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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA Canadian's view of our disrespect of our own President. Interesting.
http://kstreet607.com/2013/06/21/a-canadians-view-on-our-disrespect-of-president-obamas-presidency/
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Cha
(316,394 posts)"America, you know not what you have.
The man is being challenged unfairly, characterized with vulgarity and treated with the kind of deep disrespect to which no previous president was subjected. It’s like the day after electing the first black man to be president, thereby electrifying the world with hope and joy, Americans sobered up and decided the bad old days were better."
From the right and the left.. whatever.
Nice pic William Thomas chose.. thank you~
I'll have to connect my old inkjet and rustle up some photo paper so I can print this and hang in on my front room wall. Right there where the first thing someone sees when they darken the door is this picture. The photo of the bestest damn President we've had in my 66 F*'n years and one my old white ass helped to get elected. He stands head and shoulders above every other damn politician in Washington and I mean that with all the vitriol I can muster.
Cha
(316,394 posts)treat, madokie.
madokie
(51,076 posts)Even the ones who don't have enough sense to know it will be 
malaise
(292,118 posts)To think we all came out of Africa.
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)A lot of Americans are hateful ignorant thugs.
A lot of Americans are totally unfair when it comes to judging people.
A lot of Americans discard the truth for their own "facts"
The American Media Machine is disgraceful.
Rush Limbaugh and his kind are some of the lowest "ugly bags of mostly water" on the planet.
The article brings tears to my eyes when I look back on the horrible treatment of our leader.
Cha
(316,394 posts)Hoppy
(3,595 posts)Lincoln.... depicted as an ape.
F.D.R. .... almost deposed in a coup led by McChimp's grandfather.
Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today.
McChimp? Who is he?
onecent
(6,096 posts)Slick Willy, rapist, drug kingpin, murderer.
The idea that Obama is the first president to be disrespected is ridiculous.
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)This is not true, as evidenced by the post to which you replied.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)to deflect the real point. President Obama has been disrespected not only on a partisan level, but a typical racist amerikkkan disrespect has been thrown in for good measure. Please. Don't disrespect the truth of this whole article and OP.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)heaven05
(18,124 posts)IT IS!
heaven05
(18,124 posts)objective look at the current state of politics(last six years) in america, from an outsider no less.
treestar
(82,383 posts)had they been the first black president.
Imagine Obama getting away with that history with women - Bill still got away with it. And if he was disrespected for that, he had earned it.
Obama hasn't done anything at all wrong and yet they still search - something like Fast and furious, etc., would have not even been noticed in other administrations. Notice they try to trump up scandals because there are none.
Whereas Bushes, Clinton earned their scandals to some degree.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)Rapist, murderer, drug kingpin. Do you believe that WJC killed Vince Foster? Is that smear really less nasty than the ones directed at the president?
Here's a clue: If HRC is the next president, the abuse from hate radio and their employees (including all of the republicans in the government) will be just as bad.
treestar
(82,383 posts)and they wouldn't bother with Fast and Furious. That's the point. With Obama's behavior, there would be nothing for a fair media to say. But the attempt to dig up "scandals" is beyond pathetic because of it.
The Vince Foster thing is so ridiculous that nobody believes it but the worst Republicans.
But you can bet they would charge Obama with murder if they could in the least peg anything to anything else that would "allow" them to do it in the most ridiculous manner.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)You are really doing the president dirt by blaming everything on the fact that he's black.
QC
(26,371 posts)when presidents were respected and admired by all.
I do remember a wingnut trying to fly a plane into Bill Clinton's bedroom. That seems pretty disrespectful to me.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)and since President Obama has been POTUS those racist have not tried to hide this fact. A lot on here won't admit it, yet I'm not surprised.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)Last edited Thu Aug 28, 2014, 09:50 AM - Edit history (1)
the level of vitrol and venom shown to previous presidents is the same, and for the same reason, as with President Obama ... gotcha.
ProfessorGAC
(75,654 posts)The motivation is clearly what's different here. Politics were uglier in the 1860's to be sure, but at the same time, there was so much division that there was a war over it.
Come to think of it, the Lincoln as ape and the Obama hate might be rooted in the same ugly soil.
littlemissmartypants
(31,352 posts)butterfly77
(17,609 posts)But,but,but....It's not because he's black.
