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Novara

(5,754 posts)
Sun Apr 12, 2015, 07:06 AM Apr 2015

A New Phase in Anti-Obama Attacks

A New Phase in Anti-Obama Attacks - NYT Editorial Board

It is a peculiar, but unmistakable, phenomenon: As Barack Obama’s presidency heads into its twilight, the rage of the Republican establishment toward him is growing louder, angrier and more destructive.

Republican lawmakers in Washington and around the country have been focused on blocking Mr. Obama’s agenda and denigrating him personally since the day he took office in 2009. But even against that backdrop, and even by the dismal standards of political discourse today, the tone of the current attacks is disturbing. So is their evident intent — to undermine not just Mr. Obama’s policies, but his very legitimacy as president.

It is a line of attack that echoes Republicans’ earlier questioning of Mr. Obama’s American citizenship. Those attacks were blatantly racist in their message — reminding people that Mr. Obama was black, suggesting he was African, and planting the equally false idea that he was secretly Muslim. The current offensive is slightly more subtle, but it is impossible to dismiss the notion that race plays a role in it.

Perhaps the most outrageous example of the attack on the president’s legitimacy was a letter signed by 47 Republican senators to the leadership of Iran saying Mr. Obama had no authority to conclude negotiations over Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Try to imagine the outrage from Republicans if a similar group of Democrats had written to the Kremlin in 1986 telling Mikhail Gorbachev that President Ronald Reagan did not have the authority to negotiate a nuclear arms deal at the Reykjavik summit meeting that winter.


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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/opinion/sunday/a-new-phase-in-anti-obama-attacks.html?_r=0
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A New Phase in Anti-Obama Attacks (Original Post) Novara Apr 2015 OP
This just about says it all... Surya Gayatri Apr 2015 #1
I've been making that comparison for a while now. Imagine how easy that would have been to do hollowdweller Apr 2015 #12
From the link: freshwest Apr 2015 #2
It is deeply disturbing. Enthusiast Apr 2015 #5
The rethugs are disgusting. blackspade Apr 2015 #3
And this self-same media helped to nurture and propel this "disturbing" behavior BumRushDaShow Apr 2015 #4
RW assertions, no matter how insane, are seldom challenged. Enthusiast Apr 2015 #6
Not to mention the media refuses to much discuss climate change..again the corporate masters say no. Fred Sanders Apr 2015 #8
I think the phrase "Obama is the greatest President in my lifetime" has gotten under their skin...n/ monmouth4 Apr 2015 #7
This was the approach with Clinton: continue shoveling shit until the end and beyond Buzz Clik Apr 2015 #9
This has been the GOP strategy since Carter was president. Ford_Prefect Apr 2015 #10
The "press" wants to ensure ratings for 2016... mountain grammy Apr 2015 #11
I wonder why this has not been the story line all along hollowdweller Apr 2015 #13
The "Letter of 47" was awful. Even more disturbing IMHO Proud Liberal Dem Apr 2015 #14
I suspect much worse is yet to come since hatred is used to energize GOP voters. Ford_Prefect Apr 2015 #15
From what I have heard, the NRA has already started transferring their hatred of President Obama Proud Liberal Dem Apr 2015 #16
We can expect more murders in defense of that dubious "freedom"... Ford_Prefect Apr 2015 #17
 

Surya Gayatri

(15,445 posts)
1. This just about says it all...
Sun Apr 12, 2015, 08:12 AM
Apr 2015
'Try to imagine the outrage from Republicans if a similar group of Democrats had written to the Kremlin in 1986 telling Mikhail Gorbachev that President Ronald Reagan did not have the authority to negotiate a nuclear arms deal at the Reykjavik summit meeting that winter.'


Brings the present Obama derangement insanity into sharp focus.

And, welcome to DU, Ms/Mr Novara.

 

hollowdweller

(4,229 posts)
12. I've been making that comparison for a while now. Imagine how easy that would have been to do
Sun Apr 12, 2015, 10:23 AM
Apr 2015

Given the level of distrust dems could have done it and made HUGE political hay on both China and Russia.

Also to go one further how about the huge witch hunt and demand all the sensitive info be released about 9/11 like they are doing with Bengazi??


Oh and one more Obama could have, SHOULD have come in and totally attacked the GOP on the financial crisis and totally discredited them on fiscal conservatisim and deregulation after the financial crisis.

freshwest

(53,661 posts)
2. From the link:
Sun Apr 12, 2015, 08:25 AM
Apr 2015
If this insurrection is driven by something other than a blend of ideological extremism and personal animosity, it is not clear what that might be. But it is ugly, it deepens mistrust of government and it harms the office of the president, not just Mr. Obama

Because they intended Mitt to be the last president. All they wanted as one of their leaders said, is a president with enough working digits to sign the legislation that has already been written. A national ALEX agenda.

The Koch Libertarian GOP Party want the country to devolve into states an sell every inch off to their cronies, and the people within the confines of those states will have no recourse.

That' why they attack every thing the President of the UNITED States does. Neo-Confederates don't want any of the US Constituion to exist except for perhaps, the first ten amendments. Which defunds the government, leaves out protection for the majority, and gives them what they want.

