Ichabod's Kin
A place for politics, pop culture, and social issues

Anything Obama says or does will be criticized by the radical right, who are masquerading as “conservatives,” though not worthy of the name.

It warmed my heart to see him give voice to religious freedom in regard to the mosque center–and he did not “back off” or “qualify” that stance the following day. Whoever can analyze sentences (damn few in this day and age) knows he did not, at the time, question the “wisdom” of its location.

The big stink is that the location of the Muslim center is “insensitive” and “inappropriate.” Oh, poor babies. After all these years, we still don’t know what to do with the place where the Twin Towers stood. Lower Manhattan is just the battleground where we intend to fight with Muslims.

I think of when George Foreman wore himself out while Ali let the ropes cushion the blows. As Foreman ran out of gas, Ali pushed him back and said, “Is that it, George? Is that all you’ve got?” When the best we can say is that a new building near Ground Zero is insensitive and inappropriate, we don’t have much to raise hell about. After it’s built, and it should be, it won’t be long before we realize that God didn’t die and everything’s okay.

There have been presidents who took stands without their eyes on opinion polls. FDR was the quintessential leader, publicly admitting that his detractors hated him–and that he welcomed it. Reagan was another: comfortable in his own skin, he felt that if people didn’t like what he was doing, then elect someone else next time. He showed this too many times to mention here, but his great gaffe at going to Bitburg where Nazi SS were interred, was one such case, but in time everyone got over it.

His successor, Bush the Elder, raised poll-watching to the level of an art, as if public opinion came down from Mt. Sinai. As a result, his brief tenure resembled a balloon losing air at a rapid rate and ending up anywhere.

Bill Clinton didn’t mind bringing Dems back to the center, which they needed to be, took the flak and enjoyed the best eight presidential years in memory. Bush the Younger was beguiled by Dick Cheney and together they weathered all criticism whilst starting two wars and divesting our national coffers of the vast reserves left by Clinton.

I admire Obama’s speaking up on behalf of reason and the Constitution while the rest of the country has gone loony and will sell our Bill of Rights for a mess of pottage. That’s okay, Barack. Let the wingnuts choke on their “chicken” bones: they’re never going to like you anyway.

It bothers me not a whit that the polls show most of the populace opposes the mosque center near ground zero. A lot of people still think the earth is flat and that Obama is a Muslim from Kenya, too. The Twin Towers were built only four blocks from an older existing mosque and nobody thought a thing about it.  In a few years, kids will read about this flap in history books and wonder what the hell is was all about–unless they have to read books from those boneheads in Texas who are busy slicing and dicing history to suit their narrow, jingoistic views. I wonder how many people will own up to their kids and grandkids that they opposed building the center.

Obama’s presidency reminds me a lot of Lincoln’s. Talk about a guy who got no love from the people. The country was already divided before his election, then came war and nothing went right. Abe was lampooned in the press for his appearance, and dubbed an ape, a gorilla, an orangutan, a baboon.

They said he couldn’t win the war. The general who should have been the Union hero, McClellan, wouldn’t fight so Abe turned to Grant, who would, but by that time precious time was lost. Each day brought news of another Union ass-kicking by Confederate forces. The press meantime lampooned Lincoln’s appearance as that of an ape, a gorille, an orangutan or baboon. Anything familiar here?

Of course, Southerners were not alone in considering him a traitor for sticking up for the “n—– slaves” and suspected him of having similar lineage. It was all a fine kettle of fish till the tide began to turn, but not till Vicksburg and Gettysburg, deep into his tenure.

But then of course he was shot and the nation realized how much they had loved him and that it was his opposition who were cowards and traitors. Keep in mind, too, that Booth’s act was one of terrorism.

This is what troubles me about the stockpiling of guns after the election of Obama. The rhetoric is that they feared he would outlaw them, but if he did, would they not be holding worthless firearms, sort of like Confederate money? What then: would they want to shoot somebody? And, if so, who? Guess.

I knew many people who thought they hated JFK, but when he died they realized their politics had got in their way and blinded them to the level of hate that began to swarm around him long before. I saw them weeping at public memorials for him, and all knew the time for cut-throat politics was over and that healing had to begin–a lesson since forgotten.

I don’t hazard a guess of what can or will happen in the current climate, but these may be as bad or worse than the times of Lincoln and Kennedy. There are people dedicated to bringing down the Obama presidency regardless of his being right or wrong on anything, and they’re raising their hate to the boiling point.

The present flap shows how others are mosqueing–er, masking the truth.

It’s a terrible time to be president. Even Jesus Christ couldn’t pass that test. Look what happened to him.