In the early months of this year, many Americans wondered what President Obama’s elected term in office meant, and would mean to ourselves and our future generations. For all that I’ve written on this blog, I have to ultimately confess I still don’t really know. After all, even the Roman Empire had a few “Black” emperors (actually about 10) like Septimus Severus, yet the African presence and that of people of Color have been effectively erased from Roman history by the post Columbian culture of our modern world and its institutional historians. After all that my collaborator and I have written about the last election and its significance, the truth of our country and our culture remain difficult to assess or know in light of the current petulant turmoil masquerading as a manifestation of the vox populi.
How does a country that elected a descendant of its former slave class Commander in Chief and President reconcile the juvenile shouting and bluster across town halls, and in so-called “protests” across the Midwest and South?
Currently, (among a slew of recent indignities weathered with unprecedented grace,) our President now has to explain, excuse and submit for review a direct address to the nation’s schoolchildren. Never before has any President had to file an advance copy of an address with the schoolteachers, principals and parents of the United States for vetting and approval. Since when do the children of America have to be protected from the President? We know the answer don’t we?
It’s not everyone in America who wants to use supposed ideological differences as an excuse to invalidate a President because he happens to be Black.
It’s not everyone in our nation who wants to use prevailing racial prejudice to strike a symbolic blow across partisan lines.…But once again, the “loudest voices in the room” are focusing, and at times even determining the subject of national debate.
It’s time we all remembered that bigots will always be the “loudest voices in the room.” Scared people can always shout longer than those who aren’t afraid, or those who want questions answered. It’s time we fully acknowledged what the “loudest voices in the room” are actually afraid of. Our news media isn’t up to telling us the truth anymore. They’re too scared of being called “biased” or “Liberals” by Fox “News” channel’s McCarthyite media apparatus.
Pundits and fake journalists like Sean Hannity who promote this kind of mob stupidity are just as responsible as the real journalists who report these latest attempts to invalidate the President as if they were legitimate invocations of parental rights or genuine dissent.
To the Right, the Republican Party and its sympathizers, I say again to you:
Your candidate lost.
Grow up.
When George W. Bush took the election in 2000 under inarguably questionable circumstances, not one Democrat in office talked about revolution, secession, or “wanting their country back.” -And maybe the Democrats should have, because the Republican candidate’s brother just happened to be Governor of the state that decided the election,
-but nobody did. Nobody.
So grow up, all of you.
There is no reason, (other than a childish refusal to accept a Black man as President,) for the nonsense going on in America’s schools over the President’s address. Fox “News” channel and its mascot of the moment Glenn Beck won’t call it racism and bigotry cloaked under partisanship because they’d have to concede that they have no point, no reason or basis for their ongoing opposition to every single thing the President does.
They’d have to concede that it is the President himself, down to his last African-American molecule that is so disgusting and unacceptable to them.
Rupert Murdoch’s band of cowards from Sean Hannity, on down to Glenn Beck won’t ever call what they are doing by its actual name, but everyone else should, because that’s all it is.
-SJ
How does a country that elected a descendant of its former slave class Commander in Chief and President reconcile the juvenile shouting and bluster across town halls, and in so-called “protests” across the Midwest and South?
Currently, (among a slew of recent indignities weathered with unprecedented grace,) our President now has to explain, excuse and submit for review a direct address to the nation’s schoolchildren. Never before has any President had to file an advance copy of an address with the schoolteachers, principals and parents of the United States for vetting and approval. Since when do the children of America have to be protected from the President? We know the answer don’t we?
It’s not everyone in America who wants to use supposed ideological differences as an excuse to invalidate a President because he happens to be Black.
It’s not everyone in our nation who wants to use prevailing racial prejudice to strike a symbolic blow across partisan lines.…But once again, the “loudest voices in the room” are focusing, and at times even determining the subject of national debate.
It’s time we all remembered that bigots will always be the “loudest voices in the room.” Scared people can always shout longer than those who aren’t afraid, or those who want questions answered. It’s time we fully acknowledged what the “loudest voices in the room” are actually afraid of. Our news media isn’t up to telling us the truth anymore. They’re too scared of being called “biased” or “Liberals” by Fox “News” channel’s McCarthyite media apparatus.
Pundits and fake journalists like Sean Hannity who promote this kind of mob stupidity are just as responsible as the real journalists who report these latest attempts to invalidate the President as if they were legitimate invocations of parental rights or genuine dissent.
To the Right, the Republican Party and its sympathizers, I say again to you:
Your candidate lost.
Grow up.
When George W. Bush took the election in 2000 under inarguably questionable circumstances, not one Democrat in office talked about revolution, secession, or “wanting their country back.” -And maybe the Democrats should have, because the Republican candidate’s brother just happened to be Governor of the state that decided the election,
-but nobody did. Nobody.
So grow up, all of you.
There is no reason, (other than a childish refusal to accept a Black man as President,) for the nonsense going on in America’s schools over the President’s address. Fox “News” channel and its mascot of the moment Glenn Beck won’t call it racism and bigotry cloaked under partisanship because they’d have to concede that they have no point, no reason or basis for their ongoing opposition to every single thing the President does.
They’d have to concede that it is the President himself, down to his last African-American molecule that is so disgusting and unacceptable to them.
Rupert Murdoch’s band of cowards from Sean Hannity, on down to Glenn Beck won’t ever call what they are doing by its actual name, but everyone else should, because that’s all it is.
-SJ
2 comments:
You nailed it squarely with this post, SJ. They'll never admit it, but Fox "News" and the far right absolutely HATE the idea that a black man, and, even worse yet, one who arose from very humble beginnings, is now President. I join in your call for them to "GROW UP!"
We have entered an age where a very loud and signifigant minority of the electorate has become increasingly paranoid, distrustful, ignorant, self-centered, uncooperative, immature, militaristic, authoritarian, and anti-intellectual. This is a very undesirable and dangerous phenomenon. America cannot survive if these forces become a majority or gain governmental control ever again. These intolerant American Taliban types have to simply be dragged kicking and screaming into the common sense realities of racial and income equality, as well as that of universal, not-for-profit health care. These knuckle-dragging conservatives survived, benefitted, and prospered from other previous progressive enactments like Social Security, unemployment compensation, the legalization of labor unions, the election of a Catholic President, the 40 hour work week, welfare, OSHA, and Civil Rights legislation, and they will survive, benefit, and prosper from President Obama's current agenda as well.
@Jack,
you are dead right on all counts and you bring up another important cyclical phenomenon in our nation: the distrust of intellectuals.
The GOP is digging their heels in, and utilizing that decades old paranoia concerning suspicions against anybody who puts thought before action. It's a small part of the backlash against the President, but an important element in the pouting and shouting going on from the Right.
-SJ
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