Over the weekend, I found myself fending off attacks on our current president, Barack Obama. I have a cousin who – though she is a good person – has friends who are right-wing fear-filled hate-mongers and they feed her a lot of conspiracy theories about Obama concerning the end of the world as we know it. She also sucks it up like a vacuum cleaner.
It would seem that President Obama is Satan incarnate, here to turn America into a Muslim nation ruled by Sharia law. One story is that Obama bought 30,000 guillotines and another has busloads of young Muslim men coming into the country by way of the Mexican border. Then there is another video talking about the “End of Days” which basically make Obama to be the evil one out to get us all, or in other words, the boogie man.
Right-wingers feed themselves a steady diet of these kinds of stories because they can’t stand the fact we have a black president with a Middle-Eastern name. They want to believe the worst of him, and it does not matter that he has done nothing to be the focus of their hate and fear, but they enjoy it immensely.
I tried my best to point out the ridiculousness of such conspiracy theories but that only refocused their white-hot anger on me. That’s okay, I can take the heat, and Obama has amazingly taken quite a bit of heat since taking office, with calm unshakable reserve. Surely it affects him but he has shown true strength in the face of overwhelming bigotry toward him. His family I’m sure has suffered immensely over the constant barrage of undeserving attacks on his character.
One thing is for sure, once he leaves office in 2017, those same people who have predicted dire consequences for not only America, but the world, by the alleged evil machinations of Barack Obama, will find another focus of their fearmongering hate-filled conspiracy theories. If Hillary manages to get elected, she has not seen even the beginning of attacks upon her character until all the focus that has been on Obama falls on her instead.
Let’s face it folks, there is a lot of fear and hate to go around. Several states, including my state Oklahoma, have passed laws to ban Sharia law, as though there’s a chance that Sharia law might become enforceable. These same states have no problem with enforcing Leviticus law and even putting up monuments on government property that immortalizes the Ten Commandments, which is the basis of Leviticus law, but yet they shake in fear that somehow Sharia law will seep into their states’ law books. For those who are not familiar with Leviticus law, it is just as strict and overbearing as Sharia law if not stricter.
It is also not just individuals these people target for their conspiracy theories and hate-filled fearmongering, but minorities too, though it be Muslims, Hispanics, Jews, LGBTs, Blacks, Asians, or just anyone who is different in any way. Our halls of Congress have been infected with representatives of these fear-mongers too, the same people who demand that our government be shut down if they do not get their way on every political issue Congress is tasked with legislating on, from immigration reform to climate change legislation.
This all brings to mind that November 2016 is a very important election and it is urgent that Democrats get out in record numbers to thwart the efforts of these people from controlling our government and to elect yet another Democrat for the White House no matter who that nominee is; Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden or whoever wins. We need to be united, unlike Republicans who have no clear choices but to be thorns in the flesh of every average American.
Surely, there will be at least one, if not two U.S Supreme Court justices stepping down and the next president will be filling their seats with either another right-wing ideologue who will take our court even further to the right, or a progressive thinker ready to move the country forward with equality and justice for all.
As far as I am concerned, Barack Obama has been an outstanding president, especially compared to the last president, George W. Bush, and especially because of the shape the country was handed to him by that same former president. I do not believe we could have done any better with anyone else guarding our nation from the Oval Office. We have all stood by and watched as he has been vilified at every turn and yet he remained steadfast and calm, presenting himself as a beacon of hope for us all. Though you have agreed with his policies or not, the man’s character has been flawless, no matter the barrage of attacks upon him. I also believe that history will shine brightly upon him with a lasting legacy as one of the greatest president this country has ever had.
Until 2017 when he finally hands over the reins of the nation to another president, the gun-toting fear-mongers will continue to concoct their conspiracy theories. And when he has left, those same people will begin their focus on yet another individual who they wish to represent all the evil they could easily find if they would just take a much closer look in the mirror.
As far as my cousin, she unfriended me and then sent me an email telling me how embarrassed and angry she was that I said unkind things to her friends about their little conspiracy theories, and the only reason she shared their stories with me was to get my opinion. Well she got my opinion but not like she wanted it I suppose. I told her that was a smart thing to do, as far as unfriending me that is, because if I had to read the conspiracy theories her right-wing friends shared, I was not going to hold back by calling them out on it, and very bluntly.
I also added that if she thought my comments were harsh, I could direct her to websites like this one where by the time she and her friends are through listening to the comments some of you folks will share concerning those ridiculous conspiracy theory horror stories, they’ll think my comments were comparatively gentle exhortation to say the least.