My Beef with Obama

Is really simple. After five long years it’s nagged at me, vague, undefined, and nebulous, but now I think I’ve nailed it.

Throw out all the ideology (and “ideology” really isn’t a negative word; everyone, without fail, has an “ideology”). Forget my conservative opposition to the liberal philosophy. Forget, even, that Obama, like all liberals, campaigns to the center-right and governs (if “govern” the verb can be used to describe the Obama presidency) to the left and far left. Forget all that.

What really gets me is how he demonizes his opponents. His domestic opponents.

Our foreign foes he treats with respect: Putin in Russia, Assad, the burgeoning Islamic theocracies in Egypt and Libya, the mullahs in Iran. The petty South and Central American dictators (Raul Castro, Hugo Chavez). He evens maintains a respectful tone – tough, granted, but still respectful, never petty or belittling – towards the evil leadership of al Qaeda.

But not so if you are a conservative American, especially if you are a politician with an “R” after your name.

If you oppose anything he is for, it’s simply because you are either:

- evil
- heartless and uncompassionate
- racist
- two out of these three
- all of the above

And that’s it. That’s it in a nutshell.

Now, I understand how politics is played. I know that – unfortunately – it’s mostly show, political theater, public perception, bells and whistles. But it’s also about ideas, and I believe that conservative ideals, studied logically and thoroughly, work better than liberal ones. And I think liberals realize this. Hence the need for liberals to label their opponents as evil, heartless and uncompassionate, racist, all of the above.

It’s not just Obama. But he’s the highest profile offender. And, like it or not, believe it or not, he has a massive segment of the media that carries his water in the way they would not if, say, his last name started with a “B” and ended with an “USH.” This chunk of media – okay, I’ll say it: ABC NBC CBS PBS NPR CNN MSNBC Hollywood Washington Post New York Times Los Angeles Times, to name the tip of the iceberg – this massive chunk of media enables Obama to do this to his domestic opponents in a way the global media does not allow him to do it on the world stage. Perhaps that’s why his red lines ring hollow to foes such as Putin and Assad.

And I will grant that Obama is a master of this demonization. Some call it the “Chicago Way.” I dunno about that. But he is a master politician, I will willingly admit to that. Leader, well, I could write a thousand words on how he’s not that. But he’s perhaps the greatest politician we’ve seen in a generation.

I want one more leader in my lifetime, but I fear a succession of petty politicians, one after the other, election after election, managing America’s decline.