Barack Obama’s video venture with BuzzFeed continued to hit a nerve Monday with those who think the President filming himself with a selfie stick was well beneath the dignity of the office. In an op-ed titled “President BuzzFeed,” Wall Street Journal deputy editorial page editor Bret Stephens faulted Obama for trying to come across as plugged-in with millennials, the age group that the BuzzFeed video was designed to encourage sign up for health insurance before the federal enrollment deadline…. “If communicating with 20-somethings as if they are 11-year-olds is a way to get them to behave like grown-ups, then maybe the White House has at last found a way to make good on its make-believe enrollment numbers,” Stephens wrote.
A very wise friend once told me, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, kibbitz.” This would certainly explain the flood of ridicule and condemnation directed at President Obama (of course, his skin color has NOTHING to do with it). It seems virtually everyone on the right side of the political/ideological divide with a keyboard thinks the President is doing a crap job…and they know EXACTLY why he’s proven himself to be such an inept leader.
For many on the Right, a President is someone is a grey suit, blue tie, an white shirt (and white skin)…and acts like it. Even the vaguest display of personality or human emotion is considered detestable weakness. If there’s one thing Conservative pundits HATE, it’s weakness…as they define it, of course. Even if they can’t nail the President for displaying “weakness,” they can always fall back on the one-size-fits-all accusation that he’s somehow “unPresidential.” That there’s no real definition for “unPresidential” only plays into the hands of those who hate Barack Obama- the person, the concept, the reality- and would miss no opportunity to chastise him. Wall Street Journal deputy editorial page editor Bret Stephens took the President to task for attempting to connect with millenials. Evidently, trying to meet young people where they live is pandering…which, as far as I can discern, is what Stephens believes to he the exclusive purview of Republicans.
With the advent of the Internet, Presidents have come in for considerable ridicule, some of it deserved, some of it not so much, and some of it just plain mean. No President has been subjected to the level of vitriol, rage, and racist diatribes as Barack Obama. That’s been well documented, so I see no need to deviate into that discussion just now. Just when I think I’ve seen detractors of this President sink to the bottom of the barrel, though, they demonstrate once again that they live in a barrel that has no bottom. If Barack Obama was photographed drinking a Diet Coke, there are those who’d demand to know why he hates Diet Pepsi. If he’s observed eating a taco, some pundits would be incensed that he isn’t eating a hamburger- you know, AMERICAN food. If he spoke positively about clean air, I suspect some pundits would be tempted to grab a plastic bad and suffocate themselves…which doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.
I have no problem with those who disagree with this President. Lord knows I had many and frequent issues with his predecessor. That said, it doesn’t seem too much to expect that a basic level of respect and decorum govern (often legitimate) criticism. When a newspaper like the St. Paul Pioneer Press can run a photo caption on their website calling the President an “assclown,”, something is horribly wrong with the state of our public discourse. Disagreeing with the President is one thing. Criticizing his every word, thought, and deed is bad enough, but name-calling and deeply personal insults should have no place in the public sphere.
Whatever happened to treating others as you would hope others would treat you? Did respect go out of fashion on January 20th, 2009? Or does the Golden Rule no longer apply when the subject is The Black Guy in the White House ©?
I’d say that the people willing to sink so low should be ashamed of themselves…but that would presume they’re actually capable of feeling shame. They certainly seem incapable of simply human decency.
