"ULTIMATE FAN BOY?"

That's a term used by "Butch"—a regular commenter on this blog—in questioning what may be seen as my uncritical stance toward President Obama.

Well, I am a big fan. Obama has proven himself to be not only very smart but very clearheaded and practical in his approach to using his office to accomplish several policy shifts that I believe are necessary if we are going to get this nation on a more healthy—economically, environmentally, educationally, diplomatically, and literally, as in physically—trajectory.

Do I think he's perfect? No. No one is. Do I think he was the right choice in the past election? Absolutely. Do I think he can accomplish everything he has set for the goals of his administration. I doubt it. Do I agree with everything he plans to attempt to do and every policy position he has taken? Not entirely (for instance I thought his dismissal of the top suggestion in his internet town hall meeting that legalizing marijuana could help the economy was wrong, but I also understand that given the intensity of the rightwing attacks on his presidency his agreeing to that idea as legit would have caused a rightwing firestorm and distracted from the more important policies that need to be addressed first—and the same with gay marriage, which I am for and Obama has sidestepped, etc.).

Unfortunately, there is no room, or little room, for nuance in politics these days. Obama brings a nuanced intelligence to bear, but the rightwingers cannot abide it. They believe, obviously from their actions and their loudest representatives, that to take a stand against anything they are for, or for anything they are against, is to invite an all out war of words if not actual rebellion, including the taking up of arms against our legitimately democratically elected government. This from people who didn't see their man, Bush Junior, who LOST THE POPULAR VOTE AND THEREFORE WAS NOT ELECTED DEMOCRATICALLY, as illegitimate!

All this is dangerous, as was illustrated by that young man who shot and killed the three police officers recently because he was convinced by various rightwing talk show hosts and other rightwing rabble rousers that Obama was coming to take away his guns and he had to defend his right to own those guns by using them against these three family men and killing them cold stone dead to prove his fealty to the rightwing perspective he had been fed incessantly by Rush and Glen Beck and the lesser known but often equally influential rightwing commentators (like say Mark R. levin whose rightwing tirade LIBERTY AND TYRANNY topped the NY Times nonfiction bestseller list this week and who describes Obama as "dissatisfied with the condition of his own existence" and that's why he's out to take away our rights etc.!).

These and their ilk have been inciting their followers to view this administration and our government as illegitimate and therefore justifying any kind of opposition to, from libel to physical attack. A very dangerous trend, as it is proven from historical reality that rightwingers are much more prone to physical violence than lefties (the one leftwing "terrorist" the right constantly points to is Bill Ayers, the SDS "Weatherman" who planted bombs in unpopulated places causing some physical damage and almost no human harm, whereas the rightwing "terrorist" Timothy McVay (sp.?) and his cohorts blew up way too many innocent people in their expression of rightwing dissatisfaction with anyone other than rightwingers holding any kind of power in our society).

Just because these rightwing Republicans have tried to co opt Ron Paul recently, does not make them "libertarians" (ala their "teabag" demos today). Libertarians (as amorphous as that group of voters is) have a set of values they pretty much adhere to, whereas rightwing Republicans have shifting values depending on their use in getting them power. They have proven through their words and actions that power, the gaining of it and keeping of it, is their main concern.

What the rightwing accomplished in the past eight years in particular and in the past several decades in general (since Ronald Reagan's election in 1980) is the dismantling of almost everything that made this country "great' and "exceptional" as the rightwingers constantly insist it is! Given the chance to prove our greatness and exceptionalism, they created much more economic and educational inequality (taking measures to insure that a tiny minority, around 1% controlled most of our wealth, not seen since the Gilded Age at the end of the 19th Century), they reduced and almost eliminated the power of workers to unionize and use those unions to better their economic lives (what created the prosperity of the 1950s that made it possible for working people to own homes and put their kids through college), they alienated most of our allies and most of the world, they overturned or completely dismissed laws and principles upon which this nation was founded (eliminating habeus corpus for instance, allowing detention without trials, condoning torture, etc.), and so much more, proving that all they care about is getting and maintaining power at any cost.

As for Obama, his very life as well as his politics and policies reflect the idea of compromise and consensus, of doing what's best for the common good rather than the party or ideology etc. I believe that's exactly what we need right now, and in fact, may be our last best chance. Under the rightwing Republican influence in politics and the media, it has become almost impossible to have a reasoned discussion about any of the important issues of our day. I watch the media's idea of balanced reporting, i.e. having talking heads representing the right and the left, supposedly, give their opinions about, well just about anything in the news, and the rightwingers always imbed their comments with a criticism of Obama and his administration, and have been doing it since the first day he took office let alone the first weeks, and months, which we are still in. There is little actual dialogue or give and take, if any, it's all ideology based on whatever tactic will make it possible to create anger and resentment toward Obama and his administration.

The Democrats were too frightened or too "liberal" (meaning humanist and able to consider more than one perspective as possibly the best one) to respond that way to Bush Junior until well into his second term. But the right is relentless in its constant attack against any opposition, whether they're in power or out of it. That's why I'm so grateful to have a person like Obama in the presidency, a man who can keep his head and not get too distracted by all the red herrings the right throws out to try and distract the public from number one the great job Obama is doing (the economy had gone over the cliff when he came into office and his administration has at least gotten it back up onto the cliff, miraculously) and the ways in which his policies reflect the general feelings and wishes of the public and the common good.

Yeah, I'm a fan.

[Here's an article from today's Huff Post I don't entirely agree with but makes several good points re: today's tax demos—and here's another]

[And just for good measure, yet another Huff Post article that further articulates some of the above points I was trying to make, only this time in relation to the Al Franken win on every level and despite some of this blog's rightwing commenter's with Republican vote counters not just agreeing but certifying.]