Not a small government, but an inclusive one, that will carry out the agenda of the global oligarchs in a way that the current starved federal government is finding harder to resist all the time. They see the government as a money making enterprise for themselves alone. Not a new process:



Where social mobility is a pipe dream, slavery is what some people are born to be in and they deserve it. Historically all caused by reducing government until it is so weak it cannot enforce laws as it was the only force keeping feudalism at bay.

Yes, Grover knew that cutting off funds and denying government taxes was the way and enforced the allegiance of the GOP, as the Koch brothers do now.

Thom Hartmann did a great analysis in this clip, referring to an author who states the case plainly:



BumRushDaShow

(127,317 posts)
4. And this self-same media helped to nurture and propel this "disturbing" behavior
Sun Apr 12, 2015, 08:55 AM
Apr 2015

by legitimizing the attacks, never questioning the motives (and dismissing anyone who insisted on what the motives were), and rarely correcting a continual putrid stream of RW talking-points, misinformation, and dog whistles.

 

Buzz Clik

(38,437 posts)
9. This was the approach with Clinton: continue shoveling shit until the end and beyond
Sun Apr 12, 2015, 09:37 AM
Apr 2015

Clinton managed to assist the GOP and the press with his past and his single approach of reacting to new problems.

Obama offers a totally different target: he does not react after the fact, he anticipates the attacks and circumvents them; his past two years have been incredibly productive and provides no ammunition.

Congress, on the other hand, has never been more unpopular. Every negative action they take is viewed as "more of same," resulting in a deeper hole.

Good luck with that, knuckledraggers.

Ford_Prefect

(7,828 posts)
10. This has been the GOP strategy since Carter was president.
Sun Apr 12, 2015, 10:07 AM
Apr 2015

They run down the president in ever more nasty and more personal attacks. Fox news generates the echo chamber and the MSM completes the character assassination without blinking.

It has been a Republican tactic to make the Democrats and the president appear un-trustworthy whenever they can. The extremes we see today show how far they have pushed the boundaries of perception.

It is and always has been a deliberate smear campaign with nothing but cynicism driving it. GOP leadership know they have nothing constructive to offer voters. They depend instead on their ability to make the President and representative government appear dubious, dysfunctional and weak.

mountain grammy

(26,571 posts)
11. The "press" wants to ensure ratings for 2016...
Sun Apr 12, 2015, 10:17 AM
Apr 2015

Dragging Cheney out of his hole and allowing him to spew his version of history is all part of the plan. Even the NYT as they bemoan the unprecedented attacks on Obama, just a week or so ago, printed an unchallenged op ed by the lying John Bolton.

 

hollowdweller

(4,229 posts)
13. I wonder why this has not been the story line all along
Sun Apr 12, 2015, 10:34 AM
Apr 2015

The press and even the president has sort of tried to make it seem like a "both sides do it" thing but there is so much evidence that this level of attack only happens when it's a dem president.

We dems don't like republican policies but when a GOP president wins our reaction is different. We generally hate their policies not so much need to make up stuff about them.

Both Clinton and Obama when they won it was like it was the end of the republic to the GOP or something. They ramped up the anti gov't stuff so much during Clinton some nut bombed the Federal Building and they dialed it back a bit and just concentrated on trying to find something illegal to remove Clinton. Obama they have taken to a new level of disrespect, not only because they have created a truly government hating grassroots who beg to be put in poverty by the rich, but who always actually hate the dem as a person.

Imagine the vote being close and a situation like Bush VS Gore coming up in a state where Clinton friends are in control. There would now be a Cliven Bundy type militia show up to try to stop the recount.

I think one of the most important things Clinton can do as president is do what Obama did not. Actually call out some of this behavior that is leading us down the path to a new civil war possibly.

Proud Liberal Dem

(24,355 posts)
14. The "Letter of 47" was awful. Even more disturbing IMHO
Sun Apr 12, 2015, 10:52 AM
Apr 2015

was Lindsey Graham's suggestion that President Obama just sit out the remainder his term and not be allowed to do anything foreign policy-wise.

Ford_Prefect

(7,828 posts)
15. I suspect much worse is yet to come since hatred is used to energize GOP voters.
Sun Apr 12, 2015, 11:49 AM
Apr 2015

IMO the plan seems to be to redraw the lines of what is acceptable opposition behavior in advance of the campaign season.

Proud Liberal Dem

(24,355 posts)
16. From what I have heard, the NRA has already started transferring their hatred of President Obama
Sun Apr 12, 2015, 12:14 PM
Apr 2015

to Hillary Clinton, who, according to them will be the next would-be "gun grabber-in-chief" (not their words but same concept). If she is elected POTUS, which great-maker she will be (or at least some Democrat), we will go from 8 years of thinly veiled racism to 4-8 years of anti-woman misogny and, of course, more far out right-wing conspiracy theories.



Brace yourself! 2016 is coming!

Ford_Prefect

(7,828 posts)
17. We can expect more murders in defense of that dubious "freedom"...
Sun Apr 12, 2015, 01:39 PM
Apr 2015

And yet more violence against "Liberal" ideals.

Which candidate will next be victim of a gun loony?

How many victims must die to keep the weapon maker's profits up? When everyone is packing who is safe?

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