Aaron Gulyas

Paper abstract
PCA-ACA 2010 Conference
Conspiracy Theory and Belief in the Paranormal

The Disclosure President?

Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential Campaign and the Exopolitics Movement

Hope and change were two ideas which found a receptive audience among the American
electorate in 2008. While many in the United States and around the world focused on Mr. Obama’s
positions on economic development, the environment, and foreign policy some believed that his
promises of “transparency” would be applied to a much different issue.

That issue is the alleged cover-up of the extraterrestrial presence on Earth. The field of
exopolitics is dedicated to investigating “the political implications of the extra-terrestrial presence.”
Key among their assumptions is that such a presence exists and is being kept from the American
public. Many writers, bloggers, and speakers have taken this assumption and used it as a lens
through which to view the past 60 years of human history, lamenting the future which might have
been if “disclosure” of this alien presence had taken place.

Beginning in 2008, the exopolitical thinkers wove Barack Obama’s candidacy and
subsequent presidency into this narrative viewing him as a change agent for acknowledgement of
the alien presence. My paper explores the development of Obama’s campaign and early presidency
through the viewfinder of exopolitics, exploring how a political figure became a figure of hope and
change for this group that exists on the margins of both American politics and American
paranormal studies.