It wouldn’t be a holiday if I weren’t fuming against Barack Obama. Actually, it wouldn’t be any day if I weren’t fuming against Obama. Anyway, here are a quick three:
1) For many years, Obama has played this trick: He says that gay marriage is simply a matter of being able to love “who you love.” People who are against gay marriage are trying to prevent you from loving “who you love.”
He did it, somewhat slyly, in his Thanksgiving proclamation this year: The holiday “reminds us that no matter what our background or beliefs, no matter who we are or who we love, at our core we are first and foremost Americans.”
If he’s going to insist on playing this trick, I wish he would say “whom.”
2) Obama wrote back to a citizen, a Mr. Ritter (and good for him for doing so). To see the letter, and read about it, go here. He said, “I do have to challenge you . . . on the notion that any citizen that disagrees with me has been ‘targeted and ridiculed,’ or that I have ‘made fun’ of tea-baggers.”
The man who wrote him, this Mr. Ritter, used the phrase “tea baggers” himself. Obama was just responding in kind. Four years ago now, I wrote a piece called “Rise of an Epithet: ‘Teabagger’ and what to do.” An interesting issue, really. To see that piece, go here.
From his letter, it’s clear that Obama objects to being called a “socialist.” Fair enough. But we Americans are so squeamish about this word “socialist.” Our political terms are so messed up (as I’ve written many times). For example, our left-wingers are called “liberals.” In Australia — where political terms are more traditional and sensible — the Reaganite party is called the “Liberals.”
If O were an Aussie, he’d be a Laborite, right? If he were a Frenchman or an Italian, he’d be a member of the Socialist party, right? I mean, he wouldn’t be a Liberal, a Conservative, or a Christian Democrat.
Anyway . . .
3) Out in California, he said, “As I was getting a tour of DreamWorks, I didn’t ask, but just looking at faces, I could tell there were some folks who are here not because they were born here . . .”
If a Republican leader said he could tell by looking at people’s faces that they weren’t born here? Holy-moly. Armageddon.
But to be O is to be given a pass on everything. Even Benghazi? Even IRS brutishness and inequity? Even the ACA? We’ll see, we’ll see . . .