Obama Nation is not merely our country under the leadership of President Barack Obama; it is the representation of a state of mind and a political philosophy that is, well, not so political.
Obama Nation represents a departure from the old-school “color” of politics, and the reinvention of America’s image. It is this emergence from Bushville to Obama Nation that has left certain members of the old guard and the clan (notice that I resisted spelling it with a “K”) of conservative conspirators delving deep into their cache of disrespect and defamation in a desperate attempt to slow down “change we can believe in.”
Change is never easy for some, and apparently the amount that has emanated from the Obama Nation treasury of change has minted a not-so-subtle undercurrent of animus from Republican politicos, some of whom have unabashedly wished for our president’s failure.
Take, for instance, former Vice President Dick Cheney. For someone who was conspicuously silent during his tenure as George W’s second in command, he sure has had a lot to say in defense of torture and in opposition to the Obama Nation concept of humanity.
One of the biggest misconceptions about Obama Nation is that all those who dwell within its borders of national promise see threats to the country through rose-colored glasses.
In terms of interrogating suspected terrorists or their minions of global mayhem, in Obama Nation there exists an element of humanity that draws a clear line between persistent and acceptable techniques as outlined in the Geneva Convention versus the waterboarding and humiliation-based “enhanced interrogation techniques” (AKA torture) preferred by Cheney and his supporters.
The Cheney penchant for torture and flexing military muscle should come as no surprise given his own experience of torturing a friend with shotgun pellets to the face, neck and upper torso during his infamous hunting expedition in 2006.
The love for guns and all things violent may be absent in Obama Nation, but is a mainstay in the Cheney way of life, as evidenced in his voting record while he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, from Wyoming.
While he was a member of the House, this staunch defender of military torture, who accused our president of making America less safe by exposing these interrogation transgressions, voted against a ban on armor-piercing “cop killer” bullets, opposed the mandatory seven-day waiting period to purchase handguns, and was one of only four members of the House who actually voted against a ban on plastic guns that could slip through airport security machines undetected.
And Obama is the one making the country less safe?
It seems that most detractors of Obama Nation have a very long and substantial relationship with hypocrisy. The backlash from the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme Court justice has been no different.
Rush Limbaugh brought audacity to a whole new level when he labeled Judge Sotomayor a racist. By clutching to a statement made by Sotomayor in 2001 when she hypothesized that in the forum of jurisprudence, "a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.’’ Limbaugh and a host of other conservative lackeys have chosen to interpret the quote as an indication of Sotomayor’s predisposition toward reverse discrimination.
One could certainly argue that a clarification of the statement is in order, but the guilty-before-proven-innocent mindset of some, and the vitriolic condemnation of Sotomayor by Limbaugh, represent a collective fear of the color and culture that Obama Nation brings to the previously Anglo-male dominated institutions of government.
Obama Nation has ushered in a new world order in which our president can actually go to the Middle East and address the world’s Muslims, and stand at a podium without a shoe being thrown at him.
It may represent an abomination of the highest order to some, but – like it or not – welcome to Obama Nation.
RichMcCulloch@Hotmail.com
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