Reply #60: A moment of reflective perspective from a consistent Obama critic [View All]

[PurityOfEssence]

That would be me.

He's taken too much flak for this inference-laden bit of second-hand information, and that bears underlining. What this touches on, though, is a very emotional wellspring.

My beef with the whole thing is that he should have had sense to say NOTHING, and this is a bit surprising from a rather risk-averse fellow like him. If he's going to be our point-man, he needs some more finesse than this, and since his long suit seems to be social grease, this is a substantial failure on that front.

Even if it was just in the most blithe moment in passing while dealing with a phone call that was totally unrelated, this is precisely the kind of thing a politician needs to know to avoid, and since the continual politicking is high among my differences with our President, it's surprising to see it happen at all.

We are a tiresome Puritanical bunch of individualists in this country, and our annoying need to be better than others is one of the mechanisms for having the highest rate of incarceration in the industrialized world. It's also one of the reasons we have so much religion, and the us vs. them xenophobia is an odd paradox for what is also a multi-cultural country. Self-righteous moralizing, coupled with an aversion to anything that's not starkly black or white leads people to mindsets of certainty (religion, political extremism) and a need to banish anything "bad", contradictory or complex. Thus, those who are convicted should be ELSEWHERE, and forever out of our Little Bo Peep sight. Forget the social reality of the aftermath, and to hell with the offenders.

Those who are subjugated tend to be the harshest masters when given a mote of power, and history is rife with this; those who subscribe to belief systems that have them submitting to the power of others and embracing or literally exalting in their own inferiority are quick to crush those they perceive as worse.

Enough of that, though; we're pretty much inclined to have a vindictive mentality when living with a punishment philosophy.

What Vick did was deeply perverse and terrifying. It was obsessive and beyond brutal, done for sport, and done for money. Couple this with the widely-held perception that the sentence was too light, and there's plenty of rage to go around. A politician needs to know to avoid this kind of thing. There's more: he's a celebrity, which means there's a huge privilege component here (which hits a nerve among liberals), he's also a sports figure (and many of us can't stand the cultural influence of sports) who is a role model in an industry based on beating the system. There's also the race component, and much as I've taken one poster to task (and probably somewhat unfairly) on this issue, it's there.

He's out and he served the penance meted out by the legal system, but that doesn't mean he's a clean slate. People need to accept the degrees of culpability, the shades of responsibility and the nuances of various misbehavior. To me, and to many others, VIOLENT crime is an entirely separate and more heinous category than crime of dishonesty or substance abuse. It is far harder for many of us to warmly embrace those who use violence against weaker creatures, especially when done for amusement and profit. That's just the way some of us pantywaists are.

Here's the really huge issue: detractors of the President (and I'm definitely in that boat) need to stop seizing on every lapse and amplifying it to ridiculous extremes, just as his fans need to stop excusing everything and attempting to crush all dissent. Obama did not condone Vick's actions, unless I'm just completely wrong about the man. Posts who skew a bit of praise for giving a guy a second chance as approval of the guy's actions are either unable to discern between shit and shinola, or are playing nasty games. Likewise, people who rush to the defense of every bit of clumsiness, or character-assassinate those who question a particular stumble are not helping the dialogue any, either.

Fuck sports, by the way; they tend to bring out some of the worst in people. At least when you pay to see guys slamming into each other and trying to hurt each other for the amusement of others they're somewhat willing and getting paid. Dogs don't get such a deal. Still, the fixation of the sporting mentality veers toward some of our worst characteristics, and that should be recognized.

Enough of all this, though. He's not perfect, and his detractors aren't either. This was a bit of clumsiness and has been badly damage-controlled. Those who rear up with dudgeon at criticism of him for this probably aren't going to help the matter much, especially not if there's a hint of violence to their rebuttals. Those who need to seize on this to further slag Obama do their cause no good either, coming off as willing to use any bit of ammunition, regardless of what a stretch it is, to undermine him. Using allegations of racism, violence, condoning of violence, or of Obama-bashing are no help at all.

This is all too hot to handle, and people need to step back and analyze their actions.