10 Things That Make Me Angry: Number 7
7. Obamania. I have yet to really write a blog about Barack Hussein Obama, but I think it is about time that I do so. I have expressed my thoughts and feelings about the man in private conversations, little posted items on my Facebook profile, etc., but have yet to really put down on paper what I think of this phenomenon called President-elect (President in two more days) Obama.
First of all, let it be known that I am extremely happy that my country finally has elected an African-American President (although he is not 100 percent in that heritage, I think it is irrelevant to the discussion at this point). Indeed, I will do my best to honor and respect his authority, and will refrain from insulting him or calling him disrespectful names. That being said, I’ll be honest: I’m a bit peeved. A whole lot peeved, in fact. Here are half a dozen reasons—and I could probably come up with more, but I will spare my poor readers:
1. He…has…done…nothing. Not as President anyhow. I drove through my hometown in Michigan recently, and on the corner in the Democratic Party office’s window a sign read “Yes We Did.” Did what? Got elected? That’s the easy part. Now govern, now do what’s right, now save America like you’ve promised. I am reminded of the 1976 election in which James Earl “Jimmy” the Peanut Farmer Carter was expected to be the savior from the evil Nixon legacy and the mediocre Gerald Ford administration. Instead, we got four years of incompetence, inefficiency, and embarrassment: Iran hostage crisis, oil embargo, economic collapse, super-high taxes, creation of the disastrous Department of Education, you name it. At the very least it paved the way for Ronald Reagan to take office in 1981.
2. Michelle. Yes, she’s smart; yes, she’s beautiful; yes, she’s a capable wife and mother, but with the millions of wonderful, patriotic, hardworking housewives we have in this country, we have to get the one who arrogantly declares she was never proud of her country until her own husband became a contender for President. Does anyone else feel condescended to?
3. William Ayers. Yes, Obama does know him; yes, Obama has worked with him on “education reform” (whatever that means); and yes, Ayers has given Obama glowing praise in more than one interview. Yikes. Liberals can say, “We don’t believe in guilt by association,” but I’ll remind them of that the next time some Republican is caught in the same room as George W. Bush. If you dish it, take it.
4. Obama’s nutty preacher friends: Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger. Obama belonged to Wright’s church in Chicago for twenty years and, unless he was asleep in the pew or busy playing his Game Boy, heard every incendiary word Wright spoke. While I honor Dr. Wright for his military service and understand his bitterness over the treatment he received back home, I cannot condone his “theology.” We can play the “out of context” game all we want, but the fact of the matter is, we have elected to the highest office in the land a man who has approved of and been repeatedly instructed by a man who thinks of America as a racist, fascist, militaristic society not worthy of praise or merit…a man who has said “God damn America” in public and has said that big bad America (“the U.S. o f K.K.K.A.” in his words) deserved 9/11. Never mind the many blacks and minority individuals who died horribly that day as well. As for Pfleger, who has publicly threatened gun salesmen and been arrested for disorderly conduct, he screams twice as loud as Wright in his sermons and makes even less sense. He made a fool of himself for railing about Democrat Hillary Clinton and how she resents Barack Obama because of his being black. If anything, she resents him because she lost. I don’t say much in favor of the Clintons, but they have always been staunch defenders of the African-American community—why else would Toni Morrison, a black writer herself, refer to Bill as the first African-American President? The media can complain all it wants about the crazy Religious Right, but the crazy Religious Left is alive and well too.
5. The media’s “slobbering love affair” with Barack, as political and current events commentator Bernard Goldberg calls it. Absolutely inexcusable. Sickening, really. I watched a CNN special preparing for the Inauguration earlier today and had to turn it off because everything said about Obama was so Orwellianly positive, optimistic, uncritical, laudatory. Does anyone realize the inherent danger of not criticizing one’s President, of living in a country where the most powerful person never receives a shred of bad press? The scariest part, I think, is the comedians who say there isn’t anything about Obama they could possibly make fun of. What? What about his arrogance? His big ears? His enormous smile no matter what the situation? His never-ending effort to please every man, woman, child, and creature without ever ruffling a feather or wrinkling a forehead? His inexperience? His endless flip-flops on the Iraq surge, offshore drilling, raising taxes, gay marriage? Out of all that, you can’t find one thing to ridicule or humorize? Does your Bush derangement syndrome have the side effect of Obama infallibility? We’re all human—we all make mistakes, we all need redemption, we all have annoying foibles and shortcomings. Make use of them! This is not Jesus Christ, Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny… this is a human being. This is a weak, sinful, prideful man like you and me. And incidentally, this is not Abraham Lincoln. I can’t imagine anything more presumptuous or self-congratulatory than Obama following the same train route as Lincoln in 1860, but oh…he’s already done that.
