I think this is a huge reason as to why the Right Wing hates President Obama.

[Union Yes]

It's because THE PEOPLE exercised their power and elected him.

When the people flex their muscle, it scares the shit out of the Right Wing of America.

Authoritarians fear people power.

FUCK THEM. Participate in democracy. Please vote.

:patriot:

[tavalon]

1. Uh, no, actually it's because he's black

The ugly face of racism has reared its head.

[B Calm]

2. and he's a black Muslim from Kenya Africa who pals around with

terrorists, and who happens to be a socalist, fascist, communist, Nazi, liberal who wants to pull the plug on our grandma's.

[tavalon]

3. Nope, just black

The rest is extraneous fru fru meant to distract us. It's the KKK all over again.

[B Calm]

4. and what really bugs them, they can't understand why everyone

but them don't see that. . .

[tavalon]

5. Are you saying that we liberals don't notice he's black?

We've noticed and we've also noticed that his ears stick out. But more important than all that is that he is so fucking smart that maybe he can help with a few impossible problems that the last imbecile left behind. I hope.

[B Calm]

6. He's black? I'll be damn. . .

[emulatorloo]

17. plus he is a Black Muslim with a crazy Christian Preacher.

[AnArmyVeteran]

20. Obama admitted he was born in Kenya last night!!!

President Obama finally admitted he was born in Kenya last night at the correspondents dinner. He also said he is more popular in the country of his birth. So there it is. Can you imagine how many birthers will be cutting out just the soundbites they want to show Obama admitting he Kenyan?

[MajorChode]

8. It's because he's black AND a Democrat

If he were a Republican, they would be fine with him. Of course, if he were a Republican he wouldn't be president in the first place.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MajorChode]

11. Or the janitor that takes out Boehner's garbage

He could also mow Romney's lawn if he were a Mexican.

[progressiveinaction]

15. He's black?

I thought he was mixed. Why do people call someone who is every bit white as he is black "black"?

[lib_wit_it]

26. What if he had tried to eat at a whites only diner in the 1950s? Would they have said, Come right in

and sit right down. What can we get you?"

Not to say you are one of those who are trying to use "He's not really black" against him. But if you were, you could just keep that question and its answer in your mind.

[socialist_n_TN]

31. You can blame that on the old South....................

It didn't matter how much white you had in ancestry, if you had ONE black ancestor, you were black.

[HipChick]

16. he's half white...bi-racial..shame that everyone forgets this..

and can only apply the one drop rule

[tavalon]

18. He considers himself black

[D23MIURG23]

19. But at the same time I remember the Republican freak out when Clinton got elelcted...

And he was obviously white. I remember republicans I knew making comments about how he was "white trash" and "ambitious" and how Hillary was really in charge of everything.

Right wingers will demonize anyone their authority figures tell them to. This is ultimately about the right wing relationship to authority figures, and what sort of authority they feel is legitimate.

[goclark]

21. +1 I remember those "white trash" days and hated them so much

for saying nasty,vile things about Clinton and Carter.

They never said one word about the Hollywood Cowboy.

I can say these things because I am African American~~~~

Perhaps that'd why I can't agree that" Because he is Black" is the only real solid reason they keep playing the race card.

If BLACK was so scary, why did they stick that idiot Michael Steele up as the head of their party? If Black is so scary, why do they drool over Clarence Thomas with the White Wife that is a Tea Bag or why were they mum about GW's "wife" - the ever present Condi or Colin " who finally saw the light" Powell- the one that did their dirty work and held up that bottle for them!

Is it that they hate him for being Black or do they fear him because he outsmarts them and he WON when they believed that it was in the bag for Grandpa McPain?

What may scare them and should scare them more is -- he is Black and He Is Proud of Being Black, Brilliant and He Knows It and Will Stand Up To Them. And...... People of All Colors Love Him From All over the World -- now that scares them and I say ~ GOOOOOOOD!

