Friday, August 11, 2023

An Obama-Biden Lesson


Obviously, there is a (small) nugget of truth in what the former Republican congressman, now an Independent and fierce critic of Donald Trump, says here. However, it also is disturbingly misleading.

Walsh is referring to the report that

A Utah man fatally shot by the FBI on Wednesday was armed when FBI agents confronted him at his home, a senior law enforcement official told NBC News. Authorities said he pointed his weapon at agents and did not respond to their commands.

Officials said the FBI fatally shot the man, who was identified in charging documents as Craig Deleeuw Robertson, as they were serving a warrant at his home in Provo on Wednesday.

He had allegedly made threats against President Joe Biden, saying he would need to prepare his camouflage and sniper rifle for Biden's visit to Utah this week. He also openly plotted online the assassination of Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, whose office is prosecuting former President Donald Trump….

The shooting occurred at 6:15 a.m. Wednesday as agents were trying to serve arrest and search warrants at Roberton's home, the FBI said in a statement. It said that no agents were injured and that the incident was under review by the agency's Inspection Division.


 

There are white ultra-conservatives who would be upset that law enforcement shot and killed this man for at least three reasons, the least significant being that the deceased is white. He was gunning for the likes of Merrick Garland, Kamala Harris, and Joe Biden, as well as the District Attorney who was the first individual to obtain an indictment against Donald Trump, a godly individual to individuals who would support such a would be assassin.

Additionally, Robertson was not killed by "Back the Blue" or "Blue Lives Matter" local or state police. He was killed by federal law enforcement officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In a masterly case of gaslighting, the right has successfully convinced much of the country that the FBI- a conservative, Republican-leaning organization- is actually guardian of the Democratic political establishment.

Walsh misses a larger point when he suggests that the right condones an old white man confronts police with a gun while being outraged when a black man refuses to obey commands of police. But the impact of race is not always what this ex-Republican and most liberals and progressives think it is.

When Barack Obama was the Democratic nominee for President and while he was in office, many individuals, public figures and otherwise, implied, inferred, or blatantly claimed that Mr. Obama was born in Kenya rather than in the United States.  We called these people "birthers," blasted them as racists, and were self-righteously convinced that a white President never would be subjected to such ignorant, narrow-minded hatred.

Barack Obama, born in Hawaii, USA, was slammed as not being an American. Those were the good times. It took the election of Joe Biden- a white man- before the far right would stage an insurrection, a violent attempted coup, to prevent a Democrat from assuming the presidency he won by election. Months later, all House Speaker Kevin McCarthy still wouldn't admit Donald Trump lost an election.



 


All Kevin McCarthy could concede is "Joe Biden is the President."  Whatever could have been his first clue?




With numerous other Republicans of accomplishment and stature refusing to acknowledge that Joe Biden was legitimately elected President and that Donald Trump is wrong to claim otherwise, it should not be surprising that

The share of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who believe that President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win was not legitimate has ticked back up, according to a new CNN poll fielded throughout July. All told, 69% of Republicans and Republican-leaners say Biden’s win was not legitimate, up from 63% earlier this year and through last fall, even as there is no evidence of election fraud that would have altered the outcome of the contest.

Take a good look at that picture above. The man taking the oath of office, whose election is still contested by GOP officials as well as Republicans in the street, is white.  While the right won't admit he's a President in good standing, nary will liberals, progressives, centrists, or moderates acknowledge they were wrong about the ongoing attack against President Barack Obama. 

Barack Obama was hated by a tremendous number of conservatives. His race was the most obvious aspect to latch onto but the enmity wasn't due to his color. The major factor he and President Biden have in common is not their race. They are both Democrats. And absent a coming to Jesus moment for the GOP, the next Democratic President will be unfairly, dishonestly, and viciously excoriated by the Republican Party, whatever the individual's ethnic background.. 



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