Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 02:45 pm
Depending on which philosopher one consults, there are either no or myriad universal truths. A universal truth is defined as obvious, self-evident, or generally applicable conformities to fact or actuality. There are many universal truths that are applicable to Republicans and their various conservative cohorts that include devotion to the rich, religious extremists, seditionists, and racists, as well as hatred of democracy, government, and the American people. Over the past five years, an irrefutable universal truth about Republicans and conservatives of all stripes is that if they criticize President Obama for anything, it is either something Republicans have done or something a white Republican president did without protestation or condemnation. In fact, it is a certainty that when Republicans attack Barack Obama for any perceived presidential flaw, either George W. Bush or GOP demigod Ronald Reagan did the exact same thing.
So it was this week when Republicans accused President Obama of political dissonance by failing to show Americans he was in charge of the downed Malaysian passenger jet tragedy or influx of child refugees because he did not cancel his scheduled events, it was certain Republican presidents did exactly the same thing. Last week President Obama flew to Camp David for the weekend and planned trips to Seattle and California this week. Incoming House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said, “Instead of responding to multiple international crises, the president is out on the loose and having a good time, he should remember that his responsibilities as commander in chief don’t stop when he’s out of the office.
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Evidently it was a different story when George W. Bush was photographed strumming a guitar with a country music artist as Hurricane Katrina laid waste to New Orleans. Where was the Republican outrage while Bush was on western trip instead of rushing to Washington to oversee disaster relief for Katrina’s victims including dead, homeless, and lost American citizens? There was no Republican outrage at images of “seemingly carefree President Bush pursuing his original schedule and disregarding the plight of Americans in New Orleans.” One can only conclude that because Bush is white, and a Republican, his blatant disregard for the people of color in New Orleans dying, homeless, and abandoned is different than President Obama appealing to Congress to help address the influx of child refugees at the border due to a Bush-Republican law.
Apparently it was also a completely different story when, in 1983, Ronald Reagan was vacationing at his Santa Barbara ranch when the former Soviet Union shot down a Korean Air Lines flight. Reagan refused to cut short his planned 25-day vacation to return to Washington, and instead issued written statements about the downed passenger jet. Reagan only returned to Washington after widely distributed photographs emerged of him playing cowboy on horseback. Reagan “took charge of the tragedy” and displayed his “presidential leadership” and “showed Americans” he was in charge of the tragedy by addressing the nation and telling the American people the Soviet Union shot down a Korean airliner.
President Obama appealed to Congress weeks ago for funding to address the humanitarian crisis at the border, and announced a “cross-governmental agency plan to deal with the situation.” All that accomplished was eliciting accusations from Republicans that Bush’s immigration law was “an administration-made crisis.” Apparently, Republicans expect the President to rush to the Texas border, grab an AR15 and lead a battalion of white armed vigilantes to exterminate Central American brown children seeking asylum in America according to Bush-Republican’s 2002 and 2008 law.
As far as the downed Malaysian airliner; do Republicans expect the President to rush to NORAD, enter launch codes, and unleash a few nuclear-armed ICBMs on Moscow, or send in a Navy Seal Team to assassinate the Republicans’ newest man-god Vladimir Putin? The President has, for weeks, led the rest of the world in levying economic sanctions on Russia and demanding an end to the Russian incursion into eastern Ukraine. And, immediately after the Malaysian airliner was shot down Obama demanded international access to the wreckage site as well as issuing a call to Putin two days ago to end the hostilities in Ukraine. Americans, by a margin of 2-1, approve of the President’s handling of the crisis in Ukraine according to a poll last week, so it is unclear why Republicans think the President is not showing leadership in dealing with the crisis in the Ukraine. There must be something else Republicans see that the American people do not, and therein lies the political dissonance in Washington.
The political dissonance lies solely with Republicans who find any reason to condemn President Obama for either cleaning up Bush Republicans immigration mess, issuing the exact same executive orders as Bush, or demanding access to the downed Malaysian airliner and an end to Ukrainian hostilities all while maintaining his schedule. The reality is it is not political dissonance; it is racial animus driving the Republican criticism of this President for doing more than white Republican presidential heroes playing cowboy as the Soviet Union shot down a Korean passenger jet or schmoozing with country musicians while people of color in New Orleans were abandoned to Hurricane Katrina’s devastation.
After five-and-a-half years of Republican criticism of this President for doing what his predecessor did, cleaning up Republicans’ economic disasters, or compromising with Republicans, the only reasonable conclusion is they are driven by racial animus. For dog’s sake, when Republicans complained bitterly on behalf of small businesses that the mandate to provide healthcare insurance was too much, too fast, the President compromised and extended the time to give businesses exactly what Republicans demanded. The result is a House Republican lawsuit against the President.
If any Republican, teabagger, or conservative malcontent can give any reason for condemning this President for doing the same thing as white Republicans, or cleaning up their malfeasance, they need to elucidate legitimate reasons or admit they hate the President because he is an African American. And no, parroting the conservative memes of presidential overreach, disregarding the Constitution, or Marxism are not legitimate reasons; they are surrogates for racial animus and white supremacy and for five-and-a-half years they have been a universal truth applicable to Republicans, teabaggers, and all manner of conservative cretins.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