Stellar
(5,644 posts)He lives in Ferguson Mo, constantly. Sad... 
heaven05
(18,124 posts)I am truly saddened. That America kills it's black and poor citizens with impunity is fact. That America TRIES to destroy the soul of a black person with vitriolic racist hate and disrespect is fact. That amerikkka's right wing and some on the left has caused immeasurable harm to the first AA POTUS and this country is fact. From inauguration day until this very day there have been racist forces in huge numbers that have made it their sworn duty to make sure that the legacy of President Obama is smeared, wrongfully, just so they can point and say, "look, look he was ineffective, feeble and their favorite INFERIOR because he is a ......! They won't say that last word out loud but the intent is perfectly clear.
I will NEVER again, in any capacity wish anything but grief for the racists of this country. There is no saving them. Fux news, politicos like McConnell and the scum of the RW hate radio crowd has made politics and the diversity that american citizens had untenable. This country deserves nothing but scorn and mockery heaped upon it by the citizens of the world.
We here at DU and a few other sights that have impartial and fair views are made to look and sound, by the RW media slant, powerless in the face of the fascist, racist republican juggernaut. Here at DU we have been a bastion against these forces and because of that I still may have a very small hope for change. I will have to search my heart and soul for it. But RW and fascist corporate power and money is immense in this country and because of that fact, I fear america is lost to these forces. Don't get me wrong I will resist yet I feel somewhat like what my father told me he felt at the Chosin Reservoir in the Korean conflict of the early 50's when the Chinese entered the combat there. Overwhelmed.
FOR SIX long years there has been total and complete shutdown of our government only because our POTUS has brown skin and a lot of democrats lacked courage to stand up to these forces of hate. And yes when JOE WILSON screamed out LIAR during that first SOU address, that was a shot louder than the cannons at FT. Sumpter. Yes dear folks we have been in the 2nd civil war complete with military(ized) troops(police) roaming the streets of amerikkka killing indiscriminately anyone opposed to the racist and fascist nature of this amercan culture. I think sometimes I'm going to have to stand in front of those armored vehicles like that lone soul during the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Although here, chances are they would roll right over me.
President Obama, to his immense credit, has made it possible for people to have access to healthcare that previously were shut out because of cost and has gotten other legislation passed. No doubt this will be his legacy. Although let us never forget the RW has tried to shutdown ACA FIFTY times just because it helps poor people. The RW has HURT americans just to hurt the legacy of this President by shutting down the government and consistently denying help to the poor and veterans who really need it.
When President Obama leaves offices these RW scum and their media mouthpieces will crow about how they made this an ineffective presidency. I can hear them now and it won't be pretty. What these folks don't understand though is that will only shine lights on the darkness of their souls and the racist hate that emanates from their hearts.
THANK YOU EgbertoWillis. I needed your objective analysis this morning. 
The Wizard
(13,551 posts)with their bastard stepchild bigotry have made the the dumbest nation on Earth. Jonathan Swift's term Yahoo seems fitting.
JustAnotherGen
(37,474 posts)That hopes a Republican wins in 2016 - know why?
Folks will see how very much differently that man's wife/children ALONE are treated by this country.
And its not the media - we have a lot of foaming at the mouth bigots in America.
They love it.
They just love it heaven05.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)JustAnotherGen
(37,474 posts)That people are 'victims' of the media. It's an active choice to be stupid at this point. . . There are too many resources for information out there for anyone to claim ignorance.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)whereisjustice
(2,941 posts)There was a time not so long ago when Americans, regardless of their political stripes, rallied round their president. Once elected, the man who won the White House was no longer viewed as a republican or democrat, but the President of the United States. The oath of office was taken, the wagons were circled around the country’s borders and it was America versus the rest of the world with the president of all the people at the helm.
Total nonsense.
FDR, JFK, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Clinton, ALL dealt with the lack of unity.
FDR was subject to a coup attempt from right wing fascists, the rich HATED him.
JFK had racial issues polarizing the South. He also was assassinated.
Johnson had the war.
Nixon had the war and that other thing.
Carter had his hostage crisis, inflation.
Clinton White Water, intern sex scandal, impeachment threat
The author is completely wrong.
