You've Got To Be Taught to Hate

                            

Now it’s Obama’s turn. He won the dirtiest election in American history following his own advice: make the election about small things and demonize your opponent. There was no pretense of hope and change…just hate and fear. Whether you agree with the tactics or not, Obama ran a brilliant campaign and destroyed a good and decent man in the process. For those of us involved in politics, we may not like the man or the outcome, but we admire political skill when we see it. Barack Obama is the most skilled of skilled politicians. Romney and my fellow supporters can cry about how dirty the campaign was, but at the end of the day if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. You’re playing with the big boys now.

So like I said…now it’s Obama’s turn. Yes, I know he has had a full term already, but it wasn’t his term…at least not in his eyes. The last four years was one big political campaign. He never stopped. He relied on his extreme left wing base and his race to prop him up, reinforcing it every chance he got. Now he has to govern. The nation is facing serious problems. It’s legacy time when all incumbents worry about what the history books will say. Barack Obama is human. He is worrying too.

Now we will find out his true colors. We will find out whether he has learned anything these past four years. We will find out if experience is the best teacher. We will find out if he is ready to leave his ideology at the White House door and do what needs to be done to repair America and the hate he has sown especially during the election.

Things have been strangely, almost eerily, quiet. Romney has fallen off the face of the earth never to be seen again, I think. And where is Obama? The Mideast is in turmoil. The fiscal cliff is looming. American and Europe are on the brink of another recession. Poverty is increasing at an alarming rate. Health care is looming and all of the problems it will force on America. Obama isn’t stupid. He knows what is coming. The ideological purity of the first four years becomes reality in the second four years and he knows the pain that will be inflicted on the country by Obamacare. Now we will find out if he cares. Don’t bet the rent.

So why is the country so quiet? Maybe we are just tired of an election process that is numbing. Maybe we can’t believe we put this jack ass in office for another four years. Maybe we are beginning to understand the truth as the need to protect him in the press is evaporating as his presidency begins its descent to 2016. He will have some effectiveness the next two years...the last two years will be a waste of time as the country moves to get over its Obama stupor. It’s that way for all second term presidents.

The mood of the country is bad and is getting worse. News reports have tried to pump up Black Friday shopping results. Unfortunately there were lots of people looking, not so many people buying. People are skeptical. Some are depressed. Some are afraid.

I am hoping for the best. I am expecting the worst. As the song said in South Pacific, you have to be taught to hate. You have to be carefully taught. So the President who got elected in 2008 railing against the hate of the right, has won the election in 2012 by teaching the rest of America how to hate.  Now he has to unteach us. We will see how that works out.