Passionate, Unreasonable Hatred for Obama

[ravdin]

I read it. A good book. I accept the thesis. Though I think Clinton, ultimately, was an effective president. That said, I'm quite confident Hitchens would not have written a similar book about Obama.

I agree that Hitchens wouldn't have written a similar book about Obama. Bill Clinton was probably the first politician to spew such red faced irrational hatred for Obama (for having the impertinence to challenge his wife in the 2008 primary). Remember the "fairy tale" business?

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/bill-clinton-obama-is-the-biggest-fairy-tale

 

[NoahFence]

Its nothing more than the anonymity that the intertoobz provides. Everybody is a pundit, people like Limbaugh and Beck are allowed to spew this irrational hatred, then *poof* it's retweeted, liked on Facebook and pinned over and over and over again. The bottom line is this:

Obama is as hated as he is because America by and large is stupid, and we like it that way. No need to think. Just have a handful of hate mongers lead the charge for the torch carrying idiots.

They have no idea that Mitt Romney is perhaps the most disconnected presidential candidate ever. They cried to the high heavens at Obama's lack of experience, and support Romney's even lower lack of experience. Politics in this country is a FSM damn joke.

 

[Mark6]

I don't get it either.

He's a smart guy, who started without much and managed to do *very* well for himself, he espouses christian values, and as president he supports the previous administration's policies, and tries to enact ones proposed by Republicans twenty years ago.

Why would any conservative loathe him?

I tried to discuss this with my mother, who if not exactly hates, but is very afraid of him. When she gave the "he is a Muslem" line, I asked her "Do you seriously believe Obama prays to Mecca five times a day?" My mom's response was "Of course not. But culturally he is a Moslem, he has more affinity for Moslems than for Americans/Westerners, and he intends to use Muslem anger as a tool to secure power -- to the detriment of everyone else." When I pointed out that Obama already has killed more Muslems than his predecessor (directly, anyway), she shrugged and said "So what? In that culture life is cheap. He is sacrificing his pawns for future gain".

Basically, she is convinced that Obama is either a head or a figurehead of conspiracy which plans to impose worldwide socialism, and to use radical Muslems as its shock troops to keep everyone in line. She also told me as a fact that Richard Reid has already been quietly set free. Took me about 5 minutes on google to prove her worng; not sure if she believed me.

I pretty much demolished all of her arguments, but all I got in the end was "Bottom line is, I do not trust Obama."

Note that my mother is not Christian at all, but finds Christians much more palatable/civilized than Muslems.

 

[MG1962]

HOnestly I don't get why there is so much hatred towards the President. I understood why Bush was so disliked, he isn't the sharpest tool in the family toolshed. I do think there is some racism against him. One thing that hurts him is that there is one news channel that seems to be dedicated to twisting things against him.(Three guesses on which news channel that is.)

I have met a few of these people in real life, and I have been constantly stunned at the irrational level of hate. I have no issue with someone expressing their hate then building on that with arguments about policy or direction of government - I just dislike those out their that hate him...just cause

 

[Mark6]

They have no idea that Mitt Romney is perhaps the most disconnected presidential candidate ever. They cried to the high heavens at Obama's lack of experience, and support Romney's even lower lack of experience. Politics in this country is a FSM damn joke.

I have to take issue with that. Compared to every other president, Obama's lack of prior executive experience is truly amazing. Romney did pretty good job as governor of Massachusetts, and as head of 2002 Olympic committee. Before 2008 Obama never was in charge of anything comparable.

 

[MG1962]

I have to take issue with that. Compared to every other president, Obama's lack of prior executive experience is truly amazing. Romney did pretty good job as governor of Massachusetts, and as head of 2002 Olympic committee. Before 2008 Obama never was in charge of anything comparable.

Has there been anything in his administration you can point to as being examples where this lack of experience has lead to poor decisions in the White House

 

[LibraryLady]

I have to take issue with that. Compared to every other president, Obama's lack of prior executive experience is truly amazing. Romney did pretty good job as governor of Massachusetts, and as head of 2002 Olympic committee. Before 2008 Obama never was in charge of anything comparable.

You mean like Lincoln?

I know that's kind of facile, but there are other presidents without executive experience.

 

[Ladewig]

Yes to the most recent posters decrying the public's ability to reason correctly.

The year is 2012 and 45% of this country is not convinced that Obama is eligible to be president. 20********12.

The opening post is asking why people are being unreasonable. The answer is that large swaths of Americans (on both sides of the aisle) are chuckleheads who are motivated by emotions and who do not even know how to construct a logically sound argument. Expecting irrational people to be reasonable is a fool's errand.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

As for origins, I always thought it started with the right's hatred of Hillary Clinton. With Bill Clinton, a reasonable person could point to the lying or the extramarital affair or the weaselyness of parsing words or the sheer stupidity of having sex just outside the Oval Office. There was no reasonable basis for hating Ms. Clinton more than they hated the president.

 

[rustypouch]

According to some members of the GOP, Obama's "an ideologue unlike anything world history has ever witnessed or recognized," and "we shall not have any coarse (sic) but armed revolution should we fail with the power of the vote in November."