Now let's move on cause he ain't changing his soft chocolate color , his sexy walk, his smooth talk , his golden heart, his knock out look in his fit right suits , his grace, his smile -- he ain't changing none of these things that make him " The Man" so let's move on.
:fistbump:

[tavalon]

24. The black people really liked him

That may have been enough.

[D23MIURG23]

27. I think that's a silly ad hoc argument.

I'm not suggesting that race doesn't play a part in this, or that the republicans haven't been using race to their electoral advantage for some time.

I do think its an oversimplification to say that this situation is entirely rooted in race. Notice how the Republicans went against their supposed principles in 2004 by demeaning John Kerry, a war hero, and attacking his record of service. That wasn't a race issue that I'm aware of, but it was another situation where the Republicans were being overtly hateful. Recall Anne Coulter calling John Edwards "faggot" at the 2008 CPAC; was that racially motiviated?

The Republicans are routinely told who they should hate by Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter and Sean Hannity, and the rest of the right wing goon squad who have been pushing violent and hateful rhetoric non-stop for at least 15 years. The right wing is well trained to hate and demonize anyone their masters tell them at a moment's notice. The difference with Obama is that he is uniquely able to push five or six "outsider" buttons for these people at once. He is black, he has a foreign sounding name, his father was a foreigner, he is self-made, his mother was a white lady who bore a black man's child, he is well educated, he is well spoken, and he blew their favorite illiterate half-term governer out of the water in the last election. This equates to a higher level of vehemence in the right wing resistance to Obama; its why they can paint Hitler mustaches on his picture, and parade around with them without any sense of irony. He literally stands for everything they think of as anathema to their values.

What his race doesn't do, though, is fundamentally change the relationship your average right winger has to left leaning politicians. The usual approach is blind unreasoning hatred no matter who the politician is or what position he/she takes on any given issue.

[driver8]

23. That is it - plain and simple.

They try to disguise it in many ways, but they aren't fooling anyone.

[Beacool]

25. I see........and they hated the Clintons because???

:shrug:

[Scuba]

7. You nailed it!

[Moody]

10. They would hate ANY Democratic President

[JHB]

14. We have a winnah!

We can argue degrees, and race certainly adds fuel, but the basic playbook is the same one used against Clinton, and would have been used against any Democratic president had someone else won the Democratic primaries and general election.

[Johonny]

29. They do not accept that the majority of Americans do not think like them

It undermines the group think that Republicans speak for Americans and Democrats speak for a slim regional minority.

[Raspberry]

12. What about when

"the people" flexed their muscle in solidly liberal Massachusetts and handed Ted Kennedy's seat to a Republican by a landslide?

[tabbycat31]

22. landslide?

here are the results

Scott Brown (R) -- 51.94% of the votes or 1,168,107 votes
Martha Coakley (D)-- 47.07% of the votes or 1,168,107 votes
Joseph Kennedy (L)-- .99% of the vote or 22,237 votes

That is not a landslide. The margin of victory is less than 5 points.

[KharmaTrain]

13. He's Everything They've Been Taught To Hate And Fear...

There's the obvious thing about him being black but it goes beyond. He's Harvard educated (elite), attended an "unconventional" church (if he wasn't a moslem plant...LOL), he's the socialist boogie monster that's been built up since the McCarthy days. Since he's a minority, he is the protector of the "nanny state" and represents the "riff raff" being "herded" to vote against their best interests (or so says hate radio). It's a pot boiler that has percolated for decades and has crystalized in one person.

The GOOP doesn't fear the people when it's "their" people. Look at how they're beating their chests about Dump Truck Brown and how so many people approve of the Papers Please edict. What they can't deal with is self determination and losing.

[Ganja Ninja]

28. They know Bush was a bad act.

That's driving this as much as anything. Bush was such a miserable failure and they are desperate for Obama to fail so they can try and equate the two.

That and he's black.

[deacon_sephiroth]

30. plus that other thing

teh blackness