Posted on 08/01/2012 7:55:00 AM PDT by Kaslin
What drives Barack Obama's "doubters and haters"?
So asks Obama biographer David Maraniss in a recent op-ed article for the Washington Post. By doubters and haters he means the people who think Obama wasn't born in the U.S., that he's a secret Muslim or that he's a closet socialist.
He has an answer: "Some of it can be attributed to the give-and-take of today's harsh ideological divide. Some of it can be explained by the way misinformation spreads virally to millions of like-minded people, reinforcing preconceptions. And some of it, I believe, arises out of fears of demographic changes in this country, and out of racism."
True enough! Some people are no doubt driven by such motivations and anxieties; "some" is a gloriously accommodating word.
But that hardly settles things. For an essay titled "What Drives the Obama Doubters and Haters," Maraniss offers no explanation until the last paragraph (the quote above). And even then he offers no evidence, just assertions.
I think Maraniss is a great reporter, and I don't believe for a moment he is in on a cover-up of Obama's "real" place of birth or his secret Muslim faith. (Nor do I think either allegation is true.)
As to Obama's closet socialism, I've never found it unreasonable (never mind racist or paranoid) to think Obama's more comfortable with European-style social democracy (aka socialism).
Still, let me add two culprits to Maraniss' list: The first is Barack Obama. The second is the journalistic establishment that worked so hard to get him elected.
As Maraniss demonstrates quite effectively in his book, "Barack Obama: The Story," Obama's identity has long been a cultivated political project. Much of the poetic license -- to use a kind phrase -- Obama deploys to tell his own story is plausible only to those eager to take him at his word.
Maraniss couldn't authenticate Obama's tales of racial hardship as a young man. His grandfather being tortured by the British, the bigotry of his high school basketball coach? Untrue.
Moreover, Obama's explanations about the aspects of his past that have managed to become controversies have always seemed insufficient to people not disposed to root for him. Bill Ayers -- a former domestic terrorist -- was "just a guy living in my neighborhood." Obama's word that he wasn't a member of the radical New Party was enough for the press corps to stop digging for evidence that he was (as reported by my National Review Online colleague Stanley Kurtz). Jeremiah Wright? Only right-wing crazies care about him.
Even Obama's more recent embellishments about, for instance, being outspent and outgunned in his previous political races strike many people as the sorts of fibs that would create journalistic frenzies if uttered by a Republican.
And then there's the huge divergence between the president Obama said he would be and the president he's actually been. In 2008, Obama insisted that he was a unifier, a pragmatist and a non-ideologue. You don't have to be a birther or a secret-Muslim conspiracy theorist to feel like that was all a big con job. That's politics and not deceit (a subtle distinction!), but dismay at how Obama has governed doesn't amount to racial panic either. And blame for the widespread feeling that we were sold a bill of goods by a cheering press does, in fact, belong to the press.
Yes, Obama also signaled to his base that he intended to be a "transformative" president, a progressive Ronald Reagan. But that message was intended only for his base. Whenever conservatives picked up on those notes -- when he said he wanted to "spread the wealth around," etc. -- the immediate response from the Sunday talk show crowd was that conservatives were being paranoid for misreading Obama, the pragmatist.
It's fine to beat up on conspiracy theorists, but journalistic muckety-mucks who are mystified by their ever-shrinking credibility -- and profitability -- might wonder what they've done to fuel a climate of distrust. There's a reason why ABC's Jake Tapper is one of the few nonconservative reporters respected on the right: He's stayed as skeptical of Obama as he was of George W. Bush.
Meanwhile, it's fascinating how much attention the conspiracy theorists get. It's almost as if some journalists want to use them as bogeymen to discredit all criticism of Obama. That's some journalists, not all.
It is under Obama that:
1. All American military veterans have been named ‘suspect’, by the DHS.
2. American companies have been ‘federalized’.
3. The American government finances have become a debtor to a Communist nation.
4. Americans have been decreed to accept a federal government program through threats of fines and imprisonment, enforced by the IRS.
5. Americans are being moved federally, towards an acceptance of an enemy’s political/socio/religious belief system, which is in direct opposition to any of the tenets of the Bill of Rights, and The U.S. Constitution.
6. The sovereignty of the individual citizen is being lessened, in favor of The State.
7. The sovereignty of the United States is being diminished, in favor of the United Nations as a center of international law.
Then, there is the fact, that Obama has stated he is from Kenya, and that the Kenyan Congress has hailed him as one of their sons. There is the video that shows Obama stating he is a Muslim. His transfer student papers from Occidental College show him as Barry Soetero, from Indonesia.
