Illustration by BEN HEINE
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY When did Republicans elect to delete the term “compromise” from their lexicon? When did they resolve to bar words like “cooperation” and “consensus” from discussion? When did they decide to excise 
words like “reasonable” and “equitable” from their collective mind-set? When did they engender such callousness toward sentiments like “compassion” and “empathy”? In fact, when was the last time you heard terms like “common good” or “shared sacrifice” roll from the tongue of a McConnell, a Boehner, or any other current member of America’s Right Wing elite? Have today’s Republicans become so enamored of their own negativism and partisanship that they would sooner expunge the term “middle ground” from the English language than accord even a modicum of fairness, rationality, or even “common decency” to the American political process? Sadly, the answers to those questions are (in order): January 20, 2009; same date; same date; same date; there was no first time; YOU CAN BET YOUR SWEET STARS AND BARS THEY WOULD!
From doing absolutely NOTHING to improve the economy, to denying healthcare to tens of millions, to boycotting immigration reform, to curbing voting rights, to increasing the income gap, to middle-fingering a minimum wage increase, to refuting climate change, to rejecting Presidential appointees, to nixing an increase in the debt ceiling and holding the nation hostage, to mooning an extension of unemployment benefits, the whole of the Right Wing’s obstruct-Obama-at-every-turn-
It’s called plain old mephitic RACISM and it’s been the “elephant” in Republican caucus rooms since January 20, 2009. How do I know? Because the aforementioned Right Wing’s inertia and unbridled obstructionism can hardly be 
attributed to ANYTHING ELSE! For God’s sake, what else could it be? At his core Obama is damn near as conservative as Reagan, and equally as two-faced! Let’s cut “right” to the bias. First off, had he been WHITE Obama would NEVER have had to endure the kind of invective, affront, and total lack of Presidential deference that he has. Second, had he been WHITE he would most definitely NEVER have had his birthright legitimacy to hold the office challenged, let alone had to face the humiliation of having to produce original certified proof of his place of birth! Face it, had Obama been WHITEthere is ZERO POSSIBILITY that any of that would have happened! And, come now, you and I both know that there isn’t a ghost of a chance in hell that ANY Right Winger would have ever considered even JOKING about a challenge to their boy Ronnie’s bona fides to occupy the office!
So, in keeping with the revered Reagan and his “tax-raising, terrorist-negotiating, gay-loving, amnesty-granting, big spending” ways, which color President do you suppose saved the asses of the top tier of the most criminally culpable financial “private enterprisers” ever to stroll the wilds of Wall Street (and to date has yet to put a single one of them behind bars where they goddamn well belong)? Which color President do you suppose has done little or nothing to stem the spread of that insidious disease called “corporate welfare” which continues to consume shameful portions of the nation’s lifeblood? Which color President do you suppose has proposed cuts to Social Security? Which color President do you suppose believes that it is acceptable, even desirable, for the government to know literally EVERYTHING about you? Which color President do you suppose until only recently believed in strict enforcement, even expansion, of the draconian laws and exorbitant budgetary sums legislated to arrest, incarcerate and devastate the futures of hundreds of thousands of American youth for the diabolically heinous act of possessing and/or inhaling even minuscule amounts of a fucking WEED! Oh, and which color President do you suppose is 100% behind the entirely corporate designed and enriching Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact (it’s the Devil son of NAFTA in case you haven’t heard)? Hardly the stuff of liberal legend. Need I go on? Gotten the picture?
I think we can call it official, folks. From the beginning, all of this open hostility towards Obama has been little more than the fact of a black President and First Lady ensconced in a here-to-fore all-White House proving to be far too onerous a reality to bear for an aging and not so “Grand Old Party” still languishing in an ethos of antebellum yesterdays. I’m reminded of the oft quoted line of conservative apologist Jonah Goldberg, “I am just mystified by these people telling me I would think Obama was doing a great job if his skin contained less melanin.” Sure you are, Jonah, sure you are. Truth be told, Mr. Goldberg, you and the rest of your Republican “confederates” have NEVER hated the shading of Obama’s POLITICS nearly so much as the shading of his SKIN!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Fed up early stage septuagenarian who has actually been most of there and done most of that. Born and raised in the picturesque Pocono Mountains. Quite well educated. Very lucky to have been born into a well-schooled and somewhat prosperous family. Long divorced. One beautiful, brilliant daughter. Two far above average grandsons. Semi-retired (how does anyone manage to do it completely these days?) and fully-tired of bullshit. Uncle of the Editor-In-Chief.