Challenge Campaign of Insults, Slurs vs. Obama

Republican Gov. Jan Brewer insults the president with a finger-wagging tarmac rant in Arizona. As a result, sales of her book soar.

American presidents have always been fair game for public criticism. But isn't it past time that we challenge the campaign of insult, racial slur and utter disrespect that has been unleashed on Barack Obama?

Consider just the Republican presidential contenders. The campaign started with Donald Trump's ugly nonsense about Obama's birth certificate, suggesting that he was un-American. Newt Gingrich devoted a book, To Save America, to denouncing Obama's "secular socialist machine that represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany."

Gingrich began his comeback from life support when he reasserted his claim that Obama was the "food stamp president," a pure dog whistle to the unreconstructed among South Carolina voters.

Mitt Romney is no exception, saying Obama wants to lead America into a "European social welfare society" while he would take us back to an "American opportunity society." Obama, the theme is, isn't like us. He takes his cue from Europeans, not Americans. One of Romney's ads in South Carolina criticized Obama for adopting "un-American" economic policies.

But the presidential candidates are simply the top of a cesspool. Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) said of Obama that he didn't "even want to have to be associated with him. It's like touching a tar baby and you get it, you're stuck."

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) made a name for himself insulting the president in the middle of his health care address to Congress in 2009. This year, House Speaker John Boehner scorned Obama's agenda in his State of the Union address as "un-American." Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) was both blind and a cad when he suggested that Michelle Obama shouldn't talk about eating healthily given her "posterior."

The activists and pundits are worse. Rush Limbaugh scorned Obama as an "affirmative action candidate" and a "Halfrican-American." "Obama's entire economic program," Limbaugh slurs, "is reparations."

The Republican kids get the clues. Hours after a 21-year-old Idaho man was arrested for shooting an AK-47 rifle at the White House, the president of the University of Texas College Republicans tweeted: "Y'all as tempting as it may be, don't shoot Obama. We need him to go down in history as the WORST president we've EVER had!" Her successor apparently wasn't chastened by the ensuing furor, tweeting, "My president's black, he snorts a lot of crack."

What's going on here?

Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) considers this a version of the Republican "Southern strategy." "It tends to equate the president of the United States with dependency, with a lack of status, ..." he said in an interview. "I believe it's another way to separate his presidency from the presidencies of all the others before him."

"That's more than a dog whistle," Fox News analyst Juan Williams said. "It's a hoot and a holler."

This is dangerous. Angry and upset people, frightened by an African-American in the White House, feed on the signals, the hatred and the fantasies of Obama as un-American, a Kenyan socialist, an illegitimate president. Threats on the president's life are up. John Kennedy faced the same kinds of hatred and slurs of his Catholicism.

No one wants to censor speech. But we can and should call out those who are breeding hate or appealing to it. The majority of the American people elected Barack Obama. He deserves the respect and the dignity of his office, even if you disagree with his policies.

 

Follow Rev. Jesse Jackson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/revjjackson

Comments

[myth1958]

07:57 PM on 02/04/2012

The Reverend Jackson has made his points; we cannot ignore this message even if we differ on who is delivering it. The way to progress is over mountains of resistance: somebody wants to keep it just like it is. The new minority is rich people; corporations; ultra Republicans. Moderates and Democrats will put Obama back in his second term - no problem. The balance of power, then, is in the House where lots of seats are up for grabs. Loss of power = fear, which brings on the dirty campaign the GOP is willing to go to as they cling to their seats at all costs. Literally.

[trailerguy]

02:03 PM on 02/04/2012

The republicans are playing the old southern stragegy. A fading stragergy, the younger generation is less racist. there have been millions of mixraced children produced. The souhtern stragegy is just about done.

[trailerguy]

01:53 PM on 02/04/2012

I get so mad when anyone dissis our president and his white heritage. I am proud of him and his has down a good job. his mom and i went to same highschool although a few years apart

[melaninroyalty]

10:51 PM on 02/03/2012

Can we just get it started, already! We know what they want.They have been trained from birth to hate and by as many guns as your house can hold. Thats because they know that they are physically inferior! There was a song that came out a few years ago that went: People get ready, there is a train "A" coming. You don't need no ticket, you get on board!

[nottinglepee]

08:01 AM on 02/06/2012

Oh. White people are "physically inferior"? How's that?

