Sunday, June 14, 2009

Blame Bush not Obama









"The DHS/Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) has no specific information that domestic rightwing* terrorists are currently planning acts of violence, but rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues. The economic downturn and the election of the first African American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization and recruitment." - Opening statement in last April's DHS report entitled. "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment."

I've been getting emails and email attachments and have engaged in flame wars on other web sites with stunningly ignorant right wingers and self-styled "centrists" who insist that the "radical left" is just as culpable for stirring up partisan passions and they even include in their net of righteousness bloggers like me who typically have a daily readership that doesn't much exceed 300. In the wake of every right wing-fueled shooting, we've been hearing a steady stream of either, "He must've been a liberal plant" or, "Here we go. The leftists are going to tie him to us, now!"

Let's not forget James Adkisson's preferred reading list and which right wing website posted an article on Obama's supposed ineligibility to run for president by the alleged Holocaust Memorial shooter.

I'm so sick and tired of entertaining their "You're just as guilty as the other side" arguments that it isn't even worth refuting anymore. There's a world of difference between a mentally unbalanced Muslim convert who's alarmed at the Bush-era crusades in the Middle East and shoots a soldier in retaliation than your typical liberal blogger or columnist who is much more content to get out the vote to remove Republican incumbents.

My aim today is to show that hard line conservatives are so stupid, so bereft of irony and so pretzel-twisted with xenophobia, racism and just plain virulent hatred that they don't realize their reasons for inciting violence and rebellion toward the Obama administration actually started with their own right wing political heroes.

Ironically, page three of the DHS report states,
The current economic and political climate has some similarities to the 1990s when rightwing extremism experienced a resurgence fueled largely by an economic recession, criticism about the outsourcing of jobs, and the perceived threat to U.S. power and sovereignty by other foreign powers.

Anyone who follows the news with a greater than cursory interest knows that massive job outsourcing only began with Clinton's NAFTA but was ramped up under the Bush administration, which largely contributed to our economic recession and frighteningly high unemployment rate. Add ill-advised tax breaks in 2001 and 2003, two unwinnable quagmires costing us over $125 billion a year, the devaluation of the dollar, a laissez faire approach to Big Business that had resulted in the $11+ trillion TARP bailout (not $700 billion as has been universally reported) and you have just some of the reasons for our sorry economic state. The crusade in Iraq and embrace of torture also squarely puts on Bush's Dallas doorstep the very real possibility that our sovereignty and power has been endangered.

The State Department's latest terrorism report for last year shows that while terrorist attacks had declined worldwide since 2007, there was a marked uptick in such violence in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, two allies in whom the Bush administration had shown the least amount of interest in pacifying. It should come as no surprise that as the war is winding down in Iraq, the deployment or redeployment of Iraq veterans to both of those countries will surely place the lives of those US troops in danger.

In other words, the reasons for right wing extremists to revolt in the 90's remain largely unchanged today but many of their reasons can be traced back eight years to the last Republican administration. Throw in their alarm of our civil liberties being taken away and giving rise to a fascist state and they're also better describing the Bush II administration than the Obama administration that is guilty of nothing more serious than in maintaining the toxic status quo established by Bush.

So if right wing extremists are so concerned about US sovereignty being attacked by forces from without that they're willing to attack it from within, they have to look a bit beyond President Obama's first 150 days in office.

Of course, there's no way to blame George W. Bush at all for the virulent racism toward Obama that we'd seen ever since it looked as if the young Illinois senator would be a serious contender. However, much of it can be traced to the endless parade of lunatics such as Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glen Beck all the way down to E.D. Hill and her ridiculous "terrorist fist bump."

Things weren't much better on the campaign trail when McCain/Palin supporters would call Obama a "terrorist" and even to "kill him!" and Palin did absolutely nothing to quell such murderous hatred. McCain, it can be said, didn't exercise leadership and to get a handle on the deteriorating situation soon enough.

We'd heard that Obama wasn't born in this country. He was a Muslim. He's been linked to organizations that have sponsored Islamic terrorism. He's not patriotic. He's a socialist. He's a fascist. He doesn't wear a flag lapel pin. All these lies went virtually unchallenged in the mainstream media and were respectfully given house room on every major news channel during the campaign as if they were legitimate counterpoints.

Therefore, in a nation of over 300,000,000 people, is it beyond the realm of possibility that at least one highly motivated and committed individual wouldn't be listening to this constant stream of alarmism and feel it his patriotic duty to do something about it?

