Families
fight.
That’s
just the way that it is.
They
love each other, they hate each other. Sometimes they enjoy each other.
Other times just the thought of a family uniting in a room for the
holidays is enough to cause familial angst.
America
is a family. Fifty states united under the American flag, north, south,
east, west, people’s whose ancestors came from all over the globe.
Asians, whites, dark skin, light skin, black hair, red hair; American’s
are a kaleidoscope of color, ethnicity, personality, wants, desires,
needs.
It is
the amalgamation of the individuality that has made the great experiment
that is America the success that it is and the envy of cultures
worldwide.
The
world has played witness to brother fighting brother, father battling
son, right trumping wrong in our struggle to achieve a country where
freedom rings.
And
through it all, no matter how angry, how hurt, despite our individual
sacrifices, Americans have always come home to country
This
nation has endured and we remain a united family.
But
now, a malady affects our nation, a subtle sickness that threatens the
very core of who we are.
American’s have become addicted to America bashing and the way that we
feed that addiction is through the drug of demeaning our presidents.
Now,
I’m not talking about having issues with our Presidents and their
agendas. It is the right of every American to either approve or
disapprove of a president’s positions. If you don’t like the Iraq War,
then by all means protest.
But
call a President of the United States stupid? An idiot? Incompetent?
Strong
families may argue around the holiday table, or siblings may stop
talking to one another for months, even years. But the strength of a
family demands that when the going gets tough, the family stands
together and portrays to the world both honor and respect toward one
another.
This
picture of a family from the outside in reinforces the families’ system.
Americans seem to have forgotten this. The Office of the Presidency is
under assault, first by the mainstream media that finds sport in
denigrating our presidents, not only their policies. And by America’s
citizens who have taken to deriding our leaders.
America
doesn’t need 527’s to bash our presidents, or our leaders who are
auditioning for the office. Americans seem to have turned into its own
militia of seeking out what’s wrong with our leaders rather than in
what’s right.
Americans have turned into Archie Bunkers and lost their Edith within.
Americans have
become bigots, haters of their own presidents.
This
bigotry seems to have started with the unfortunate downfall of President
Richard Nixon, an onerous character if ever there was one, and a
president who was forced to resign from office in shame. But he was the
exception to the rule.
Since
Nixon’s downfall, facilitated by Woodward and Bernstein, two young,
tenacious reporters of the Washington Post, every investigative
journalist out there has been looking for that gotcha that will bring
down the American president and win them a Pulitzer Prize.
By the
same token, American citizens have joined in the fray. They see all
politicians as suspicious, self-serving, megalomaniacs. And while some
might be, not all are.
There
is, of course, nothing wrong with guarded distrust. But anything more is
pathological. Still, if you want to win friends and influence people,
pick on the president.
No one
knows this better than Barack Obama, who cleverly brought down his
opponent in the Democratic contest, Hillary Clinton, not by deriding
Mrs. Clinton, a woman, and therefore a commodity that was difficult to
attack without looking like an abuser, but by going after her husband,
the 41st President of the United States, both as a man and as
a president.
Obama
crossed that boundary of respect for the highest office in the land, and
the mainstream press crossed the boundary right a long with him.
It was
a disgrace to watch.
Obama
and his surrogates and the press accused a former President of the
United States of being a racist and got away with it. And as if that
were not enough, attacked the success of his presidency, arguably the
most successful presidency of the post World War II era.
Admittedly, the situation was unusual. A former President’s wife was
seeking the office of the Presidency, and that was new. But the attacks
on President Clinton were on President Clinton…not on his standing as
the husband of the candidate.
When
George W. Bush ran for the office, his opponents kept young Bushs’
father former President George H. Bush, out of the fray in respect for
the office.
Not so
Barack Obama.
Ironically now that Barack Obama is the Democratic Party’s presumptive
nominee, he knows that in order for himself to become the President of
the United States, he needs to build party unity and bring the former
President back into the fold. Now Obama is singing the praises of the
former President.
As to
Bill Clinton, although it took him three weeks, the former President
through his spokesperson issued what can only be called a tepid
endorsement for his wife’s vanquisher.
Clinton’s lack of enthusiasm for Barack Obama’s candidacy is
understandable given that Obama defeated his wife, given that Obama
nearly destroyed the legacy of President Clinton, but moreover, that
Barack Obama broke what should be a cardinal rule of American politics,
don’t personally attack a president, current or former.
Sadly,
some men, the odious former President Richard Nixon being one, have
little respect for the office, but honor its power.
It
appears that Barack Obama is much like Richard Nixon, a man who chose to
put self-interest above the job he was elected to do: head the family we
call The United States of America.
Obama
is nothing more than a Meathead, which I can say because Obama is not
the President yet!