Why do wing-nuts always call the president "Barry"?

[Odin2005]

I know that was his nickname when he was a kid, but why does it seem like it's only wing-nuts who call him that now? Is it a dog whistle of some kind, a way of calling a black man "boy"?

It is really getting on my nerves.

[datasuspect]

1. it's because they think they are clever on one level

on a deeper level, christians and stupid people have an unspoken belief in "name magic."

[siligut]

10. I want to know more about name magic

If it is OK with Odin, please tell us a little.

[Odin2005]

14. I think he's talking about primitive superstitions about names.

That if you know somebody "real name" you have power over them.

[siligut]

22. Interesting, thanks.

[datasuspect]

35. or similarly, the idea of speaking something into existence

it's why they call the Democratic Party the Democrat Party.

on the superficial level, it's just plain ignorance and childishness, but on another level, the belittling of something by not calling it by its proper name should serve to propagate that disrespect into existence.

honestly, i haven't thought about it too much since i went undercover in the pentecostal church about 10 years ago.

lots of parallels there.

[MrScorpio]

85. That explains a lot about my own stalkers

Thank you!

[Taverner]

43. "name magic" ---- +100

[sharp_stick]

2. It's just a juvenile insult

they tried using his middle name "Hussein" sometimes as well but because Obama and pretty much everyone in the country has embraced it they decide to use the name he called himself early in his life, as though he's rejected it, as an insult.

I take it as a sign of hope that these fucking morons can't come up with anything better.

[Flashmann]

3. I'm sure it's meant to demean him

So was my calling Cheney's asst,chimp,Boy George......

[SidDithers]

4. Not only wing-nuts do that...

I've seen it used by those who hate Obama "from the left" too.

Sid

[ananda]

19. I'm from the extreme radical left and..

.. I do NOT hate Obama and I do not belittle him or diminish the office of the presidency.

Yes, I am disappointed, but that's a FAR cry from hate.

[SidDithers]

25. Good. But they're certainly out there...

Barry has stolen my hope.

Thanks for nothing, Barry. I shall be there in 2011 and 2012, working to ensure you do not get reelected.

ABB again. Anybody But Barry.

barry the hypocrite was a major stoner in high school and college

What a fucking ASSHOLE to the max. I don't believe I've ever hated anyone as much as I hate that putrid fucker. Even Rush Limbaugh and GWB seem silly and nonconsequential in comparison. I am fucking totally scared of what he will do in a second term. He's not the "lesser evil," he's the MOST EVIL. He delights in killing ferchrissake, and couldn't care less if Johnny can't read or Susie is starving or Mr. and Mrs. Smith lose their home of 29 years and 11 months, after missing that last mtg payment.

I will personally hold responsible anyone who votes for him OR Romney for the hell on earth that will follow.

Both those from former DUers, now posting at one of those "left" boards.

Sid

[pnwmom]

72. There are other people from the left

who are not like you and who do publicly belittle Obama.

[Behind the Aegis]

32. Oh, they are wing-nuts too.

And you are absolutely correct. It is used as a sign of disrespect and contempt.

[Cha]

66. I have too.. I totally thought of those

immature little cheap shots I would see on DU circa 2010 before I left.

So ironic with President Obama.. because he shows respect even for his enemies but his stupid enemies are so filled with loathing that they are incapable of reciprocating.

[G_j]

86. I deal with very left leaning people all the time

in the course of these Obama years, I have NEVER heard him called "Barry". Neither have I ever heard the word hate used. Play that game if you wish, but there is no comparison.

[maryland native]

5. Barry as a name

I think we all have made some errors in our references to the President be it Reagan, Bush 1+2, or any others.

Regardless of our opinion of who sits in that office, if we refer to him/her as "President" I think the text that follows will be better received as professional and well thought out.

Respect the office and hopefully the person!!

In the meantime, "President Obama."

[skip fox]

55. So I should have called Bush: President Numbnuts?

Just joking. Your point is well taken.

(And I only called him Numbnuts when we were CAPTIONing back then.)

[gollygee]

6. Eh. I still call W "W"

If not "dubya"

I guess it's for the same reason.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

65. I always called him DUHbya

[Zoeisright]

7. Because they're fucking pigs

and assholes.

[NutmegYankee]

8. I think it was a childhood nickname.

And the birthers used it to claim he had a completely different name in their wackjob fantasies.

