VIII: “Our Souls Are Broken” - Michelle Obama, Postmodern Fascist Ideologue 289false Messiahs of past centuries – the abolition of the law and instant gratification, somewhat in the
mode of Herbert Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization. Such hints were indeed present in the oratory of
the irrationalist mass movements between the two world wars, especially in Europe. This is the
kind of suggestion which has so often been a premonition of unspeakable horrors in the real world
of politics, economics, and military affairs, as a glance at the history of the last two and a quarter
centuries will confirm. Here is what Mrs. Obama had to say in her appearance at the University of
California Los Angeles on February 15, 2008:
SAMPLE MICHELLE OBAMA STUMP SPEECH, MID-FEBRUARY 2008
In 2008, we are still a nation that is too divided. We live in isolation, and because of that
isolation, we fear one another. We don’t know our neighbors. We don’t talk. We believe that
our pain is our own - we don’t realize that the struggles and challenges of all of us are the same.
We are too isolated. And we are still a nation that is still too cynical. We look at it as them and
they as opposed to us - we don’t engage because we are still too cynical. Don’t get sick in this
country - not here. Americans are in debt not because they live frivolously but because someone
got sick. And even with insurance, the deductibles and premiums are so high that people are
still putting medication and treatments on credit cards. And they can’t get out from under. I
could go on and on and on, but his is how we’re living, people, in 2008. And things have gotten
progressively worse throughout my lifetime - through Democratic and Republican
administrations - it hasn’t gotten better for regular folks. We have lost the understanding that in
a democracy, we have a mutual obligation to one another - that we cannot measure our
greatness in the society by the strongest and richest of us, but we have to measure our greatness
by the least of these. That we have to compromise and sacrifice for one another in order to get
things done - that is why I am here, because Barack Obama is the only person in this race who
understands that. That before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls - our souls
are broken in this nation. If we can’t see ourselves in one another, we will never make those
sacrifices. So I am here right now because I am married to the only person in this race who has
a chance at healing this nation. The first major decision he had to make in his life, after college- “Do I go to Wall Street and make money, or do I work for the people?” - Barack worked as a
community organizer in some of the toughest neighborhoods on the south side of Chicago.
Helping young mothers find their voice and their power - folks who had a reason to be cynical
because government had forgotten them long ago. There is no one else in this race who can
claim that kind of commitment to people on the ground. No one. And I would think in a nation
like ours, - Barack, as Oprah said, is one of the most brilliant men you will meet in our lifetime.
Barack is more than ready. He’ll be ready today, he’ll be ready on day one, he’ll be ready in a
year from now, five years from now - he is ready. That is not the question. The question is:
What are we ready for? Wait, wait, wait - because we say we’re ready for change, we say we’re
ready for change, butcha see, change is HARD. Change will always be hard, and it doesn’t
happen from the top down. We do not get universal health care, we don’t get better schools
because somebody else is in the White House. We get change because folks from the grass
roots up decide they are sick and tired of other people telling them how their lives will be -
when they decide to roll up their sleeves and work. And Barack Obama will require you to
work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism, that you put down your division, that
you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones, that you push
yourselves to be better, and that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your
lives as usual - uninvolved, uninformed...We have young kids all over the world who are
looking to this nation, and they are trying to figure out who we are, and what we wanna