Just a couple of days after writing Part I, Colbert King of The Washington Post comes to the same conclusion many of Us have concerning the right-wing/fringe-to-the-center Republican attacks on President Obama.
In his words: "There's something loose in the land, an ugliness and hatred directed toward Barack Obama, the nation's first African American president, that takes the breath away. The thread of resentment is woven through conservative commentary, right-wing radio and cable TV shows, all the way to Capitol Hill."
On the same day, Maureen Dowd of The New York Times wrote:
"Surrounded by middle-aged white guys — a sepia snapshot of the days when such pols ran Washington like their own men’s club — Joe Wilson yelled “You lie!” at a president who didn’t.
But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!...
...I’ve been loath to admit that the shrieking lunacy of the summer — the frantic efforts to paint our first black president as the Other, a foreigner, socialist, fascist, Marxist, racist, Commie, Nazi; a cad who would snuff old people; a snake who would indoctrinate kids — had much to do with race...
...But Wilson’s shocking disrespect for the office of the president — no Democrat ever shouted “liar” at W. when he was hawking a fake case for war in Iraq — convinced me: Some people just can’t believe a black man is president and will never accept it."
It goes beyond personalism to context. Again from The Old Gray Lady, Barbara Ehrenreich and Dedrick Muhammad opine: "What do you get when you combine the worst economic downturn since the Depression with the first black president? A surge of white racial resentment, loosely disguised as a populist revolt. An article on the Fox News Web site has put forth the theory that health reform is a stealth version of reparations for slavery: whites will foot the bill and, by some undisclosed mechanism, blacks will get all the care."
Two remarks: Fox News is shit, and what does the lunatic fringe make of an author team consisting of the word "reich" and a Muslim name?
And how do blacks feel? Several personal reports, some featured in The Daily Kos, seem to indicate that the target isn't one man, but all that he is perceived to represent. The President has the Secret Service, but what do the rest have, as looks and mumblings escalate to open threats and violent actions?
Yes, the economy sucks--for everybody but the hyper-protected ultrarich--but the blame for that lies largely with a murderous moron and his band of rapacious hyenas and even further back to a serial adulterous liar and a senile almost-actor. Blaming the current President for that is still premature, but given what's happening so far with his wavering policies, he's headed for his fair share of the blame pretty soon.
President Obama is facing challenges of a nature no U.S. of part of A. Commander in Chief has ever faced. The loco fringe foams at the mouth because like dogs beaten by Indians (an old Western legend), they rage with hatred at their perceived oppressor. Quoting Dowd again: "For two centuries, the South has feared a takeover by blacks or the feds. In Obama, they have both."
It isn't just the South, hotbed of clinging to old hurts rather than facing the future. The crazies are from around the country, and many of them don't particularly care if feds take over something or the other: the fear--the stupid, lizard-brain fear--is racial. A black man has the highest power in the land and for them, it feels as if the Universe is spitting in their faces.
So they spit at the President, praying for his death, listen to a dead-brained Mormon hurl the "racist" tag that applies completely to himself or nod as a fat tub of drug-addled goo hopes he fails so that the nation suffer at the hands of this--horrors!--black man.
As the sage once said: Never argue with an idiot: He'll drag you down to his level and beat you with experience. You can't argue with racists because they are idiots. They can never rise above being idiots. But you have to keep an eye on them because even a retarded monkey with a loaded gun can do serious damage.
And already has.
The Jenius Has Spoken.
[Update: 19 May 2010: A teacher "explains" geometry by using the assassination of President Obama as an example. In what state? Alabama. Yee. And haw.]
No comments:
Post a Comment