When governments win elections, it is usually because the majority have spoken. Call it the popular vote, call it winning more seats than the other party, the fact still remains; the majority are needed for change of government to occur. That is what happened to Barack Obama.
President Barack Obama won the majority of the vote. But what seems to be happening is a gathering of strength in the conservative minority in the United States. Not only is it strong, vocal and obstructionist, but what scares me is it has the potential to become a lynch mob, stirred up by irresponsible right wing commentators hell bent on a riot. This is not only iresponsible, but dangerous and bordering on inciting a class war based on morals.
Terms like ‘Road to Socialism’ are meant to conjure up images of the Cold War era and Hugo Chavez dressed in red. The fact that Barack Obama is not a socialist is neither here nor there to the right wing. They just have to make their listeners think that Obama has a socialist agenda. That, in turn will incite them to rise up in revolt against what they see as a new ‘evil empire’.
Former Vice-President Dick Cheney was, and probably still is, an incredibly dangerous man. I have made this statement many times before. What he did and what he authorised during his time as Vice-President was nothing short of criminal, torture being just one of the many breaches of human decency he allowed to happen. But the right wing were not there when Cheney was taking away the civil liberties of his fellow human beings.
Hatred comes out of jealousy. The right wing have had their man lampooned for the last eight years from all circles. As a matter of fact, they never talk about him, or very rarely. Why? Well, wouldn’t you be embarrassed? In a recent discussion between right wing commentator Sean Hannity and columnist (interesting how they don’t call him a journalist) Mark Steyn, the childish schoolyard jealousy of the popular kid they see as Barack Obama shone through:
…and it’s amazing, when these gods walk among us, they do such a great job as passing as human. Who would have thought it?
This exchange between Hannity and Steyn would be seen by some as simply innocent fun banter, taking a gentle dig at the President. After all, the liberal media panned Bush for eight years and we all had a good laugh. But liberals are a different audience to the audience the right wing media appeal to. The right wing audience are much more narrow in their thinking, are heavily evangelical Christian and are much more gullible when it comes to sensational news stories with lots of hype and very little substance. You and I could watch the interchange between Steyn and Hannity and laugh, call them idiots, and walk off. Those that watch Sean Hannity religiously (pardon the pun) will interpret his comments to mean that 1) Obama is trying to be God, and there is only one God 2) He is not really human and 3) He is a person not to be trusted.
You may think I am overreacting, and I may well be. However, the conservative base of the Republican party is wanting the party to move further to the right, as being a ‘centrist’ party has failed. So the call is made for all those who wish to save their nation to rise up and make their voices heard. They want momentum to build to a point that Obama’s government and it’s agenda for the future will fail. It could be suggested that they are gradually building up to the point of toppling the government. In old fashioned terms, the right wing media could be seen as inciting treason. Too strong? Well, let’s take a look at the definition of treason:
Oran’s Dictionary of the Law (1983) defines treason as: “…[a]…citizen’s actions to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the [parent nation].” In many nations, it is also often considered treason to attempt or conspire to overthrow the government, even if no foreign country is aided or involved by such an endeavour.
The right wing media want us to watch what this President is really trying to do to the United States. Let us then, as liberals, do the same. This is not innocent banter. These are not light hearted digs. This is not intelligent difference of opinion. These are dangerous, baseless assertions designed to anger their base to the point where they will see President Barack Obama as someone that should be removed. What scares me even more is what method they will use to remove him.
If anything bad happens to President Obama, and the right wing media is blamed for encouraging anti-government unrest, the right wing media would not feel bad and would take no blame for what happened. This is where they are a shallow, empty group who are demonstrating negligent behaviour. Many of the most emotionally needy, God fearing christian people believe what the right wing media say, some hang off every word and see certain members such as US ’shock jock’ Rush Limbaugh as heroes. The old saying goes, ‘a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing’, and most of the time, the right wing media give their listeners a ‘little bit of knowledge’. When one does not get the full picture, they rely on what they have been given. This is very dangerous indeed if not substantiated or put into context.
But Barack Obama is a product of the Chicago political meat mincer. If you can come through that system and surivive, you can survive anywhere. All the stuff he has had thrown at him so far is small fry.
Enjoy your day
