When
the "conservative" five in particular Justice Roberts called our nation
a post racial society as they eviscerated Affirmative Action and the
1965 Voting Rights Act, I would have loved to send this article "Obama
Africanus the First" by Geoffrey Stone
Law School to the illustrious Justice Roberts. Along with the immoral
killing of two unarmed black men Eric Garner and Michael Brown by white
cops with no accountability, I think it says it all!
Obama Africanus the First
Posted:
12/06/2014 7:42 pm EST
Updated:
12/07/2014 12:59 pm EST
I've been thinking lately about the persistently vituperative
and insulting attacks on President Obama since 2008. It is, of course,
commonplace in American politics for presidents to be lambasted for
their policies, their programs, their values, and even their personal
quirks. Sometimes the tone crosses the line. John Adams was accused by a
political opponent of "swallowing up" every "consideration of the
public welfare ... in a continual grasp for power." James Madison was
demeaned as "Little Jemmy," because he was short. James Buchanan, who
once declared that workers should get by on a dime a day, came to be
mocked as "Ten Cents Jimmy."
John Tyler, who assumed the
presidency after the death of William Henry Harrison, was ridiculed as
"His Accidency." Congressman Abraham Lincoln castigated President James
K. Polk as a "completely bewildered man." Opponents of Woodrow Wilson's
reinstitution of the draft in World War I accused him of "committing a
sin against humanity." Critics of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal attacked
him as an "un-American radical." Richard Nixon was famously known as
"Tricky Dick," and of course he was not "A Crook." At the height of the
Vietnam War, Lyndon Johnson was excoriated by his opponents as a
"Murderer" and a "War Criminal."
But no president in our nation's
history has ever been castigated, condemned, mocked, insulted, derided,
and degraded on a scale even close to the constantly ugly attacks on
President Obama. From the day he assumed office -- indeed, even before
he assumed office -- he was subjected to unprecedented insults in often
the most hateful terms.
He has been accused of being born in
Kenya, of being a "secret Muslim," of being complicit with the Muslim
Brotherhood, of wearing a ring bearing a secret verse from the Koran, of
having once been a Black Panther, of refusing to recite the pledge of
allegiance, of seeking to confiscate all guns, of lying about just about
everything he has ever said, ranging from Benghazi to the Affordable
Care Act to immigration, of faking bin Laden's death, and of funding his
campaigns with drug money. It goes on and on and on. Even the
President's family is treated by his political enemies with disrespect
and disdain.
If one browses even respectable websites, one can
readily find bumper stickers, coffee cups, and tee-shirts for sale with
such messages as: "Dump This Turd" (with an image of President Obama);
"Coward! You Left Them To Die in Benghazi" (with an image of President
Obama); "Somewhere in Kenya A Village Is Missing Its Idiot" (with an
image of President Obama); "Islam's Trojan Horse" (with an image of
President Obama); "Pure Evil" (with an image of President Obama); "I'm
Not A Racist: I Hate His White Half Too" (with an image of President
Obama); "He Lies!" (with an image of President Obama); and on and on and
on.
Now, don't get me wrong. Every one of these messages is
protected by the First Amendment, and people have a right to express
their views, even in harsh, offensive, cruel, and moronic ways. We the
People do not need to trust or admire our leaders, and we should not
treat them with respect if we don't feel they deserve our respect. But
the sheer vituperation directed at this President goes beyond any
rational opposition and is, quite frankly, mind-boggling.
In part,
of course, this might just be a product of our times. Perhaps the
quality of our public discourse has sunk so low that any public official
must now expect such treatment. Perhaps any president elected in 2008
would have been greeted with similar scorn and disdain. But, to be
honest, that seems unlikely.
Of course, there are those who say
that this phenomenon is due in part, perhaps in large part, to the fact
that President Obama is African-American. But surely racism is dead in
America today, right?
One fact that might lend some credence to
the theory that racism has something to do with the tenor of the attacks
on President Obama is that only one other president in our history has
been the target of similar (though more subdued) personal attacks.
In
his day, this president was castigated by the press and his political
opponents as a "liar," a "despot," a "usurper," a "thief," a "monster," a
"perjurer," an "ignoramus," a "swindler," a "tyrant," a "fiend," a
"coward," a "buffoon," a "butcher," a "pirate," a "devil," and a "king."
He was charged with being "cunning," "thickheaded," "heartless,"
"filthy," and "fanatical." He was accused of behaving "like a thief in
the night," of being "the miserable tool of traitors and rebels," and of
being "adrift on a current of racial fanaticism." He was labeled by his
enemies "Abraham Africanus the First."
But, of course, race had nothing to do with it then, either.
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