the pearl clutching going on over someone directing "fuck you" at President Obama

[phleshdef]

180. When was the last time a President was disrespected, attacked, slandered, etc, like PBO?

It does make me angry. And I'll let you know why. Its because people from both parties and both ideological spectrums set out to undermine him since day fucking 1. The Republicans, the blue dogs, the Joe Liebermans of the world, the pissed off Hillary devotees, the corporate media and so on and so forth... since day fucking 1 have rooted for and actively engaged in encouraging, not just the failure of the Obama presidency, but the failure of Obama's reputation, his public image and his sense of dignity.

There are definitely things I disagree with the President on when it comes to drones and the NSA and a few other items. But he is never really given the benefit of the doubt for anything by the people that engage in this crap. No matter what he does, he gets shit on for it. Regardless of the political circumstances with Congress, regardless of the fact that this guy got more death threats his first year in office than other Presidents get in 8, regardless of the fact that he has to be everyone's President, not just the President of the left.

So yea, after 5 years of watching the first African American President, a man from humble backgrounds who devoted a good deal of his life to helping poor communities and being an educator, who literally did pull himself up from his bootstraps, who HAS done a lot of damn good things for this country while constantly dealing with opposition fueled more out of hatred than policy disagreement, then yea it does piss me off when well established, progressive DUers go take another knee jerk verbal shit all over him... especially when they were ultimately proven wrong about their own situation and especially when what they were shitting on him over is ultimately a huge set of laws, programs and program expansions that is UNDISPUTABLY saving and will continue to save a lot of American lives.

I would probably have been a lot more vocal in my criticisms of the things I disagree with this President on if it weren't for the extreme dog pile of unwarranted criticisms that have been aimed at him since day 1. We didn't even treat Bush this bad as a party/ideological spectrum... and he actually did WAY more shit to deserve it. Considering all of that, it kinda makes me not even give a damn about the warranted criticisms because I've been so desensitized by the never ending dogpile of hateful bullshit that isn't based on anything other than pure derangement towards Barack Obama.

The last point I'll make though is this. Criticism of a politician or personality is a two way street. If you think that its "okay" for a person to publically blast the President, and say "fuck you" and call him names and all that shit, then you need to also believe that its "okay" for others to publically defend the President, express why we appreciate things that he has done and send it right back at that person. I don't see you making threads calling people out for picking fights with posters who create threads admiring the President for something he did or just getting amusement from looking at his family and daily life type stuff. If you don't want to be guilty of engaging in a double standard, then you probably need to be calling out those folks as well and you also need to recognize that defending the President is just as valid as criticizing the President. Otherwise, you have a bit of a conflict of standards going on there. And if Will Pitt or whoever isn't prepared to deal with that kind of feed back, then its probably unwise to be posting such things on a public forum DESIGNED for giving and receiving feedback about the things you are posting.