I have to say, I am growing increasingly frustrated over the brouhaha that has been stirred up here in the U.S. over arrangements for President Barack Obama to give the commencement speech at one of our country’s top universities.
Before I go any further, I would like to ask those of you from outside the US a question. I am particularly addressing those of you from countries with strong democratic traditions, where you actually elect your leaders. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but it is usually an honor to have the individual who you elected to lead your country to give a speech at a function, right? I mean, you might disagree with this or that issue of the individual’s policies, but generally speaking… you’d be glad to have them, correct? Especially if the speaking engagement has absolutely nothing to do with your issue of disagreement and your president/prime minister is EXTREMELY unlikely to even mention it because it would be inappropriate?
Yeah, I thought so. But apparently this isn’t the case here in the United States, particularly at Notre Dame.
These people have labeled President Obama to be a godless Muslim socialist who advocates for abortion. I’m well aware that is idiotic and an oxymoron on many levels… please don’t shoot the messenger. It does not matter to these people that Obama is a professed Christian. To be a Christian to these people you have to believe like they do. It does not matter that “godless” and “Muslim” are mutually exclusive. It does not matter that, apart from the fact that socialism has been shown to do good things in democratic societies, Obama is decidedly a capitalist trying to save capitalist economic structures in a similar manner as Franklin Roosevelt had done before him. In fact, it does not even matter that none of these tags are in fact bad when properly understood.
No, what matters is that far-right wing in this country has convinced a lot of people that this is true. Now, please keep in mind, most Americans, Republican and Democratic, do not believe this way. That fringe does exist, however… and the scary part is that it actually currently considered the base of the Republican Party.
So they are going to protest the President speaking at Notre Dame because he does not represent “good Catholic/Christian principles” and is an “Obamanation”, as they refer to him. What, you say he seems like a good enough fellow to you? Oh, well, what you don’t understand is that he has come out in favor of women having sovereignty over their own bodies when they are pregnant. That means he necessarily supports abortion and, by extension, killing little babies. Killing babies is evil. Therefore, we can’t have him speak at a university run by the Roman Catholic Church, which has never done an evil thing in its thousand years of existence and which has NEVER lent support or a podium to evil killers at any point in the past.
Yes. There is a significant segment of people in the modern United States of America who think in this very way. And they are still very influential.
Discuss it here or debate it at Snarkbate!
