Posted on 02/22/2014 2:15:25 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
So we have reached the aporia of the Right’s main argument against President Obama, wherein their arguments are deconstructing themselves via their own rhetoric undermining their claims.
Republicans call the President a dictator and say his boot is on their necks, he is stomping on the Constitution, he is an “imperial” president. And yet all of them remain free to say these things in public, on TV. There isn’t even any backlash to speak of.
Leading this charge is the still bitter Sarah Palin, whose behavior post 2008 loss makes John McCain’s look magnanimous and mature. Palin posited that after Obama left Americans for “destroyed”, the press finally woke up. Palin seems to miss the fact that she is still free after all of these many years of traitor-adjacent behavior to write and speak whatever she pleases, no matter how egregious, including her attempt to portray criticism of her “speech” (her gun sights over Democratic districts prior to the Arizona massacre) as “blood libel”.
No brownshirts have come for Palin. Yet she wrote this on her Facebook page, as if Obama were Hitler, just as elected Republicans across the country inaccurately portray him:
"What? Lamestream calls for empathy, even outrage, for a First Amendment violation that’s on par with all the abuse we’ve brought to your attention as Obama stomps on our Constitution. You’ve IGNORED us, you’ve marginalized us, you’ve left us for “destroyed.” But when Obama’s boot is on YOUR neck you finally wake the h*ll up and cry foul? Good Lord."
Then she linked to this Breitbart article bemoaning the loss of freedom under this President, as if George W. Bush’s “free speech zones” and silencing of the Dixie Chicks had never happened.
They were for it before they were against it, apparently. (According to the very conservative ACLJ’s press release, the press actually had a “significant” First Amendment and free press victory today as the Obama administration pulled the plug on a newsroom “monitoring” system – aka, studying “perceived station bias.”, a thing conservatives are very against, as you might imagine.)
A dictator would never have allowed Sarah Palin to attack him while on foreign soil, during a time of war and while the country faced a huge financial crisis, no less. This is why the foreign press called Sarah Palin a traitor, while our own press continues to give her and her fellow Republicans (it says a lot about the party that Palin is no longer the most outrageous attack dog) access as if the things she says are not outrageous.
“And now she turns not only against the fibre and backbone of her country, but against its democratically elected President… “
That was in 2010, and Sarah Palin and the GOP have hardly let up since then.
While the right gets Martin Bashir fired for his suggestion that Sarah Palin might not think policy issues were just like slavery if she actually knew anything about slavery, when the Dixie Chicks said they were ashamed that Bush was from Texas, their music was shut out by mainstream outlets around the country:
"Music superstars the Dixie Chicks are finding out that criticizing President Bush’s plans for war in Iraq can cost you air play, big time."
The Right has a very selective sense of free speech and free press.
And while the finer points of their failed arguments can be endlessly mocked, it really comes down to one thing. If Obama really were the dictator they accuse him of being, none of them would be free to continue accusing him of being a dictator.
If you are allowed to have public discussions about executive branch decisions with which you disagree, and you are not being shunned for it or fired over it, then you are most likely not living under a dictator.
Living under a dictator would be more like it was under George W. Bush, when even “liberal Hollywood” shrank in fear of being accused of being unpatriotic. So they turned their backs on Michael Moore’s March 23, 2003 Oscar speech — and on film sets in the weeks that followed, hard core liberals expressed disdain for the disrespect for our president, calling Moore’s behavior uncivilized (public shaming is a good silencer). I was there.
What was Moore’s crime? He spoke out against the war Bush had just started, just days prior. This is what he said that caused such a disruption — compare this to what Republicans say every single day about a President who did NOT lead us into a war on false pretenses. Moore referenced the way Bush was not really elected (a fact, he was appointed by the United States Supreme Court), and that the war was based on fictitious reasons (also true):
"We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elects a fictitious President.
We — We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it’s the fictition of duct tape or the fictitious [sic] of orange alerts, we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you.
And any time you’ve got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up. Thank you very much."
So it’s odd that Republicans keep accusing President Obama of being exactly what George W. Bush was in reality — a fake president, with dictator-esque tendencies. Under Bush, this country edged closer to a state of fascism, in which the people were kept in line through constant fear. People were arrested for wearing t-shirts that criticized Bush. ABC reported:
The Bush administration has agreed to pay $80,000 to a husband and wife who were ejected from a presidential rally because of their anti-Bush T-shirts. The settlement ends a suit brought by a Texas couple and the American Civil Liberties Union, claiming the couple’s First Amendment rights were violated when they were arrested and removed from a taxpayer-funded event featuring President Bush because their shirts read “Love America, Hate Bush” and “Regime Change Starts at Home.”
From terror alert levels to arrests for wearing the wrong t-shirt near the President to having your business ruined because you spoke out against what turned out to be an illegal war, things were bleak under Bush.
It turns out that Moore was correct. A boot on your neck? PBS reported, “And Moore was booed, stalked and threatened for it. He had to get a security detail to protect him from the death threats (some of which were encouraged by the media), and he claims that Homeland Security scratched up his Oscar at the airport on the way home.”
