Far-right Republicans Already Busy Bashing Obama

Those who would continue the culture of fear and ignorance are already at it after the historic election of Barack Obama as our nation's forty-forth president and first African American president. Most of the free world celebrated this momentous achievement. In a BBC World Service poll conducted in 22 countries last summer, four out of five people polled preferred Barack Obama over John McCain, with almost half saying an Obama election would completely change their view of the United States¹. The Scotsman's David Mattox wrote from Chicago:

"The world has its expectations, too. Much of the globe was represented in Grant Park. I met people from Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Britain, Canada and Australia."

"Cory Ruf, a Canadian student, told me: 'This was one of those moments people will ask you where you were when you heard it happened. I wanted to say I was in Chicago at the party with Barack Obama when he was elected president. Because this is a moment when the world will be healed.^'"²

But as many rejoice, some Americans in the media are busy trying to ensure that not a hint of optimism reaches the minds of their fans. To Rush Limbaugh, an Obama victory is something that cannot even be understood. At least Rush doesn't seem to understand it. On his nationally aired radio show on November 5^th, in a segment titled Parsing the Messiah's Speech, Rush responds to the majority of President-elect Obama's acceptance speech from Grant Park in Chicago with, "what's that mean?"; "How can that be?"; "What?"; "really?"; "What?"; "We?", "We?", "We?" He implies that when Obama began discussing the challenges facing the US, the crowd grew quiet as if shocked that he was asking them to be patient and productive.

"The reason I'm nitpicking Obama is because his campaign was comprised of the exact opposite of this, and people bought the exact opposite. He didn't talk about setbacks and starts. He talked about miracles. He talked about lowering the sea level. He talked about a new day. He talked about world peace. He talked about alternative fuels and no oil in ten years. He talked about hope.³"

Rush talks as though he never bothered to watch the debates or read any news articles about the Obama campaign- where many references were made to the enormity of the task a new president would face and the fact that change would not come instantaneously and without hard work.

Mr. Limbaugh represents the views of many of those in the Republican Party who rely on a small sampling of the most far-right of media pundits for their news. Many fans of the Rush Limbaugh Show also rely on Fox News to provide them with what they see as "fair and balanced" news reports, i.e., ones that fit their own biases. A look on the front page of the Fox News website on November 5^th was all it took to see how the far-right views America. The far-right view America as a place of pessimism, violence, crime, hatred and death. Under the top headlines for the U.S., each article contained a catchword designed to instill a sense of fear and uncertainty into readers. "Murder", "death", "arms", "slaughterhouse" all leap into the viewer's conscious almost immediately. Why would a Kosher slaughterhouse going bankrupt be top news on November fifth for any reason other than the very power of the word, "slaughterhouse?"

On the Fox News show 'Special Report with Brit Hume' on November fifth, Fred Barnes, Executive Editor of the Weekly Standard, is already speaking of partisanship from the party that for almost six years had absolutely no power in the Bush White House, in Obama's appointment of Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff.

"I talked to a lot of Republicans. They didn't take this as a gesture of bipartisanship or an olive branch from president-elect Obama to them.⁴"

After years of going out of their way to form a stranglehold on the U.S. Government, the Republican Party, with the help of the conservative media, is quickly coming around to a belief in bipartisanship as the most important factor in determining the future of this country. They have a reason to seek bipartisan government- voters handed an almost overwhelming majority of seats in both houses to Democrats.

The far-right of the Republican Party are already hard at work seeking to undermine the sense of hope the American people have after electing Barack Obama as President of the United states. Republicans relied on fear, insecurity and divisiveness to win the White House in 2001 and 2004. They know that it can work again if they are able to crush the American spirit. Hopefully, after eight years of war, financial crises, unemployment and a record-breaking national debt under a Republican dominated White House, the American people will be less likely to make the same mistake again.

1. Simpson, John. President Obama and the World, November 5, 2008

2. Mattox, David. All Things are Possible: Barack Obama Prepares for the White House, November 6, 2008

3. Limbaugh, Rush. Parsing the Messiah's Speech, November 5, 2008

4. Barnes, Fred. 'Special Report' Panelists Discuss President-elect Obama's Cabinet Pick, November 5, 2008