6. His views. Senator Barack Obama has a 90 percent lifetime approval rating from Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) and has been named the most liberal Senator in the United States Senate. Moderate? Uniter? Bipartisan? I think not. He may not ram his liberal ideology down the American people’s throats, but I do believe he will subtly try to fulfill such an agenda (he’s much smarter than Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi put together, I will say that for him). The man who champions the little guy condones the infanticide of 4,000 silent victims every day here in America; encourages Georgia to show restraint when it is blitzkrieged by mighty Russia; supports super-high taxes on corporations and businesses and massively increased wages for union workers, which compel “greedy” American companies to decrease jobs and look elsewhere for better business. Regardless of the moderate rhetoric, Obama is a dyed-in-the-wool liberal who is not likely to change with majorities in both houses of Congress and a vast majority of American governors being Democrats.
In closing, let me say this: I will support Barack Hussein Obama (no, I’m not being racist by using his midde name; as an historian, I like using presidents’ full names) when I think he’s right, I will refrain from calling him nasty names or dragging his family into the mix (yes, I criticized Michelle, but I realize she is not the Prez and will try not to make a habit of it); and I will give him the benefit of the doubt on every issue. I will not do, I refuse to do, what you maniacal anti-Bush folks have done for eight years now. I will not berate, I will not rant or rave, I will not despise. God forgive those who have done so to George Walker Bush. He is a good and decent man who, just like Barack Obama will, has made his fair share of mistakes in office. He is not a Nazi, he is not Adolf Hitler Junior, he is not a dictator. If he were, you would all be in prison for saying such provocations. You Bush haters on the left who preach tolerance and love and diversity and political correctness are no more privy to those things than the David Dukes and Strom Thurmonds with whom you equate all conservative Republicans. I don’t dislike Barack Obama, I don’t detest him, I will resist all temptations to bash and belittle him. I am overjoyed that Dr. King’s work has come full circle.
But I will close with something “arrogant” and provocative myself: that’s what makes conservatism better. We put the emphasis on individual responsibility, on personal morality and goodness rather than on collective dogma, enforced politeness, and hero worship. Why do you think so many more Republicans dislike George W. Bush than Democrats dislike Bill Clinton? If you want “Change We Can Believe In,” you can start by challenging your own Messiah when you think he’s wrong. Feel free to desert the cult, people. He’s a mortal, he’s a man…you only hurt your leader and your country when you expect the actions of a god. It's not fair to Barack to place such high expectations on him. Obama’s place of work is Washington, not Calvary. OK, now I’ve said my piece…time to move on.
First of all, let it be known that I am extremely happy that my country finally has elected an African-American President (although he is not 100 percent in that heritage, I think it is irrelevant to the discussion at this point). Indeed, I will do my best to honor and respect his authority, and will refrain from insulting him or calling him disrespectful names. That being said, I’ll be honest: I’m a bit peeved. A whole lot peeved, in fact. Here are half a dozen reasons—and I could probably come up with more, but I will spare my poor readers:
1. He…has…done…nothing. Not as President anyhow. I drove through my hometown in Michigan recently, and on the corner in the Democratic Party office’s window a sign read “Yes We Did.” Did what? Got elected? That’s the easy part. Now govern, now do what’s right, now save America like you’ve promised. I am reminded of the 1976 election in which James Earl “Jimmy” the Peanut Farmer Carter was expected to be the savior from the evil Nixon legacy and the mediocre Gerald Ford administration. Instead, we got four years of incompetence, inefficiency, and embarrassment: Iran hostage crisis, oil embargo, economic collapse, super-high taxes, creation of the disastrous Department of Education, you name it. At the very least it paved the way for Ronald Reagan to take office in 1981.
2. Michelle. Yes, she’s smart; yes, she’s beautiful; yes, she’s a capable wife and mother, but with the millions of wonderful, patriotic, hardworking housewives we have in this country, we have to get the one who arrogantly declares she was never proud of her country until her own husband became a contender for President. Does anyone else feel condescended to?
3. William Ayers. Yes, Obama does know him; yes, Obama has worked with him on “education reform” (whatever that means); and yes, Ayers has given Obama glowing praise in more than one interview. Yikes. Liberals can say, “We don’t believe in guilt by association,” but I’ll remind them of that the next time some Republican is caught in the same room as George W. Bush. If you dish it, take it.
