By Ebbtide
Remember
when it was imperative that we respect the office of the President,
even if we weren’t totally wild about the occupant of that office?
That seems to have been a constant theme/meme throughout the early
2000s. Ah, but that’s so “last decade” isn’t it. What could
have changed? Hmmmm.
We’ll
put aside the ugly cartoons, “jokes” and rabid exposés
by total nutters like the “journalists” at such places as Wingut
Daily and the Breitbart consortium of conspiracies. And we won’t
even go into the ugly things that have been said and written about
our charming First Lady and the innocent, polite Obama children.
Let’s
just take a look at how Right Wing celebrities, and even elected
officials have exhibited their utter disrespect for the office of the
President since Barack Obama has assumed the office, and see what
kinds of repercussions they have suffered as a result.
CELEBRATE
GOOD TIMES, COME ON!
Right-wing
celebrities, though as rare as hens’ teeth, do like to shoot their
mouths off whenever possible, and no matter how vile their comments,
seem to be welcomed back to the fold and nestled in wingnut warmth.
Motor
City Madman? Wingnut Warrior? You decide.
That
delightful creature, Ted Nugent began his charm offensive back in
2008 when, waving his guns, he said, "Hey, Obama, you mightwanna suck on one of these, you punk." He continued, "Hillary,
you might wanna ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless
bitch."
NOTE: When
Nugent made these comments, Obama was not yet President. I have
included them merely to provide background on what a respectful
person Nugent has always been.)
“The
Nuge” pretty much continued his charming commentary after Mr. Obama
became President, comparing Obama and his administration to coyotes,
called them criminals, etc. and was rabid enough to earn a visit from
the Secret Service for his rhetoric.
The
result? He was lauded by the Romney family when he endorsed Mitt,
earning a tweet from fanboi, Tagg:
Donald
Trump—where to begin. I’m not sure how to even classify him, as,
in addition to being a “celebrity,” he was actually even
considering a run for the presidency. Frankly, I consider him a giant
hairball, but I digress…
So how did
Trump exhibit his respect for the President of the United States?
First, he received widespread media opportunities to spread his ugly
birtherism nonsense and made such disrespectful comments as:
He said Obama was a "terrible student" and therefore too dumb to have legitimately gotten through college and
law school.
And on it
went, with a new Trump crusade every week or so, culminating in his
totally obnoxious “dare” to the President of the United States to
release his college transcripts.
And during
all of Trump’s shenanigans, he was a fundraiser for Romney, who never once disavowed any of Trump’s ugly talk.
Then,
after the election was won by Obama, this miscreant actually calledfor revolution.
No
disrespect there—nah. (Oh, and Donald, maybe you should wait for
the results before getting your hair all in a tizzy, as Obama won the
popular vote by quite a nice margin.)
So what’s
next for the Donald? Well, the hairball is still bloviating, and his
ridiculous television show will once again be aired on NBC later this
year. (Payback is such a bitch.)
Clint
Eastwood, despite everything in his career that came before, will
long be remembered for his stellar madlib at the 2012 Republican
convention, when, talking to an empty chair that was supposed to
represent the President of the United States, he uttered suchrespectful phrases as
“What?
What do you want me to tell Romney? I can't tell him to do that.
Can't do that to himself. You're absolutely crazy.”
Repercussions?
None that I’ve noticed. The wingers still think he’s the best
thing going.
Hank
Williams Jr. has quite a history of “respect” for the President.
(photo available, but too repulsive to post)
It began
in 2008, when he was campaigning for John McCain, and said to an
audience in Colorado, "Join me now in our national--you know,
that song that, uh, Mr. Obama's not real crazy about, we're singing
it right now."
(Again—this
was before Mr. Obama became President, but is mentioned merely to set
the stage.)
ESPN
thought it would be a great idea to include him in their Monday night
football coverage. Then, in October 2011, Williams Jr. was on Fox and
Friends, saying about Obama playing golf with Boehner:
"That
would be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu. Not hardly. In the
shape this country is in?"
Even Brian
Kilmeade didn’t understand what he was talking about, so Williams
went on to explain (sic), "I'm glad you don't brother, because a
lot of people do. They're the enemy... Obama! And Biden!” (He also
referred to the two men as the Three Stooges, so apparently math is
also not a strong suit.)
That,
apparently was a bridge too far even for ESPN, which removed Williams
from their football broadcast. But did it kill Williams career? Did
country stations stop playing his music?
Of course
not. Some comments at the time on Huffpo (apparently spelling and
cogent thought are not strong suits of Williams’ fans):
Go
Hank, I'm with ya. A country boy can survive. To celebrate, all my
routy friends are comin ova tonight!
Hank
williams is a real american who did nothing but express his oppinion.
If you dont like it maybey your not a real american
And, just
this past September, 2012, Hank Jr. was right back at it:
"We’ve
got a Muslim for a President who hates cowboys, hates cowgirls, hates
fishing, hates farming, loves gays, and we hate him," Williams
Jr. bellowed. The Dallas Sun reported, “The crowd responded with a
loud cheer.”
