The Gifts of Obama

After hearing recently that Barack Obama and his wife don't give Christmas or birthday presents to their daughters, I decided to look into it. Now, while Obama is quoted as saying they do this because they “want to teach some limits,” it turns out things aren't quite as dire as they seem. For example, instead of birthday presents, they throw big birthday slumber parties. I'm guessing his 7 and 10 year old daughters aren't complaining about that. And on Christmas the two girls do get presents -- they are all just labeled as being "from Santa Claus." Again, this works well for daughters who are 7 and 10. However, it also sends the message that it is the material goods which are important, and not who gives you the gifts. This I suppose is not too surprising, since Obama's political ideology is so clearly rooted in dialectical materialism. Materialists think that the only things which are important are material things, that economic considerations are the only considerations. So Barack Obama and his wife don't think it's important that their daughters get the presents from them, that their daughters understand that they give those Christmas gifts to them out of love -- they think the only thing that is important is that their daughters get those things. They are separating the giver from the gift -- something I suppose one should expect from a Leftist, since that is a precise definition of their social-economic policies. As far as the daughters are concerned, of course, they will learn one day that there is no Santa Claus, that their parents really were the ones giving the gifts. But still, there is something subtly dehumanizing in the Obamas' attitude toward gift-giving.