This post was inspired by Vyan's excellent diary. If you haven't already read it, please go check it out.
Our president's enemies (The Republican/Tea Party A.K.A. The American Taliban) have tossed everything his way, hoping to get a rise out of him. Yet they never do, and this drives them batsh## crazy.
As a consequence, frustration builds, leaving them vulnerable to ODS, otherwise known as Obama Derangement Syndrome. And unfortunately, this latest strain of ODS has no cure.
Follow me below the squiggle and I'll tell you why.
A man goes to the doctor complaining of stomach pain. The doctor runs test after test on the guy, but comes up empty. Diagnosis? Psychosomatic. So what else can the doctor do but treat the man's symptoms with placebo or anti-anxiety drugs? Notice the affliction isn't cured. It's managed. How do you cure something caused by an imaginary germ? You can't.
The American Taliban, the hard Right, and all groups with their mindset, suffer from the same affliction. They're infected with an imaginary germ, or fictional Barack Obama, one they've created. It's much like a phantom pain ... or limb. It aches something fierce, yet it doesn't exist.
The angry, ungodly, Jesus-hating, devil-worshipping, Kenyan, secret Muslim who wants to enslave whites, steal our guns, piss on the constitution ... etc ... has never existed.
This is why their ODS can never be cured, because they can't see or hear the real Barack Obama. Why is that important? Because the REAL Barack Obama is the cure.
I present to you, exhibit #1. It's an email exchange I recently had with a Christian writer who penned a scathing article in one of the newsletters I subscribe to. In it, he claimed Obama wasn't a Christian, yet nothing was said about Willard so I emailed him.
ME: I just read your article [and] in my opinion, the same can be said about many politicians, namely Mitt Romney, a GOP candidate for the presidency. He is not a Christian, yet I don't hear anyone talking [about] it. In fact, this is largely ignored. Why is that?
He responded with a very long canned email. I know it was canned because he was talking about stuff I hadn't even mentioned, like patriotism and voting. Anyway, this paragraph pretty much sums his view up:
HIM: I personally will stand on my Messiah’s doctrines and I will not cast my vote for an individual who stands apart from those doctrines. Some of you have sent me letters saying it is my obligation as a patriot to vote no matter what. I didn’t say I wasn’t going to vote, there are alternatives to the Mormon and the Muslim, and as far as being a patriot, I am not. I’m a monarchist. My allegiance is to my Messiah Jesus, King of kings not to man, and certainly not to any nation of this world. Sometimes I wonder if my brethren actually understand what it means when we say “this world is not our home” There are certainly many who don’t understand that concept.
To be honest, I didn't read his whole letter, I just skimmed it because it had little to do with the point I was making. Here's a snippet of the email I responded with:
ME: I'm writing this email to you because I'm sick and tired of my Christian brethren focusing all their time and energy on conspiracy theories about the president's religion, or his place of birth. Yet they ignore the UNCHRISTIAN practices within the Republican party. Now we've got a super rich, mired in greed Mormon running for the highest office in the land, a man who couldn't care less about abortion, our elderly, our sick, our poor and our minorities. He only cares about ambition. Anyone who can't see this is willfully blind.
WHY isn't the Christian community JUST AS LOUD about him as they've been about President Obama??? WHY isn't the Christian community calling the GOP leadership (senators and congressmen) out for their single-minded obsession to get the president out of office, an obsession that has done nothing but hurt the country. WHY isn't the Christian community calling the GOP out for all the racism, heartlessness and ungodliness within their ranks?
When I get emails railing about the president being a Muslim (insert eye roll), or some other such nonsense, it sets my teeth on edge. The fact that NOBODY in the Christian community is speaking out against the other side, makes all their screaming about the president moot. It shows spiritual blindness and a willingness to bow to the weakness of the flesh. Who can trust these so-called heralds when all indicators show that they are blind to everything but their tunnel vision on the president?
I'd barely hit the Send button before his response came back seconds later:
HIM: You are 100% wrong. Obama is fully Muslim and he will prove it before the end of his presidency.
At this point, I was done.
ME: Okay, now I see what I'm dealing with. You're just like the others. Bless you.
I could've gone on and on, but frankly, I just didn't care anymore. What's the point anyway? They don't want to hear facts. They want to believe lies. As such, they don't view him as a worthy adversary, because again, the real president Obama doesn't really exist to them. They're too busy fighting the imaginary phantom they've created in their minds. Mired in their imaginary delusions of him, they can never best him, which strengthens their ODS.
BUT HERE'S WHAT'S ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING. HERE'S WHAT THESE RAGERS DON'T UNDERSTAND:
I've watched this president, studied him for the past four years, starting with the primary, and I've noticed one crucial thing about him, something that they've been too stupid and arrogant to discover.
Barack Obama's temperament is exactly like my husband's. He's highly intelligent, and an extreme thinker, in that every word he says is measured against and sifted through a self-imposed filter.
But that's not the most significant thing. And this is why they're so clueless they ought to be locked up for their stupidity.
The crucial thing that they've yet to figure out about Obama is that, like my husband, he does get mad. Only he uses his anger as a positive force. The more heated they become, the cooler he becomes. IOW, he goes inward into think-mode, fortifies the filter and uses his well-timed/well-thought out words and actions like bullets. His aim is precise and direct because he takes his time. The anger fuels him. Sure he's playing 12 dimensional chess with them, but he's also practicing a form of mental Aikido on them. He uses their might, their force, their strength, against them.
Dear American Taliban, President Obama channels his rage through thought, mind and words. Again, the hotter you get, the cooler he becomes. It's his defense mechanism. The phrase, fighting fire with fire doesn't suit him. He fights your fire with ice. SUB-ZERO, b#tches. That's why your ODS is permanent. You can't cure an imaginary disease.
The GOP hasn't a clue. They've no idea that their outrage, their sheer insanity, is what makes Barack Obama tick. Toss an obstacle at him, and he'll channel all his energy into overcoming it. That's what men like him do. They live for this stuff. The Right's hatred gets him up in the morning. Fuels him. It's like Vitamin D to his bones. It fortifies him and compells him to deliver his personal best.
This is what they don't understand. But I understand because I'm married to a man just like our president.
They will never understand this, which is why they will go through the rest of their miserable lives as ODS sufferers. Again, there's no cure for an imaginary disease.