Victoria
Jackson—OK, probably not fair to include her as a celebrity,
because her career couldn’t be damaged by her idiocy since it
pretty much ended years ago, but still…
Victoria
says Obama is a communist and
explains all that she has learned from Glenn Beck. (WARNING:
Watching this video may cause a deterioration of brain cells.)
ALL THE
NEWS THAT’S FIT TO…
How should
we classify pundits or radio yakkers? Are they celebrities or
newspeople? For our purposes, we’ll just think of them as public
figures, OK?
If I went
into all the bile that has been spewed about the President by right
wing yakkers, you’d still be reading this when it was time to vote
in the 2016 election. So just a brief recap:
Bill
O’Reilly interrupted the President 48 times during a 15 minute
interview.
Neil
Munro interrupted Obama
mid-sentence to shout out an obnoxious question
(He was
suspended, but was right back at it shortly thereafter.)
Fox “star”
Eric Bolling compared Obama to a drug dealer who opens “Barry’sPot and Coke Emporium.” When Bob Beckel was discussing Allen West,
he referred to West as…well, Allen West. Without any sense or irony
(or shame) Bolling came back with:
“Can I
just point something out? You're calling him Allen West. Either call
him Representative Allen West or call him Lieutenant Colonel Allen
West because he was in the Army -- a war hero.” (NOTE: West was charged with violating articles 128 (assault) and 134 (generalarticle) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The charges were
ultimately referred to an Article 15 proceeding rather than
court-martial. Quite the hero.)
For
further proof that Bolling is a total tool, during another
conversation between Bolling and Beckel, Bolling referred to Obama as
"Barry." When Beckel objected, Bolling replied: "That's
his name, right? Barack. Barry Soetoro. I think he called himself
Barry Soetoro when he was a model in college."
At other
times, Bolling has called the President Comrade Obama, The Socialist
Spewing Policy Maker and accused him of chugging 40's" and
hosting "a hoodlum in the Hizzouse."
So
respectful of the Presidency, right? And Bolling’s still going
strong as we speak.
Glenn Beck has of course, always showed total deference to the President, withsuch comments as "I don't know what the KGB handlers thought they were sending Barack Obama to do. ... Did I say that out loud?"
And
calling our President “a racist with deep-seated hatred for whitepeople.”
Now, Glenn
did lose his show on Fox, but there were so many reasons for his
shedding advertisers that I don’t think we can necessarily
attribute that to his disrespect of the President.
And then there’s Rush Limbaugh—where to start. From his “Barack the Magic Negro” song to “I want this president to fail” the hits just kept on coming. And, although Limbaugh continuously inspires fear and loathing (fear from right wingers that he’ll hurt their careers; loathing from sentient humans everywhere) it was his disrespect for Sandra Fluke that created far more backlash than any of the ugly things he’s said about the President.
OATH OF
OFFICE OR OAFS IN OFFICE?
Are you
thinking to yourself, “Well, those are just some big-mouthed
yakkers. What can you expect?” (I don’t believe you ARE thinking
that, but merely included it for conversation’s sake.)
Well then,
let’s see what some of our fine elected and wishing-to-be-elected
officials have had to say about our President.
We’ll
begin with everybody’s hero, Addison Graves Wilson, Sr., better
known as Joe Wilson, the South Carolina rep who infamously yelled,
“You
lie!” during an Obama 2009
address to Congress. What could possibly be more respectful than an
actual member of Congress shouting at the President on live,
prime-time television?
RESULT—Wilson
used his obnoxious outburst as a fund-raising device and raised a ton
of cash. In 2010, he won re-election with 53% of the vote and in
2012, he ran unopposed.
Allen
West—without comment, some of Allen West’s words.
Always a
hit at CPAC
“We
need to let President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and my dear
friend the chairman of the Democrat National Committee, we need to
let them know that Florida ain't on the table.
“Take
your message of equality of achievement, take your message of
economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the
entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere
else. You can take it to Europe, you
can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North
Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America.”
Hey, at
least he called him PRESIDENT Obama when telling him to get the hell
out of the country.
A few “outliers”:
KansasHouse Speaker Mike O’Neal publicly cited a Bible verse calling for
President Obama to be killed, his wife to be widowed, and his
children to be orphaned. (He’s also the swell guy who forwarded an
email to state house Republicans referring to the First Lady as “Mrs.
YoMamma.”)
Marilyn
Davenport, Orange County, CA Republican Central Committee, forwardedan email of a doctored photo of the President and his parents asmonkeys.
ColoradoCongressman Doug Lamborn said during a radio interview that he didn’t
“even want to have to be associated with … (President Obama).
It’s like touching a tar baby …”
And on it
goes.
Respect? How about John Boehner?
On August
31, 2011 Boehner became the first speaker in history to tell a
sitting president that he would not be permitted to deliver an
address to a joint session of Congress on the date specifically
requested by the White House
“Republican
Speaker of the House John Boehner did something that has never before
been done in the history of our nation: he said no. He said it would
be inconvenient for the House, because, he said, there were votes
scheduled in the House for Wednesday night.”
