Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 12:24 am
Rachel Maddow subjects the recent spate of Obama conspiracy theories to the mocking that they so richly deserve.
Here’s the video:
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Maddow covered a lot of ground. Some of the highlights include Obama bulldozing Reagan’s childhood home, Obama’s secret Muslim ring, Obama’s secret gay ring, Obama throwing a football, and the instant classic Obama shooting a gun:
The president faked the unemployment rate, he made it up. also the president is bulldozing President Reagan’s childhood home…Sounds terrible, to say that President Obama is personally going to bulldoze something related to Reagan, even if he isn’t? And do you remember Ring Gate? At World Net Daily where Rick Santorum works now. President Obama’s supposed wedding ring is really a secret I am a Muslim ring. “The ring Obama has been wearing for more than 30 years has the first part of the Islamic declaration of faith.” Did I say the ring means he is Muslim? No, I meant gay. It secretly proves he’s gay. It is a wedding ring, but it is a gay wedding ring, you can see why it would be confused. It is about the whole other theory that thinks he is gay, so the world thinks he is gay-married.
Over at Breitbart, they have been upset about this picture of the president throwing a football. In that corner of the right-wing media, President Obama was not actually throwing a football in this photo. You see, you can tell because he is looking slightly up there. That is just unexplainable. why would you do such a thing? Clearly it is doctored? there is no way in football, you always look to the down or to the side unless you’re a secretly gay-married Muslim, bulldozing Reagan.
Now this is the latest one, according to the right, this is not really the picture of the president shooting a gun. Yes, when the New Republic asked the president if he ever shot a gun, he said yes, he was skeet-shooting at Camp David. The White House supported the claim by tweeting out this picture of the president shooting skeet, and that’s when the cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs right wing fired up the conspiracy machine. According to them, this is not really the picture of the president shooting a gun, you see they can tell because the president is shooting with the gun sort of too flat. It is too straight. See, now, he is too straight. then there is the errant smoke where it shouldn’t be. Also his stance, bad form, can’t be real. Also a little pot belly. no, I’m not kidding, that was actually part of the argument against the veracity of the picture, you can see his tummy, where you actually had a jelly donut. where he wears a Muslim ring and a gay ring and doesn’t really play football, he just looks like he is, where him having a little poochy belly means that the vast left wing conspiracy is photoshopping for political capital on gun control. You know how they do.
That about sums up the recent news from Obama conspiracy land. What Maddow didn’t discuss is a segment of the right’s fundamental inability accept President Obama’s success and popularity. Obama’s election times two represents everything that terrifies the right. This president embodies generational change, the darkening face of America, a shift away from conservatism, and the movement of political power out of their hands.
Conspiracy theories are a coping mechanism for a segment of this nation that can’t accept the reality that they will no longer be in power. This refusal to accept change has led them to look for conspiracies and excuses. Obama conspiracies offer them hope for the future. If the Obama presidency is a conspiracy, it would mean that their power hasn’t been stolen from them. If the Obama presidency is a conspiracy, America isn’t changing and they haven’t been rejected.
The Obama conspiracies are a form of denial. Each new conspiracy represents another refusal to face reality. As much as the the white, far right hates Obama for his policies, they hate him even more because he represents their growing irrelevance.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
