Auchtoon!Obama’s Visit to Flint
This week Wednesday President Obama paid a short visit to Flint at the invitation of an eight year-old and to keep attention on the water crisis. This brought out the expected chorus of grumbles: He should have been here sooner, he should have never come, he is wasting our tax money, etc. One comment I saw said, “He’s only doing this because it’s an election year.” Um… Obama is not running for… oh, never mind. I get it. You just plain hate the guy.
There is a scene in the movie Forrest Gump where after the anti-war demonstration in Washington DC, Jenny is preparing to get on a bus. The previous night, Forrest had defended Jenny after her hippie-radical boyfriend, Wesley, hit her. Wesley attempts to apologize to Jenny but ends up blaming his actions on being upset over “that lying son-of-a-bitch Johnson.” (I had remembered Wesley blaming Nixon, but the video proves otherwise: Wesley’s Lame Apology)
The point is, the character is so controlled by his negativity toward the president, he can’t find the words to apologize for physically assaulting his own girlfriend. He has become an awful person. It doesn’t matter that he’s a hippie radical or tea party radical, liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat — his hate fixation is his undoing.
The undoing of the Republican Party may be its unhealthy obsession with finding wrong in every action of President Obama. Not to say that Obama hasn’t done plenty of wrong; he most certainly has. But I think eight years of unrelentingly seeking to find nothing but wrong has a big role in its current implosion. It should be a cautionary tale for all to avoid unrelentingly hate for next president — whoever it is.
P.S.: If you need more context for that Forrest Gump scene, check this link: Forest Gump in DC
It also happens to contain my favorite line: “Sorry I had a fight in the middle of your Black Panther Party.”
John Hoslett said,
May 6, 2016 @ 6:37 am
We’re the next president to be Donald Trump (or Ted Cruz for that matter), I would unrelentingly hate him – proudly, unabashedly, unreservedly and with utter disdain. These guys are in a league of their own and deserve nothing but contempt. They are an affront to the fundamental principles of our democracy.
Kris said,
May 6, 2016 @ 9:37 am
“I’m not a smart man but I know what love is, Jenny”. That’s my favorite line. Aside from drive-time NPR, I’ve retreated into Netflix-binge mode with a preference for foreign language fare. I have to disconnect from the vitriol and misogyny and contempt and stupidity because that’s all we are presented with. I think your reference to Wesley is spot-on.