I have heard some of the nastiest racist remarks about this President here in Lancaster.
My father shared an encounter he had with a neighbor of his in his tony neighborhood [elsewhere]. The well-to-do neighbor, 50s, white, Republican, went off on the President. As my father recounted the conversation the emotion was very high on both sides. What is it about Obama that produces this visceral animus?
I don’t believe it is that the Obamas, elegant, educated, refined, are perceived as elites. I think they see an uppity nigger and his uppity nigger wife. The lack of rational discourse, now among both conservatives and liberals, is unsettling. It also bodes ill for the President’s re-election chances, I’m afraid.
I don’t think a cogent explanation of the economy and the GOP’s role in obstructing a recovery will convince voters that it isn’t Obama’s “fault.” He’ll need a more dramatic and compelling narrative to re-capture the voters, in my view.
EDITOR: Sadly, we have to agree with the above.
A large portion of the right wing simply rejected the idea of a Negro in the White House. That helps explain the willingness of so many to allow the Republicans in Congress to thwart the president at every turn, killing his stimulus plans that were endorsed by almost every reputable economist and thus prolonging and perhaps exacerbating the recession.
We despair that reason will work. And even if it does, Obama will face the same rejections in his second term.
