Well, first of all, in writing a piece like this, I'm well aware that left-liberal partisans might be inclined to label me a hypocrite, even a "racist", having recently calling Barry Obama a former "Asshole-in-Chief" (to which a troll replied that I lacked "class")? Well, to a degree, guilty as charged. If I want to win friends and influence other people, I should avoid provocative language. Make no mistake; we academics can find 1001 other ways to call someone an asshole without using that word. Then why use that word? Primarily to signal my displeasure with Obama's character. And to be honest, I'm not singling out Obama for criticism. I've made it clear I've political and/or personal differences with every President during my lifetime including a wide array of disparaging XXX-in-Chief insults directed at Trump (including Moron-in-Chief this morning.)
I differ from the Trump Derangement Syndrome trolls in that I rarely tweet for the purpose of insulting someone. If and when I use a disparaging term, it's for the rhetorical equivalent of a Cher bitch-slap ("Moonstruck", snap-out-of-it). Let's be clear: I've never liked Obama personally. And it has nothing to do with his absentee African dad's skin color. As much as I loathed Obama's policies, I never tolerated the bullshit birther conspiracy nonsense, which I think Trump promoted purely to win favor with GOP right-wing nutcases for a future Presidential run. I have mentioned I found Obama's unflappable demeanor preferable to Trump's crude, bullying personal style. This is not to say I liked him as a person; he's just as much a narcissist as Trump; in fact, I have a blog tag devoted specifically to Obama's narcissism. Obama and his minions have put lipstick on his pig legacy, claiming an administration free of scandal, a laughable state of denial. This is a guy who abused his authority in office with unconstitutional executive actions/orders, his infamous "phone and pen", including DACA (I personally am pro-immigration, but Obama never acted on this when he had a super-majority in the 111th Congress--until after he lost the House in his first mid-term.) This is a guy who constantly blamed Bush for the 2008 economic tsunami, never mind the fact he was a member of the Dem Congressional majority in 2007. And I personally loathed Obama for interventionist policies, even after winning the Nobel Peace Prize (for not being George W. Bush), supersizing undeclared drone wars, meddling in Libya disastrously and other areas, and doing ZERO to expedite Bush's own timetable to withdraw from Iraq and/or Afghanistan, despite winning the Dem nomination pointing out he had the judgment to oppose the Iraq War (while an Illinois state senator). Under Obama, we had the slowest economic recovery in American history. On nearly every human freedom index, we lost ground during his tenure in office. We literally doubled the national debt.
But the intent of this post is not to bash Obama. What was the context of the "asshole" comment? Obama studiously avoided endorsing his own VP during the competitive phase of the Dem primary. These Dem trolls bought into Obama's self-serving rationale for not endorsing Biden when it counted. Now, of course, Biden repeatedly cited his part in the Obama Administration, and black voters were his most loyal supporters. Perhaps Obama wanted to avoid the appearance of siding against other candidates of color (i.e., Harris and Booker) or a backlash from the progressive wing of the party.
Let's be clear: I oppose Biden's election to the Presidency. But as a matter of personal loyalty, I thought what Obama did/didn't do was appalling. Humphrey, Mondale, and Gore had won nominations after serving as VP. Now I could understand, given Clinton's narrow nomination loss in 2008, why Obama didn't push Biden in 2016. But I didn't see Obama's failure to endorse Biden early as a feature but as a personal character flaw. Now, granted, Obama could have snuffed out Biden's candidacy fairly early by criticizing his performance or saying something like "If I had been able to run a third term, Joe wouldn't have been my VP." But the Dem trolls' waxing enthusiasm over Obama's noble motives in not siding with his running mate was nonsense; Obama didn't want his own standing in the party to be impaired by a prospectively controversial endorsement, especially in the progressive wing of the party.
Now the personal attacks against political figures have been part of the political history of the US, at minimum since the Adams/Jefferson election of 1800. Now personally, I wouldn't trust Trump alone with a female relative. I don't like his name-calling, his offensive tweets, and 1001 other things. I think he sucks as a role model; I'm appalled by his having cheated on a pregnant wife with a porn actress and paying her hush money. I don't like his nepotism in the administration, the way he has treated Comey, Sessions and others as his personal bitches. I'm livid at his unconstitutional executive orders and diverting appropriations for the sake of his Southern border wall. I'm nauseated by his counterproductive anti-free market, anti-trade, and anti-immigration stands and adding over $6T to the national debt.
But the number of personal threads against Trump on Twitter is intolerable. The trolls are repetitive and boring; I think I've seen "Trump the Rapist"/"grab them by the pussy" references and the clip of him mimicking a disabled reporter nearly every day on Twitter. Every day it seems multiple people are holding him accountable for COVID-19 deaths. Let's be clear: people die each year for preventable diseases, including the seasonal flu. And Nursing Home Killer Cuomo put infected COVID-19 patients in nursing homes, not Trump. I have my own criticisms of Trump's handling of things during the pandemic, including testing. But these personal attacks are mostly one-sided, nearly all from the left-wing of politics.
I personally snapped when I saw leftist trolls attack Trump over the death of his own baby brother Robert, even pointing out that Trump played golf on the day of Robert's death. Other trolls wanted to suggest (wrongly) that Robert died from COVID-19. (Robert had had brain bleeds following a fall.) Decent people express condolences on the passing of a family member. Not these jerks. No matter how I dislike Trump as POTUS, he is still a human being who lost a loved one. I wrote a related tweet which attracted 8.5K views.
Personally, I think Trump is a piece of work. But I could deal with personal failings, not so much for public policy failures and his betrayal of our constitutional government. It looks like the Dems are pivoting to an "I like Uncle Joe Biden" election campaign. I may prefer Joe's personality but his policies are lethal to this country's economy and constitutional order. We need an end to the imperial Presidency. Let's be clear: neither Obama nor Biden have a silver bullet to kill the pandemic. Biden could be Obama 2.0 with an even slower economy. Will I vote for Trump? No: Jo Jorgensen.