There are no records of he having any girlfriends in college. There IS still a matter brewing in Chicago, of he and his gay lover, and it is on record.
The then Illinois Senator Obama is on record, speaking his disdain for our military troops and the individual’s right to self-defense.
Lastly, you judge a man by the measure of his friends. Bill Ayers, Weather Underground member, responsible for the death of NYPD members, and an avowed Communist.
Need I say more?
Obama could effectively kill the controversy for the price of two FedEx letters to Hawaii, about 35 bucks total. If he wanted to save money he could do it for the price of two postage stamps.
He has not done any of the above but has spent well over million dollars in fighting the release of any of his records.
WHY!
Thanks for the link. Great post Bump
This is a difficult question to answer.
Here is a president who truly came up the hard way. Born in a mud hut in Kenya of a promiscuous, atheistic woman and an ex mau-mau leader, he was fortunately wisked away to Indonesia after his mother found a man who would actually wed her.
Little Barry, or Brack, attended school in a dirt-floored madrassa in the bustling city of Jakarta. He realized that something much better would be in store for him if he fled Indonesia. He’d heard from the tribal medicine man that America was a fat and wealthy country where he would be welcomed with open arms.
He built a raft and set out on a seemingly impossible journey to Hawaii, Many dangers befell the boy, but allah was there to bring him safely through.
Luckily the lad reached safe shores in Hawaii and was befriended by a kindly old African-communist homosexual who taught Barry many valuable lessons and steered him towards academia full of good leftist thoughts, whisky and pot.
Later as he swam through the sewers of Chicago he realized his true ambition. He was too cowardly to strap explosives around his slim waist, and had no desire for 72 virgins unless they were male, so he decided to get into Illinois politics. This is easy for a completely unknown zealot like Barry, Brack and there were other communists who were eagar to shove the youngster up the political ladder.
His handlers knew they had something better than a hydrogen bomb in little whozits. They had a two legged hater of America who would destroy the evil capitalist empire and shove the evil honky masses into poverty.
Well, now we know the rest of the story. Of course there are many details that had to be omitted due to the limitations of space, etc., e.g.: Brack is running around with a dead guy’s social security number and over 2 million bucks have been spent in order to lock away any and all documents related to the President of The United States of America.
Its no secret that he prefers Muzzies and by his own words (Roanoke) he's a flaming Marxist. Helllllo!
Perhaps we dislike him because he is a gay, Communist, Muslim, American-hating, job-destroying baby killer, who lies to us every time he opens his mouth.
And each and every lie he tells is totally accepted by the prostitute press, by guys like this jerk.
I wont let them into my home, nor will I do business with them..AND I LET THEM KNOW IT.
I don’t “hate” nobama. I hate the fact that he is not in prison for the remainder of his worthless existence.
Sarah is the greatest threat to the social/communist takeover of the USA.
Agree - Obama’s core value is hate - it’s what he’s all about.
Does anyone really think Obama is a closet socialist? Between "when you spread the wealth around . . ." and "cling to religion and guns" and "you didn't build that" and "our plan is working", you have to assume that he always tells similar lies when he's off script or that he tells the truth, what he really believes, when he's off script. I don't often believe anything Obama says, but I do believe he means what he says when he's off script. He's an open socialist, but perhaps a closet communist.
What’s behind the hatred of Obama?...
My hatred of socialism. Next question?
thanks for posting
And part of it is that if the MSM, instead of supplying partisan support for Obama, had done their damned job in 2008 and vetted him propely and truthfully, maybe we wouldn’t mistrust him and everything that is said about him. Obama’s lies and the deceit of the MSM leads us to mistrust EVERYTHING about him!!!!!!
Please watch your language when discussing David Mooranis.
“I hate all democrats”.
Could it be that their fundamental philosophy of life comes from the sick, perverted mind of Marx and the Cultural Marxists, who would kill their own mother for her inheritance, or give the state their own fatherless children to shape and “nurture”, while they truly believe that you can confiscate hard working peoples money and make them slaves of the lazy and slothful?
Could it be that they “think” that wisdom comes from the media and they never have to work to learn the Truth and they fill their heads with bread and circuses without ever trying to get truly educated-—away from the indoctrination machine of the Leftists? Their Faith is in Marx whose ideas make slaves to their urges-—never contemplating the Word of God. They worship evil and Vice—never the Truth and Justice.
Why Obama Should Be In Prison
Bitter Racist
HE IS HALF WHITE. WE HATE ONLY HALF OF HIM.
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