I hear a lot of people claiming that the past “two years” have been the worst ever.
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I just don’t see it. **
What are Republicans complaining about, exactly?
The “D” after his name, mainly.
Yes, they would probably be equally upset about a hypothetical President Hillary Clinton. They didn’t have much time for her non-hypothetical husband, as I remember.
Disclaimer: I am an Obama supporter, and approve of most of the things he’s done that Republicans hate. But, specifically:
– they think the Health Care Bill was (is) a massive overreaching of government authority which will hurt business interests and drive up health care costs for everyone
– they think his economic recovery efforts have inflated the national deficit without being effective at turning around the economy
– they think that not extending the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans will stifle growth and economic recovery
– they think his response to the Gulf oil spill was weak and ineffective
They accuse him of being partisan, soft on foreign policy, and wrong on the economy.
I think they are wrong on all of these counts, but there you go.
I heard a lot more “worst ever” comments during GWB’s regime than I do now.
But to answer the OP, I suspect they dislike his socialist tendencies, such as Obamacare and nationalizing GM, to name a few. They also dislike his profligate spending, although it takes a touch of hypocrisy for them to make that complaint.
edit… damn, beaten to the punch, and by a better post!
Moved 2010 Elections --> Great Debates.
They are not good losers. They need more practice.
You have to understand that it is teleological, not causal. That is, the hatred is not caused by anything he did, but has an intent–to convince the public to vote his opposition, namely them, in. The party exists to win future elections & all the patronage jobs that go with it; this is what I shall call an “emergent systemic imperative” because apparently I have a little Kant in me.
In a two-party system, one of the most effective ways to do that is to undermine the credibility of the traditional “only alternative.” Right now, that method is the best available to a party that is still the same stupid corrupt party that exploded the deficit & screwed up Iraq; they can’t credibly claim to be better–that’s been disproven empirically–so they try to make you believe the Dems are even worse than they are.
Obama could be the best President ever, & the GOP would claim that everything he did was horrible. Alternatively, the GOP would claim that everything he did was horrible, even if they advocated for each of his actions the day before he did it.
This isn’t a debate, it should be in GQ
- He’s a muslim
- He raised taxes more than any other president in history
- He started the war in Afghanistan
- He wasn’t born an American citizen, or even in America
- He hates America
- Because Rush, Glenn, and Sarah said so
7…
Don’t you watch the news or Fox? The reasons have been stated over and over again.
What “Obamacare”? When did he nationalize GM? Just admit that the hatred came first before these reasons were trumped up. Their intended regime was toppled, and they have been busy ever since throwing mud and poisoning the political waters. This isn’t a case of “OMG! Look at what he is doing! We MUST fight that because we think it is wrong!” This is a case of “We don’t give a flying fuck WHAT his policies are-just make them look bad!”
You forgot:
(8) Because he’s a communist.
(9) Because he supports terrorism.
(10) Because he wants to destroy small businesses with taxes and government red tape.
(11) Because he doesn’t understand ordinary Americans.
Ironically, the Bush tax cuts were–according to those who designed them, & the GOP as recently as 2008–designed to end so that the budget would be rebalanced. That they end while a Democrat is in office, so that the GOP don’t have to “raise taxes” themselves, is, well, probably the plan all along.
They think all these things Skammer listed because (the theory goes) those who think these things & convince others of them are those who will win the election. That doesn’t mean they don’t sincerely believe them. Because they are willing to sincerely believe them, they are (they believe) able to win, or at least survive. A movement that admitted that the other party was doing all right in a period like this, just after they proved themselves completely untrustworthy, would be nullifying themselves. Reasonable compromise is death for the conservative movement & religion. Since conservatism “MUST SURVIVE,” the party must then believe that everything the Dems do is “EVIL.”
They hate him because he is a symbol of their gradual decline in relevancy. The old, white, religious, rural demographics are all in decline and they know it and they are terrified about it.
Well, I have to admit that DigitalC is right about why the base hate him. I still think it serves a purpose for the professionals.
TriPolar, Giles, you’re running into Poe’s Law here. I can tell you’re being sarcastic but not everyone can.
Czarcasm, I suspect the “intended régime” has planned for a Democratic win in 2008 at least since the Bush tax cuts were passed. Someone has to fix the budget, & the GOP “can’t” raise taxes. Look at how the talk radio guys were talking down the GOP nominee with the best chance to win in '08. (I considered voting for McCain just to make them have to deal with the mess they made, & couldn’t do it. My state went to McCain anyway.)
The Republicans I know IRL are a bit different:
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Most of them were not so much against the Health Care Bill, but did not believe for an instant the promises by Democrats and others that the bill would somehow pay for itself via savings. Some would rather have seen taxes raised - yes, raised - to keep the deficit from growing.
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Most of them feel that much, much fewer people who gamed the real estate system should have been bailed out. In short, anyone who got an ARM and was too stupid to know what the “A” meant, anyone who bought with $0 down, and anyone who bought more than 3 times their gross income worth of house. There is a simmering, almost intense hatred among the people I know who say “I bought a house within my means and paid my bills like clockwork, and I’m having to bail out some idiot making $50,000 a year who got into a $500,000 McMansion? Screw that - put them on the street, and then maybe they’ll smarten up. Otherwise, the only thing they learn is to live outside their means.”
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Most of them (a couple excepted) have no real opinions on the Bush tax cuts for dividends and capital gains.
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Pretty much 100% of the ones I know believe at worst Obama did “about the right thing”, and at best “the right thing”, regarding the oil spill. But then the Republicans I know IRL all work in the energy field.
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Pretty much 100% of the ones I know believe he is too soft on foreign policy and too friendly towards Muslim nations and tinpot dictators. As they fuel up their SUVs with gas from those countries…
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Pretty much 100% of them do not believe, and are very tired, of Obama’s near-constant hectoring on “obstructionist Republicans.”
The main thing they seem to hate is the Democratic Congress, not Obama, and it almost to me seems like Obama is getting the fallout from it. When I ask them what they specifically don’t like about Obama, the answer is:
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“We don’t trust the Congress, and Obama will basically rubber-stamp anything the Democrats pass.”
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“The deficit.”
There also is a simmering fear, just below the surface, that Obama is going to do an about-face on gun control after November, and suddenly make sweeping bans a new part of his domestic agenda. Personally I see zero chance of this happening…
Disclaimer: the above do not necessarily reflect my beliefs as a conservative non-Republican.
This post here actually explains it. They’re confused by right-wing lies and misinformation.
I hate him because he’s smarter than me. Has a wife so hot she scorches foot prints in the rug when she goes barefoot. Two bright, healthy, clearly adoring children. Bush didn’t make me feel inferior.
Well, it’s certainly not because
HE’S BLACK.
At least, that’s what a few Republicans told me.
This is EXACTLY right. The “old America” (and its ideologies) are gradually dying out and they are petrified of this.
They would be almost but not quite as upset. At least she’s white.