Republicans going overboard with attacks on Obama
If you’re like me, you don’t know what to make of Republicans lately. I mean, they’re so angry and suspicious these days.
Last week the Washington Post ran a story about the persistent rumor careening around the Middle East that President Barack Obama is a Muslim — a Sunni Muslim or a Shiite Muslim, depending on who you’re talking to and which country you’re talking about.
The story was enough to prompt more than a thousand readers to respond with their own take on the president’s religion, and his politics.
More than a few were nothing short of astounding.
Here are some that give a sense of the anti-Obama tirades:
“Despite presenting himself as a Christian, (Obama) remains a closeted Muslim as reflected by his inclination towards everything Muslim,” wrote a commentator who went on to note that the president hates America and simply delights in “punishing Israel.”
Another: “Obama IS a Muslim. He has mocked the Bible and has praised Islam.”
Not everyone was fixated on the notion that the president is Muslim, closeted or otherwise. One of those responding to the Washington Post article wrote, “More likely, he’s a Satanist who prefers Islam as a tool.”
It’s unclear if these folks were card-carrying Republicans. They may well have been Democrats awaiting the return of one George Corley Wallace to this mortal coil called earth. They may be unaffiliated. Who knows, they may be Muslims themselves — foreign Muslim — who have infiltrated the United States in order to undermine the country.
This much is clear, according to polling, a good number of Republicans harbor the insane notion that the twice-elected president of the United States — and he was elected pretty easily, you know — is something other than what he says he is.
A 2014 poll reported that 54 percent of Republicans believed that Barack Obama was a Muslim “deep down.”
To be fair, there are other polls that don’t place such a large onus on the backs of Republicans. For instance, a 2015 CNN/ORC poll found that just 43 percent of Republicans thought President Obama was Muslim.
That same year Public Opinion Polling reported that 54 percent of “usual Republican primary voters” only — certainly not all Republicans — believed that the president had spirited a prayer rug into the White House and was secretly genuflecting to Mecca five times a day.
Still in all, these are substantial numbers. It seems like a great many Republicans have left earth’s orbit and are floating in the direction of some far-off galaxy.
I don’t mean to be glib, but this is getting serious, what with Republicans on the cusp of anointing either Ted Cruz or Donald Trump as their nominee to occupy the office once held by TR, FDR, JFK, LBJ and Dwight David Eisenhower, to say nothing of Washington and Lincoln.
Now, to those of you who think the craziness that has distorted our politics the last seven years will come to an end with the departure of Barack Obama from the White House, think again.
The evidence is clear that should Hillary Clinton became the Democratic nominee and then president, we will be in for another four years of mindless opposition.
The campaign hints at what is to come.
The other day at a rally in Georgia, Republican Ted Cruz was in the midst of reciting his plans for his first days in office when he was interrupted by a member of his audience, who had a suggestion of his own: “Put Hillary in jail.”
For a great many people, Hillary is the epitome of evil. Thus, she deserves whatever over-the-top name-calling comes her way.
Those old enough to remember the Bill Clinton administration will not be surprised.
The Clintons — Bill and Hillary — were the targets of the most outlandish claims of wrongdoing when they lived in the White House: they were called embezzlers, thieves, even murderers.
There was, during those years, a newspaper publisher, Richard Scaife of Pittsburgh/Ligonier, who undertook to destroy the Clintons.
Almost singlehandedly, Scaife created a loud, prolonged stink over Whitewater, a bogus land swindle. He also peddled the utter fiction that Bill and Hillary were complicit in the death of an aide, Vince Foster, who, tragically, committed suicide.
The Donald has mentioned Whitewater. He’s also brought up Bill Clinton’s serial trysts, Hillary’s “enabling” defense of her wayward husband, and the “bimbo eruptions” of the 1990s. Can the ghost of Vince Foster be far behind?
Of course, there is always Benghazi, the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya that cost the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Clinton was secretary of state at the time.
A day or so before the end of 2015, Sen. Rand Paul proclaimed that “with Hillary Clinton not providing security (at the facility) does she really have what it takes to be president?”
To his credit, Paul stopped there. He didn’t call her a name or label her a “liar,” as Florida’s Marco Rubio has.
The National Review went Sen. Rubio one better. In the magazine’s estimation, Clinton is an “unapologetic liar.” Benghazi formed the backbone of its conclusion.
Since Bill Clinton, there’s hardly been a Democratic nominee for president that Republicans haven’t at least attempted to delegitimize. In addition to the Arkansas Rascal himself, there was John Kerry who, despite his valiant service in Vietnam, was called a traitor for his eventual opposition to the war; Obama, of course. And now Hillary.
My gosh, if Bernie Sanders emerges with the nomination, we’ll hear no end of his honeymooning in Moscow.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown and is the author of two books — “Grand Salute: Stories of the World War II Generation” and “Our People.” ‘He can be reached at grandsalutebook@gmail.com.