An equal-time flame war as a counterpoint to this thread, only with the correct comparative term. And also making specific which President Bush is under discussion.
Flame away. I’m only here to uphold equal-time rules.
The Obama haters are WAY more stupid. I can understand somebody trying to support Bush along basic ideological lines, or be defensive against what they think is too much criticism. A certain amount of reflexive defensiveness is to be expected along partisan political lines.
Even criticism or questioning of Obama is not automatically stupid, but the hysterical hatred is bizarre and not founded on anything substantive or rational. Supporting and defending Bush was nowhere near as unhinged from reality as the birthers, the deathers, the beasters, the baggers, etc. The actual person they hate is so mild, measured and moderate in both demeanor and policy that one can’t help but think the hatred and sobbing fear is based on something else – some other characteristic or quality perhaps. I wonder what.
what are beasters?
I’m agreeing with Dio, to the (probably extremely limited) extent that these two groups do not overlap. And the Bush I refer to is George the Lesses (43).
One supposes that some of the Obama-haters consider him to be the Antichrist.
What I call those who think Obama is the Antichrist.
Baggers?
Baggers? Baggers? We don’t need no steeeeenking baggers!
Hillory?
Against that we have to measure the fact that Obama comes in for criticism (not hate, just criticism) from the LW as well, and with somewhat more substance and rationality.
Let me try to reason through this.
I need to deal with the stupid Obama supporters and stupid Bush supporters as well as the stupid Bush haters and stupid Obama haters.
If I cross off Bush and Obama from both the numerator and denominator positions, I think I’m left with the following:
I support the stupidity haters and hate the stupidity supporters.
How’s that work?
Just don’t divide by a birther’s IQ.
There does seem to be a lot of unwarranted Obama hating going on. I would say that part of the angry backlash we’re seeing is against the federal government in general.
Lot’s of decent folks followed their president into a war believing what they were told. Gradually they discovered they had been lied to and betrayed by that president at a horrific cost in lives and at a huge economic expense. Just as they were ready to start over with a new president and try to recover their leaders told them it’s time to panic again and we need to spend hundreds of billions to bailout big business. Our new president, rather than offer a new direction continued the bailout which can’t be justified or understood by the average citizen. All we know is the same banks that have been raising interest rates and penalty fees are getting the benifit of billions of tax dollars. I still support Obama but it’s pretty understand able that some people would be pissed as hell and suffering from a complete loss of faith in our government’s will to do what’s best for us.
Obama haters, definitely. I wouldn’t mind so much if the hatred came from stuff he actually did, like the stimulus package, but most of the hate is in reaction to obvious lies fed to the haters by the right wing press. He’s going to set up death panels. He’s going to make us all socialists. He was born in Kenya. He hates white people. Anyone with the IQ of a turnip would know this stuff is all crap.
And I think the hatred extends beyond him. To believe in the death panels you not only have to think Obama is evil but that every Democratic congressperson is evil also, that they would write such a bill, or not make a stink. That goes beyond stupid to scary.
A large segment of Obama Haters are outright racists, doesn’t make them stupider, it makes them more loathsome.
The race card. Check.
But it’s actually unfair that you have taken birthers to be about the birth certificate, when the conspiracy theory about Palin’s baby was first. Now we’ll have to call them the Triggers. And then we have all the Naziers, the reptilers, the rehabbers, the oilers, the bush-is-a-Karl-Rove-robotters, the skull-and-boners (which has a nice ring to it), the Bush-is-remote-controllers, the election-frauderes, etc.
The “race card” card. Check.
There was no such conspiracy theory. Conservatives made that up.
Wait - are you attempting to imply that racism is not a reason some people hate Obama?
The Palin’s baby thing was a conspiracy theory? I thought it was just a rumour. I never heard it even vaguely described in conspiracy-theory terms, i.e. there was a shadowy cabal behind it who were eliminating people who knew/spoke the truth.
It never even occurred to me to equate it to the birther theory. It’d be like comparing Lincoln’s assassination to Battlefield Earth simply because both were painful experiences that took place in theatres.
Thanks, I needed that.