“Obama routinely speaks of his critics as if their motives couldn\u2019t possibly be rational or decent. When Republicans balked at his proposal to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees to enter the United States (a proposal I favor), Obama jeered. \u201cApparently they\u2019re scared of widows and orphans,\u201d he said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t sound very tough to me.\u201d<\/p>
“When GOP lawmakers resisted raising the debt limit, Obama tweeted: \u201cAre they really willing to hurt people just to score political points?\u201d Efforts to repeal Obamacare he attributed to cruelty \u2014 the \u201cone unifying principle\u201d for Republicans, the president told reporters, is \u201cmaking sure that 30 million people don\u2019t have health care.\u201d<\/p>
“With Obama, there seems to be no possibility of honorable disagreement. Oppose something he wants, and you are a bought-and-paid-for stooge, or a denier of science, or a peddler of fiction, or a scoundrel who puts party ahead of country. He isn\u2019t the only one who talks this way, not by a long shot. But he is our only president, and how he expresses himself matters. When presidential rhetoric is mean and contemptuous, the whole public square is befouled.”<\/p>
Jeff Jacoby, boston.com Obama regrets polarized rancor. He should.<\/a> January 24, 2016<\/p> How consistent with my experience with online supporters of Bernie Sanders. I wonder if Jeff Jacoby is correct in pointing the finger at Obama for what is actually an American tradition of coarse disrespect for political opponents. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Obama routinely speaks of his critics as if their motives couldn\u2019t possibly be rational or decent. When Republicans balked at his proposal to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees to enter the United States (a proposal I favor), Obama jeered. \u201cApparently they\u2019re … Continue reading