Margo Howard | 09/16/2009 5:30 pm

Margo Howard: The Origins of Obama Rage?

Our Dear Margo shares what she fears to be the truth behind the growing dissent for President Barack Obama and his policies.

By Margo Howard

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Editor’s Note: A longtime journalist, Margo Howard went into the family business (her mother was the fabled Ann Landers) in the 1990s as Dear Prudence. Her broad experience and understanding of human nature provide answers for the troubled — and entertainment for everyone else. Margo’s advice column, Dear Margo, appears twice a week — on Thursdays and Fridays — on wowOwow.com.

I wrote this a few days ago, but with my editor decided it might be too incendiary. After former President Carter’s interview, however, I decided to join the still-thin chorus expressing this viewpoint. I think Obama and his supporters have been too willing to turn the other cheek – an admirable impulse in normal times. But when the debate becomes as coarse as it has, rebuttal is needed.

I find what is abroad in the land, as Henry James would have said, simply repellent — forget frightening. An elected official hollers out "You lie!" during a presidential address, yahoos are wearing firearms wherever they go, even at events where the president is, not to mention bars … certainly a great place to have a drunk with a pistol. The desperate lunatic fringe, with some help from the Fox guys, have people (well, OK, the gullible, dim ones) believing that old age is reason enough for execution, Obama was born in Kenya, dissenters will be locked up á la the Nazis and the true mission of this administration is to turn us into a Socialist — if not a Communist — country. Even a true-blue conservative author and speechwriter for George W. Bush, David Frum, is concerned about "the wild accusations and paranoid delusions from the fever swamps." The Los Angeles Times called the increasing number of head case Republicans "the party of the paranoid."

Maureen Dowd wrote what I had been thinking: All this insanity is simply the bigots acting out. I am afraid it may really be true that the loudest naysayers cannot stand it that we have a black president. In what psychiatrists would call "displacement," the anger of some at having an African-American leader has been dolled up with scare tactic complaints and projections. They just can’t live with it, so they’re trying to upend it. Divide and conquer. Read it and weep.

1252 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

No one is saying that the "Military " is bad. Speak out against war and torture then we are accused of not supporting the troops. When we apologize to other countries when we do things that harm that country even though we meant to help. We should never apologize.? Why do other countries sometimes hate us if we haven’t done anything wrong?

By starry Nite on 09/19/2009 4:01 pm

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Took your advice, looked in the mirror, LOVE WHAT I SEE. I DON’T agree with atrocities, but you’re applying the crimes to the Military as a whole. A bit short sighted are you, that you’re "ashamed to be an American" based on JUST the actions of a few people in the Military when there are SO many other issues with the shortcomings of this country? That’s like me saying that ALL minorities are criminals because the prisons are full of them. That’s just stupid.

By Lisa Hawkins on 09/19/2009 11:01 am

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A bit short sighted are you, that you’re "ashamed to be an American" based on JUST the actions of a few people in the Military when there are SO many other issues with the shortcomings of this country? That’s like me saying that ALL minorities are criminals because the prisons are full of them.

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Because the prisons are full of them? As I said, get a mirror. I witnessed the reality of YOUR America a little while ago in my own home. A neighbor who is black came home from the hospital and had to force the lock on his door because a friend of his who had his keys didn’t show up to pick him up and because it’s Saturday there was no maintenance man to let him in which is his right since it’s his door. He borrowed a hammer and a screwdriver to remove the lock so he could get into his own home. Not long after I was confronted in MY home by two white police officers who didn’t knock and just came into my living room and obviously realizing they were in the wrong apartment mumbled something about a black man using a crowbar to break into my home which I pointed out obviously no one had and told them that a neighbor had forced the lock on his door and that perhaps was what whoever called had seen and these two white officers then proceeded to his apartment and with guns drawn handcuffed him. Just because he was black. If I had been black, they would have handcuffed me. I would file a complaint in the matter but I learned a long time ago all they will do is retaliate against you because you are a "N-lover" and have to be put in your place as well. That is the reality of YOUR America and the reality of what YOU have turned America back into and I just really have no tolerance for racists and you are a racist as evidenced by your "because the prisons are full of them" comment. I suspect they had their guns drawn when they came into my home suspecting some black man was in my apartment and put their guns back into their holsters when they looked down the hall and saw a white person sitting at the desk at a computer. They didn’t even knock. They just came in here. Welcome to YOUR America. It is a hateful dangerous place. Made all the more dangerous because of the attitudes of those who are supposed to protect us all but in fact only protect some. Depending on the color of their skin. Everyone else, of course, belongs in prison. Along with the rest of them. I am indeed ashamed to be an American at this point. Because of people like you.

