COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:
I have been depressed for months over the inane and stupid attacks on President Obama, personally and on his proposed legislation.
In November, after he won the presidential election, and again at the time of his inauguration, I mused to my wife what a house of horrors he had inherited from his predecessor and I wondered how long it would be before his actions and proposed legislation would come under severe attack.
I quickly got the answer — it was not even a millisecond, it seemed, after he became president before he came under ferocious, unrelenting and mind-numbing attack by many Republicans and the loudmouths that claim to speak for the party.
These attacks allowed no real presidential honeymoon but immediately polarized into seemingly immutable partisanship.
We should all by now be deeply aware of the often irrational furor over health-care reform.
This reform is sorely needed, especially for the tens of millions who are uninsured, and it can hardly get off the ground because of the withering attacks on the president’s and Democrats’ proposals.
It is a tough problem, and no legislation will be perfect, but it needs sane bipartisanship to work toward the best solution feasible at this time without dicing and slicing for political gain and obdurate political posturing.
I hesitate to speculate why this ferocious opposition to the president exists, but I’ll throw out some possibilities: racism, fear of reduced gun rights (it’s my constitutional right to buy people-killing assault rifles), OMG-socialism, he’s too darn smarty-pants uppity (prefer Joe Six-pack), he’s not a holier-than-thou Christian, and no doubt a bunch of other nonsensical reasons opponents might throw up.
And then, worst of all, there was the president’s speech to students. Beforehand, the arguments against this simple speech knew no limits of irrationality.
Even afterward, when his speech showed absolutely no hint of partisanship or — horror of horrors — “socialism,” writers continued to foam at the mouth, such as Edgar Gharibian (“Defiance is part of country’s heritage,” Sept. 14) who stated, “The president has no right to circumnavigate a parent’s responsibility and authority over their children.”
Such muddled thinking boggles the mind, but unfortunately it is too common.
The speech episode was the final straw (probably not really final) in the downward spiral of my hopes that we have a chance of seeing meaningful national (or state, for that matter) legislation in the near future.
No wonder I have sunk into such a gray funk when there is such unbelievable opposition to one of the most intelligent, articulate, coherent, balanced and thoughtful presidents we’ve had.
Because of that intransigent opposition it appears that we have very little chance for significant, beneficial legislation for our nation.
ROBERT MORRISON is a Glendale resident.