Yesterday, my friend Arnie commented on a family visit at his blog where he concluded that his relatives just “hate, hate, hate our president.” This is not an uncommon finding, especially with the conservative backlash we’ve seen with Mrs. Obama’s efforts to fight obesity in children. The right-wing media has had a field day comparing her work to improve nutrition with another “Marxist” and “socialist” Obama policy. From today’s Seattle Times:
Former first ladies Barbara and Laura Bush worked to end illiteracy. Nancy Reagan famously took on teenage drug use. Lady Bird Johnson planted flowers. But none of them has been seared for something as seemingly benign as calling for kids to eat more vegetables, as Michelle Obama has.
“Leaders are supposed to be leaders,” Limbaugh said. “If we are supposed to eat roots, berries and tree bark, show us how.”
Just about everyone will agree that the nation’s children are getting fatter and that obesity is a serious health problem. But the first lady’s push for healthier meals and more exercise, which marked its anniversary this month, has provoked a backlash from the right, who complain that the only thing here that’s supersized is Big Brother.
Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh last week suggested Obama is a hypocrite for dining on ribs and remarked on her waistline in the process.
That was just the latest offering in what has been a steady diet of criticisms.
I don’t think I’ve seen so much hatred around a president and the First Lady in my lifetime. Even Nixon and his crimes did not elicit such rhetoric. My personal belief is that racism is at the heart of all this but instead of calling out race, Tea Baggers and other righties use terms like “Marxist,” “Nazism,” and “socialism” instead. As Arnie said:
I still think it would be much easier if people would simply admit that they are bigots and hate black people. That would cut right through all of the false rhetoric and straight to what they are actually meaning to say. Boy Boy Needs to Go Home Now.
Well said.