By Baby Snooks on 09/19/2009 11:24 am

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And unlike our president and unlike a professor at Harvard I don’t feel the need to be "politically polite" in order to be "politically correct" about what I witnessed in my own home. Absolutely appalling.

The officers should be glad I noticed their uniforms and didn’t overreact by pulling a gun and shooting first and asking questions later.

They had the gall to ask me why my front door was open. As if that gave them the right to just walk into my home without knocking.

By Baby Snooks on 09/19/2009 11:30 am

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Baby Snooks,

America is not up for GRABS………………

America belongs to ALL AMERICANS…………..

Whether you like some of us or not if you want to be an American get used to people being different colors………different views….different religions…….

That old Republican saying "Love it our leave it" is pure bull sh*t

What any American worth their salt should be doing is trying to bring all of us together. We can and should have different views…….that’s what makes us unique. That’s what individual Freedom means. Freedom of thought, Freedom of action (within the law).

We are Flawed but we still are the greatest Nation in the World as far as I’m concerned. I know my forefathers fought in the Revolutionary War for our Freedom and the development of this Country.

So Baby Snooks if your looking for a Country to take back you need to go somewhere else………not here, not ever.

By Dona Howlett on 09/19/2009 4:04 pm

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Amen to that!

By Mel Berg on 09/19/2009 8:59 pm

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My Amen to that is meant as a reply to a post by Baby Snooks, not the above one.

By Mel Berg on 09/19/2009 9:04 pm

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Your America?

By starry Nite on 09/19/2009 11:56 am

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Our America. The one that is for everyone. Not just for some.

By Baby Snooks on 09/19/2009 1:38 pm

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Baby Snooks kept saying YOUR America in her post. I believe that was what she was responding to. If you reference YOUR America over and over again how else was she to refer to HER America excepy as MY America? Baby Snooks does not like OUR America very much and she is ashamed. Pity her.

By Scarlett Ohara Mitchell on 09/19/2009 3:14 pm

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By starry Nite on 09/19/2009 11:56 am

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The sad truth is that people of color have to go above and beyond to prove themselves in this world. Former President Carter, Margo Howard, et al, are spot on about this. Had Hillary Clinton been elected, the same people taking pot-shots at Obama, would have been aiming just as low. People who have been ‘traditionally’ discriminated against must work twice as hard because they are allowed no errors; a statement or an action that would have gone unnoticed in the past are rabidly attacked if attributed to a leader who is from a minority group.

By Melanie Waldrop on 09/19/2009 12:54 pm

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I never really witnessed it before the way I did this morning. The blatant racism. Fortunately I wasn’t wide awake or I would have gone to jail the way the professor at Harvard did after I let loose on these two police officers who thought they could just come into my home without knocking. And how dare they handcuff someone else just because he was black? I just really am appalled. And equally appalled by so much posted here by some who would defend their doing what they did.

By Baby Snooks on 09/19/2009 1:43 pm

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Baby Snooks, You have every right to be angry at the Police officers that busted into your home and you should absolutely file a complaint. But what evidence do you have that they handcuffed the man JUST because he was black? That may very well be true, but do you know that for a FACT?

By Scarlett Ohara Mitchell on 09/19/2009 3:17 pm

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Baby Snooks the real problem is as with the rest of the lies they have convinced themselves their numbers are larger than they are. The march thing was only 70,000. There were even pictures used that were of an old gathering in Washington and they were caught. Orly keeps printing out fake birth certificates and she is originally from Russia I believe. The truth is it is quite easy to put on a sideshow for them rather than to face the truth. Racism is what it is. No other president has been treated by members of congress and the senate as President Obama. Of course it is only the republicans behaving that way. It is like a child who has had a toy too long and another child is given that toy. They are trying to bully and get it back. Miracles do not happen in 8 months after 8 years of bad management of America. They think the louder they are the more they will be believed. The louder they are the more ashamed I am of their behavior. Rush Limbaugh should be taken off the air. After years of people working for civil rights they want to turn back the clock and make us all subservient to their will. Change has come to America and I for one will continue to fight for everyone’s rights. Not just a loud few.

By S G on 09/19/2009 3:49 pm