By Shawn Mitchell
Monday, May 13, 2013
Not too long ago, trashing George Bush was a
Hillary-approved form of patriotic dissent. Back in the day, progressives and
Move On types competed proudly and exuberantly to vocalize their Bush hate, all
to the national media’s approving, saturation coverage.
What a difference an election makes. Or maybe party
registration, or skin color, or could it have something to do with the world
view and preferences of the scribes and talking heads?
In any event,
today, the people who find frequent fault with the eminently faultable record
of Barack Obama aren’t presented as dissenting patriots; they don’t get the
glowing Cindy Sheehan, Move On or Occupy Wall Street treatment; rather,
they’re smeared as haters, bitter white
men, racists, reactionaries, menacing, potential terrorists (darn that
inconvenient fact that attacks, killings, and terror keep coming from crazies,
lefties, and lovers of “the religion of peace,” not from Tea Party members).
But anyone who yells about the massive spending, surging
national debt, about unconstitutional power grabs, job loss, sky high dependency on government,
obscene programs in the heart of Mexico to promote food stamps to prospective
immigrants, about gun running to Mexico that killed hundreds, about a war on
traditional energy, or a Big Brother explosion of regulations of commerce, or
billions in corrupt grants to corrupt cronies, a train wreck of a hijacking of health
care, outrageous neglect of embassies in the hottest hot spots, cowardly
neglect of attacks, transparently dishonest cover-ups of incompetence
(incompetence is the only thing that’s been transparent in this administration)
or, about…well, you get the idea…
Anyone who sees what’s as plain as day, day after day,
and points it out, well, they are pronounced haters and racists who just can’t
get over the fact that Barack Obama, a black man, is president of the United
States.
The theme is familiar and well rehearsed.
Well, no one wants to be a hater or a racist or
especially a racist hater. So, I’ve been thinking about this “criticism equals
hate” formula that Lefties use to shout down dissent—which isn’t patriotic
since 2008!-- and it occurs to me that maybe some petards and some goose sauce
are due for some turn about
What about all the
Americans who find themselves in the president’s rhetorical gun sights? Does he
hate them? Does Barack Obama hate his political opponents?
When candidate Obama talked about heartlanders feeling
left behind and getting bitter, clinging to their guns, their religion, and
their antipathy to people that aren’t like them, did that mean he hates those
Americans?
When his wife, on the occasion of his nomination said
that she’s proud of her nation for the first time in her adult life, did that
mean she hates her nation? Or when she said America is just a mean place,
surely that was hate?
When the Obamas sat for 20 years in the pews of Jeremiah
Wright while the good preacher blamed the US government for AIDS and howled for
God’s damnation on America, does that mean Obama hates America?
When the president rails at millionaires and billionaires
who “don’t pay their fair share” despite the fact the top one percent of
earners pay 37% of income taxes—is he expressing hate for the wealthy? When he
points his finger at business owners, and channels Elizabeth Warren to declare
“You didn’t build that! Someone else made that happen!” is he expressing contempt
for small business?
How about when the president declares that police in
Boston are stupid, or in Florida are unreliably racists and sinister (Okay,
that’s not a quote. You just have to read between the lines of his Attorney
General’s intervention in the Zimmerman case) is he proclaiming his hatred for
cops?
When his Pentagon tries to restrict personal sharing of
faith among soldiers, is he hating Christians? When he mandates employer
subsidy for contraception and abortifacients, and says that religious employers
who object are denying woman access to health care, is he hating people of
faith? Employers with faith?
Or, whoa Nellie, gun control! When the president argues
the National Rifle Association and gun rights supporters don’t care about
“children getting gunned down,” isn’t he proclaiming his righteous hatred of
2nd Amendment supporters and sloshing the blood of victims of violence on
everyone who opposes his gun bills?
When he says the members of Congress who opposed his
agenda “deliberately lied” and they have “no legitimate arguments” against his
bills, isn’t he condemning the good faith of all who disagree, declaring them
enemies of America, its peace, safety, and domestic tranquility?
The list is long
and the point is clear. Never in a million years would the press accuse the
president of hating any of the targets of his statist regulatory lust. Nope.
The haters are the citizens, the neighbors, the companies, the communities, the
churches who resist his determined fist.
More state control
of what Americans do? That’s enlightened progress! Resistance to more state
control? That’s hate and racism. Welcome to fundamental transformation,
approved and promoted by state media.
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