This President

This president…a pretty simple neutral sounding sentence fragment. Perfect for any number of uses in a newscast, newspaper article, political speech or a blog post like this one. But if you listen to Fox News for any length of time you’ll soon realize they use it as a pejorative…to denigrate the president…to project a negative image without actually having to say President Obama out loud. And it runs through not only their on air staff but their guest commentators as well. Milwaukee County Sheriff Clarke used it in one of his fantasy island appearances and even Marco Rubio has used it in interviews now.

So how did this become a thing? Who determined that they needed code words to be rude to our president? And how did they get everyone else to buy into it.

It’s ugly…you can hear the vitriol in their voices as they say it…you can sense the bile running down their chin as they spit it out…so this little neutral sounding phrase becomes a semi-secret handshake amongst the anti-Obama clique. How the heck did we get to this?

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8 thoughts on “This President

  1. It is the lowest form of the political dog whistle. It is akin to GOPers talking about taking the country back, Back from what, exactly?

  2. I’d say it started with the spittle-flecked vitriol that was spewed at President George W. Bush virtually every day he was in office, from the left. The same that gets slung in the direction of Scott Walker.

    Many of us on the left feel the same way about President Obama as those on the left felt/feel about those two individuals, so I’m not sure why this is a surprise. Other than the expectation that we’re just supposed to ‘shut up?’

    Sorry, not going to happen.

    1. WashCoWingnut,

      In God we trust. All others bring links.

      Find one (1) reference to George W. Bush as “this President,” by someone who was criticizing him.

      Find one (1) reference to Scott Walker as “this County Executive,” or “this Governor” by someone who was criticizing him.

      “Sorry, not going to happen.”

        1. The difference with President Bush was that while sometimes comedians or SNL or whatever would make fun of him, the Democrats in Washington still treated him with respect. Democratic governors treated him with respect. They didn’t agree with all of his ideas, but they still treated him with the respect befitting the office. They didn’t call him “a petulant child,” or say, “He’s trying to destroy America,” etc. Obama has been shown more blatant disrespect by Republicans than any president in our nation’s history.

          Note too, that Governor Walker is still treated with respect by the Democrats in Madison, even if it’s begrudgingly.

    2. Right wingers shut up? The left has NO VOICE in Wisconsin government today. It’s been drowned out by Republicans screaming about the destruction of local control, impartial judiciary and representative government, calling it job creation and making a business-friendly environment.

      I personally don’t expect anyone to shut up. The volume of the yammering coming from the right has, however, effectively shut the rest of us up.

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