Part of it is the bitter fruit of the Christian Coalition & the Moral Majority. A generation ago, certain political operatives worked very hard to propagandize culturally or theologically conservative Protestants into becoming safe GOP votes. They didn’t have to vote GOP consistently, so long as they would not vote for a liberal Democrat.
So you now have a group of middle-aged voters that grew up with that, & their parents who fed them that, & some of them aren’t that historo-politically savvy to begin with, & they while they conflate different varieties of “godless evil” a lot of it is this conditioned response that the liberals are baby killers & Sodomites & enemies of God.
And then in Obama’s case add in some good old-fashioned xenophobia, plus whoever’s left that disapproves of miscegenation enough to dislike a mixed-race person. And now & then I see some responses that tell me it’s race or culture: his nappy hair &/or his funny name. He weirds some people out.
Clinton was white (still is, in fact) and the Republicans accused him of everything up to and including father-raping. No doubt many Republicans are racists and oppose Obama on those grounds; it’s hard to pretend the guy selling the Curious George shirts with the “Obama '08” caption isn’t a racist. Still, the driving force behind the current version of insanity from the American right isn’t the fact that Obama isn’t white, it’s that Obama isn’t a Republican.
Being black is such a huge advantage in running for president, it’s amazing a man who was half white managed to win. My people celebrated by squaredancing into the morning.
I know several self-described liberals who, during the primaries, considered McCain a good man and would have been willing to vote for him. (Yeah, that’s anecdotal evidence, but it’s more evidence than the other side is offering.) McCain lost much of his credibility and appeal when he started flailing about in response to a very strong opponent with a well-run campaign.
Bringing on Palin as running mate didn’t seem to help much either.
(Not sure this is the right place for it, and it may well have been suggested by others, but…)
Had a small epiphany a couple of days back about the Birther nonsense. I was discussing psychology with a friend who asserted that a number of beliefs typified “Conservatives”; one of these being adherence to / respect for authority, which made me think that (some) US conservatives were in something of a dilemma; they should respect the President because he is the President, but they don’t / can’t because of who he is. The birther claims suggest an escape from the contradiction: if he’s not the legitimate President then the problem is solved.
> I am not in the USA so only get international news from the Internet or sources
> like BBC word service. International reporting tends to focus on the
> sensational/important news so perhaps those of us outside the country don’t
> always get the overall picture of events and opinions of the general population.
Chickenwrangler, where do you live? I find it hard to believe that the BBC World Service is distorting this news story that much. I would think that they are less sensationalistic than the news here in the U.S. Are you telling me that the BBC World Service is claiming that the people who come to the town hall meetings and rant about Obama and the people who have been complaining about Obama’s speech to schools are typical of the majority of the American population? Or do you just listen to the first few sentences of some BBC news stories and don’t bother to listen to the rest where they explain that these people aren’t representative of the American public?
I wonder if most of the people who are out protesting the health care system (that is still in the forming stage) are the people who wouldn’t want anything that Obama brings to the table. They seem angry that he hasn’t solved the world’s problems in the 8 months he has been in office, and have criticised every move he has made, (and probably would even if it was to their benefit). many are Palin followers (the Republican base) , and are angry that she didn’t get in.
The money that was spent by the protesters going to the Capitol and other places could be spent to help people who do not have health care etc., but they seem to be the one’s who want only their agenda, or beliefs to be the law, even if it means it is costing them money they could use toward their own health care. People out of work through no fault of their own,have no way to pay for any kind of health care,many live in shelters. It costs people to pay more for those who use the emergency rooms etc. so we pay either way!
To the What would Jesus do crowd…He said to sell what one has and give to the poor…Socialism…the sign many carry that they are worried about at the protests!
Wasn’t the country in wonderful shape when the last Conservative left office?
I’m actually more worried about the racists that actually *voted for him *because he is half black. I know at least a few exist, and I would assume they’d be some of the most disillusioned.
I also feel a bit misled about some of Obama’s stances. I somehow got misled into thinking he was only marginally prochoice, for example. Not that I would have changed my vote with Palin on the other ticket…