Dissing Obama
By Max J. Castro
MIAMI – After President Barack Obama’s listless performance in the first debate with Mitt Romney, I wrote on this page that we would see a very different Obama in the second encounter – a much more aggressive, combative, and even angry president who would take it to Romney the way LeBron James attacks the basket leaving defenders in the dust.
That’s exactly what happened. But the point of this column is not to brag about my prescience or to revel in the outcome or to rehash old news. This is about Romney’s demeanor in the debate, what it reveals about him, and the extent to which the GOP candidate’s attitude reflects the feelings of a vast sector of the party and the conservative movement.
Dissing is slang for treating someone with disrespect, with contempt, with scorn. And that is how Mitt Romney acted toward the President of the United States, in subtle and not so subtle ways, for the entire night. Romney’s whole act, his words, his body language, his condescending manner, his repeated violations of the rules by taking more than the allotted time and speaking off-subject, heck, even his failed attempt to bully the moderator, speak volumes about who the elusive Romney really is.
He is the quintessential bully, the debate made that crystal clear. To be sure, Romney is not the kind of bully that intimidates with his fists or his penchant for settling arguments with a weapon. He is the kind of bully that feels entitled to get his way and make his own rules by dint of class, wealth and – yes – race.
This character trait was not so evident during the Republican contest when he was debating other privileged white men. But it did show through on occasion, as when he famously challenged Texas Governor Rick Perry to a $10,000 bet over a relatively minor point of contention. And it came through in spades during his second debate with Obama.
The best analysis of what Romney revealed about himself in the Hofstra University debate came from the unlikeliest source, James Lipton, the host of the television show Inside the Actors Studio and a figure better known for being the object of comedians’ jokes than for acute political analysis. How Lipton got into the business of analyzing who Romney really is doesn’t matter but what he finally concluded after watching the second debate does. Mitt Romney, Lipton said, is The Boss.
I hasten to add, not an enlightened boss but the hateful kind who is used to giving unchallengeable orders, who likes firing people, and gets frustrated, as he did in the debate, when someone who he sees as beneath himself contradicts him.
The debate in Long Island demonstrated that this mindset is so ingrained in Romney, his arrogance so inherent, that he sees the President of the United States as one of those people. Certainly, he failed to show a scintilla of deference for the office or for what it stands. The fact that Barak Obama happens to be the current occupant of that office is not incidental to Romney’s insolence or to that of many of his political brethren.
It is no secret that Obama has long been the target of the most outlandish, vile attacks by right-wing radio, Internet know-nothings, and the denizens of Fox News. The proximity of the election and the tightness of the race have only made matters worse.
What is less well known is the rise of a lucrative Obama-bashing book publishing phenomenon. An excellent article (“The Obama-Bashing Book Bonanza”) by Michelle Goldberg in the October 22 issue of The Nation lays out some instructive as well as disturbing facts.
The Republicans sure hated Bill Clinton, but in the eight years he was president, Regnery, the leading publisher of right-wing books, only scored one Clinton-bashing No. 1 bestseller. The publishing house has had four Obama-bashing No 1 bestsellers in less than half the time. There is something uglier at work here than just a deep partisan divide.
But it’s not just the volume of sales that is an indicator of the unprecedented, white hot animus specifically targeted at Obama. More chilling is the nature of the attacks – at once baseless and base – by some of the most popular authors in this genre.
Among the hatemongers who have tapped into this rich vein, Dinesh D’Souza epitomizes both the vile nature of the attacks and the sorry fact that there is a large audience eager to consume them. In short order he has produced three books and a documentary excoriating Obama. And, in his latest book, Obama’s America, which became a New York Times No. 1, D’Souza displays a truly breathtaking mean spiritedness.
Goldberg writes that in a chapter titled “Mommie Dearest” D’Souza essentially calls Obama’s dead mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, “a fat slut.” Never mind that serious biographers have found no evidence of this or that his mother’s sex life is irrelevant to the case D’Souza tries to make against Obama. So why does he go there? Goldberg: “Perhaps because when you’ve run through every conceivable slur, calling a man’s mother a whore is all you’re left with.”
The thread that runs from Romney’s lack of respect for the institution of the presidency and patronizing attitude toward Obama the man to Dinesh D’Souza’s garbage about Ann Dunham is contempt for the president. It’s a theme, moreover, that runs through much of the Republican Party from top to bottom. The disrespect Republicans routinely show Obama speaks to their character and prejudices more than it does the president’s.
Dissing Obama for politics and profits may be a popular sport among the right in this country. But whipping up even more hatred in a nation already so deeply divided is a dastardly and dangerous thing. Voters should take note and, at the ballot box in November show, their own contempt toward candidates and parties who traffic in such destructive politics.
