Perhaps they just don’t want to think through the details. Then again - - maybe some of them don’t have the capacity to think through the details.
I’m referring to the apparent plethora of partisan, passionate, “see-no-evil” Obama minions, who become outraged should any of the rest of us ask questions about the forty-fourth President.
I continually encounter the minions both as callers on talk radio, and as mailers responding to my various editorial columns. Whereas last year during the election cycle when I would dare to ask questions of the dear leader Obama, the minions’ first line of attack would be to call me a “racist” (or as one talk show caller put it to me last October, “you just can’t handle the idea of being under the authority of a black man, Austin”), today the line of attack is different. And while each talk show call and each email message are unique, the minions nonetheless typically follow a predictable pattern.
These days, the minions’ first line of attack on those of us who dare to ask questions about the dear leader seems to be to change the subject back to President George W. Bush. I heard plenty of this in March when I was back at my Washington, D.C. radio home, 630 WMAL, during the fiasco with the AIG Corporation and their executives. When I posed the question “why did President Obama hand-over $30 billion of our tax dollars to AIG in the first place?,” the responses frequently followed this pattern.
“This whole bailout mess got started with Bush” one caller stated to me (this is true, of course - - but it didn’t answer the question about Obama’s bailout behavior). “Obama wouldn’t have to bailout AIG had Bush not destroyed it,” and “if you think things are bad now, let’s go back and review the previous eight years” were some of the other subject-changing comments I got on talk radio. And after authoring a column entitled “Is Obama The Moral Alternative to Capitalism?” wherein I detailed the President’s propensity to control private corporations, and determine who their CEO’s and board members will be, one simple-minded minion emailed “I suppose you think things would be better if Bush and his cronies were in charge…”
After attempting to change the subject, and get the focus of the conversation OFF of dear leader Obama, the second line of attack from the minions seems to be to demonize the talk show host, and talk radio generally. I got an earful of this during a recent show I hosted at Phoenix, Arizona’s NewsTalk 92-3 KTAR. Noting President Obama’s plans to set earnings limits on corporate executives, I posed the question, “should President Obama determine how much money you’re allowed to earn?”
“You all can’t do anything but hate on this guy” a caller said in response. “All you talk radio guys know how to do is trash Obama” another caller said.
Oh really? I was “hating on” the dear leader, and “trashing” him? I pressed further with one caller, saying “seriously…should President Obama set the limit on how much money you’re allowed to make at your job - - just to make certain that you don’t make ‘too much’?”
“He’s not proposing to limit my pay, you idiot” the minion replied. “He’s only limiting the salaries of corporate CEO’s, which he should be doing.”
“So, are you saying that some of your fellow Americans deserve less freedom that you do?” I asked. “You should be free to make as much money as you can, but your fellow American should not - - is that your point?”
“That’s not what I’m saying, you idiot!” the angry minion replied.
Of course, that was precisely what the angry minion was saying.
The third line of attack from the minions seems to be a simple “how dare you?” response. I encountered this after the publication of a column in my local hometown newspaper. After stating the obvious about President Obama’s economic plan - - that his plan has essentially nothing to do with growing the private sector economy, and everything to do with creating more government control over private individuals and businesses - - I had people, literally, stopping me around town to ask “how dare you?” - - or something similar.
While attending a school function with my ten year old son, another Dad confronted me and asked, “how could you say such a terrible thing about the President of the United States?”
“I supported my claims in the column” I told the Dad. “It’s all right there in the text.”
“But how could you say such a thing about the President?” he asked.
“What part of my analysis was inaccurate?” I replied.
“But this meltdown isn’t Obama’s fault” he stated.
“So what‘s your point? What part of my analysis was inaccurate?”
“But he’s trying to do the right thing, Austin…….”
I hope you remain willing to ask questions. But be prepared for the attacks - - and by all means, don’t expect any rational answers.
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