Just for kicks, last week during the speech class I teach, I told one of my students during impromptu time to share with the class what he liked about President Obama. He choked on himself for several minutes and then declared that he didn’t like ANYTHING about President Obama and could not answer the question.
I recently participated in a facebook thread about how Obama said America was not a Christian nation which people interpreted as:
a) precipitating the fall of western civilization and
b) clearly identifying Obama as the antichrist.
In the circles I run in, typically Christian, conservative and Republican, hating Obama and everything about him seems to be sort of the in thing to do. But today, I wanted to stop and ask the people who surround me: which Obama do you hate?
Everyone in the world is at least two people at one time, sometimes more. There is the person we really are deep down inside who we may only know partially ourselves and we are always at least a little afraid or ashamed of. Then there is the person we project to the world around us, who we should be or want to be. Barack Hussein Obama has both of these persons, and a bonus third person; the person varying members of the media portray him to be. And so, there are at least three Barack Hussein Obama’s we as the American public can respond to: Media Obama, Projected Obama and the real Obama.
It is fairly easy, as a conservative, to dislike if not hate the Media Obama, and also not terribly difficult to dislike the Projected Obama (even if that’s harder to do). But can we actually say that we dislike or hate Obama the person? We don’t even know him.
Now, we can disagree with, dislike and hate his decisions or actions; we can disagree with or hate his ideas or statements or policies. But we cannot hate him. Blind hatred is even more foolish and dangerous than blind love.
Today, I paused to read the transcript of Obama’s speech about sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. I thought it was a fantastic speech; clear and concise, enlightening and inspiring. But I smiled to myself at the thought that, had Bush given it, my whole speech class would have welcomed it with thunderous applause.
I would very much like to respond to people’s overreaction to Obama and the state of our nation more thoroughly, but I will save it for another time. I will simply conclude by saying that Obama, and any other politician you could care to name, is at best and worst a human being shoved into the role of demigod. While we should be free and intentional about critiquing and sometimes condemning his decisions, policies or ideas, we should be much slower to criticize much less condemn a man we don’t even know.
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YES! yes yes yes.
Though could one say that you were just not being specific enough in your question to your student? That you didn’t specify an obama, so he chose the only obama he “knew” (though most of the conservative christian evangelicals know more about media obama via conservative pundits, so even that knowledge is tinted…)
Very well put Kristina. I come from the opposite side of the isle, but I had an instance this week that made me rethink politicians and the way the media portrays them. I think that, deep down inside, most (if not all) of them love the people of the US and want to do the best for them.
Ryan S, I would be interested to hear about your rethinking instance this week (I like stories).
I think that your statement is true about many politicians. I hesitate to use the word “most” but maybe I have too great a faith (or cynicism) in the ability of power to corrupt. If history teaches us anything, it teaches us the vulnerability of human nature to power and position.
Some and perhaps many politicians, fallen as they are, are in that profession because they love this country and its people and desire its good, prosperity and longevity.
Some and perhaps many politicians, fallen as they are, are just doing their job like the rest of us, punching the clock, putting in their time in their occupation and someday retiring.
Some and perhaps many politicians, fallen as they are, are in it for political gain, power, prestige and position (hurray for alliteration).
But we can never be quick to judge which of these categories a politician may be in until we know them beyond what the media, and even they themselves, say about their person.