Projection Politics

Clint Eastwood’s speech at this year’s Republican National Convention proved to us that there’s a Barack Obama only conservatives can see. We’ve all heard about him on Fox News, the secret Muslim who rode Affirmative Action into the White House in order to institute Sharia Law and mandate abortions. We just can’t see him the way true conservatives can. 

In fact, the last four years of American politics was summed up nicely by Eastwood’s presentation; an angry white guy shouting about a make-believe president for the benefit of a Republican audience. 

A lot of Democrats claim the whole conservative push-back is because of racism, but I don’t think that's the heart of the problem. I mean, we’ve all heard someone attack another based on personal grounds rather than solid facts. The attacker doesn’t know much but is emotionally invested in the argument, so he resorts to what he can improvise. And when it comes to an African American president, I think a lot of conservatives don’t pay attention to politics, they don’t read legislation, and so they fall back on what they know… racism and anti-government rhetoric.

So, yeah. I still see the conservative base as full of racists who reject facts and despise a government they ultimately benefit from. I just see those things as symptoms of a deeper problem. It all begs the question, “What emotional investment did conservatives make to respond so radically?” Or, in layman’s terms, “What crawled up their butt and nested?” 

The simplest answer is their failure at government policies and leadership. Conservatives marched in lock step with their president during failed wars, rising gas prices, empty promises, and economic collapse. They dragged the political conversation down to marriage sanctity and feeding tubes. They mocked any form of criticism, calling it un-American. 

And then came the 2008 presidential elections. Conservatives had to watch as an uppity Democrat canvassed on a message of changing how the American government had been run for eight years. Change in how the world would view and relate to America. Conservatives watched as the liberal Barack Obama became a celebrity in chief, and they grew increasingly bitter… 

What could they do? Conservatives had all this anger and frustration built up, but being Republicans, they couldn’t blame themselves for the mess they were in. Not even a little. Culpability is akin to death in conservative politics, perhaps because so many of their positions revolve around religious beliefs. But whatever their investments, they couldn’t admit to any fault in conservatism. So, they decided as a party to take all that angst and dump it on Democrats. 

I believe the outrage started about the time President Obama announced that the Justice Department would not investigate the Bush Administration for any crimes. That was the cue for many conservatives to unleash their frustrations at a new Democratic president. They were finally free from responsibility in the White House and could blame others. 

See, Republicans could only feel better about their failed leadership if a Democratic presidency turned out worse. They needed Obama to fail so badly, they fought against conservative brands of legislation like bank bailouts and insurance mandates. Their party needed redemption so badly, they slowed the legislative process during an economic crisis, filibustering in record numbers. Sacrificing the American credit rating. Fighting against job creation. Whatever it took to make Americans suffer. 

It was no coincidence that a billboard popped up asking America if we missed President Bush. I knew then that conservatives desperately needed Americans to forget recent history and to blame our problems on Democrats. I just didn’t know how far they would go to drag President Obama down.  

And I predict the squeaky wheel of conservative angst will continue to dominate American politics until Republicans decide they are ready to rebuild a nation and not just their political party. Which could be a long time in coming…