[Odin2005]

16. Oh, yes, the "Barry Soetoro" nonsense.

[NutmegYankee]

23. Yep, birther bullshit.

It's how they continue the birtherism in a low key fashion.

[onehandle]

9. He was called 'Barry' as a kid, by choice. Once he was an adult he preferred 'Barack.'

I did the same thing, but not with my family. I was the english translation of my name in High School. During college I started using my extremely French name. Close to the same year as the President.

Wingers, much as good ol' boys in my native South can be Huge asses about names.

-----

When Barry Became Barack

Barry Obama decided that he didn't like his nickname. A few of his friends at Occidental College had already begun to call him Barack (his formal name), and he'd come to prefer that. The way his half sister, Maya, remembers it, Obama returned home at Christmas in 1980, and there he told his mother and grandparents: no more Barry. Obama recalls it slightly differently, but in the same basic time frame. He believes he told his mom he wanted to be called Barack when she visited him in New York the following summer. By both accounts, it seemed that the elder relatives were reluctant to embrace the change. Maya recalls that Obama's maternal grandparents, who had played a big role in raising him, continued long after that to call him by an affectionate nickname, "Bar." "Not just them, but my mom, too," says Obama.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/03/22/when-barry-became-barack.html

[Cha]

69. Thanks for that, onehandle. It's like a lot of kids who

get older and want to be called by their middle name or their full first name or change it up somehow. I know there was a lot of that going on in my family. I kept shortening mine.

"Bar" fits with Barack too. I like hearing it when Michelle says "Barack".

[RKP5637]

76. Thanks for clarifying it ... n/t

[Recursion]

11. Specifically, "Barry Soetoro". It's an attempt to cast suspicion on his time in Indonesia.

Barry was what he was called as a kid (he started going by "Barack" in college). Soetoro was his stepfather's last name. There's never been a document found from Indonesia where he was referred to by his stepfather's last name, though I wouldn't be terribly surprised to hear that someone, somewhere, called him that during that time period.

It's an attempt to make his time in Indonesia seem suspicious.

[siligut]

12. I have never heard that Barry means anything racial.

They would faint if they ever got anywhere near our president, let alone call him Barry to his face.

[RomneyLies]

13. It's an attempt to quesiton his identity

It's also an attempt to make him less than human.

[Myrina]

21. No, its an attempt to make him seem less than *American* ...

... and also to question his Authority as President of the United States.

Sorta like how we used to call Dimson, Dimson. Or Blivet. Or Chimpy. (although he deserved all of those )

[WinkyDink]

80. No. My cousin's name is Barry. Nothing to do with nationality.

[Myrina]

87. I don't mean "Barry" ...

... the combination of "Barry" with his step-father's last name, to make it seem like he's really the son of Mr. Soetoro <sp> and therefore NOT an American. Like it's proof that he's "changed his real identity" somewhere along ...

[one_voice]

15. They're unable to speak..

more than two syllables at a time.

[Lex]

17. "a way of calling a black man 'boy'" YES.

A dog whistle.

[Glitterati]

18. I see "Zero" more than Barry on right wing stuff

They think they're clever. They're not.

[Archae]

20. There's a racial motive too.

"Barry" is used as a stereotypical nickname, the way William Horton was called "Willy" even though Horton never used that nickname.

[earthside]

24. "Shrub" "Boner"

For the same reason a lot of us called G.W. Bush, "Shrub" or "Baby Bush"

Its just political blather.

For myself, I try not to have a double standard on some of this political rhetoric back-and-forth.

I call John Boehner 'John Boner' almost all the time such that I now have to stop and think about how is name is actually supposed to be pronounced.

I can personally tolerate the Repuglicans doing this sort of thing as long as it does not really become racist ... which as we know does occur often for Pres. Obama.

Calling Barack Obama 'Barry' is one of the more mild names they call him, after all.

[no_hypocrisy]

26. I think Barry is better than "Bam" which is the nickname of choice

of both the New York Post and the New York Daily News.

[KamaAina]

27. Not just wing nuts

I just heard an old friend in Hawai'i call him Barry. She is an alumna of Punahou School. She also pointed out his grandma's apartment on Beretania St. and the Baskin-Robbins around the corner on S. King where he worked (amazingly, still there).

[1StrongBlackMan]

28. It's how he was called ...

earlier in his life ... Just like I was called Mellow and a guy down the street was called Dookie-breath.