 

[MG1962]

According to some members of the GOP, Obama's "an ideologue unlike anything world history has ever witnessed or recognized," and "we shall not have any coarse (sic) but armed revolution should we fail with the power of the vote in November."

How damn democratic of them - we defend the constitution till it suits us. I am not sure that would be a majority opinion in in the Republican party

 

[BenBurch]

How damn democratic of them - we defend the constitution till it suits us. I am not sure that would be a majority opinion in in the Republican party

I hope they do try to start an insurrection.

Then we can bury them and be done with it.

 

[RandFan]

I think it's a tit for tat thing that arose with Clinton. The right went after Clinton like a bunch of pit bulls over an issue that, to the right, was very serious, but to the left was quite trivial.

Come George W. and I suspect there was a lot of "get back at them" from the left. Compounded by the fact that, yes, what Bush was doing was seen as reasonable by the right, but horrific war mongering by the left.

Now Obama comes along and from the day he was in office you could see the right salivating over the chance to say all the things about him that had been said about Bush. There was a perception on the right that the left blamed Bush for absolutely everything that ever went wrong, and I saw people on the right literally gleeful that Obama was now to blame for anything and everything bad, on the day of his inauguration.

US politics has become locked into a cycle of absolute hatred. And I don't see it changing... whoever is the next republican President the left will pour scorn on him, too.

I agree with this. As far as Clinton and Bush I made that argument when I was conservative and I still believe it.

 

[Brainster]

HOnestly I don't get why there is so much hatred towards the President. I understood why Bush was so disliked....

Whooosh!

 

[Mark6]

Has there been anything in his administration you can point to as being examples where this lack of experience has lead to poor decisions in the White House

Not at all. If anything, I find Obama's performance in White House particularly impressive considering his lack of prior experience. But I maintain it was entirely reasonable to be skeptical of Obama in 2008 in light of that.

Acting like my mother does nowadays... is not reasonable.

 

[NoahFence]

I have to take issue with that. Compared to every other president, Obama's lack of prior executive experience is truly amazing. Romney did pretty good job as governor of Massachusetts, and as head of 2002 Olympic committee. Before 2008 Obama never was in charge of anything comparable.

Romney was in command during the heyday of the Big Dig's cost overruns. Under his "leadership" - Massachusetts had a huge unemployment problem, including yours truly.

If you need someone to manage someone else's money, Romney is your guy. He's got zero foreign policy experience and is totally disconnected from virtually the entire country. He is an unelectable buffoon.

 

[RandFan]

Obama:

• Not an American.
• Radical Christian.
• Muslim.
• Radical Saul Alinsky style Socialist.
• Implemented the GOP plan for health care.
• Offered 2.4 trillion in deficit reduction consistent with the GOP plan to reduce the deficit.

What's to like?

 

[MG1962]

Not at all. If anything, I find Obama's performance in White House particularly impressive considering his lack of prior experience. But I maintain it was entirely reasonable to be skeptical of Obama in 2008 in light of that.

Acting like my mother does nowadays... is not reasonable.

Okay I got it - that makes sense

 

[eeyore1954]

HOnestly I don't get why there is so much hatred towards the President. I understood why Bush was so disliked, he isn't the sharpest tool in the family toolshed. I do think there is some racism against him. One thing that hurts him is that there is one news channel that seems to be dedicated to twisting things against him.(Three guesses on which news channel that is.)

I think the bolded phrase explains a lot about hatred for presidents on the the "other" side (whatever side that might be) . People can easily see why the one they don't like is deserving of derision.

 

[RandFan]

I think the bolded phrase explains a lot about hatred for presidents on the the "other" side (whatever side that might be) . People can easily see why the one they don't like is deserving of derision.

For most of the 8 years that Bush was president I defended him here on this forum. Point of fact, I had a protracted conflict with the JREF poster that went by the user name President Bush. So I get that. But in all honesty I now think Bush was inept and he showed deplorable judgement in a number of his appointments. Choosing Brown to head FEMA was simply incomprehensible except in the light of cronyism. Brown's resume contains little to nothing to warrant his appointment. I don't know if that is evidence of incompetence on the part of Bush or perhaps he didn't give a damn. It could be something else but whatever it was, it wasn't good.

I voted for Bush twice. Given his supreme court appointments and other appointments that will likely remain among my greatest regrets. I know my vote didn't make the election but damn, dumb.

 

[coalesce]

As for origins, I always thought it started with the right's hatred of Hillary Clinton. With Bill Clinton, a reasonable person could point to the lying or the extramarital affair or the weaselyness of parsing words or the sheer stupidity of having sex just outside the Oval Office. There was no reasonable basis for hating Ms. Clinton more than they hated the president.

I always felt that the right virulently disliked Hillary because she stepped out of the traditional role of a First Lady and tried to shape national policy with her health care program. I mean, she's a woman should stand in the back and look good, amiright? Who elected a woman to to tell me what to do? And a lot of that type of thinking also applies to Obama. Many people can say what they want about Obama policies, views, experiences, etc. But the bottom line for many, many people is his color. You can splooge them with evidence but in the long run, who elected a black man to tell me what to do, amiright?

Michael