Friday, August 14, 2009

Wake Up, Mr. Obama



Back in the dark ages when Bush and Dick were in power, we liberal and progressive bloggers knew not to go too far in what we wrote, because who knew what those goons were capable of doing to us?
As a member of Kill This Character (linked to the right) I tried to enter Sarah Palin as a would-be victim, and my fellow members jumped all over me because it was just too dangerous to post. From a legal standpoint, it wasn't a good idea to fantasize about offing Moosilla. I agreed and pulled the post.
Now that the Bush/Dick dictatorship has ended, so apparently has fear about publicly threatening the President and his allies.
As I have said before, Barack Kumbaya Obama has far too much tolerance for the first amendment.
WHAT?
A journalist bitching about too much freedom of speech?
Afraid so.
When that nutter in New Hampshire had the gall to wear a loaded gun into Obama's town hall meeting, I was outraged that the Secret Service didn't tackle him and send him to the nearest gulag.
When these obstructionist teabagging shills from the right disrupt town hall meetings with chants of "death to Obama," that's too damn much.
Regardless of who's in office, it is not within the spirit of the first amendment to make threats of violence, calls for violence, or otherwise threaten elected officials with bodily harm or death. Period.
Obama has a cadre of security trained to deal with overt threats, and I think it's time he unleash them on nuts who go too far.
From the get-go I have been worried about some gun freak from the right-wing assassinating the president. Lately that fear has amplified and become a daily concern for me.
Freedom of speech is good, but so is the freedom to be heard.
Legislators should be able to speak with constituents on matters of public policy without a bunch of ignorant lunatics fucking things up.
Right-wing activists have to learn that laws and policies with which they disagree are not okay to ignore. They cannot keep using force on citizens who are following laws.
We lefties show civil disobedience by destroying property.
The right shows civil disobedience by threatening and killing human beings.
Networks like MSNBC make us lefties angry and verbally aggressive.
Networks like Fox News make their viewers go out and threaten and kill people.
Obama needs to reign in this domestic terrorism before he gets assassinated.
This is serious stuff, and pretending that right-wing, partisan hatemongers just need to feel respected and included is bullshit.
We didn't elect a weak pacifist who'd let the right walk all over him.
Obama needs to man-up and get a handle on the right's growing mob mentality.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think Obama actually has a strategy-- it is not weak pacifism, it is not feeding the flames. It is not stooping to that level.
He did it with Palin when she got ugly/nasty....
he took the high road & basically did not give her the time of day.

You make a good point here though....
there needs to be a line. Palin crossed it & eventually got called on it by much of congress.

Bush took it too far, but Obama may be taking it too short.

Fran

Iain said...

What Fran said.

It's intensely irritating to watch, but Obama's apparent doormat act has to be as politically motivated as the rent-an-issue loons using anything (except overt racism) to attack him. It just has to be - from what I've read about Rahm Emmanuel he must be itching for the fight, but is as contained as the rest of the administraton.

The equivalent of turning off MSNBC, CNN, etc.; deny that your listening, and rendering the nonsense as unimportant to a president. The alternative is to get into some pointless, braindead "conversation" with Palin and her disciples, a cosmological waste of time.