I don't even have time to write this, but I have to. I have to get this off my chest, and I suspect it's something that weighs heavily in some of your hearts here too.
This is something that, every so often—when I see a certain kind of headline; when I hear a certain meme repeated—makes me slightly tearful. Not in the sense that I feel utter despair or despondency, but in that "sad scene in a movie" sort of way; the realization that reality is an ugly, convoluted mess of human nature.
I'm going to go ahead and say it. Our first black President is being ripped to shreds. He's systematically being minced by the right, and by the left, and I don't even know who started it, if it even matters. And I know none of us can prove how much of a role his race plays in the severe antipathy projected onto him. But our first Black president is most certainly being dismantled before our eyes. It makes mine water.
(Note: In light of the 900+ comments below, and the many ideas presented, I wrote a follow-up diary today addressing this diary's critiques, in case you care to read it)
Barely after Obama was inaugurated, Rush Limbaugh openly declared he hoped Obama would fail. He and his contemporaries spent years peddling the idea that Obama wasn't actually born in the United States, an idea as disruptive as it was distracting to our nation. To quell the issue, the President of the United States eventually had to ask Hawaii for special permission to produce an official birth certificate that many no doubt continue to believe remains dubious.
Senators and Congresspeople like Michelle Bachmann openly pride themselves as running against everything Obama—that's their platform; that's what gets them up every morning (they want to destroy our government, actually, but they're using their hatred of Obama to get there). She calls him Anti-American; she calls himfoolish, but also has the gall to say Obama has failed African-Americans. Screw her; I doubt she's ever done even a fraction of what he has done for black Americans or Americans of color generally, and I'd defend that idea to my death.
Republicans didn't say, "Let's work with this guy. He won the election, and even though we disagree on a whole bunch of stuff, let's make the next four years count for the American people."
They said, "Let's not work with this guy. He won the election, but even though we might agree on some stuff, let's spend the next four years dismantling him so that he doesn't spend another four years with the American people."
And then some of us helped them.
That's what kills me inside, knowing that we, be we democrats or independents, but all progressives to the bone, spent all this time propagating the very memes that would damage him the most. While Sarah Palin went on to use her star power to be the shiny object that could (distract), and while Rush and Beck and the rest of Fox injected their talking-points-ready bile for two years straight, and while Republicans EVERYWHERE set out to obstruct, reject, and vilify our President, many of us here descended into petty fights and arguments about small drops in the long-term liberal bucket of change. And even with all that, he did do something. In three years, Obama actually did his job. Yes, I know a lot of you think you could have done better. Whatever.
So here's the net impact of these past three years:
From the UK's 'The Telegraph': Democrats doubt Barack Obama's reelection chances
President Barack Obama is facing mounting doubts within his own party about his re-election prospects, with fellow Democrats beginning to ask if Hillary Clinton would have made a better president.
Read that article for yourself, but let me dissect the memes for you, many of which have been aggressively pushed by the liberal blogosphere as well. All the bold is mine:
Mr Obama's capitulation to Republicans
That's the opening sentence. "Obama is a capitulator."
latest in a series of blows to the liberal agenda
"Obama doesn't care about liberals"
Democratic strategists and commentators are privately agreeing with Republicans
Good to know who's team you guys are on...
...and comparing Mr Obama to Jimmy Carter, another Democrat who remains the post-war benchmark for a failed president
"Obama is a failure. He's like or worse than Jimmy Carter" Really? How about George Bush being the worst president?
"He is a do-gooder at heart," said Morris Reid, a Washington consultant and former Clinton official. "He thinks everyone has the same agenda to do the right thing, but other people don't have the same agenda.
"Obama means well but he's naive". This doubles as patronization.
Bill Clinton woke up every day relishing this kind of fight, and Hillary is just a tougher person.
"Obama is not a fighter."
some Democrats were feeling "buyer's remorse" for selecting the president in his epic battle with Mrs Clinton
"Obama was a mistake."
will he be a one-term president'," he said.
"Obama is a one-term president."
"Democrats are worried. He looks weak
"Obama is weak."
A 2012 primary challenge by Mrs Clinton is currently regarded as unlikely, but growing number of party activists and old hands are hoping that she changes her mind.
"Obama doesn't deserve to be re-elected."
On his nightly television show, liberal host Bill Maher dismissed Mr Obama as a Republican, and asked his panel if Mrs Clinton would have made a better president.
"Obama is a Republican"
...asked his panel if Mrs Clinton would have made a better president.
"Yes," replied astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, an African American astrophysicist and broadcaster
"Even black people think Obama is a bad president."
For those that don't know what white privilege is, there's another example—notice how they specified the astrophysicist's race. Have you ever heard the words, "...So-and-So, a white such-and-such" specified in that context? No? That's white privilege.
summarised the dismay at Mr Obama's performance and was rapidly circulated online by liberals.
"Liberals are dismayed by Obama and agree with criticisms of him". And, need I say, case in point.
...chose to ignore some disquieting aspects of his biography: that he had accomplished very little before he ran for president," he wrote.
"Obama was inexperienced, and now we see what that got us."
So there you have it, folks. In a single piece, in an international newspaper, 13 true-blue, bonafide Republican memes, many of which have been propagated by those of us on the left here on dKos.
Now THAT'S how you dismantle a president!
And, since his race is made relevant in subtle ways by newspapers and by people like Bachmann, then I suppose I should say that his blackness accounts for some of it. Because if it took a super-smart, charismatic, empathetic, Harvard-educated, rags-to-riches, Christian, legally-trained family man 3/4 of a billion dollars to get elected (mind you, after 8 years of one of the worst presidencies ever), and if it might take ONE BILLION DOLLARS to get him re-elected...anyhow. That is neither here nor there.
I feel better now. Thank you, dKos for being the platform that you are.
Donate to Obama
And I'm sorry if this makes anyone feel uncomfortable. I hope fruitful conversation ensues. If even one person is changed positive by the ensuing dialogue, then this last hour was worth it.
UPDATE
I have to get ready for work, but there are several meaningful subthreads in the comments worth reading/pondering/discussing, and I hope you will.
I do want to point out that some people have misinterpreted the following sentences, and I thought it'd be best to clarify:
For those that don't know what white privilege is, there's another example—notice how they specified the astrophysicist's race. Have you ever heard the words, "...So-and-So, a white such-and-such" specified in that context? No? That's white privilege.
My diary isn't about white privilege and my arguments don't rest on it. That quote is a specific instance of white privilege, pointed out tangentially as a way to show a subtle institutionalized trend I've observed my entire life: "white" is seldom used as a modifier in journalism (e.g., "white criminal", "white professor"), whereas race gets plenty of use when the persons of interest are persons of color.
Sorry to share my mental burdens with the rest of you...
UPDATE X2
Hi guys, I've written a follow-up/response diary to this one, taking into account several of the major threads that came up in the comments below. The number of you that may get to read it is probably far lower than the number that read this one, and I unfortunately can't respond to the 900 comments below, but I hope you'll get to read it as I did indeed read 99% of your comments :)
In Response To My Allegedly Race Card-ish, Left-Bashing Obama Diary