[Tarheel_Dem]

30. "Dookie-breath"?

[1StrongBlackMan]

34. Yeah ...

You could smell old boy's breath from across the street.

[Tarheel_Dem]

49. I remember a former classmate with the same issue. First thing in the morning was a real test....

of my gag reflexes. I often wondered if it was some sort of medical condition? That must put a real crimp in one's social life.

[1StrongBlackMan]

51. I suspect that it was ...

severe decay and gum disease puts out quite the aroma ... Likewise, many gastro-ailments.

BTW, I saw D-B the last time I was home. He had lost all of his teeth; but nary a breath odor.

[Tarheel_Dem]

53. It's really shocking to think that a teenager would have severe decay and/or gum disease, but I'm...

sure it's possible. Ever taken a roadtrip with someone with this problem? I don't mean to sound horrible, but hopefully nowadays we're taking much better care of our dental health.

[1StrongBlackMan]

58. Not in the neighborhood I grew up in ...

it was quite common; sugary sweets and poor hygiene.

[Tarheel_Dem]

29. Well, their job is done then. You've now publicly acknowledged their idiocy, and allowed it to....

"really get on your nerves". Don't give them that power. Afterall, I called Bush II, "Shrub", for eight years thanks to Molly Ivins. Don't give anyone that kind of power over you, and ferchrissake don't ever let 'em know it, because it only emboldens them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. Sounds less corny, same intent, as "boy."

[CheapShotArtist]

33. I'm not one to talk on this; I called Mitch McConnell "McTurtle".

and Dick Morris "The Toe Sucker". Honestly I never saw anything racial behind "Barry", but him being called that reminds me of Barry Bonds. Maybe the whackadoodles are trying to say that he cheated to win the presidency?

[PurpleEngineer]

36. How is calling in President Obama "Barry"...

any different from Calling President Bush "Dubya"? Could one of you intellectuals explain that to me? Seems like both the left and the right are guilty of this one.

I have this gut feeling, however, that a couple hundred years ago, a bunch of people were sitting around a table discussing that wooden toothed bastard in Philadelphia. Its just the way it always has been. The President catches all the shit, regardless of political affiliation.

[rurallib]

44. More like calling W "Junior"

which he supposedly hated. Done to diminish his stature. and grate on RWingers

[whathehell]

77. Correct, although I've seen people go one step further Dubya, calling him "Dumbya".

It works for me.

[Odin2005]

81. "Dubya" isn't a dog whistle.

[Heidi]

88. "Dubya" is how President Bush pronounced his own middle initial. (nt)

[trackfan]

37. This type of thing has been going on a long time apparently.

From Suetonius's Augustus:

While he was yet an infant, the surname of Thurinus was given him, in memory of the birth-place of his family...He was also often called Thurinus contemptuously by Mark Antony ... to which he only replied that he was surprised that his former name should be made a subject of reproach.

[GoCubsGo]

38. Instead of letting it get on your nerves...

...just play ignorant, and ask "Who is Barry?" It makes their insult fall flat on its face.

[d_r]

39. they think it is condascending nt

[riverwalker]

40. took me awhile for me to figure out "Peebo"

when RW wingnuts were using it after first election. Thought what the heck is "peebo"? They were physically unable to say President Barack Obama so they made their little acronym "PBO".

[Arctic Dave]

41. No biggie, I call all of them shitstains.

[hack89]

42. It's a birther meme. nt

[MineralMan]

45. Because they can't get "President Obama"

to come out of their mouths. The fact that he'll be President for another four years is the best possible revenge for that.

Thank you, Mr. President!

[intaglio]

46. It's the another "the President is a foreigner" lie

The President is supposed to have used to use the name "Barry" as an abbreviation for Barrack when he was younger. This is based on a story recounted by Maya Soetoro that about the age of 19 the President asked the family to stop calling him "Barry".

The lunatic fringe then parse this to be that the President used the name "Barry" himself and also used his step-father's surname. They also claim that he attended Columbia under the name "Barry Soetoro" as a foreign student - not as an American. They back this up with a photoshopped student ID card with the false name and a legend "Foreign Student". The fact that the ID type 'shopped was not used by Columbia until 1996 and the President attended in 1981 - 83 bothers the birthers not at all.

Snopes has some details

[Johonny]

47. Dems called Bush; Shrub, W, Chimp

insulting the president by name calling is pretty much a bipartisan position.

