Posted on 09/10/2014 4:50:59 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
On Aug. 27, I appeared on the Fox News program "The O'Reilly Factor" to discuss President Obama's legacy. Another guest, conservative author Jane Hammond Cook, began by claiming that Obama would be ranked among the bottom 15 or 20 of presidents.
In response, I made the following points: You cannot judge a president's legacy during his term because evaluations change drastically over time. Harry Truman's approval ratings sank to 22 percent during his last year in office about half of Obama's current ratings. Truman was reviled in his time, but scholars toady generally regard him as a near-great president.
I did not attempt prematurely to rank Obama overall, but noted that whether you agree with his policies or not, he already is the most consequential Democratic president since Lyndon Johnson. In the limited time available, I cited two examples. First, Obama's efforts to preserve the auto industry and the financial system and his nearly $1 trillion stimulus program likely kept the terrible economy he inherited from an even more disastrous meltdown. I cited studies in support of this view.
Second, with the Affordable Health Care Act, Obama achieved a goal that had eluded numerous presidents of both parties for more than 60 years. Over time, I said it was likely that the act would achieve the goals of insuring many additional millions of Americans and slowing down rising healthcare costs despite every effort by Obama's political opposition to destroy the act. The Affordable Care Act, I noted, was the only major social legislation in the history of the country enacted without a single vote from the opposition party.
These are hardly extreme or radical views. They are of course eminently debatable points and debate them we did, quite civilly on the "Factor." Then came the deluge of emails, phone calls and tweets. The vast majority of these missives were hateful, poisonous, and personal. You would think I had just called for the violent overthrow of our civilization.
Here are just a few examples of the personal attacks my OReilly appearance elicited; comments that denied my right even to have an opinion. One university official recommended that I contact our public safety unit, but as you can see the comments are more pathetic and laughable than threatening. Prepare to enter the theater of the absurd:
Allan Lichtman: perfect example of communist on tv, come on, no more commies, they should get no press.
Your trucking poodleism of Obama is nauseating.
You are just another Obama sucker. Your degrees mean nothing, you can get them at MC Donald with a kiddy bag. So sad that tax dollars are wasted on you.
PhD? in what? idiots r us.
Regurgitating garbage. Dont you make yourself sick.
Does he live in the U.S.? Lives in loonville.
A mindless idiot.
A total a--clown.
An educated moron.
A glittering jewel of colossal ignorance.
As pathetic as these personal attacks may be, they still go a long way to explaining why our politics today is polarized and dysfunctional. In fact, no civilization can thrive without civil discourse that recognizes the legitimacy of our diverse points of view.
I can only hope that my revelation of these venomous, if ridiculous, personal attacks will lead to more respectful, constructive dialogue among those with differing ideas. Spirited debate is essential to a healthy democracy, but as Gerald Ford said, "We can disagree without being disagreeable."
To this end, we would do well to consider guidelines for civil discourse proposed by Charles Camosy, an assistant professor of Christian ethics at Fordham University, which I paraphrase as follows.
Humility: We all are flawed and make mistakes and should be open to someone challenging our point of view. Listening and respecting: We should give others the courtesy of actually responding to their ideas and arguments rather than destroying them personally. We may have something to learn from a contrary viewpoint. Avoiding binary thinking: The issues of our time are too important and complex to put into simplistic "us versus them" antagonisms. Avoiding dismissive words and phrases: It might feel good to score these rhetorical points, but that is how dialogue becomes polarized and destructive. Hatefulness only divides us and never brings us together. Leading with what you are for: We can forcefully say what we believe without belittling others. We might even find some ground on which we can agree.
The comments on this column will give some indication of whether we continue the post-OReilly diatribes or follow Camosy's path to civil discourse. Let's hear from you.
Lichtman is distinguished professor of history at American University in Washington.
Issa: Justice Dept. staffer made a bad call "Attorney General Eric Holders communications director is being accused of calling the House Oversight and Government Reform Committees Republican staff and asking for help spinning a story. The twist? The GOP staff alleges that Holders spokesman thought he was talking to the Democrats.
Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) sent a letter to Holder on Monday about the incident, saying he was extremely troubled that the Justice Department may have been trying to coordinate with the minority staff on the release of documents to the committee regarding the Internal Revenue Service targeting certain political groups.
Issas letter claims that Brian Fallon asked for a specific committee aide and then told that person that he wanted to get materials to interested reporters before sending them to the majority, so that the agency could spin the story first....
