In centuries gone by, President Obama would have challenged Rudy Giuliani to a duel. But today, slurs against the President’s character are so commonplace they probably just roll off his back.
Here’s what the former New York mayor said recently:
I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America… He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.
Giuliani was addressing a private dinner in Manhattan, attended by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and other Republican politicians, as well as business executives and conservative media members.
Can you imagine someone saying this about you? Suggesting that you don’t love your country? Suggesting you weren’t brought up in a decent home? Insulting not just you but your parents too?
Where I come from, those are fighting words.
But the Republican Party’s leaders have learned over the past six years that they can insult the President of their country without paying a price at the polls.
Speaker John Boehner, for example. He deliberately got in the President’s face by inviting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to address Congress. He didn’t ask the President’s permission. He didn’t even notify the White House of the invitation.
Clearly, this tells the world there are two American governments – Boehner’s and Obama’s.
While Obama’s government is trying to find a peaceful way of ending Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, Boehner’s government is legislating tighter sanctions in a transparent effort to escalate tensions between Iran and the United States. Obviously, what John Boehner and his political pal Benjamin Netanyahu want is an excuse to go to war with Iran.
A CNN poll shows that 63 percent of Americans disapprove of Boehner inviting the Istaeli prime minister behind the President’s back. Only 33 percent approve.
But it’s that 33 percent Boehner cares about. This hard core of right-wing Obama haters has succeeded in giving the Republican Party majorities in both the House and the Senate. They are the political activists of today. They organize, they proselytize, they contribute, they vote.
The 63 percent who disapprove of Boehner’s subversive behavior are too cynical, too “cool,” or simply too lazy to flex their political muscle.
They are one reason for America’s perverted politics. They are the enablers who have ceded power to a rabid minority.
It’s not just Boehner and Giuliani and their bigoted fans who are sabotaging America’s President. The indolent majority are guilty, too.