The difference now is how the media is used to manipulate us to be sympathetic to the plutocracy as they fuck us over. In the "good old days" a low IQ nut job was not allowed behind a camera and microphone. Now you have to prove you are an idiot before you get a job as a "TV/radio Personality".
That fact is helping to spread extremism. It's a good business.
Cosmocat
(15,333 posts)I was a young adult during the Clinton presidency and was just flummoxed at how much people around me hated him, how absurd it was for republicans in congress to do all that they did to him and, out of naivety mystified at how the press let republicans spew utter bullshit unchecked.
The spent millions of dollars with investigation after investigation of the man, they accused him of being a drug dealer and having Vince Foster killed ... They were downright mean and hateful toward not only Hillary, but poor Chelsea.
It is worse now, and they absolutely race bait with what they do toward BHO. But, they eviscerated Al Gore, Howard Dean and John Kerry just the same. And, if it was President Clinton right now, it would not be race baiting but shit about women.
They just grab whatever they can get their hands on and scream. And, yes, modern communication and technology amp it up to a whole higher level.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)of race that has been a large component of the so-called 'partisanship politics." Yes, all politics since day one has been partisan. Yet is not the fact that the reason for the vitriolic racism that has raised it's ugly head from the swampy cesspool that is amerikkkan racism, in the last SIX years, is perfectly clear to some people and why? I just don't understand these attempts(transparent) at distraction and deflection of the real issue in question here. Why so willfully blind?
Cosmocat
(15,333 posts)If they accused Barrack Obama of being a drug dealer, that would be absolute confirmation of racism to you.
Except they haven't they accused the black democratic president of being a drug dealer, they accused the last white DEMOCRATIC president of being a drug dealer.
Yes, the republican party is a cozy home to racists (not that there aren't democrats with a twinge of it) and they have absolutely, unabashedly engaged in race baiting the last six years.
Both of these points are staying the obvious.
But, as much as you might want it to be, racism is not the ROOT.
Barrack Hussein Obama could be white as snow and the ridiculousness of the last six years still would have existed in whatever form proved to be most convenient to the republicans.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)of 6 years of RW inaction. Deny if you must to cover the sins of a shamefully racist culture in the streets and in the highest halls of Congress but I can't cover up this racist culture that I have had to watch, in action, for the last 6 years. Deny all you want. Americans can do that very well and look where it has gotten us, a young, unarmed man executed in the streets shot down like a dog, no white President ever called a LIAR in his 1st SOU address and a racist reuglican party trying 50 times to turn back legislation that my President was smart enough to get through a reluctant Democratic party and obstructionist Reuglican party that helps americans. It has EVERYTHING to do with race. Nothing you can say will stop that being FACT.
SidDithers
(44,333 posts)Sid
heaven05
(18,124 posts)everything in OP is TRUE. It is about color and ignorance being the drivers against ALL of Obama's policies. The media did not put those white RW jerks in a side room at the first inaugural ball no less, planning out how to thwart EVERY initiative of the POTUS and only because of his color. IT IS ONLY ABOUT COLOR in this shameful culture. Your definition does not wash. BS. While it was partisan with ALL those you mentioned, besides being partisan with this POTUS, IT IS COLOR!!!!!
whereisjustice
(2,941 posts)Thanks for your reply.
If you want to talk about race and Presidents, JFK took on George Wallace and most of South. You don't think that had anything to do with race during a time when the South spoke openly of civil war? If it wasn't for Russia threatening nuclear holocaust, there may have been one. When Johnson signed Civil Rights Act, do you have any idea of the hate mail from racists?
Yes, Obama is black and lots of people don't like that. But Obama's problem is that he's been painted as a liberal which much of right-wing America perceives is much worse (Clarence Thomas would agree). He's done everything in his politically ex·pedient power to run away from the L word.
That is his fault. And ours for never questioning authority. Instead of being proud of a liberal tradition, and educating people on the facts of liberal policy and programs, Democrats bought into the right wing narrative and are ashamed of the word. Because of this, the conservatives find it easy to label Obama as evil liberal, in specific, and Democrats, in general. A liberal used to have a political party who shared common values. Today we have a corporate run Democratic Party frighted by the L word, trying to earn credibility with Republicans who are proud of the word "conservative".