[Rex]

48. IMO it is an informal way to insult him.

The GOP has a hard time with respect, they want it all the time and never give it to anyone else. Our POTUS included. Goes along with their, 'we hate everything, all the time' attitude.

[NoMoreWarNow]

50. Obama used to go by that name when he was young and it is

supposed to show how he puts on a false face or something.

It's definitely dumb.

[Buzz Clik]

52. They do it to be disrespectful and piss off people who voted for him.

And not all wingnuts are right wingers.

Just sayin'.

[WhoIsNumberNone]

54. Then they are succeeding in their objective.

It's the same reason they always say the "Democrat Party". They do it to be annoying. It's like always purposely mis-pronouncing someone's name.

[CommoFreq]

56. Because it's childish.

Childish things appeal to childish people.

[City Lights]

57. The same reason they refer to our party as the "Democrat" party.

It's demeaning.

[immoderate]

59. It's disrespectful, because that's how they mean it.

I have names for people I disrespect too. (Though I don't use them much as I see them making me look undignified.)

--imm

[SoCalDem]

60. Distorting, wrong-naming is the ultimate "dis"

Slaves were forced to accept names their master gave them

Eliss island employees routinely "Americanized" immigrants who dared not gripe about it, since any complaint could have made them "ineligible"

Bullies in school taunt their targets with derisive nicknames

Republicans are usually lacking in conversational skills and grammatical knowledge, but they excel in dog-whistle usage and the renaming-game...i.e. DemocRAT...Clear Skies..Clean Coal...No Child Left Behind.,. etc

A person's name is the first thing they are given when they are born, and by the time they reach school age they and only they, should have the choice of being called what they wish to be called.. Another person who deliberately calls them a name they do NOT want to be called, is disrespecting their very person-hood.

[stklurker]

61. barry

For the same reason that lot of people called Bush 'shrub', 'dubya', W, and a host of other names..... to get on their nerves. This is an equal opportunity / party game people play

[Cha]

62. bush was just plain ol'

"fuckhead" to me.

They can call President Obama whatever they want to make them feel better. They know nothing about him. Only what they've been brainwashed into believing.

[Sheepshank]

63. At one point one RW told me that "Barry" was apparently embarrassed by his roots.

Calling him Barry was a reminder.

I'm just not sure how that jives with Bobby Jindal, who still doesn't use his real name.

Typical double standard idiocy that they are all so famous for.

[tavernier]

64. They probably didn't like it when I called dubya

Son of Satan.

Oh well.

[RKP5637]

78. Damn close!!!

[Kalidurga]

67. If I can call W, Dubya and all the other names I called him...

They can have that one. I don't really care. I do prefer it to some of their other names though, like Bambam, Zero, the Kenyan, ect...

[winstars]

68. To dis him, they would say the N word if they could and of course they do when left to their own!!!

[AverageJoe90]

70. They're just being juvenile.

It could be racism in some cases for all I know........after all, from what I know, racists then and now, have never been fond of referring to African-Americans by their given names(or preferred nick-name). Instead, they'll pull out the "name change" trick, as some others have described, or they'll just go right back to the classic slurs like "Boy", "Uncle", or, of course, even the "N" word.

[catbyte]

71. They think it's some sort of insult, like "Democrat Party". Morans.

[MrSlayer]

73. Why did we call Bush "Chimpy"?

Or Dubya or Junior or Idiot Son?

Same reason they call Obama Barry or Zero or Obummer.

Denigrate, diminish and dehumanize the enemy.

No, it's not a dog whistle. Not this time anyway.

[bobclark86]

74. Even when he pisses me off...

I still call him "President Obama."

It's called respect. Most Teabaggers don't show it EVER.

OTOH, I called the last guy "President Fuckfac-- err, Bush."

[Bradical79]

75. It started as a birther conspiracy theory.

Some others here have already mentioned it.

[riverbendviewgal]

79. they believe they are showing disrespect

They are good at that.

[Raine]

82. Well I still call Bush the second "chimp" because he

he looks like a chimpanze. I'm sure not going call him Mr President or anything respectful because I don't acknowledge him as ever rightfully being president.

[arthritisR_US]

83. I find that very demeaning

to chimps. Our primate brethren deserve better than that

[Raine]

84. LOL yeah you're right about that, Chimps are also very smart. nt

[uppityperson]

90. mommy, it followed me home, can I keep it?