Abandon all Hope...

Ye, who live in these (hopefully still mostly) United States of America. Now that it has become clear our government is apparently in the hands of second and third graders engaged in unsupervised play on our national playground, Washington, D.C.  I am not sure that even hope is warranted as it is becoming more and more obvious our elected Congresspersons are now operating on the basis of personal grudges and animosities. John McCain has confessed the Republican opposition to Senator Hagel can be traced to his criticism of former President Bush and his opposition to the Iraq war (never mind that Hagel was quite right about  all of this). More importantly, however, is the now openly admitted opposition to President Obama because they do not like him. This is playground childishness if ever there was such, pathetic to the point of infantile rage. Republicans can apparently not get over the fact they lost the election, Obama was elected to a second term, and they continue to oppose him at every turn. As many of the things Obama wants to do are precisely the same things they themselves once proposed this constant opposition makes no sense whatsoever aside from their irrational hatred of him. Like children on the playground they want to take their ball and go home.

I am perhaps too dense to “get it,” but I confess I cannot understand the depth of their hatred for our President. Although there are things Obama has done I do not personally approve of, all in all he seems to me to be a fairly decent President, even quite a successful one in spite of overwhelming opposition for no apparent reason. I mean, really, he is not a foreign born imposter, not  a socialist, not  a Muslim, has not tried to take our guns away, tried to do well by the middle class and the poor, has saved our automobile industry, staved off a depression, improved our health care, championed women’s rights, Gay rights, ended our  unfortunate “war” in Iraq, is winding down our foolish “war” in Afghanistan, and so on. No matter how one might feel about any one or all of these accomplishments, I fail to comprehend what he has done to deserve the hatred that seems to be driving the Republicans. His greatest problem, it seems to me, is simply being President while Black.

How can a government function if those in charge act like children? So, your lost an election, that does not give you license to refuse to do your duty and cooperate in the operations of government. What Republicans have been and are doing seems to me completely unprecedented. In a system such as ours you cannot have one party simply refusing to cooperate at all, refusing to do the public’s business, refusing, basically, to govern. I cannot believe the Founding Fathers could have even imagined such a situation. The basic premise of our Republic is that we elect officials to conduct public and national affairs on our behalf. Many of our currently elected officials have simply abandoned public and national interest entirely, concentrating solely on staying in office and serving those private interests that keep funding (bribing) them, and, in this case, also attempting to humiliate a President because they do not like him. They say he is not friendly enough to them, does not reach out enough, is aloof and distant, doesn’t have enough personal friends in Congress, and etc. I take this to mean they basically think he is Black and “uppity.”

I knew that when Obama was first elected as our first Black President the ramifications would be far deeper and more serious than anyone seemed to think, that talk of a “post-racial” society was nonsense, that he would face almost impossible opposition. The basic paradigm of White superiority, which had been in existence for hundreds of years, would not be easily abandoned, and it unfortunately has not. Black people were not supposed to be competent, intelligent, or successful. Obama has exposed the lie for what it was (and still is for many).  That is why he is hated and disrespected, it has little or nothing to do with his policies and much to do with his successes. Stepin Fetchit made a fortune portraying what a Black man was supposed to be, Obama will make a fortune and go down in history as what a Black man can truly be. I will not be around to see it but I would bet that someone in the future will argue he was successful only because he was half White, fundamental beliefs even while false and stupid do not die easily.

He who endeavors to serve, to benefit, and improve the world, is like a swimmer, who struggles against a rapid current, in a river lashed into angry waves by the winds. Often they roar over his head, often they beat him back and baffle him. Most men yield to the stress of the current... Only here and there the stout, strong heart and vigorous arms struggle on toward ultimate success.

Albert Pike