“This
is unprecedented,” she added. “No speaker, no Congress, has ever
said that to any president in U.S. history.”
The
votes Boehner felt were so important: a roll call vote on letting the
Special Olympics conduct a torch run in Washington, D.C., and
speeches congratulating a girls’ softball team on reaching the
world championships.
Even the
lack of title used when they talk about PRESIDENT Obama is
disrespectful, as Howard Fineman once pointed out:
“They
don’t accept the President’s legitimacy in many ways. I have
never heard Newt Gingrich call President Obama ‘President Obama.’
It’s usually just ‘Obama.’
“And
I know that sounds like a trivial thing,” Fineman added, “but
it’s not. It’s very important.”
AND
THEN THERE’S JAN BREWER
TIME TRAVELING
Yes, I
think we can all see how perilous and dangerous it has been for
wingers to hurl invective after invective at our President. Oh, it’s
true that Allen West lost re-election, and Rush lost some sponsors,
but overall, they’ve gotten away with some heinous things and kept
on going.
Compare
them to a simple 16-word statement made by Natalie Maines in 2003 and
then compare the repercussions.
After
expressing that she was against the upcoming invasion of Iraq, the Dixie Chick had the audacity to say, “Just so you know, we're
ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”
And what
happened?
As
WDAF-AM in Kansas City, Missouri, encouraged listeners to toss their
Dixie Chicks CDs into garbage cans set up outside their studio. The
Dixie Chicks were dropped from WTDR-FM in Talladega, Alabama.
In
Shreveport, Louisiana, protestors used a tractor to smash CDs and
other Dixie Chicks items. The local country station, KRMD-FM,
subsequently dropped all Dixie Chicks songs. The same goes for
KIZN-FM in Boise, Idaho - and that's just a small sampling.
Limbaugh
called for a boycott, Free Republic set up a special page to
coordinate boycotts. After Maines called Toby Keith’s “we’ll
put a boot in your ass” song ignorant (truer words were never
spoken), Keith began displaying a backdrop at his concerts showing a
doctored photo of Maines and Saddam Hussein. (Aw, she hurt the big
guy’s fee fees.) It was a groundswell of grassroots hate for the
Chicks (think Tea Party.)
Paul
Krugman had some other ideas about
how the boycott tied in with the war cheerleading and got so HUGE.
One of
the most striking (pro-war events) took place after Natalie Maines,
lead singer for the Dixie Chicks, criticized President Bush: a crowd
gathered in Louisiana to watch a 33,000-pound tractor smash a
collection of Dixie Chicks CD's, tapes and other paraphernalia… (my
note: This was a Cumulus radio station event.)
Who has
been organizing those pro-war rallies? The answer, it turns out, is
that they are being promoted by key players in the radio industry --
with close links to the Bush administration…
Most of
the pro-war demonstrations around the country have, however, been
organized by stations owned by Clear Channel Communications, a
behemoth based in San Antonio that controls more than 1,200 stations
and increasingly dominates the airwaves.
The
boycott of the Chicks was even a main feature of the Congressional
hearings about radio consolidation.
At
times likening the embargo to Nazi book-burnings and McCarthy-era
blacklists, lawmakers said Cumulus' action illustrated the potential
danger of allowing corporations to amass nationwide broadcasting
networks.
Back in
2003, when John McCain still had some of his marbles, he said:
"It's
a strong argument about what media concentration has the possibility
of doing," McCain told Cumulus Chairman Lewis W. Dickey Jr. "If
someone else offends you, and you decide to censor those people, my
friend, the erosion of our 1st Amendment is in progress."
The Chicks
suffered greatly for those 16 words. Shut
Up and Sing is a documentary about
what happened to them before, during and after those words were
spoken. Directed by Barbara Kopple and Cecila Peck (Gregory Peck’s
daughter), I highly recommend it.
The Dixie
Chicks Not
Ready To Make Nice was their
rebuttal/explanation of what happened, and it won three Grammy
Awards-- Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Country
Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 2007. But the climb back
was certainly hard…
On
Thursday, October 27, 2011, at 5:49 a.m., Kicks 101.5 played “Cowboy
Take Me Away.” This
is the first time in years the country trio has been heard on a
regular basis on Atlanta radio.
Kicks’
move wouldn’t be so momentous without context…The Dixie Chicks
were one of the top country acts from 1998 to 2003, with 14 top 10
country hits, from “Goodbye Earl” to “Ready to Run.” Prior to
the boycott, from 1998 to 2003, Kicks played the Chicks a whopping
16,000 times. That’s almost two consecutive months of Chicks
songs.
THE
MORAL OF THE STORY?
If you’re
a right-wing mouthpiece of the entertainment, talk-show or political
ilk, you have pretty wide latitude to say and do whatever you like in
disrespecting the President, but if you’re the number one selling
female band of all time, you’d better watch your Ps, Qs (and Ws) at
all times.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find
out what it means to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Take
care, TCB
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