Presidential Hate

Many feel that the hate directed at Obama is unprecedented. I can confirm that there ARE many who hate him. I certainly don’t want to engage in a who-hated-who-more contest between Obama and Bush. (It is interesting that many Obama-supporters try to connect Obama-hate to just racism. Do they not understand the political issues? However, there are racists, and there are those who genuinely disagree with his policies who also go too far.) I must confess that I feel the natural urge to notice, point out and oppose all the hate for Dubya because I like him.

However we got here now, whether it was by defending Bush or by defending Obama, we all need to denounce the craziness. If you allow Bush-hate in your public space, you’re allowing Obama-hate, too. Everyone needs to take the high road and condemn ALL of it as terrible. This is shameful. There’s free speech, and then there’s a ridiculous extreme, the abuse of free speech.

A blogger known as Zombie spent a lot of time and energy collecting photo evidence of Bush-hate signs and displays for an article on his blog. His purposes were not what you think. Firstly, he had a difficult time finding them because they were not in the mainstream media, but photos taken by himself or individuals at events and posted, thus proving media bias. They did exist, but the media and WE didn’t think they were newsworthy or important. We accept extreme, hate-soaked displays in our public space. That is a sad observation of us.

http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=621

I’m grateful for the chance to focus on this now, even though the rationale is wonky (it was okay to victimize a white man, but not a black man). If having a black president is what it took to get our attention on this matter, thank goodness.

I am an outspoken critic of Obama’s presidency. I also think he’s a handsome man and a great salesman (with no product to sell), very pleasant and unbelievably brave. His two biggest problems are he was never a Boy Scout (!) and he hoped to parlay his lawyer-skills (the only knowledge base he has) and unusual background (his background is not the same as most Americans) into an influential political position, “to make a difference in the world.” It’s not his fault that he doesn’t understand how America WORKS; it’s ours for electing him. His intentions were good, and the road to Hell is paved with them. My opinion is incompetence. You have no idea how much I wish Obama WAS a competent black president.

If only he had been in scouts. See, he’s the guy standing on the side, talking about what all he’s going to do. Some of the other boys are actually doing, leading, advancing through projects and ranks. I can imagine little Barry then gathering the younger, littler kids together to stage a protest and demand ranks be given them, listing reasons why, all external “reasons.” It doesn’t matter what they say – nobody gets ranks and badges who didn’t earn them. Then the Scoutmaster points out to Barry how he organized this, what a great ability and what great people skills he has – now use your skills and energy to organize and lead a service project! Create value for your community and self, not take it from others and demand it be given. Use your powers for good, not bad!

(BTW, Scouts involvement fixes a lot of faulty thinking. You carry your own backpack. You earn your own accolades. It’s pure.)

However, it would bring tears to my eyes if this man were shot, like so many of the white-guy presidents were. Reagan was shot. Ford was shot at as he reached to shake the hand of Charles Manson-follower, Squeaky Fromme. Four bullets were in the gun, none in the firing chamber. Kennedy…Lincoln… Unspeakable shame. There are 20 known attempts to assassinate presidents, none so far for Obama, thank God.

I believe the secret service has their hands full, in more ways than one. When I saw the pictures of Michelle strolling the streets of Spain with her 40 closest friends on vacation, I was alarmed for her safety first, then pissed at the extravagant waste of taxpayer money. Where were the agents? Not in the pictures. I wanted to yell at her to at least think of those two little girls – take a car for God’s sake! Does she think we only have crazy people in America?

So, I appreciate the vigilance today in condemning over-the-top presidential hate. Zombie states that the number of threats investigated by the secret service is up 400% with Obama. He believes an increased number of threats is not necessarily the case, but the vigilance of Americans to alert the service so they CAN investigate is.

When I see the hired demonstrators at the Wisconsin capitol blow their hoo-hubas and bang their little drum-dinkers, I could puke. They look like 2-year-olds. (Noise is a primitive attack, as someone with hearing loss and sensitivity, I don’t find this amusing.) I am not proud of these Americans and the so-called American process at that moment. We have a process that supports right to assemble and free speech, and I see a lot of demonstrations today as an ABUSE. Let’s put the freaks from Westboro Church at the top of the list. ABUSE of our precious rights!

I know proposing legislation to check abuse would never pass. But, in my dream world, we could define free speech abuse as using racial and sexual slurs, nudity (the naked men at the Berkeley parade was a visual assault!), or any images of violence and death used in a political context. (Note I did not say artistic context, although the crap coming out of Hollywood can be considered more political than artistic these days.) Then let a jury of peers decide. They just need a careful framework of law to guide them.

Stop trying to shock people to get their attention! Your argument either has merit or not. It’s obvious it does not.

NOTE: I tried to find an example of a hate-spewing Obama sign to run next to the Bush guillotine display…couldn’t find one anywhere on the same par as the stuff against Bush on Zombie’s blog. This is a great story found on another blog, put together by kids at Marquette University. Their findings? The same. Sorry, the media bias on this one is very clear.

http://mu-warrior.blogspot.com/2009/09/those-offensive-anti-obama-signs.html