The tragic legacy of George W. Bush’s failed presidency is best evidenced in the orgiastic politics of Barack Obama.

Americans, war-weary and demoralized by the failed policies of the Bush administration, economically challenged and exhausted from overwork and underpay are in a state of desperation. The assault on the pocketbook of America’s middle-class during the Bush years is key; the very foundation of American life is crumbling and not just because of the collapse of the housing market.

Rising out of the toxic ashes of the burning World Trade Center appears America’s newest savior, Barack Obama, a man who offers the banal words of hope, encourages America to dream at a time when action is required, a man who promises his supporters that yes, together we can change the dialogue in Washington, D.C., and America will poof, be all better.

Yet, this new savior offers little true salvation in the way of specific solutions as to how we get to this new political Eden other than in our dreams.

Obama knows this.  He contrived his entire candidacy based on the knowledge that American’s are fraught with a sense of hopelessness.  He understands that America isn’t interested in real change; Americans just want to feel better - now. America is a society built on that American version of the Bible: The Book of Instant Gratification.

Tired of the residual fear of 9/11 and the anguish caused by the ongoing Iraq War, Americans want to feel a positive emotion. Barack Obama’s talk of hope offers an instant elixir, a drug, a collective American orgasm. This is the Barack Obama style: the feel-good brand of politics where emotion overtakes reason as the basis for electing a president.

As a measure of America’s hunger and desperation, consider the size of Mr. Obama’s rallies in evidence from coast to coast. Thirty-six thousand in California, 20,000 in Minneapolis, 30,000 in South Carolina…all Americans looking for answers, all willing to settle for inspiration rather than perspiration in answer to their prayers. The rallies have been described as religious in fervor, cultish in nature. There are stories of mass hysteria and crowd fainting incidences.

Oddly, it isn’t the poor and disenfranchised looking to Obama as a savior, unless they happen to be African-American. The poor and powerless seem less in need of a savior and more in want of the right programs to make health care affordable and accessible, bring our troops home from Iraq, and improve our schools.

The base of Senator Obama’s believers is what we used to call “Yuppies” and now are referred to as the liberal Starbuck Set. White men, who many admit would never vote for a woman, are also part of Senator Obama’s constituency. But this is no surprise. White men have been feeling disempowered since the cultural revolution of the 60’s when women joined the workforce and the sexual revolution wrenched them of a large part of their power.   

The Starbucks crowd is admittedly more affluent and better educated but no less needy than the rest of America. They’ve been living lives of quiet desperation in the trendy suburbs and cash-lined cul-de-sacs of places like Potomac, Md, Englewood, N.J, Tarzana, CA, South Beach, Miami.

But their upper-middle-class status has been under assault as much as the rest of middle-class America. Once the self-described feel-good crowd, today they are crumbling under the weight of all their toys. Government programs can’t help them, but feeling good can.

Young supporters of Senator Obama, the college student believers - those who in the recent past have been disengaged from America’s political system - now are the key followers of their Jesus, Obama. Little wonder young people are latching on with such fervor to the Obama cult.

These are the children of America’s latchkey home-life; many raised in single parent families often lacking a father figure or mother figure, their gods the false goddess of Britney Spears, all that is left for them to idolize and idealize. Is it any wonder they are hungry for a savior and for salvation and have found both in their leader Barack Obama? 

Those who question the candidacy of Senator Obama have called it a movement, his politics of hope platitudes, referred to his candidacy as a fairy tale. What it really is is disingenuous, like President George W. Bush, the leader who got us here in the first place.