Not a HUGE fan of Patheos co-blogger Frank Schaeffer (“Why I Still Talk to Jesus”) but this is worth reading: The Slow-Motion Lynching of President Barack Obama.
Go over there and take a few minutes with it. For me the title alone was an eye-opener; “slow-motion lynching” opened doors in my head, giving me an A-Ha! that had been 6 years building.
One of the comments:
This president is as good as it gets. And more. I am with you ALL the way—he is part of the 99% but when it comes to character, ethics, compassion, intellect, and personal behavior, to name just a few attributes, President Obama is in the top 1% of this country’s presidents as people around the world easily see. But his backbone is yet another reason why he is beloved by most healthy and honorable Americans…
Tell you what, I’m amazed by the guy. I voted for Obama twice, and I have very few regrets. Because I saw what we had before, and because I looked at all the candidates since (Sarah Palin? Rick Perry? Rick Santorum? Michele Bachmann???). But also because of what he’s done, and tried to do, and said, and tried to say.
I’m amazed at a great deal of what he’s accomplished, and doubly amazed at how little traction those accomplishments continue to get. (If Bush had gotten Bin Laden, we’d be carving his presidential likeness on a mountain by now. )
Hell no, I don’t like everything government’s doing right now. But behind the noxious smoke being cranked out 24/7 by FOX News, and Congress, and the GOP, and the slithering tangle of beer-bellied trailer-trash shitheads who sat grinning and waving flags through 8 years of Bush but who now think they’re political experts who deserve deep input into how government operates … there’s a bright, calm, decent guy trying to do his job.
And making a pretty good go of it, in spite of it all.
Years back when I was involved in small-town politics, I watched the local power players control the town council and the water board, sometimes literally winking and laughing when they pulled off dirty political shenanigans in full view of an enraged and fully-aware public. Now I see that scaled up and on the national stage.
We have a seriously twisted public square right now, something that scares the hell out of me. I’m just boggled that things can be this crazy, this out-in-the-open insane. I mean … FOX News can really DO this crap? Congressional Republicans can wreck the government at will, just for grins? And walk away smiling? And we LET them? Knowing some of what’s at stake?
It’s like we’re all stuck inside this weird media force field where nothing of outside reality can get through, where the only truly critical feedback we get is through comedians. And we’re okay with it. We’re letting it go on.
After all the smoke dies down, and assuming the country survives this — that what’s happening is not already a sign of unstoppable disintegration — I believe Obama will be seen as a truly great president.
I like to think he’s the herald of an extended period of reasonable government, an accidental statesman who got through a system created to filter out statesmen, and who helped shift things back toward sanity.
Rather than, say, a figure known to future history as the last dying gasp of working Democracy.
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BTW, I wouldn’t mind talking to you Frank. The — well — SANITY of this piece impressed and surprised me, and also gave me a little wake-up regarding preconceptions about religious people. It would be interesting to talk about possible preconceptions about atheists from the goddy side.