This week Wednesday President Obama paid a short visit to Flint at the invitation of an eight year-old and to keep attention on the water crisis. This brought out the expected chorus of grumbles: He should have been here sooner, he should have never come, he is wasting our tax money, etc. One comment I saw said, “He’s only doing this because it’s an election year.” Um… Obama is not running for… oh, never mind. I get it. You just plain hate the guy.
There is a scene in the movie Forrest Gump where after the anti-war demonstration in Washington DC, Jenny is preparing to get on a bus. The previous night, Forrest had defended Jenny after her hippie-radical boyfriend, Wesley, hit her. Wesley attempts to apologize to Jenny but ends up blaming his actions on being upset over “that lying son-of-a-bitch Johnson.” (I had remembered Wesley blaming Nixon, but the video proves otherwise:
The point is, the character is so controlled by his negativity toward the president, he can’t find the words to apologize for physically assaulting his own girlfriend. He has become an awful person. It doesn’t matter that he’s a hippie radical or tea party radical, liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat — his hate fixation is his undoing.
The undoing of the Republican Party may be its unhealthy obsession with finding wrong in every action of President Obama. Not to say that Obama hasn’t done plenty of wrong; he most certainly has. But I think eight years of unrelentingly seeking to find nothing but wrong has a big role in its current implosion. It should be a cautionary tale for all to avoid unrelentingly hate for next president — whoever it is.
P.S.: If you need more context for that Forrest Gump scene, check this out:
It also happens to contain my favorite line: “Sorry I had a fight in the middle of your Black Panther Party.”
John Auchter draws cartoons. Lots and lots of them. You can find them at his incredibly popular website auchtoon.com.
Couldn’t agree more. The GOP announced its intention to derail the Obama Administration repeatedly during the President’s first term. I thought that would end with President Obama’s reelection, but the hate continued. I’m glad the President accepted Amariyanna Copeny’s invitation to visit Flint. The crisis needs to be kept in the forefront until the problem is solved. I’m sure Snyder wants it to just go away. I was shocked to hear that the Governor said he would be “too busy” to meet with the President during his visit. Seriously? Sort of contradicts Ari Adler’s statement to the press Wednesday that said “…the answer to the crisis is to work together, and put politics aside to solve the problem. This is why he (Snyder) was so interested in speaking with the President today.” Quite the about face in less that 24 hours. Wednesday’s crowd had it right. Get off the stage and out of the State.
The. country is in better shape now than 8 years ago. The Republican Party is a sorry bunch of individuals. The Michigan Repub. super majority is the laughing stock of America.
The Republican Party is its’ own worst enemy. They are rotting from the inside out.
Note to self (just in case the unthinkable occurs): Do not become of those who says, “President Trump can do ‘nothing but wrong.'”
Sadly the cartoon reflects our extended family dynamics. We rarely see some because almost every time the politics soured the occasion. My hubby never argued but it almost seemed like he was being provoked purposely. My grandfather loved to talk politics and I never heard an insult, curse or put down. What I hear from my relatives sounds more like propaganda and unproven allegations. I often wonder what gramps responses to these would be!
Andy, your own hatred and bias for Nixon shows when you say you remember that Wesley said Nixon instead of LBJ. Liberals liked to blame Nixon for everything, but it was actually JFK who started the Viet Nam war. But you never hear anyone acknowledging that.
Regarding the GOP negativity towards Obama, it is legitimate. When he has people like Bill Ayers and “God-damning America” Rev. Wright in his long past, it tells something about a person. Even people as revered as Tom Brokaw and Charlie Rose early on lamented that we don’t know enough about him. The GOP didn’t have to “unrelentingly seek to find” wrong in him. He inserted himself in areas to further his own politics – college girls complaining of having to pay for their own contraceptives, every issue of race, no matter where it was, and only making things worse.
He promoted more and more give-away government programs, and still people aren’t satisfied. Even the mother of the little Flint girl complained that he didn’t do enough yet.
Ann,
This is John. I won’t try to talk you out of any of your thoughts here, but I would like to clarify one thing. My mistake in thinking Wesley’s ill feelings were toward Nixon, not Johnson came from an assumption that a hippie radical would have an unhealthy disdain for the right/conservative/Republican. Turns out it can cut across ideological lines. But no matter who’s doing the hating or why, it ain’t healthy.
I wasn’t old enough to hate Nixon – but, c’mon, ever hear of Watergate? Isn’t that enough? I know JFK started the war, and our eventual involvement there started the day WWII ended.
As for Obama, I think he’s been a very good president who could have done more without a historically obstructive Congress. And good lord, politicians all have lots of associations in their past they probably would like to change. Every single one. That’s not how you judge someone. Judge on his actions. He’s been right on most things – look at the economy. Low unemployment, record stock market, low gas, etc. He cleaned up a huge mess given to him by one of the worst three presidents in history. Maybe the worst.
So, TL;DR is, hate leads to the dark side?