In reaction, many Democrats are resorting to calling themselves "socially liberal" and "fiscally conservative".
Like a fish with a bicycle.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)false equivalency. Of course that was about race, but NOT........wait for it......the color of the POTUS as it is today, 50years down the road. From the days when I had to fight to be able to vote in this corrupt system because of my race, Kennedy was helping me fight Wallace. Two white men fighting for and against black people's civil and voting rights. Obama is trying to help us all, yet he has not been given that benefit precisely because of his race. Liberal tag being a stone around his neck? Sure that is partisan politics. IF he had had the loyalty of his Party, and not so many goddamn 'blue dogs' working in concert with the RW and who would have shown some courage, Pelosi and Reid come to mind, we as a Party might not have had to take such a big bite of the corporate apple.
All of you can try to distract and deflect from the truth of RACE being the stone around Barack Obama's neck with a little truth of your own about the partisan end of politics, according to you, thrown in to make it seem like it is Obama's fault nothing has gotten done in SIX years of RW gridlock. Clinton started the Third Way. He moved our Party to the right to turn us into "socially liberal-fiscally conservative" DINOS to try to get the onus of Monica out of the spotlight and make it seem like he was getting something done. Deregulation of media, glass-steagall and on and on to the absolute joy of the RW and to my chagrin as a progressive.
No it's not about the L word, that's smokescreen BS, IT IS ABOUT COLOR in this racist, bigoted culture that permeates everything from a black man walking into the streets and getting executed for that transgression to the "dog whistle" politics that has been practiced by the RW in vitriolic manner for the last SIX YEARS. I will never back away from the fact, IT'S ABOUT RACE!!!!!.
I've been around the block a few times myself.
whereisjustice
(2,941 posts)it didn't start with Obama and it won't end with Obama.
The problem with aging is that you have to watch the next generation make the same mistakes - only now those mistakes come with much greater consequences. It isn't as easy to get a job or education or health care (even with ACA). Its much harder to raise family and pay is virtually unchanged from 1970s while all other cost of living costs have soared.
The consequences of not challenging authority are becoming plain to see.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)race has always been used as a wedge issue by the ignorant and brilliants. Atwater was one of those. The Democratic Party lost it's moral bearing, I think, with Nixon's 'southern strategy' being such a success. We never regained our footing. Reagan sealed our fate and it has been a slowly increasing slide to the bottom of who know where. This country will NEVER regain it's moral leadership in the world community's eyes, military yes, moral NO. The last 6 years has made this country a laughing stock when it comes to claiming moral leadership. McConnell a leader? No. Rand Paul a leader? No. Nancy Pelosi a leader? No. Harry Reid a leader? No. The only person that has tried to lead is Barack Obama, but with the corporate nature and influence of their big money, that our Party has partaken of, he never stood a chance.
sibelian
(7,804 posts)I've criticised the man many times in the past, but am not blind to his good points.
He DID get the US up the first rung of the latter towards single payer. That mustn't be forgotten.
frankieallen
(583 posts)IdaBriggs
(10,559 posts)I don't understand your comment.
This part embarrassed me:
Last month, a 44-year-old woman in Buffalo was quite taken by President Obama when she met him in a chicken wing restaurant called Duff’s. Did she say something about a pleasure and an honour to meet the man or utter encouraging words for the difficult job he is doing? No. Quote: “You’re a hottie with a smokin’ little body.”
Seriously???
Mouth + Filter = ARGH!
Welcome to DU. Looks like you have been lurking for a while.
LloydS of New London
(355 posts) cleduc
(653 posts)of the presidents during my lifetime is that there was some reverence for the office lost with Nixon and maybe Johnson before him. Eisenhower and JFK seemed more revered or respected and there seemed to be places you didn't go with them that US citizens started to go with Johnson and Nixon. It carried on or eroded from there.
Some of it had to do with TV journalism of the 60s-70s going against Vietnam or uncovering Watergate (TV broadened the impact of the Washington Post exposing Watergate).
Some of what we see today probably has something to do with the paparazzi nature of some political punditry and playing "us vs them" on cable news to get ratings or the internet giving a broader voice to extreme factions that we haven't learned to filter out proportionately in our dialogues.
