “criticized by the nobility including Voltaire, who thought his measures, though theoretically beneficial, were not suitable for war time and the French political situation.” So, raising taxes on the wealthy was not good during a time of war? So, it looks good on paper but does not work out in reality?
And don’t get me started on swing states and undecided voters! People are way to fickle… it’s all about me, if Obama is going to pay me a $1000 rebate, or provide me a job, or pay my health insurance, I’ll vote for him, who wouldn’t? Unless you vote according to principles and your worldview. You either stand for something and vote your convictions or you sell out to the highest bidder for what you get out of it.
There are just way too many Obama issues that go against my worldview. I don’t have to agree with everything about McCain to vote for him, but I sure don’t agree with Obama, no matter how attractive he is, or how many celebrities talk him up. Another thing, if the democratic trinity of Pelosi, Reed and Kennedy are for him, I know I can’t stand with him!
