Quote:
Originally Posted by Deckard
Bit disturbed to read that there's been a 400 per cent surge in death threats against Obama since earlier this year.
Just bizarre. Seemingly one of the most intelligent, rational and calm presidents the US has had, still in the early stage of his time in the White House, yet for some, he's the most worthy of disdain.
Can't help but wonder if Bush had this many death threats given his contribution to America - and the world - while in office. Presumably, mongo will tell us we only hear about Obama's death threats because he's black?
Damn that PC commie liberal organization, the secret service. |
Personally, I was always solidly opposed to the taunts against Bush along the lines of "not my President", or comparing him to Hitler and whoever else, or any of the other over-the-line crap that happened during the Bush administration. I opposed it because it doesn't take a genius to realize that it would all come back magnified once the tables turned. So in part, I think the amount of complaining is motivated by a sense of revenge on the part of Republicans. I've even heard some conservative pundits admit as much. They had to sit through years of MoveOn and such putting out anti-Bush propaganda that often strained the limits of truth (to put it mildly), and now is their chance to do the same thing back to Democrats.
That being said, one big difference between liberals and conservatives is that conservatives are far more likely to be armed. Take for instance the morons who feel it's somehow appropriate to bring guns to townhall meetings about health care. Although
an NPR article about it points out the upside of people showing up clearly armed:
"By openly carrying their weapons, the gun toters are at least easily identifiable to law enforcement, including Secret Service sharp shooters who, for all we know, are watching them intently through the cross hairs of their scopes."
Anyway, we saw tons of passionate anti-Bush protests, but no one ever showed up to them with a loaded gun that I recall. And I shudder to think what would have happened to them if they did.
Beyond that, no matter how dishonest much of the opposition to Bush ever was, I don't recall anything on the level of the "birther" movement and others like it confronting him. So I guess I attribute it to a variety of factors, from legitimate opposition to Obama's policies, to revenge, to racism. And I'm definitely uneasy about where it's all headed.