Fear and Loathing: What Ailes Us

Like many observers, I've wondered why a shrinking but vociferous cohort of the American electorate so stridently fears and detests a new president who is loved, admired and deeply respected by the rest of America and, indeed, the world. Consider this: His predecessor, a dull-witted, swaggering, over-aged frat boy who smirked along largely unimpeded by judgment, discretion, the rule of law or the system of checks and balances established at the dawn of our nation is in the minds of President Obama's detractors the model of what an American president is and does. Bush's arrogant, jingoistic, flag-waving behavior, supported by the likes of "Duke" Cunningham and Tom DeLay and the most dedicated band of ear-markers the country has ever seen, is in fact admired by educationally-deprived Americans who share his "my way or the highway" approach to life's interactions.

How well-meaning, hard-working citizens came to so admire a spoiled rich kid who spent fully a third of his time in office on vacation is beyond me. A man who never "earned his successes or paid for his failures" (can't recall who said that, but oh, how accurate), deserted the National Guard, and considers his base the "haves and have mores" (W. himself) would seem an unlikely darling of the self-described party of values, but there it is. When H.L. Mencken remarked that "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people" he was simply observing that some of us could be sold anything, even if the purchase was demonstrably not in our own best interest. People like Roger Ailes and Karl Rove understand that gullibility all too well, and have exploited it brilliantly, abetted, of course, by an appallingly unscrupulous gang of pandering pundits who feign patriotism at the expense of truth and the nation's well being while padding their bank accounts. (The most successful of them, Rush Limbaugh, recently signed a contract good for $38 million per year. He regards himself as an "entertainer and businessman," and he clearly knows what sells and how to sell it.)

The Bush presidency was a wonderful time for all who accepted his stated ideology and the idea that a president is in fact a potentate, appropriately unfettered by trivial notions of law, democracy, ethics or morality. Using the Constitution to wipe his (I'll be nice: feet) was fine because, by God, he was keeping America safe. Now, however, we have a President who, thank God, is the antithesis of Bush in every conceivable way. Thus the fear and loathing: Having embraced the notion that with the presidency comes unlimited power, the endlessly gullible rank and file of the far right are now being sold on the idea that President Obama is single handedly destroying all that is good and holy in America. President Obama does not have that power, of course, and it seems unlikely he'd exercise even if he did. Nor would the current House and Senate majorities sit silently by in greed-driven stupor - as did the Bush congress - if he tried. Nor is he attempting to do anything other than what he was popularly elected to do.

But the leaders of the Right see no gain, and certainly no profit, in acknowledging the truth. It is to their benefit to frighten and inflame their sincere but ignorant followers, regardless of the cost to America. It is to their undying shame that they so cynically do so.