He says, "Right-wing disdain for the first African-American president is primordially violent and expressed in dishonest, uninformed, racist and unpatriotic rhetoric and demonstration." Dishonest? Can he show me one instance where people have misrepresented any of the issues? Racist? It wasn't the protesters who changed the race of a protester to assert racism charges. Unpatriotic? I doubt Mr. Levitt understands love of country.
He says he isn't concerned about race and hate and goes on to say, "what concerns me is the combustible combination of these perspectives when combined with a lethal dose of violent and unpatriotic actions targeting the U.S. president." So it's unpatriotic to question a president's policies? And can you show me violence at the town hall meetings or the gathering this weekend in D.C.?
He defines a patriot this way: "A patriot is one who loves, supports and defends his or her nation and loves its citizens, especially the U.S. president. A patriot subscribes to symbolic values such as honoring the flag, singing the national anthem and fighting nonviolently for fundamental freedoms. A patriot honors the U.S. president, irrespective of his or her biases."
Let me tell you, I served this country for 8 years in the military. I sing the national anthem and say the pledge of allegiance every time the flag is presented. I vote in every election and I educate myself on the issues. And I don't consider "honoring the U.S. president" as just rolling over and doing what I am told.
He calls himself a close follower of politics and says, "As a close follower of presidential politics, I do not remember another time when an American president was so unpatriotically maligned by Americans, namely, right-wing politicians and media, and the millions of Joe and Judy plumbers who would disown Jesus if they knew he was African, and Obama if he were the Second Coming."
Hmmm, let's see what I remember:
- This page lists 29 untrue statements about Bush from various haters.
- This blogger says Bush is a liar and more.
- Al Gore said of George Bush on February 8, 2004, "He betrayed this country! He played on our fears! He took America on an ill-conceived foreign adventure, dangerous to our troops, an adventure that was preordained and planned before 9/11 ever took place!"
- David Shuster on MSNBC said of Republicans, "...all white males with short haircuts. They look sort of angry. No women, no minorities, and it looks like they’ve sort of become unhinged."
- Henry Reid (D-NV) said of Bush, "President Bush is a liar. He betrayed Nevada and he betrayed the country", and also called Bush a loser.
- Bush was portrayed as Hitler many times. Just do a Google search and you will see plenty of examples.
- Vanity Fair published a picture of Bush as the Joker and it was covered by Drew Friedman here.
- David Kahane wrote an entire article titled "I Still Hate You, Sarah Palin" to talk about the left's view of her.
And let's not get into the diatribes against Ronald Reagan and anyone who looks conservative. And let's conveniently forget about all the instances of race baiting I have listed here and here.
You can find his entire sickening article here. I suggest you read it and leave a comment.
Dave, you just don't get it. Levitt's article is about the underlying agenda of a right wing mob marching on a democratically elected president with obvious intention of purifying the office of a so-called constitutional threat. Except there is no threat - there are no policies to deprive Americans of their constitutional rights, only to carry out democratically won changes of really very modest nature - that's always been the case in a system of checks and balances. No one disrespected Bush in this way but for course the facts - and attacks - on truly terrible actions, especially Iraq, were absolutely necessary if rather late unless you want to excise Bush and his actions from the history books,
ReplyDeleteDave, I DO think you get it. I completely disagree with "Anonymous" above. Levitt's article is a thinly disguised opportunity to simply feel superior with inflated language that one could get lost in when reading. I'm short on time but i'll add more on this later Dave. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI love it when a columnist is so heavily criticized.
ReplyDeleteI had to do similar on my seldom used blog:
http://throughmyeye.blogspot.com/
All,
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading. Anonymous, I believe you will find a mix of people from the political spectrum protesting Obama. People elected Obama as president but that doesn't mean he has the power to do whatever he wants. Remember, he works for us. Or, that's the way it's supposed to work.
Dave