Obama's presidency is like a comedian's dream. The man has been in office for under a year and he is somehow a constant center of animosity, which is always funny. It doesn't seem to be so much for what he's saying (he's a pretty dignified and well-spoken guy), but for the insane reactions on both sides of the political line to every last fucking thing the guys does.
I don't even live in America any more and I can't click a news link without finding this or that video of a protest group of goggle-eyed, angry right-wingers screeching about Obama and his failed politics. Actually, it goes further than this.
Fox News appear to have OD'd on viagra they're so hard for Obama. I don't even watch the news (ever. period. wake up. stop wasting your lives), and yet somehow every news website I pass by on my way to my morning video game review or porn site is full of stories about how this news company is perpetually making noise about Obama. Aren't news organizations supposed to be reporting news, not eternally commenting on it.
People I've never heard of (nor would ever have cared to, given the kind of things I've seen them write, heard them say) have crept into celebrity through their anti-Obama rhetoric. Names like Dr. Jack Wheeler (does anyone actually still use the term "Moslem", or is it just me?!), Sean Hannity (this man's voice grates like rusty nails on the hood of a car! And every video clip I've seen of him indicates he is aging at a preternatural rate. He looks like the millionaire bad guy at the end of the third Raiders movie, aging before our very eyes) and the wicked witch of the right, Anne Coulter (whoa. Don't get me started on her. I assume everyone knows she lives in a gingerbread house, right?).
Rush Limbaugh (is he still alive?!) is braying his way back into every angry person's heart with his blustery, blubbery rant and rave against the tides of permissive liberalism. Blah. Blah. Blah. Didn't we already do this with Rush back in the 90s? Isn't he like the conservative equivalent of Howard Stern? And somehow, in all the crazed anti-Obama noise, Sarah Palin has managed to creep her way back from the political and media grave. They tout her like she's the last person to tell it like it is, even if she didn't and doesn't and was all but run out of office on corruption charges. Go Sarah go! You speak for the people. Well, the stupid ones anyway.
These people have risen to stardom on their pandering and ugly rhetoric and will stay there because of it, as there will always be bushels of angry right-wing Americans who believe themselves somehow "under attack" by the "elite" (the elite being the poor non-whites, the college students and a bunch of ineffectual leftist intellectuals). These media whores are allowed to exist because they fill in the vacuum of common sense and political activism with angry grousing and poisonous invectives. This is much more effective than actually getting involved in the political system.
With this in mind, my favourite lately from those who do dare to have a political voice (and we must applaud them their enthusiasm, if nothing else) are the Tubes of right-wing protestors at the "Tea Parties" against Obama. Ooooh, this is just chock full of good stuff. They're almost as ridiculous as left-wing protestors (almost. We'll come back to them).
Watch a couple of these. Believe me when I say there are plenty more where these came from.
The most commonly quoted statements from participants of these small but virulent crowds seems to be :
1. Obama is a terrorist
2. Obama is a communist
3. Obama wasn't even born in this country
4. Obama hates America
5. Obama is a muslim (sorry, that's moslem. see #1, since apparently these two go hand-in-hand)
6. Obama is a fascist (not sure how this jives with #2, but okay...)
7. Obama is worse than Al Qaeda
8. Obama is a MEMBER of Al Qaeda
9. Fox news is the only unbiased news station on the air. (Wow)
10. Obama is the anti-christ.
Now leave it to the far right (and by "far right" I mean people who fall just shy of joining the sheet-wearing "secret" society) to become stupid enough to believe even half the things on this list.
I honestly don't believe most of the people in these videos believe this stuff. If you were to get them one-on-one, sit down over a beer and ask these things again, the majority of them would rescind their rally-fired statements. The other minority, the ones who DO believe he is the anti-christ and have scripture to prove it, these people probably already own their own wearable sheets, if you catch my meaning.
No offense to average, intelligent American conservatives (there are still some out there, right? PJ O'Rourke isn't drinking alone, is he?): You can believe what you want about the politics of Obama. That is the beauty of democracy. If you dislike the politics of another party or of an elected official, you can squawk about it. There are a number of intelligent commentators out there who have very well-formed opinions, cogent arguments, rational points of view. I don't have to agree with them to appreciate the excellent construct of their arguments.
Unfortunately for the Republican party, no one is listening to them. These people are conservative intellectuals, and in the era of post-Reagan conservatives, there is nothing a conservative is to fear more than an intellectual.
To these folks I say: distance yourselves, while you still can. Don't join rank and file with the idealogues and hate-mongers. Make a voice for the sane conservatives in America and leave these people behind. I'm not a conservative by a long shot, but it is painful to see the once great Republican party dissected from within by talking sock puppets and religious dimwits. I don't know about you, but I consider it a good rule of thumb that once the use of the anti-christ enters the conversation, we're dealing with people who are, to quote one of my university philosophy professors, "unattainable through the rigours of logic".
What we're dealing with are the howling bag ladies of the right-wing psyche, embarasing every conservative with an IQ over 100. Instead of intelligent dialog, what we see are two types of imbeciles: the ultra conservative rich white guy types, sitting on panels and making snide remarks about the "failed politics" and so forth but without putting forth any reasonable or realistic alternatives. And the average conservative on the street, people who dwell in the no-mans land where reason and fact do not reside, only bitter emotion and passionate squawling.
The conservatives I still know, they are sickened by this entire mess. They don't like Obama or at least not a number of his policies. I can respect that (note, I can respect this WITHOUT agreeing. American't, it's okay to disagree without having to consider the other person a demon of some sort). But siding up with either the sleaze merchants who hawk their conservative bile or the torch-and-pitchfork villagers from the Frankenstein movies gives them the holy heebie-jeebies.
But not to be too unkind, we must at least respect (that might be too strong a word) what these people believe they are doing. I am referring of course to the average joes in those videos. Dumb as they might seem (or be, whatever the case may be), these people are being honest about what they believe in. They believe they are the final bastion of their true America, marching as to war, against what they see as the fall of their beloved nation, the rise of the dark ones. It is an age-old struggle in America and one founded in apocalyptic rhetoric. Some of them, like the self-righteous nurse who tells the reporter how she "works in the trenches" (please), have a bone to pick with anyone who isn't them, others are just flat out racists. Yet most of these people just seem like average folks who want to have their say. The fact that a number of them are as dumb as popsicle sticks doesn't detract from their right to say what they feel or the heartfelt conviction with which they feel it. Most of these people are honestly saying how they (sort of) feel. Anger can be a good thing when channeled properly. Three cheers for the folks willing to participate in their system.
This is utterly different than the glitzy sleazebags that flock the airwaves with their sounds and visions. These people should be ashamed of themselves. Their opinions and chatter are designed for one purpose only: to sell shaving cream, to guarantee higher ratings, to get their corpulent heads on the air. They are put there by corporate media moguls to play on the fears and angers of people, not because they actually think that way or really feel that way. They are the rock stars of the conservative vitriol circuit, touring your heart and mind with scripted dialog meant to boost advertising sales.
For next time, we'll take on the left, and have a good time with them.
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