The Presidency

In misguided attempt
to win back his wife,
he poisons her tea.

In my blog of August 12, 2009, I suggested there was a paradigmatic shift involved as a result of Obama’s election, a shift so fundamental to Western/European thought that it involved more than merely the election of a Black man to the Presidency of the United States. This was (is) a massive blow to the Western/European ego, a blow so basic we are having a great deal of trouble trying to deal with it, and I fear there may be some from our current generations who will never be able to recover from it. I knew this would be a far more difficult problem than most people realized. And, although many people probably do not consciously realize what has happened, they do sense the profound change that is now occurring, and are highly disturbed by it. The White man, indeed, White civilization itself, has been dethroned, and no longer occupies the commanding position it has had for the past few hundreds of years. This sense of, and fear of, dethronement is no doubt related to, and reinforced by, the rise of China, India, and others as world powers for the first time, as well as the resurgence of Russia, and also by the sobering realization that we cannot impose our will militarily even on smaller and weaker countries like Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. I believe this explains much of what is happening in the United States at the moment, and I also believe there is an unprecedented threat to one of the most basic features of the American political system.

Americans have always believed that the Office of the Presidency was sacrosanct. That is, whatever you might have thought of the person occupying that office, you had to respect the office itself. As far as I know we have always followed this rule, or law, or understanding, or whatever it is. Many citizens, perhaps even a majority, did not like George W. Bush, but we did put up with him, and we listened to him no matter how confused, unintelligent, or even unintelligible his speech. Similarly, many did not like Bill Clinton when he was President, but we always respected his right to speak, and we listened when he did speak to us. Now, however, for the first time as far as I know, many people are refusing to listen to our President, and they are telling their children not to listen to him. I submit this is an attack on the Office of the President itself, not merely a refusal to listen to Obama. No one previously ever questioned a President’s right to speak, even though some may have not wanted to listen. Certainly a President has the right to speak to the nation, and the nation’s children, but this right is being denied our current President, at least by quite a large number of citizens.

Consider what has happened since Obama was elected our 44th President. First, people attempted to deny him the Presidency because he was a Muslim, or at least a secret Muslim. Then his legitimacy was questioned because he associated with a Minister who (they said) hated America. When those ploys failed, they questioned his birth, and argued that he wasn’t really an American citizen (having been born in Kenya or Timbuktu or somewhere, anywhere but the U.S.) and therefore could not legitimately be President. Fundamentally, these were attempts to deny that Obama even was (is) the President, it must have just been some sort of mistake. And if he really wasn’t President, there was no damage done, the basic paradigm (of white supremacy) was secure, it was all merely a matter of some illegality (that could and should be corrected). Fortunately, these views were not shared by a sufficient number of people, so they faded away in the face of reality. Along with this attempt at denial was their stated hope and (treasonous) wish that Obama would fail (it somehow wouldn’t be right for a Black man to succeed at the Presidency?). Thus, as they failed to take the Presidency away from Obama, they will deny the Office of the Presidency itself. They will refuse to accept the power, authority, and respect due the Office by simply tuning it out, as if it is not something they need to even bother about. As far as I know, nothing like this has ever happened before. These extremist anti-Obama creatures are so threatened by his Presidency they will even insist the Office itself is irrelevant. I do not believe the extreme measures his opponents have employed are merely a result of the fact that Obama is Black (he is, of course, just as much White as Black). The fact of their trying to shout down his supporters and wear their threatening guns to meetings, so that no true discourse is even possible is one facet of their insistence that they do not want to hear what he has to say, the current attempt to deny him the right to speak to school children is merely another step in the same direction. They do not want to see economic recovery, health care, or anything else if that is what Obama wants. And if Obama is indeed President, then, for them, the Presidency itself cannot be important. This is, I think, a form of lunacy, brought about by the shock of their basic world view being turned upside down, their cherished beliefs about their superiority being undermined, their fear of losing control, and the generalized human fear and trepidation that seems to accompany cultural change in general.

There are people who obviously will stop at nothing, literally nothing at all, to bring Obama down, apparently even if this should bring the country itself down. Happily (I sincerely hope), this is a relatively small minority of the population (perhaps 20% at most?), and their extremism will not find many other supporters. The damage they are doing to our nation is incalculable. It is much easier to inflict damage than to recover from it. These are extremely perilous times, and even though you may not like all of Obama’s plans, he is our President, and strangely enough, our only “Great White Hope,” at the moment.

LKBIQ:
He of whom many are afraid ought to fear many.
Sir Francis Bacon

TILT:
The arms of orangutans are twice as long as their legs.