Wife's weeping over anti-union law drove Dem DA to target Wis gov, staff & conservatives for 5 yrs "A Democratic district attorney who has pursued Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker over alleged campaign finance violations told a fellow prosecutor that his crying wife, a union official, drove him to hunt the governor and his conservative allies because of his anti-union laws feared by organized labor.
The explosive revelation came Tuesday as lawyers for Milwaukee DA John Chisholm began two days of oral arguments in a Chicago courtroom over earlier rulings that effectively ended his wide-ranging investigation.
The investigation aimed to show that conservative groups were illegally working hand-in-hand with Walker's office when they ran 'issue ads' pressing the case that public employee unions should face reforms. Such arrangements, attorneys say, are common on both sides of the political aisle including President Barack Obama's longstanding coordination with Priorities USA Action and other 'super PACs.'
Leaders of virtually every conservative political nonprofit in the Badger State, 29 in all, have found themselves swept up in Chisholm's criminal probe as they were hit with pre-dawn raids that seized their computers, cell phones, email records and even a child's iPad.
Armed police kept many of them from contacting their lawyers or corralling their children in some cases while they executed searches initiated by Chisholm over a period of a year and a half.
Republicans have accused Chisholm of using heavy-handed tactics, furthered by police using floodlights to illuminate suburban homes as flashing squad cars jammed driveways and cul-de-sacs."..............
IRS chiefs legal adviser spread word of missing e-mails to Treasury lawyer "Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen testified this summer that he played no part in spreading word of the agencys controversial missing e-mails to the Treasury Department or the White House. But one of his closest advisers apparently did.....
Republican lawmakers have suggested that the IRS collaborated with the Treasury Department and the executives office to control damage from the IRS targeting scandal. The White House learned about the missing e-mails in April, two months before the IRS informed the congressional committees that had requested the records for investigations..........."
Freudian slip?
LoL!!
: )
If the shoe fits...
Those same scholars probably forget to mention that Truman dropped the A-bombs. That way they can blame the USA, and let Truman off the hook.
Excellent observation.
Typical. Ruthless & dictatorial when on top, pathetic whiners when found out.
So his argument is that Truman was reviled until everyone that was alive when he was President had passed away?
Pretty common tactic they use.
Show no class and then turn around and demand conservatives play nice. When Obama talks about how Republicans want people to drink poisoned water and breathe smog filled air... Meh... When Republicans say that Obama is incompetent... Whoa now, don’t be so hostile.
The civil comments he requested (to test-out if we’ve learned how to behave correctly) are coming in over at The Hill.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/media/217199-the-death-of-civil-discourse
My sense is Obama will be considered much worse in the future, and we either be amazed at how America survived his destruction of our country or fall of the American freedom and ezceptionalism.
He cites the ACA - Obamacare, but denies the lies that made it happen and the consequences.
Perhaps not violent, but overthrow of the constitutional republic none the less...
Do you seriously believe Obama has a snowball's chance in hell of ever becoming anything approaching greatness?
I can see a situation wherein that may be possible; Americans no longer feel the need to be free and the nation adopts socialism. Obama would make a great socialist president.
Lichtman is a pretentious weenie, a simpy, uber-leftist academic, totally bereft of insight and intellect. He is good at mouthing liberal platitudes and Democrat talking points. Clearly, the comments of Ted Baxter's web site really got to him. So he decided to have his temper tantrum in print.
...and his predecessor, liberal icon FDR, confiscated the property of Japanese Americans, rounded them up, and shipped them off to "relocation camps."
Just wait until the day after, should he pubbies take the senate, you will hear the RAT senators like Schumer and Reid calling for bipartisanship..... and the pubbies will fall right in calling for the end to the nuke option.
No kidding.
If anything, Republicans and conservatives need to be much meaner to get their point across. For example, when liberals put up an article about conservative women to hate-f***, we pull out some leftist gals and label them likewise. Mitt should’ve stood up and said someone told him Harry Reid hadn’t paid his taxes since 1969. When Pelosi claims illegals are Jesus, why isn’t some Republican spokesperson telling the world she would’ve had Jesus aborted? Politics works for the left because they make it work. If you’re polite with these folks - and their JOB is to MARKET their commie agenda! - you’re their tool, period.
AND they stick together - they don’t flinch and break ranks.
If they take the Senate you will see the Dems on TV saying “What about the rights of the minority? Are you going to uphols them?” Just like they did the last time. Pubs, of course will cave to them. If we had had ANY leaders,someone will say “We have no ill will towards the minority in the Senate. We will treat them EXACTLY the same way they treated us.” That should be chill in their spine and shut them up.
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