[TheInconvenientTruth]

04:02 PM on 02/03/2012

The seething h@tred of and outright disrespect towards this President and the First Lady for that matter is not about policies...it never has been. It's personal. You can hear it in the voices of the low information righties who call C-SPAN every morning struggling to explain why they can't stand a President who's cut their taxes and tried to give them healthcare. You can see it in the posts from tr0lls on this site who rush to articles like this and pathetically try to equate the treatment of this President to the treatment of GWB...and there is no comparison. The fact that the President is bl@ck fuels the republican's hatred towards him (from the low information b!g@ts to the super wealthy corporate execs and politicians)--it intensifies it! It's about who he is, not what he does...”

[gomezrules]

12:07 AM on 02/02/2012

Help me here, Reverend, but didn't YOU tell the world that you would castrate Obama because he did or said something that made you unhappy? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHflFFKoaNM And, didn't you state that Obama was "acting like he's white"? http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/09/19/jessie-jackson-obamas-acting-like-hes-white/ Hypocrite, thy name is Jackson... But I have a feeling the censors won't allow this. They never do when it comes to the Reverend JJ....

[Klous]

10:09 PM on 02/03/2012

well done

[DeanWormer]

10:40 PM on 02/01/2012

But anti-Semitism is ok, huh Rev?

[Dosadi]

10:34 PM on 02/01/2012

When America elected Barrack Obama to be President our nation should have celebrated for weeks. We should have displayed banners that said "We finally did it, we got past our past." There should have been parades and new monuments put up to celebrate us. But the republicans did not let us celebrate, instead they decided to play Jim Crow and vilify a good man with lies and false stereotypes. The rest of the world celebrated but we allowed the republican party to spoil our moment. They will never be able to live that down, never.

[CCreek]

11:39 PM on 02/01/2012

This is simply revisionist history. I don't recall any election in the last 30 years in which more celebratory statements were made than this one. And some would argue, myself included, that it would be possible to celebrate Obama's victory TOO much -- that is, it almost diminishes his personal victory by focusing so much on the fact that a black person was elected President. Obama won because the American people determined him to be their best choice to run the country, not because of or in spite of his skin color.

[Dosadi]

05:05 PM on 02/02/2012

The celebrity status was started by the GOP. The started calling him "The one" and "The Messiah." It does not take a rocket scientist to see through that attempt to defile a good man. We should have celebrated like the rest of the world did when we elected Obama.

[JTWallace]

09:10 AM on 02/02/2012

I still remember at the voter location in our community where church busses brought in elderly voters who had never before voted. They were given a free lunch and transportation. As they began reloading to return to their church, a reporter asked several who they voted for and why. To the last one, it was Obama. When an over 50 year-old was asked, her reply was, 'cause he's gonna turn this country around.'' When asked with what, her reply,.............''wid his stash.'' Enough said.

[bdunlap52]

10:57 AM on 02/02/2012

My favorites were the ones who thought that Sarah Palin would make a great VP for President Obama "cuz she a bad woman". "Woman" was not the term used.

[catgale1123]

10:00 PM on 02/01/2012

Jesse Jackson has lost all credibility with me, its sad when speaks a certain truth and you turn away from it because of their ridiculous actions

[stopmakingsense]

07:26 AM on 02/02/2012

That don't change the truth.

[catgale1123]

09:35 AM on 02/02/2012

It doesnnt your right, but when it comes from Jackson think of all the people who might have listened and now down the drain

[Klous]

10:12 PM on 02/03/2012

Jackson and the truth are mutually exclusive.

[drdrepublican]

07:28 PM on 02/01/2012

Nothing that President Obama has endured is compared to the hatred, disrespect and besmirchment that George Bush was showered with. You do remember when liberal Democrats and the Hollywood elite sanctioned a movie depicting the assasination of GWB!!! Where is Obama's movie? Obama makes the statement that there are 57 American states and given a pass, GW says "nuclear" and is deemed the dumbest man on earth.
Stop crying and stop playing the race card. You Democratic liberals have set the standard for racial hatred, disrespect and harrassment. No one can come close!!!

[stopmakingsense]

07:28 AM on 02/02/2012

Where is that movie? Beside Bush was terrible for this country, he screwed it up, deal with it.

[JTWallace]

09:11 AM on 02/02/2012

If that were true, it was dumped even lower by this administration of Klowns

[TheInconvenientTruth]

04:34 PM on 02/03/2012

Dude...that's ins@ne and you know it. Dems disliked Bush for what he did (ie., lied us into a war that killed 4000+ americans and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, fiddled while an American city drowned, etc). H@ll, he and D!ck Cheney can't even travel outside the country out of fear that they'll be arrested and dragged before a war crimes tirbunal. Even then, they did not call him a liar whil he was addressing a joint session of Congress. Reps (not all, but a great majority of them) hate Obama for who he is. It's a big difference...

