Obama Hated Because He’s Black? No Way

Someone needs to tell me how exactly Obama is doing a crappy job.

I have heard the opinions, I have heard the hyperbole-laden stories, I’ve heard the constant complaining – now I want to know what he’s doing that’s so bad.

Face facts people – Bush didn’t exactly leave Obama two busty blondes and a cocktail in a hammock on the beach. He left him with massive debts, a crumbling economy and a war. Now, you tell me that you know of anyone who could have gone in there, snapped his fingers and wiped the slate clean.

So why is it that people hate him so much? Is it because I’m 19 and my youthful, ignorant brain can’t comprehend such adult things?

…Or is it because he’s black?

When I lived in Texas during the Bush years, I heard nothing but praise for their beloved president. People I would debate said “you must stand behind your president, no matter what!” Then came Obama, and that “standing behind your President” thing seemed to evaporate faster than alcohol at a frat party. I noticed that Conservatives will stand by their government as long as who they want in office is in there. Those same people who stood by their government were the first people to debase Obama, even before he made his first executive decision.

It’s no secret that the South is known for racism and intolerance – especially ignorant racism and ignorant intolerance. Notice I didn’t say that all people in the South are racists; I don’t mean to generalize in such a fashion. However, in my 15 years in Michigan I never once drove by a house with a sign with racist slurs in the front yard – and I moved around with some frequency. In my three years in Texas, I could count on my fingers and toes the number of signs with ethnic slurs painted across them, and I could count on both hands the number of times I heard people honk and cheer at the aforementioned signs. That leads me to believe that a lot of people agreed with them, because it would be rather rare to hear someone honk and cheer at a sign when you’re going 45 MPH by a single house in a non-racist state. If I included the bumper stickers, shirts and other apparel I saw affixed with racial slurs, I’d be here for quite a while.

That being said, it’s just a coincidence that we happen to have a black president, and happen to have this surge of racism. Let me let you in on another obvious fact: Obama has received more death threats than any president.

The majority of Republicans I came across in Texas were content with the way Bush was handling the economic meltdown that his lack of economic intellect and… well, overall ineptitude created. Nothing he did was ever scrutinized; everything was fine. Even the less affluent Republicans who were being screwed over by his ways were happy, so long as “socialism” wasn’t in place.

The GOP has scrutinized pretty much anything to come from Obama, the most laughable example is that his birth certificate either never existed or he wasn’t born in the United States. Another one was his gift to the Queen of England, an iPod filled with his favorite music – I never heard the end of the racial comments on that one (he’s trying to get the Queen to listen to his “monkey” music now!)

On the other hand, I have conversed with a good number of Democrats who aren’t completely happy with Obama’s current policies. They seem to be right on cue with the Republican mentality: “he can’t instantly fix this nation, so I can’t stand him.”

Here’s another fact to face, people: This country is in much too big of a hole for anyone to step up, wave a magic wand and heal it all. It just won’t happen. It’s a healing process – I like to call it the “Bush Hangover.” Now that the nation has a president that the GOP can easily ridicule, the hyperbole and exaggerations have gotten more and more out of control. They take any sound byte they can get from Obama, embellish it and run with it.The amazing thing about Bush is that Democrats never needed to embellish anything he said; he made idiotic statements almost constantly.

One may say to me “well, people are just more vocal these days about their government!” Really? Do you honestly think anyone in this nation is more vocal about anything? With the advent of iPods, gaming consoles and automatically flushing toilets, I’d think that Americans are less vocal. My final diagnosis? It’s a shocker: Obama is black, and civil rights mean nothing in this nation anymore.

By this point, you may be asking “so that means you’re a full-blown Liberal?” First of all there are a few conditions that I will lose all hope for government in general: if smoking is banned, the right to bear arms is repealed, or if another pointless war is started. I agree wholeheartedly with gun rights and don’t buy into global warming – possibly the only things that keep me from being a bleeding-heart Liberal. However, until something happens to change this nation, I will be more apathetic to political parties on the grounds that Bush dug this country in to such a hole that the effects of his horrendous presidency will linger for another four years to come.

In conclusion, folks, Obama really can’t do much with the situation he’s inherited. So Conservatives, keep making up excuses to hate him, keep chasing that rusted brass ring of prevarications and half-truths. Liberals, keep… doing what you’re doing. I’m going to go watch American Idol so I can really see how downhill this country is going socially, as well as economically.

John Danz Jr is a serious writer with a penchant for poetry and building a foundation in every form of writing. He is motivated by a never-ending thirst for informed knowledge and the feeling of accomplishment that comes with every completed poem or story.

A drummer drawn to classic and modern rock/metal music, John is deeply interested in meteorology, psychology, sociology and philosophy. Weather has always fascinated him, he wants to know why people do what they do, understand the cultures of the world, reflect on great minds and gain a better understanding of this world and our place in it.