But I do feel there is something to what the man is saying. I do not think President Obama has been treated well or fairly. I think a hunk of the difference is based upon racism - even in congress.
I can't "prove" that. It's just how I feel about it.
I have the utmost respect for President Obama. To me, he's the best president of my lifetime (I go back to Eisenhower). I'm saddened that a man with such potential for greatness is curtailed by the worst gridlock I've ever seen in congress and the most powerful man in the world can't stop it or solve it. The people I'm most sad and heartbroken for are Americans - who deserve better than this.
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)Cosmocat
(15,333 posts)your final sentence.
Agree totally with everything you posted prior to that.
But, we absolutely do NOT deserve better than this.
WE, collectively either do not show up to vote or on average most often gleefully swallow up republican bullshit and go back for more.
WE voted in a potentially great president and the very next day, almost literally, turned on him, either directly or by not standing up for him.
cleduc
(653 posts)When I see the Koch Bros and others spending / or the campaign finance laws ...
When I see all the warrants and oppression against blacks in Ferguson, inhibiting their right to vote and it leaves me wondering how many other cities like Ferguson there are ...
When I see all the stuff the GOP has done against minority or low income people to deny them their right to vote ...
When I see all the gerrymandering that has gone on in GOP run states ...
When I see FOX News and the like ... and the mess in the media giving stupid crap like the Birther issue air time ...
When I see all the voting irregularities ...
When I hear all the obvious lies about Obama and the poor job to widely discredit them ...
When I realize many folks struggling to get by, working three part time jobs, don't have the time to digest the political issues because feeding their kids is desperately higher on their priority list and requires most of their time and they can't afford the internet or a daily paper ...
etc, etc
I'm not so sure all of the Americans you condemn are getting a fair shake. It really troubles me.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)
blue neen
(12,465 posts) Android3.14
(5,402 posts)Bush's race to the White House in the limo? Remember that feeling of satisfaction when we saw that?
The OP is mostly Canadian moose pucky, but the truth is that the disrespect that elected leaders in the GOP have shown is despicable.
NBachers
(19,120 posts)He could change the course of the world, if given the chance.
SidDithers
(44,333 posts)Sid
reflection
(6,286 posts)
sheshe2
(95,518 posts)And thank you kelliekat. Disrespect is correct.
Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)that O has had to endure, my fear has been that people from other countries would look at this treatment of him and believe it's both normal of our leaders to be unfairly treated this way (and have Congress do things like blocking common-sense bills to "break" him with many voters looking the other way), and that O is as much of a corrupt degenerate as his political adversaries paint him as and not someone more deserving of respect. Some leaders like Vladimir Putin see what's going on here, and probably think 'if this many people from Pres. Obama's own country don't respect him, then why should I?'
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)with people abroad. We've certainly had our problems in the past, but Ugly American fits the best in today's world.
Shame on all of us for allowing it to get this far. I never thought I'd live to see this day.
MFrohike
(1,980 posts)Much of the criticism from the right of the president is unwarranted, bizarre, or both. Anybody who denies it is being paid to deny it or is too stupid to recognize it anyway. That being said, Barack Obama is far from the first president to deal with outrageous personal and/or political attacks. Rachel Jackson died of mortification after the campaign of 1828. Father Charles Coughlin referred to FDR as Franklin Delano Rosenfelt and the Jew Deal on his national radio show. H.L. Hunt funded the publication of cheap pamphlets, much like Chick tracts, that accused JFK of being gay. Hell, anybody remember W's people robocalling SC about McCain's supposed black baby?
The personal attacks are as ugly as they've ever been in our history. Are they worse? I doubt it. It wasn't so long ago that a lot of people had bumper stickers referring to a missing village idiot from Texas. I remember the bullshit theories that had Hilary sneaking out of the White House to kill Vince Foster, or Bill ordering the FBI/CIA/DEA/NSA/WHOEVER to do it. Hell, there was a whole death list theory regarding Clinton and videos funded by Richard Mellon Scaife that gave him a body count of over 100 people.
Much of what's said is outrageous and simply not fit for a decent society. That being said, the author of that whine isn't excused for claiming that it's somehow different this time. It's really not. Harry Truman was right a long time ago when he said, "the only thing that ever changes is the history you don't know."