The Right-Wing's Strategy For Dethroning Obama

Ever since President Obama took the Oath of Office this past January, the Republicans have been adamently searching for ways to undermine his popular support. Although President Obama has already pursued a very ambitious and at times highly controversial agenda up to this point during his time in office, the great majority of the attacks against him have not come in the form of well reasoned substantive disagreements with his policy positions. Rather, in general the attacks against Obama have thus far appeared in the form of attacks on the personality and characteristics of President Obama and his family. In order to show just how ridiculous these attacks have become, I have decided to list some of my favorite examples:

1. Obama adheres to a socialist ideology and is determined to destroy what is left of the American capitalist system. Every night on Glen Beck's program on the Fox News Network, Beck goes on a rant about how America's economic system is being completely transformed by the Obama administration, sometimes resulting in Beck breaking down in tears to symbolize his endless love for capitalism. What Beck and most of the political right have failed to realize is that Obama's actions during the current economic crisis have been designed not to undermine capitalism, but instead to preserve and restore its most important institutions. For example, although I disagree with the ethical aspects of Obama's decision to bail out the Nation's failing banks, I nevetheless recognize that this is a necessary step in pursuance of the effort to revive the economy. If Obama had instead let capitalism run its course in its pure undiluted form, and had permitted some of the largest banks to die out, consumer confidence would have suffered an enormous hit (as if it has not been hit hard enough already), housing prices would have continued to spiral downward at a pace comparable to when the bubble initially bursted, and it would have made the process of obtaining a loan nearly impossible for the needy family. It is important to also keep in mind that this trend of socializing aspects of our Nation's financial institutions was not initiated by President Obama, but rather back under the Bush administration when it decided to bail out Bear Sterns. Thus, this method of incorporating socialistic aspects into capitalist institutions is by no means only confined to the liberal agenda, contrary to the assertion of Glen Beck. If the lessons of this economic crisis could be summed up into a single sentence, it would be this: in order for capitalism to work correctly and provide economic benefits to as great a percentage of the American public as possible, it is necessary for the federal government to enact carefully constructed restrictions on the financial activities of a number of U.S. industries. These restrictions should not be designed to stifle economic growth and free enterprise, but instead to protect the public from fradulent lending practices (as exemplified ever so clearly by the subprime mortgage debacle) and avert future financial disasters.

2. Obama is a radical Muslim cleric who is set on destroying America and establishing a Muslim stronghold in the West. I think the content of this absurd claim speaks for itself, and merits no further discussion.

3. Obama took a vacation to Hawaii and is therefore unfit to be Commander-in-Chief. During his time in office, President Bush set a new record by spending more than a year of his presidency (collectively) at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Congratulations to Mr. Bush for becoming America's most vacationed president in history!

4. Obama has no regard for the Constitution, and is set on destroying it. Have the proponents of this claim slept through the abuses committed by the Bush administration during the previous eight years? Just to remind them, the Bush administration authorized warrantless spying procedures in clear violation of the Fourth Amendment; established a system of military tribunals that did not guarentee defendants their Fifth and Sixth Amendment right to be provided with effective counsel, confront their accuser, see the evidence against them, or even be considered innocent until proven guilty; suspended the writ of habeas corpus, which according to the text of the Constitution can only be suspended by CONGRESS, and not the president, during cases of national rebellion; issued an enormous number of presidential signing statements declaring invalid over 1,000 separate sections of congressional enactments; authorized the CIA to use several "enhanced" interrogation techniques including waterboarding, mock executions, and electrocution of the genitals; established a number of secret overseas CIA prisons and ordered the CIA to destroy 92 interrogation tapes when subpoenaed by Congress; and held that once labeled as an enemy combatant, an individual could be held in custody indefinitely. If you ignore these "minor" constitutional blemishes, then the Bush administration had a pretty honorable record of upholding the Constitution.

5. Obama uses a teleprompter during speeches. Is the political right really claiming that President Bush memorzied his speeches? Sometimes it's really hard to take these criticisms seriously.

6. Obama took his wife Michelle to see a broadway show during the middle of an economic crisis. Isn't that outrageous? Once again, I think this one just speaks for itself.

7. During a speech in the Middle East, Obama declared that the U.S. is not a Christian Nation, but rather a Nation founded on the value of religious freedom. Wasn't our Nation founded just so that Christian extremists could subjugate all people who expressed differing viewpoints on the issue of religion? The Constitution doesn't say anything about religious freedom, does it? Actually it does, just read the First Amendment. These extremists fail to consider the primary reason why the Pilgrims came and settled the colonies in the first place: to escape religious oppression.

8. Obama's birth certificate is fake. This one can most aptly be described as a product of someone's imagination (or maybe it was devised by Rush Limbaugh during one of his drug trips).

9. Obama is an elitest because he likes his hamburgers with spicy dijon mustard. Apparently Obama is just too good for ketchup. I know it's hard to believe, but Sean Hannity actually raised this claim during one of his hilarious rants. Check it out: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/07/hannity-attacks-obama-for_n_198851.html

10. Obama is going to round up all Republicans and put them in FEMA reeducation camps. Thank you Glen Beck: http://www.videosift.com/video/Glen-Beck-thinks-Obama-has-built-FEMA-camps-for-republicans

11. Obama favors teaching sex education to kindergartners. I guess this approach to sex education is opposed to the approach favored by the Pope, encouraging abstinence because condoms facilitate the spread of AIDS.

12. Obama had cocaine-fueled gay sex in the back of a limousine. http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56626

When is enough just enough already? I'd like to remind the right that our Nation is currently in peril: the economy is failing, the unemployment rate is nearly a whopping 10%, 48 million Americans do not have healthcare (this figure does not include the over 100 million Americans with inadequate health care), the Social Security trust fund is in serious jeopardy, the polar icecaps are melting (about a decade from now, nearly 1/6 of the world's current water supply will be lost forever), and we are engaged in wars on two fronts. This is not the best time to focus our attention on issues such as Obama's peculiar eating habits. Instead, we need to immediately refocus our efforts toward devising viable solutions to each of these significant problems, and abandon this petty and childish discourse.