• Jason Mattera, Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation, New York: Threshold Edtions, 2010, 260 pages, $25.
Allow me to describe the way I felt as I picked up Jason Mattera’s book Obama Zombies. It’s like approaching a bad accident along the highway. You don’t want to look, but you can’t help it. After viewing the carnage, you realize it’s worse than you thought.
I’m not talking about the book itself. I’m talking the information inside the book. It certainly was no surprise that young people turned out en masse for Barack Obama in the 2008 election. It certainly was no secret that the mainstream media were in the tank for Obama. It certainly was no secret that Hollywood celebrities used their status and their money to help elect Obama. I knew all that as I started reading. But like that car wreck on the side of the highway, it was even worse than I thought.
Reading Obama Zombies, you shudder at the thought of this country electing a president — the leader of the free world, mind you — based on such crass and superficial appeals to proverbial young skulls full of mush. But it worked — nationwide, 68 percent of people ages 18-29 voted for Obama; in North Carolina, it was 74 percent.
Young people are the major consumers of mass media, and 2008 campaign was the first in history, as Mattera writes, “to pack a full punch of online mass media and Obama — to his credit — took full advantage of it.”
It sure didn’t hurt that the mainstream media was in the tank for Obama. Some media members cashed in for a bigger paycheck — Mattera lists the number of former political reporters now working for the Obama administration.
But Obama took 21st century mass media one step further. His campaign “digitally dominated” the McCain campaign in every aspect, from the number of YouTube videos to the number of Google references to the number of Facebook friends — no surprise since Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes worked for the Obama campaign.
“The data are jaw-dropping,” Mattera writes. “Old man McCain got destroyed in the online medium.”
It’s also no secret that celebrity culture mostly is made up of liberals, and young people — voracious consumers of celebrity culture in the today’s world of reality television — are more vulnerable to celebrity endorsements than ever before.
It makes for a dangerous, if inane, combination. The list of stars stumping for Obama is long — Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore.
Springsteen and Matthews donated their time in the form of free concerts, volunteer efforts worth thousands of dollars that preached the Messiah’s message to thousands of young fans all too eager to eager to receive it — especially since they got to see the Boss rock on for nothing.
But also it’s somewhat shocking to read about the crass appeals these so-called intelligent, talented celebrities made to young people, many focusing on bodily functions.
As Mattera points out, liberals have a strange fascination with ‘poop.’ That fascination reveals itself in Red Hot Chili Peppers lead singer Anthony Kiedis voicing his support for Obama and the environment by pledging to “flush (the toilet) only after a deuce, never a single.”
Of course the ultimate media-celebrity combination is Comedy Central’s “dynamic duo” of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, unfortunately the most trusted sources for news among young people.
Mattera describes Stewart and Colbert as “two men angry at life, masking their anger and sorrows in comedy; they are unpaid volunteers for liberalism and cronies for Barack Obama.”
It’s particularly disturbing, Mattera contends, that young people trust Colbert to provide them with crucial information about the world around them, given his “dark personal life.” It cannot be emphasized enough, Mattera writes, that Colbert is not a professional journalist, but “a wandering actor, a wannabe poet, and a standup comic” who has “devoted his life to playing someone else.”
Stewart and Colbert have a unique schtick going on. When carrying water for liberals or asking hard questions about conservative policies, they’re journalists; yet when they attack Sarah Palin unfairly, they’re just comedians having a little fun with humorless Republicans.
“Wisely, Stewart deflects his leftist credentials through self-deprecation,” Mattera writes. “It’s a win-win. You score points while claiming that your disgruntled opponent can’t take a joke. Double points.”
Yet there’s not a lot funny behind Stewart’s attacks on conservatives, most notably Stewart’s obscenity-laced speech at Northeastern University where he relentlessly attacked and mocked Palin. Yet Stewart’s highly partisan routine drew howls of laughter from the 5,000-plus crowd.
Mattera also offers up some reality on Obama’s policies, tackling hot-button issues such as global warming, the economy and healthcare reform. It’s stuff conservatives have heard before, but some reinforcement never hurts, especially when you’re trying to shake “Obama zombies” out of their stupor.
Fortunately, Mattera serves up a basic six-point list for “deprogramming Obama zombies.” It’s pretty basic, but the most important of which is to utilize the zombies’ own weapons — YouTube, Twitter, text messaging, iPhone applications. Conservatives should spread the conservative in message using the very communication tools embraced by the 18-29 demographic.
After finishing Obama Zombies, you cannot help but note some irony. First, Obama’s “digital domination” didn’t come cheap. There was a specific reason he opted out of public campaign financing. But liberals supposedly deplore the role of money in politics, don’t they?
The second irony is that the tools of communication Obama employed to spread his message, led by television, personal computers, and cell phones, are the tools of freedom — communication is freedom — in critical demand by oppressed people across the world. It’s incredible to think about Obama using those tools to implement a socialist agenda that serves only to restrict freedom.
Perhaps comparing the Obama campaign to a car wreck wasn’t quite accurate. The campaign was a well-oiled machine, running at peak efficiency. But the Obama presidency is bound to crash sooner or later, and we’ll all be forced to watch.