4. Obama’s nutty preacher friends: Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger. Obama belonged to Wright’s church in Chicago for twenty years and, unless he was asleep in the pew or busy playing his Game Boy, heard every incendiary word Wright spoke. While I honor Dr. Wright for his military service and understand his bitterness over the treatment he received back home, I cannot condone his “theology.” We can play the “out of context” game all we want, but the fact of the matter is, we have elected to the highest office in the land a man who has approved of and been repeatedly instructed by a man who thinks of America as a racist, fascist, militaristic society not worthy of praise or merit…a man who has said “God damn America” in public and has said that big bad America (“the U.S. o f K.K.K.A.” in his words) deserved 9/11. Never mind the many blacks and minority individuals who died horribly that day as well. As for Pfleger, who has publicly threatened gun salesmen and been arrested for disorderly conduct, he screams twice as loud as Wright in his sermons and makes even less sense. He made a fool of himself for railing about Democrat Hillary Clinton and how she resents Barack Obama because of his being black. If anything, she resents him because she lost. I don’t say much in favor of the Clintons, but they have always been staunch defenders of the African-American community—why else would Toni Morrison, a black writer herself, refer to Bill as the first African-American President? The media can complain all it wants about the crazy Religious Right, but the crazy Religious Left is alive and well too.
5. The media’s “slobbering love affair” with Barack, as political and current events commentator Bernard Goldberg calls it. Absolutely inexcusable. Sickening, really. I watched a CNN special preparing for the Inauguration earlier today and had to turn it off because everything said about Obama was so Orwellianly positive, optimistic, uncritical, laudatory. Does anyone realize the inherent danger of not criticizing one’s President, of living in a country where the most powerful person never receives a shred of bad press? The scariest part, I think, is the comedians who say there isn’t anything about Obama they could possibly make fun of. What? What about his arrogance? His big ears? His enormous smile no matter what the situation? His never-ending effort to please every man, woman, child, and creature without ever ruffling a feather or wrinkling a forehead? His inexperience? His endless flip-flops on the Iraq surge, offshore drilling, raising taxes, gay marriage? Out of all that, you can’t find one thing to ridicule or humorize? Does your Bush derangement syndrome have the side effect of Obama infallibility? We’re all human—we all make mistakes, we all need redemption, we all have annoying foibles and shortcomings. Make use of them! This is not Jesus Christ, Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny… this is a human being. This is a weak, sinful, prideful man like you and me. And incidentally, this is not Abraham Lincoln. I can’t imagine anything more presumptuous or self-congratulatory than Obama following the same train route as Lincoln in 1860, but oh…he’s already done that.
6. His views. Senator Barack Obama has a 90 percent lifetime approval rating from Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) and has been named the most liberal Senator in the United States Senate. Moderate? Uniter? Bipartisan? I think not. He may not ram his liberal ideology down the American people’s throats, but I do believe he will subtly try to fulfill such an agenda (he’s much smarter than Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi put together, I will say that for him). The man who champions the little guy condones the infanticide of 4,000 silent victims every day here in America; encourages Georgia to show restraint when it is blitzkrieged by mighty Russia; supports super-high taxes on corporations and businesses and massively increased wages for union workers, which compel “greedy” American companies to decrease jobs and look elsewhere for better business. Regardless of the moderate rhetoric, Obama is a dyed-in-the-wool liberal who is not likely to change with majorities in both houses of Congress and a vast majority of American governors being Democrats.
In closing, let me say this: I will support Barack Hussein Obama (no, I’m not being racist by using his midde name; as an historian, I like using presidents’ full names) when I think he’s right, I will refrain from calling him nasty names or dragging his family into the mix (yes, I criticized Michelle, but I realize she is not the Prez and will try not to make a habit of it); and I will give him the benefit of the doubt on every issue. I will not do, I refuse to do, what you maniacal anti-Bush folks have done for eight years now. I will not berate, I will not rant or rave, I will not despise. God forgive those who have done so to George Walker Bush. He is a good and decent man who, just like Barack Obama will, has made his fair share of mistakes in office. He is not a Nazi, he is not Adolf Hitler Junior, he is not a dictator. If he were, you would all be in prison for saying such provocations. You Bush haters on the left who preach tolerance and love and diversity and political correctness are no more privy to those things than the David Dukes and Strom Thurmonds with whom you equate all conservative Republicans. I don’t dislike Barack Obama, I don’t detest him, I will resist all temptations to bash and belittle him. I am overjoyed that Dr. King’s work has come full circle.
But I will close with something “arrogant” and provocative myself: that’s what makes conservatism better. We put the emphasis on individual responsibility, on personal morality and goodness rather than on collective dogma, enforced politeness, and hero worship. Why do you think so many more Republicans dislike George W. Bush than Democrats dislike Bill Clinton? If you want “Change We Can Believe In,” you can start by challenging your own Messiah when you think he’s wrong. Feel free to desert the cult, people. He’s a mortal, he’s a man…you only hurt your leader and your country when you expect the actions of a god. It's not fair to Barack to place such high expectations on him. Obama’s place of work is Washington, not Calvary. OK, now I’ve said my piece…time to move on.
posted by Douglas Schrock at 10:23 PM
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