Obama: He's also a patriot
Some of our local angry ultraconservative folks who regularly write letters to The Press need to come up with something a little more creative in their daily ranting and criticism of the president than just name calling. They need to stop listening only to Fox News and present some reasonable plans to solve the problems such as health care, the economy, etc. that our president was elected to try to address. In The Press in just the last couple of weeks President Obama has been referred to as immature, a radical anti-American ideologue, a communist or socialist and other equally untrue labels. The last time I looked there were no federal troops marching down our streets and I cannot think of one freedom we have lost in the last year since we elected President Obama.
Face it - a lot of ultraconservatives can't stand the fact that a Democrat was elected president much less a smart, black, moderately liberal one. It's as if the White House is only supposed to be occupied by conservative Republicans or Tea Party folks. The Right was unrelenting in its attacks on our last Democratic president from the moment he took office and it was only his personal moral and relationship failings, not the lies and conspiracy theories of the Right, that damaged his presidency. The radical Right's main solution now to the problems in this country like health care is to simply "kill the bill." President Obama could walk on water and they would see it as some type of big government leftist trick and if he resigned they would be upset with him for putting Joe Biden in his place.
Thankfully the vast majority of Americans and people in Idaho are more moderate in their views than some of the people who write to The Press. They recognize that President Obama is doing the best he can to clean up the mess to the economy and other problems left by the last administration. Every new administration inherits the problems left unresolved by the previous administration and I believe all presidents do the best they can and are generally well intentioned in their desire to promote the cause of freedom internationally and use the government to promote the general well being of the majority of citizens. But change has never been easy in this country.
The framers of the Constitution wisely purposely structured a government with separation of powers to make sure that one person or group could not make any radical changes simply on the basis of one election, court decision, or appointment. However, most Americans want our government to actually solve problems and/or help people to come up with their own solutions to problems. They believe that the federal government was created for more than just for protecting us from enemies foreign and domestic.Some of the far right ultraconservatives need to take a deep breath and calm down. President Obama is an American citizen and a Christian and the Republic is strong. Just because our president may come from Chicago, is a Democrat, and his complexion is darker than the average person one sees on the streets of towns in North Idaho, don't think he is any less of a patriot than those loud, chest-pounding people who yell at politicians in public meetings, write nonsense and sometimes paranoid letters to The Press, and like to think they have some special corner on love of this country and patriotism.
Tom Hearn is a Coeur d'Alene resident.