Today the Huffington Post ran a piece on the House Republicans and their newest phony, grasped-straw knock against immigration reform: Obama can't be trusted to faithfully execute the border security parts of the legislation. The weakness, cynicism, and hypocrisy of this argument are apparent enough.
But I'd like to highlight a quote in the piece from one of the most thoroughly loathsome Republicans in Congress: Steve King.
From the piece:
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said Congress shouldn't even give Obama more resources now to secure the border, but instead demand he use what he already has. In the process, King metaphorically ordered the president to "mow the lawn."
"It's like having a teenager that wants the keys to the car after he's already wrecked the other one," King said. "Maybe handing him a new credit card and saying, 'Yeah, I know you promised you'll mow the lawn and carry out the garbage, here are the keys to the car.' You have to do it the other way. Say, 'Mow the lawn, do your chores, and then come back and talk to me and we'll discuss whether you get the keys to the car.'"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
We've all witnessed the erosion of basic respect owed to the presidency-- even to the president as an ordinary human being-- since Barack Obama took office. Joe Wilson is an obvious case.
Yet this Steve King metaphor might have crossed a new, lower barrier. Let's summarize:
President Obama is a boy.
President Obama does chores and manual labor around my house.
President Obama won't do as he's told.
Because he's reckless, immature, unintelligent, or all three.
President Obama needs to be given orders from Steve King in simple "if, then" form so he can understand them.
If President Obama behaves, then he can request privileges from Steve King.
This isn't a dog whistle. It's a locomotive whistle. And the sad part is that Republicans have degraded standards so much that it goes unchallenged, unchecked, and mostly unnoticed.