This week we saw Barack Obama fly to Hawaii to be with his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, near her life's end. In the middle of a presidential campaign, he showed us that family is his first priority, that love trumps ambition, that we are true to ourselves when we are true to those we love. That poignant journey got me thinking about family values, and how Barack and Michelle Obama are loving, respectful, and supportive with each other and their children. We have not seen much of his relationship with his grandmother, but that journey says a great deal.
Then I saw GOP mouthpiece Brad Blakeman opine that Obama using his campaign plane to make the journey was an outrage, without displaying a scintilla of compassion or empathy. And I wondered what it is about the right wing in this country that such harshness is acceptable.
Which brings me to Steve King, the Republican congressman from Iowa's Fifth District, and what he said about Obama's background.
Last week, I wrote a diary about King's outrages. They are too numerous to keep track of, but in this video, King shows us what GOP family values look like.
A voter asked him about information the voter had received in emails that Obama lived in Kenya. Those of us with wingnut relatives know what he was talking about. After reviewing what he calls the milestones of Obama's life, King says this:
(beginning at 2:30) I look at this, and I ask myself, if I had a baby, and my charge was to raise that baby to be the President of the United States, I could see handing over that baby to, uh, let me say, um, George Herbert Walker Bush and Barbara, because there's, there's a multiple generations of American service there that they must know how to do something if you look at how their kids have succeeded.
Um, you can look back through the bios of our presidents, and find out where was the core of the character that made them who they are. What were the life experiences, what were the things along the way that nurtured them? I can't find anything along that way that I would wanna, that I would wanna pick out of the walk that Obama's been through and say this is what formed and shaped his character or his patriotism. Or this is the way that we should raise future generations of children if we want them to be leaders of the free world.
So I am uneasy about the whole background, very uneasy about it. And you know I want to be somewhat cautious about how far I go with that in this setting, but I am uneasy.
George and Bar raised a kid who has stumbled through life, failing to show up for National Guard duty, unable to run a business without needing a bailout, and unable to run a country, or a war, either. His screwups are of a magnitude that now we all need a bailout. But I'm sure that like most parents the Bushes did their best with George and their other offspring.
What is most offensive about what King said is that he assigns no value to the loving, decent intelligent people who raised Barack Obama. In his ignorance, he thinks that travel is threatening, not broadening, and the fact that Obama lived in Indonesia makes him suspect instead of sophisticated. Where is the respect for a single mother without means, and the grandparents who were far from wealthy, who still managed to educate Obama in excellent schools? Through their teaching and their own example, they instilled virtues in this future "leader of the free world," such as respect for others, a strong work ethic, compassion, and integrity. All these are evident in his grace under pressure, and his singular achievements. Madelyn Dunham's love for Barack Obama shines from the old photos that are on line. Yet they are unworthy of King's respect.
In the video, Steve King says Obama's background makes him uneasy. I am uneasy too. I am uneasy at King's eagerness to denigrate real family values as lived by real Americans in the real America, which is not so exclusively rural, white, conservative and Christian as Sarah Palin would have us believe. I am uneasy that a United States Congressman would not squelch the rumors percolating out of wingnut emails, instead of feeding them in a public meeting, knowing he was being filmed. He knows there is something wrong with this, or he would not say that he needed to be cautious "in this setting."
King has an opponent, Rob Hubler--a minister, a veteran, a progressive, and a decent person who would never say something like this.
ActBlue link.
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[UPDATE} Via Cocinero in the comments, I just read King remarks that make this video look tame, and that raise my blood pressure to an unhealthy level. For the full read, go to the Audubon County Advocate. Some excerpts:
Another question raised by a member in the audience asked, "How can a president understand Christian values if he hasn't been raised in a Christian family?"
King said, "We put a lot of energy and resources into our children to raise them in the American way and in our Christian faith and teach them values based on these. Obama's upbringing involves his father returning to his first wife after Barrack's birth and becoming a polygamist. His step-father was also a polygamist. He eventually wound up living with his grandparents in Hawaii who were strong leftists. He also writes about his fondness for his Uncle Frank who is a Marxist intellectual. His mother went to The Little Red Church on the Hill in Seattle, a self-proclaimed atheist church where it was said, 'They raise red-diaper babies,' babies that were raised to be left wing hard core atheists."
A quote from one of Obama's books, From Dreams of My Father, was used by King. It said, "The most beautiful sound I've ever heard is the voice in Arabic calling the people to prayer."
King said, "Obama can also quote a lot from the Koran, which tells you a lot about the instruction he received as a youth." King concluded his response to the question by saying, "The information I've just shared with you is to allow you to know what is considered foundational in his life."
King went on to share more about Obama's church affiliation. He said, "Obama wasn't attending a church at the time he completed law school and began working with a community organizing group in Chicago. A lady alderman in Chicago convinced Obama to begin attending church if he wanted to have any credibility with those in the community organizing group. This was decision was intended to strengthen his political career path. So Obama's religious awakening, his epiphany was inspired by this lady alderman from Chicago."
In concluding his speech and question/answer period, King said, "Obama was not raised with an intentional attitude toward Americanism. Does he have an understanding of American patriotism, respect for our nation and what it's been through, our culture or the Christian religion upon which our nation was founded? The way to look at the reasons Obama doesn't place his hand over his heart when the National Anthem is playing, or wear an American flag pin is primarily because he is not wilful or spiteful, but because it just doesn't occur to him because it's not the way he's been raised. American patriotism is not imprinted on his mind or in his heart, because he wasn't raised as an American. Is this the kind of foundation you want for your next president? The president of the strongest country in the free world. We need to elect a president that is going to protect us under our Bill of Rights."
Seriously, folks. This guy is bad news. Michelle Bachmann without the beauty and class.