Right wing extremists obviously don't care for the facts any more than they care to listen to refutations of their lunatic conspiracy theories. The mainstream media that's shown a clearcut conservative bias and tolerance toward it doesn't look as if it'll change its tune anytime soon, which leaves Republican politicians to set these people straight.

However, these people may already be so far out there that they may already be beyond the reach of even a miraculously reformed Newt Gingrich or Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh. These people may have already heard enough from Fox and the pages of the Washington Times so they feel they can stop listening to them and to listen instead to the tune of their own particular drummer.

14 Comments:

At June 14, 2009 at 1:37 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

We also saw Obama allow the upper one percent plutocracy steal trillions of dollars from the next three generations of tax payers.

We also saw Obama refuse to prosecute war crimes, thus making himself a war criminal.

We also saw Obama continue the illegal war in Iraq and Afghanistan and OK hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for it.

We also saw Obama continue to support all of the unconstitutional laws enacted and decreed during the Dubya/dick years.

We also saw Obama condemn Howard Dean, the man primarily responsible for putting Obama in the White House and bringing a Super Majority to Congress, to political Siberia.

Why is the change you can believe in now just more of the same?

Why are DINO Neocon-Fascists allowed to continue on usurping the will of WE THE PEOPLE?

Oh, that's right, the main fault lies not with Republicans or Democrats. No, the main fault lies with 'wee the sheeple.'

Kevin Schmidt

 
At June 14, 2009 at 1:47 PM, Blogger jurassicpork said...

Kevin:

Obviously, you need to be walked through the process of reading comprehension. So take my hand and let's revisit this post, with baby steps this time:

I said about the worst one can say about the Obama administration was in perpetuating the status quo that was started in the Bush years. He's shielded the Bush administration from virtually any possible investigation and legal action. He's keeping us in Iraq for another 16 months at least. He's kept NAFTA in place, the USA Patriot Act in place, has kept DADT in place, has kept gays out of positions of influence and has categorically opposed gay marriage.

You'd think right wingers would be happy about this but they're not.

Which is my point exactly. It doesn't matter what Obama does or doesn't do, it doesn't matter how much he protects the Bush administration. They will hate him for doing it while black.

But this fourth installment of Bush's Axis of Evil that the rest of the world calls the USA fell into its darkest days under Bush's watch (including TARP), a screamingly obvious fact that eludes most right wingers and you, apparently.

 
At June 14, 2009 at 1:58 PM, Blogger Jill said...

Word. And thanks for mentioning the MSM, even outside of Fox, for helping fan the flames in an attempt to create news.

I don't understand why everyone is so disappointed in Barack Obama. The reason I didn't support him in the early primaries is because I saw him as what he was -- a cautious, centrist, DLC Democrat like Hillary who would think it more important to try to play nice with Republicans than to do the right thing. What we're seeing is what was always there.

 
At June 14, 2009 at 2:14 PM, Blogger jurassicpork said...

Jill, as with Kennedy before him, Obama has very quickly made some powerful enemies and I fear that history may actually repeat itself.

 
At June 14, 2009 at 4:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The statement "the Obama administration that is guilty of nothing more serious than in maintaining the toxic status quo established by Bush" is an unreasonably minimizing position. Maintaining the toxic status quo is every bit as serious as establishing it in the first place, and that is very serious indeed.

 
At June 14, 2009 at 4:46 PM, Blogger jurassicpork said...

There may be unknown reasons why Obama is maintaining that status quo in some areas. In my mind, however, that's not quite as evil as actually conceiving and creating that status quo.

 
At June 14, 2009 at 5:28 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

At June 14, 2009 1:47 PM, Blogger jurassicpork slimed...

Kevin:

Obviously, you need to be walked through the process of reading comprehension.

[Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah!]

Which is my point exactly. It doesn't matter what Obama does or doesn't do, it doesn't matter how much he protects the Bush administration. They will hate him for doing it while black.

But this fourth installment of Bush's Axis of Evil that the rest of the world calls the USA fell into its darkest days under Bush's watch (including TARP), a screamingly obvious fact that eludes most right wingers and you, apparently.

[End of uncivil comment]

Now it's my turn!

First of all, Obama embraced TARP, so don't try to put 100% of the blame on Bush, especially since it was enacted with a Democratically (Dino Neocon-Fascist) controlled House and Senate.

