I'm not denying that there are SOME groups out there that would definitely hate Obama because of his color. … However, I'm pretty sure they make up a relatively SMALL minority of those who disagree with Obama policies. Most of the people who disagree with him do so for legitimate reasons that have nothing to do with the fact that he is a black man.
I'd say yer probably correct that "
most of the people who disagree with him do so for legitimate reasons that have nothing to do with the fact that he is a black man." But when you wrote in yer previous post that "no one can be so dense as to believe it is due to his skin color in today's United States of America," I can say yer definitely wrong because I for one
am that dense.
You need to divide his opposition into different groups. There are the "proud" racists who hate the idea of a black president. Then there are those who don't want to think of themselves as racists but are nevertheless affected by racist attitudes. And remember he's not just
any black man. He's a law professor. His father was a Kenyan who was pretty far out on the Left. And in today's environment, it makes a difference that his father was a Muslim, not that it should. I want to emphasize that point. I don't have much of a problem with people feeling uncomfortable with his father's politics, but the idea that it makes a GD bit of difference that he was a Muslim is putrid, filthy, un-American bigotry, just as bad as racism. Bigotry is a heinous sin.
More than anything, I wanna say this is complicated. I'm willing to say that bigotry is
very complicated. People who have a lot of character and decency can be affected by bigotry because of the way they were raised. When the country takes a big hit like we did in the Great Recession, and it's not altogether clear to many who was responsible because of the timing of Bush leaving and Obama coming in, and yer someone who has always been opposed to liberal Big Government, and you've always supported a foreign policy based on a willingness to take military action rather quickly and easily, and yer concerned about the economy and yer financial security and retirement due to the demographics of a low birth rate in the US and an aging baby boomer population, and the US position in the world seems to have slipped because of globalization and the rapid economic growth in countries like China and India, and it won't be long before whites are a minority in the US population, and perhaps worst of all he took on this problem we've been trying to solve for several decades of a lot of Americans without health insurance and the constant high inflation in healthcare costs and that inevitably was gonna be a very difficult process that would be very disruptive and probably look bad at first — all these things add up to make a lot of people feel even
more negative about a man like Obama than they would about some white liberal who comes across as more "friendly" and "down-to earth" like Clinton.
>>In fact, a lot of the dissatisfaction comes from the left. Some liberals are very disappointed in Obama too.
That's a good point, and one that I think a lot of people don't take into account when they look at his relatively low popularity in the polls. And many forget that the country often just gets tired of a president in a second term.
>>It's pretty obvious by this statement above that you harbor quite a bit of hatred yourself.
It sure isn't obvious t' me. What would you point to as something that makes it obvious?
I could not respond to the poll, because I am a moderate american. I am fiscally conservative, socially progressive. I lean right on some issues, and left on others. I'll give Obama a B so far. I'll keep watching to see how Obamacare turns out in a couple of years. It's too soon to tell IMO.
I didn't vote either, and basically for the same reason. I also agree with yer assessment of the President's performance.
They totally fuel the fires of hatred, yes. Many, many people are influenced by what they hear on their news programs. :roll:
More to the point, I'd say, many people are affected by Faux News and right-wing hate media, which purport to report (
) the news, but really only use that as a mechanism to generate big profits while peddling ideology.
I have to say that, in light of the newest events that have occurred in Iraq, my opinion of President Obama is even worse now. Did he have NO IDEA that any of this was going to occur? Were there were no warnings?
Yeah, there were a LOT of warnings. The ones that count came in 2002 and 2003 from people who argued against a clumsy and poorly planned invasion of Iraq.