Obama Bashes Hate Speech

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright May 2 2010
All Rights Reserved.                                

               Pointing fingers at his right wing detractors, President Barack Obama appealed to more reasonable elements in a commencement address at the University of Michigan.  Speaking to a crowd of over 100,000, Barack appealed to his critics to tone down the anti-government hate speech, citing the fine line between the First Amendment and potential incitement.  While his opponents won’t listen, he encouraged Michigan graduates to explore both sides of the issue before taking sides to demonize fellow citizens.  While receiving his honorary doctor of laws degree, Obama spoke only 50 miles from the spot where 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin whipped a more militant anti-tax crowd in Clarkson, Mich. into a frenzy.  Palin, like her conservative colleagues at FOXNews and other right wing flame-throwing talk show hosts, know how rile audiences.

            Tea Party activists around the country have been relentlessly bashing the Obama administration for what they call a “radical” agenda.  Barack rejected the common Tea Party labels of “leftist” or “socialist,” despite his agenda, revolving more than the prior administration around social programs.  Passing health care reform was the biggest government social program since Democrat President Franklin Delano Roosevelt helped pass the 1935 Social Security Act.  “What troubles me is when I hear people say all of government is inherently bad,” Barack told a largely partisan audience.  “When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening foreign entity, it ignores the fact that in our democracy, government is us,” refuting his critics’ claims that he’s only about big government.  Obama sees his right wing critics as bashing his policies primarily for political gain.

            When the FBI arrested seven members of the northern Michigan-based Hutaree militia March 28, it raised questions about what motivates fringe groups.  Accused of sedition by federal law authorities, the government takes seriously growing threats against Obama.  Barack believes the increasingly hateful rhetoric has energized disenfranchised groups like the Hutaree militia.  “Throwing around phrases like ‘socialist,’ and ‘Soviet-style takeover,’ ‘fascists’ and ‘right wing nut’—that may grab headlines” but doesn’t lead to meaningful compromise.  “At its worst, it can send signals to the most extreme elements of our society that perhaps violence is justifiable response,” said Barack, hinting that conservative talk show hosts, like Rush Limbaugh, can incite otherwise poorly adjusted individuals to violent acts.  Marginalized groups, like the Hutaree militia, are prone toward violence.

            Former President Bill Clinton, whose wife Hillary Rodham Clinton blamed the “vast right wing conspiracy” for alleging her husband’s affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, blasted the right wing media for inciting violence.  “We can disagree with them.  We can harshly criticize them.  But when we turn them into an object of demonization, you know, you—you increase the number of threats,” said Obama, referring to the alarming number of right wing threats.  Back in 1995, Clinton linked Rush Limbaugh’s hateful right wing radio to April 19, 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.  Limbaugh denounced Clinton’s analysis, instead linking McVeigh’s bombing to the April 19, 1993 torching by the FBI of the Branch Davidian compund near Waco, Texas, killing 76, men, women and children.

                Clinton’s Apil 8 remarks to ABC News “This Week” cautioning against right wing hate speech, prompted Obama to deliver his Michigan commencement speech.  “It may make your blood boil.  Your mind may not be changed.  Bu the practice of listening to opposing views is essential for effective citizenship,” said Barack, urging young people to look at both sides of the issue.  Today’s political atmosphere is so biased that the country finds itself fairly evenly divided.  Voters hoped in 2008 that Obama’s election would bring about some improvement in the rank partisanship that leaves the president with 47.7% approval ratings, good by former President George W. Bush’s standards but fall short of the mandate to rebuild a bipartisan base for U.S. domestic and foreign policy.  Today’s Congress under Obama is more partisan than ever, leaving the country evenly split.

            President Obama understands the political game, where scoring points in the next election is more important than getting out the truth on a given issue.  South Carolina’s Sen. Jim DeMint expressed that view earlier this year urging Republicans to join forces to defeat Obama’s health care overhaul.  DeMint hoped, but failed, to get health care to be Barack’s Waterloo, instead handed the president his biggest victory.  Few news outlets, on the right or the left, meet Obama’s nonpartisan test.  With his polls holding firm, Brack must face the issues squarely or receive voters’ wrath this November.  With unemployment nationally at 9.7% and Michigan’s at 14.1%, the president has little room to blame voter discontent on his “radical” agenda.  More bad news from the economy or national disasters, like the British Petroleum oil spill in Louisiana, Barack faces more harm to his approval ratings.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.