[bdunlap52]

10:55 PM on 02/01/2012

Johnny Reb would have been a Democrat.

[Ifeomamn]

04:08 PM on 02/01/2012

Thanks Rev. But this has been going on since before Jan 20 2009. ONLY Jimmy Carter spoke up against it in march of 2009. Many of the Civil Rights group were mute. I say, enough.

In 2008, Gwen Iffil was chided for her objectivity moderating a VP, for which then sen Obama was not one of the participant.

The media is 95% plus white. The 1st Black president is easily called "Barack". "Obama" "Barack Obama" or "Barack Hussein Obama", the right would NOT have any of that for Bush. The same was done to Bill Clinton, a Dem. So part of the problem is the press, then those of Us who had stood idly by while this president is questioned of his birth right, citizenship, etc. It is about time that the press is asked of their left over racial animus against the 1st African American president.

[jg1114]

08:08 PM on 02/01/2012

Yes, we never heard 'Bush' or 'Dubya'. The left SO wants valid criticism of the president to be dismissed as nothing but racist rants. Just not possible that there is someone without a racist bone in his or her body who believes the Hope and Change was nothing but a bill of goods delivered in the perfect storm, by a man who has a nice speaking voice who rode the wave of Bush-hating "Republican = Bush" sentiment.

[TBV]

09:01 PM on 02/01/2012

Give me a break....the left stream media fawns over this President as if he was doing something positive. He has so many screw ups that the press has covered up it is unbelievable. The race card has been used so many times the deck is worn out. Remember chicken little.

[stopmakingsense]

07:30 AM on 02/02/2012

Where is your proof?

[Ifeomamn]

11:10 AM on 02/02/2012

Tried and Failed.

[AustinG]

03:53 PM on 02/01/2012

Insterestingly enough the Reverend didn't quote himself in this piece because he had some material that could make it in. Beyond that if there isn't a lot of respect shown to the President it is likely due to the way he uses the office to attack and smear those who disagree with him. How can you show respect to a man who uses his office to take money from taxpayers and give it to billioaire donors while at the same time he attacks those who disagree with him of being for the rich? If you use office of POTUS and its traditions such as the SOTU address to lie to the American public are others disrespecting those thigns by calling you a liar or are you disrespecting them by lying? Maybe both, but certainly it isn't just those who are taking on the President.

[catgale1123]

10:02 PM on 02/01/2012

your quote about Jackson is very true, he has been equally disrespectful towards the POTUS

[orcinous]

03:16 PM on 02/01/2012

I have to say I really do not enjoy watching the putdown going on of our President. It is shameful and embarassing to watch. He is disrespected time and again. I appreciate though that he has remained Presidential throughout it all. He is the Jackie Robinson of presidents. How is it that these talking heads say all these things about Obama and yet in three years none of their prophecies have come true? He has not pushed any socialist programs through, we have not become European, sharia law is not in effect, we did not delve down into depression, so be thankful for that.

[dede4007]

11:59 AM on 02/02/2012

Most every president has endured tons of criticism from the press, and at times, extreme. Ronald Reagan was DOGGED in the media, as well as both Bushes. The only difference now, is, those who voted for Obama didn't pay attention to what was being said then, or if they did, laughed along with it, so it didn't matter. But, when the media is attacking the person YOU like, then suddenly it's wrong, and it's hateful. Look back at the archives of CNN and MSNBC, and you will know exactly what I am talking about.

[jg1114]

02:50 PM on 02/01/2012

Is somebody selling a book here? Haven't heard from the Reverend in some time.

The irony is priceless though, this angst coming from the man who, while running for President (haha) called New York "Heimy Town."

[Ifeomamn]

04:00 PM on 02/01/2012

When was that, in 1984? Yet that is all you can remember?

He who has Not sinned, cast the 1st stone?

Is what the Rev said incorrect? No.

But so are the argument these days, coming from the right. Use a past wrong to justify fixing an obvious current wrong. That is wickedly sad.

[jg1114]

08:13 PM on 02/01/2012

"Use a past wrong to justify fixing an obvious current wrong" makes sense I suppose to someone who missed the point. What does it matter when the Reverend thought 'Heimey Town' was perfectly acceptable? You rail against the irony because there's not a race card to pull in pointing out the disingenuous nature of the message.

[a lo ha]

09:37 PM on 02/01/2012

What makes you think that it stopped in 1984? Public awareness makes it much more difficult. Less opportunity! Did you read the book? My guess is that you did not. What he did is "wickedly sad; he would not hesitate to do again!! Calling himself a Reverend is a sin!! The sad thing is that you think Jesse cares about the African-Americans community.