But, but…He’s the President!

The bizarre and irrational emotional bonds that people form with presidents are obviously not a phenomenon only of the right wing. Glenn Greenwald has a nice piece on the hysterical praise piled on Obama by the left, and how it is completely detached from reality.

While there was a refreshing lack of adulation for the president under Clinton, the absolute adulation poured down on Bush by conservative Christians was a spectacle to behold. There was that risible theory that Bush was the new King David since God allegedly chose Bush over Gore just like he chose David over Saul. Ah, behold the power of American hicks to divine the mind of The Almighty!  Not all the praise of Bush was as asinine, but I do remember a discussion once with a conservative during which I pointed out Bush’s penchant for out-of-control government spending and for generally ignoring the rule of law, including the law in the Constitution of the United States.  Said document is hardly a sacred document, but should at least be treated as something that actually matters by presidents. Conservatives conveniently forget this when a Republican is in the White House, of course.

The conservative’s primary defense was “but, he’s the President of the United States!” This phrase was apparently invoked to make me think about just how wrong it is to dare criticize America’s chief politician. I wonder if that same person would still say the same thing if I were to criticize the slightly-worse Obama. I’m willing to bet money that the answer is no.

Share

11:25 pm on December 9, 2009