Second, I AM NOT a "right winger", so watch where you throw your mud because now you got it all over yourself!

Third, whining over who or who does not like Obama and why or why not does not solve any problems. No matter who is the president, there will always be many people who don't like anything about the person.

Fourth, both of your comments are irrelevant, because they don't address the core reason why everyone SHOULD NOT like Obama. But my comment shows why even Democrats, Liberals and Progressives who voted for Obama, LIKE ME, don't like Obama anymore, now that he has proven himself to be JUST MORE OF THE SAME.

Kevin Schmidt

 
At June 14, 2009 at 5:38 PM, Blogger jurassicpork said...

I think what we're hearing from the far right is a little worse than "whining." They want to kill him. You're not hearing any of that from us.

It's you guys who are whining about how you're disappointed in a guy who's spent 150 days in office. Granted, there are some of us who are truly disappointed in what we're seeing from the man but his agenda had nonetheless been progressive at least by conspicuous relief so that I feel compelled enough to give the guy a break and couple of years to prove himself. I've always looked at Obama as a centrist and not as some liberal rainmaker. So while he's disappointed me on several occasions, I can't say I'm surprised.

But don't presume to speak for all Democrats, liberals and progressives. The man still has many fans.

 
At June 14, 2009 at 6:17 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Blame Obama, not Bush for "more of the same" behavior.

Obama continues to have "many fans" because Obama Fan Club apologist guys like you continue to sugar coat the truth and falsely blame Bush and Republicans for the "more of the same" actions of Obama and Blue Dog DINO Neocon-Fascist Democrats.

Only being in office for 150 days is no excuse for giving away ELEVEN TRILLION DOLLARS to the upper 1% plutocracy, or not prosecuting war crimes, or not rescinding unconstitutional laws, or any of the other hand full of major reasons why Obama should be voted out of office during the next Democratic Presidential Primary.

If Obama has some kind of long term Machiavellian strategy that will finally beat the plutocracy, military industrial complex, and multinational corporations, who have hijacked democracy in America, I don't get it. But I do get it when I see Obama and other DINOs and Blue Dog Democrats in Congress continue down the same path tread by the former administration.

Kevin Schmidt

 
At June 14, 2009 at 6:25 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Also, over the past eight years, I remember reading plenty of Liberal and Progressive comments that said they wanted to kill or imprison Dubya/dick, and wanted to march on Washington, D.C., and take over the federal government.

Stop falling for the very successful 'divide and conquer' strategies used by the powers that be.

The enemy is not angry Republicans. The enemy is the federal government beholden to the plutocracy instead of to WE THE PEOPLE.

Kevin Schmidt

 
At June 14, 2009 at 6:26 PM, Blogger jurassicpork said...

Dude, I am not an Obama Fan Club apologist by any stretch of the imagination.

All I'm saying is that we got in the mess we're in because of Bush and the right wing's rationale for hating Obama are over problems that began way before he got in yet these lunatics were nowhere to be found once he got into power.

The bailout bill was already signed, sealed and delivered long before Obama got in. It wasn't as if he could rescind it with the stroke of a pen. At least he's trying to rein in executive pay, something that honestly never occured to Bush.

And calling for the guy's ouster when he's just 150 days into his administration kinda makes you and those of your ilk look childish and hooked on immediate gratification.

 
At June 15, 2009 at 12:41 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dud,

What is childish is your uncivil name calling and ridiculous ad hominem slurs.

Obama has proven himself to be more of the same, and he did it in just 150 days.

He supported the bailout bill, the unconstitutional FISA bill and other unconstitutional laws, he supported the continuation of the illegal war in Iraq, and now has made himself a war criminal by not prosecuting the war crimes of the former administration.

Wake up and smell the plutocracy controlled Obama administration!

Kevin Schmidt

 
At June 15, 2009 at 12:46 AM, Anonymous Anon # 2,789 said...

This comment from Gore Vidal sums up my feelings on the subject..



"There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party...and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt—until recently... and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties."

 
At June 15, 2009 at 6:37 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Having divested myself of all firearms when I saw my 3 year old running around the house, I am now of the mind to rearm for hunting and protection. It is not a thief or armed robbers I fear, nor is it an imposing US government foreign enemies or terrorists, but homegrown rightwingers who feel they are doing God's will.

 

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