Folks, we gotta give ourselves a pat on the back.
Because we thought, we hoped, that we had finally gotten a candidate for president who stood for progressive ideas, who meant what he said, who would fight for the less fortunate, who would stand up to the powerful . . .
And because we had the audacity to hope, we elected a president who has turned out to be all of those things.
For decades, our country has been intimidated by the bullies of corporate America, the bullies of the conservative right, the bullies of the oil companies and the filthy rich.
President Obama is showing us how to fight back.
He is following a two-step strategy that can be used against any bully.
Step 1: Be assertive and communicate messages with the body - through eye contact and tone of voice.
Listen to this example from his weekly address:
THE BEST PART:
In other words, I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak. My message to them is this:
So am I.
The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long, but I don’t. I work for the American people. I didn’t come here to do the same thing we’ve been doing or to take small steps forward, I came to provide the sweeping change that this country demanded when it went to the polls in November.
Step 2: When a bully sees that you won't react, teasing will be less fun for the bully and he will stop.
So the Rush Limbaughs and the Sean Hannitys haven't gotten bored with it yet; but give it another year or two, and the American people will be bored with it, and the wingnuts will be out of work.
Wingnuttery is SOO old and outta style.
I don't think any of the words they're going to throw at Obama -- socialist, deficit, unAmerican -- are going to work this time.
Wingnuts, it's going to be rough for you, going through wingnutter's detox.