When you are openly criticizing the President of the United States and not too subtly trying to incite an overthrow of the government because you are still bitter that you lost to him, and no one comes to arrest you, the President is not a dictator. When you are still invited to have a reality TV show funded in part by the taxpayers of this country, the President is not a dictator. When you are still deemed to be civilized company and not being shunned for daring to suggest that you oppose something the President is doing, the President is not a dictator.
That is one fact of which you can be sure: President Obama is not a dictator and he is not silencing dissent. The proof is the fact that Sarah Palin is not in Gitmo. She is, in fact, making a living off of taxpayer money that Obama could easily put a stop to if he were that kind of petty, thin-skinned dictator — were he a Chris Christie type, for example, or a Nixon, or a Bush.
Note: For the fact challenged who got Martin Bashir fired, I did not say Sarah Palin should be in Gitmo. I am against Gitmo, just as Bashir is against slavery.
Erica, just cause a dictator doesn’t have his foot on
your neck, doesn’t mean he’s not standing on your hands,
and it certainly doesn’t mean he doesn’t WANT to step
on your face.
“Someone Needs to Tell Sarah Palin If Obama Were a Dictator, She’d Be In Gitmo”
Someone needs to tell author sarah jones that if obama wasnt a dictator, he wouldnt be sending the irs to harass his political opponents. He wouldnt be delaying sections of obamacare as he saw fit.
Maybe it's damn time to take some power away from the Executive Branch.
Proof liberals believe in such things as locking up their political opponents.
I am sure Sarah P. has had her fair share of IRS audits. Why use GITMO when you have govt agencies to harass your fellow Americans?
Someone needs to tell the Leftist, Liberal socialist Sarah Jones that her dear leader Obama still has three years, or more left in power and detention of Conservatives is always a possibility with the Obama regime.
“Sarah Jones: Managing Editor/Columnist
Since joining PoliticusUSA in February of 2009, Sarah has been quoted by The Atlantic Wire, The Week, The Richard Dawkins Foundation and more. Along with her life long interest in feminism and social justice, Sarah has a background in TV/Film (TV host, news anchor, producer & writer) and has written and produced award winning documentaries. Sarah graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a major in Psychology & Latin. Follow Sarah on Twitter here.”
http://www.politicususa.com/about-us
Abso-freakin’-lutely. Look at New York: Andrew Cuomo and the blatant Marxist Bill duh Blasio aka Warren Wilhelm telling the public they do not want anyone in the state who is an “extreme conservative”. What is their definition of an “extreme conservative”? Anyone who is against homosexuality and abortion - Christians.
“aporia,” What the heck does this word mean? It does not show up in my World Book Encyclopedia dictionary which is about 6 inches thick. It this just another example of the left taking control of the language and making things up?
bump
He doesn’t throw Palin in Gitmo because it would endanger the progress of his gradual but deliberate advance to a totalitarian state.
Just because he doesn’t have total power yet doesn’t mean he isn’t fully intent on getting it.
“There isn’t even any backlash to speak of.”
Unless you count being harassed by the IRS, FBI, OSHA and EPA for being a TEA Partier, like this woman and many others...
Ms. Jones, how would you describe running the IRS and the Justice Department as your own private gestapo? Was it the Obama administration that tried to stamp out dissent by making financial proctological exams of any organization that dares put patriot or tea party in its name or by conducting illegal surveillance of journalists who just happen to work for the dreaded Fox News? And let’s not mention the capricious changes to that wonderful Obamacare law without consulting Congress.
Palin may not be in gitmo, but she sure was targeted and maligned more than any other conservative alive today, but Bush...
Author of the article is a moron...
Let's see, first of all it wasn't the Right that spanked the Dixie Chicks, it was the American people exercising their freedom of association. And second of all the left has a highly impaired sense of memory and equality considering what they have and still do say about Bush and other Conservatives. I completely missed the part of the Constitution that said it was really only for liberals.
Clown logic.
Obama-the-First-Undocumented-Moslem-pRes_ _ent-Tyrant
has demonstrated hate for the American people and the
US Constitution. He has destroyed Law, NASA, banking,
innovation, medicine, US security, strong
American alliances and more with his czars and pens.
Be grateful for that.
But also remember that he is not finished yet and has a few more years to go,
Someone needs to tell Obama that if any one of hundreds of millions of Americans who value liberty and freedom were President, HE would be in GITMO.
After all that verbiage, and the writer closes with one of the biggest non sequiturs in the article. The problem with Bashir wasn't his negative opinion of slavery, it was his pro-position on the subject of crapping in Sarah Palins mouth whilst urinating in her eyes.
Taupe-tops... brilliant.
No backlash to speak of? Easy to miss it if you just ignore what’s been happening with the IRS, to Dinesh D’Souza, or if you’re never aware of it at all thanks to people like her.
Did your Federal ‘Minder’ tell you to write this article Ms. Jones?
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