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Midnight repost: Obama’s legacy of hate

The tenth anniversary retrospective of Behind the Black continues: This essay was posted originally on August 19, 2019. It quite correctly predicts the looting, rioting, and violence going on now against monuments honoring past American heroes and defenders of freedom. It also correctly predicts that this looting, rioting, and violence is as yet only beginning. Be prepared for far worse, especially if you wish to defend the honor of the American dream of individual freedom, personal responsibility, and rule by law.

——————
Obama’s legacy of hate

Of all of Obama’s achievements, probably the one that is going to ring down the decades the longest and maybe do the most to destroy the United States and western civilization was his willingness to either endorse or refuse to condemn the use of slanders and lies to advance the political power of his Democratic Party and the left.

The most obvious example of this were the false accusations by top Democrats that the Tea Party protesters against Obamacare were “racist”, despite zero evidence. (I speak from personal experience, as I was involved in Tea Party groups in both the DC and Tucson areas.) Obama was in a position to tamp down this hateful and dishonest rhetoric. Instead, he allowed members of his administration to encourage it.

This political tactic has now become pervasive and dominant throughout the Democratic Party and its minions in the mainstream press. This fact became especially evident to me this past weekend, during a demonstration in Portland by a group called the Proud Boys. This group was formed in 2016 in reaction to the modern political leftist pressure forcing Americans to adhere to leftist dogma. From their own webpage:

The basic tenet of the group is that we are “Western chauvinists who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.” Like Archie Bunker, we long for the days when “girls were girls and men were men.” This wasn’t controversial even twenty years ago, but being proud of Western culture today is like being a crippled, black, lesbian communist in 1953.

…The Proud Boys confuse the media because the group is anti-SJW without being alt-right. “Western chauvinist” includes all races, religions, and sexual preferences.

I have reviewed their webpages, their videos, statements from their leaders, and can find nothing that suggests they have any links to fascism or white supremacy. Go to their webpage yourself and do the same. If anything, the actual evidence is that this group opposes such things, vehemently.

And yes, I am sure you could find bigots among them, as you can find bigots everywhere. The fundamental principles and goals of the organization however have nothing to do with bigotry. They merely wish to reassert the nobility of western civilization, an idea that all Americans should feel no shame asserting.

This past weekend, during their demonstration, they came with no masks, a lot of American flags, a lot of Trump “Make America Great Again” hats and t-shirts, and the ability to defend themselves if attacked. (The link takes you to a Daily Mail report, with lots of pictures that confirm my description but with text that generally describes the event poorly.)

It appears, from the information at this link, that the Proud Boys finished their morning demonstration after about 90 minutes — with no violence — and then went to have a barbeque.

After about 90 minutes the showdown dissipated and people went on the move. The Proud Boys and their supporters began to march over the Hawthorne Bridge which had been closed earlier in the day.

Police escorted the group across the bridge and prevented counterprotesters from following. “It wasn’t planned. It wasn’t orchestrated,” said Sgt. Brandon White, a spokesman for the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. “We had a request that they would like to leave the area and so we facilitated.”

Later, counter-demonstrators crossed over the Steel Bridge in search of their adversaries. By then, many of the Proud Boys and their supporters had taken off. Some later decamped to Bagley Community Park in Vancouver [Washington state] for a gathering and barbecue.

The “counter-demonstrators” were members of the Antifa leftist group that uses violence against anyone it opposes. This day in Portland was no different. As they went in search of the Proud Boy demonstrators they committed acts of violence throughout Portland.

Most of the news stories, such as this one from USA Today, avoided pinning the violence on the leftists, trying instead to imply that it came from both sides. A more detailed look at the facts suggests otherwise. Eyewitness reports by freelance journalist Andy Ngo (whom Antifa had attacked and sent to the hospital on June 29) and others, along with this news report, show that the lawlessness came from Antifa, and no one else.

Obama’s legacy here is that he encouraged political tactics where anyone who opposed leftist dogma or Democratic Party policies could be quickly labeled with any form of hateful slander. Not once during his term did he condemn this “Big Lie” tactic, and if anything, worked to make it mainstream.

The result is that news organizations today routinely label groups that demonstrate in opposition to Antifa as “far right,” neo-fascist,” or “white supremacists.” Look at the links above. The Daily Mail goes out of its way to pin these labels on these demonstrators. So does USA Today.

In fact, the slanders have become so routine that it makes many afraid to defend groups like the Proud Boys, in fear of being linked to them and such ideas. I myself have found myself thinking this, then decided today to take a closer look at Proud Boys, and found these labels to be unfounded.

But Obama’s legacy has won. The labels have stuck, and it will likely be impossible to separate them from these Americans. They will be forever slandered as bigots, even though they are a group that “includes all races, religions, and sexual preferences.”

More important, the slander and these labels are now being used to justify physical violence against these Americans by jack-booted thugs. As always, mindless hate breeds mindless violence.

The use of the Big Lie by Democrats and their allies has also spread. They used it shamelessly during the Kavanaugh hearings. In the ongoing presidential campaign you now have mainstream Democratic candidates calling all Americans racists (even though those same Americans voted for a black president twice), while other candidates are regularly labeling Trump a white supremacist (even though his daughter is Jewish and he has never said or done anything to suggest any truth to that false accusation).

I fully expect the rhetoric against Trump supporters in the coming election to spread and get more vicious. This in turn will act to encourage more extreme actions, including violence comparable to what Antifa now does with impunity in Portland. Be prepared. When people abandon the truth for emotional labels inspired by hate, they are liable to do anything.

I also must once again pose this question: Are you an ordinary American who is a registered Democrat and has always voted for that party? If so, is this the behavior that you wish to be associated with? Is this the kind of hateful leadership you want to represent not only yourself but your country? Because if it isn’t, and you still vote for this party, then it will be on your head when greater evils descend upon us all.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

9 comments

  • Col Beausabre

    The Georgia Department of Public Safety office was ransacked overnight by “protesters”. Not vandals, not criminals, to CNN people who show up in dark clothes wearing masks armed with spray and starting a fire that caused “extensive damage” and injuring two are not terrorists. They are “protesters” exercising their constitutional rights

  • James Street

    Former U.S. Secret Service agent and radio talk show host Dan Bongino talked about this on his podcast the other day. He said the rioters are a bunch of losers with nothing to lose. They haven’t achieved anything, they haven’t accumulated wealth, they live in their parents’ basement. Plus they have the mainstream media on their side so they always win the PR war. We defend ourselves from their attacks and we’re accused of “assaulting” “peaceful protesters”.

    Our side on the other hand has done things with our lives, have families, positions of responsibility, accumulated wealth. When we’re sued by the bottomless resources of the left we have much to lose.

    BUT, Bongino said there will come a time when our side will be pushed to the point that we feel we have nothing to lose and this will turn into a hot war. He gave 2 recent examples:
    • The June 13th 911 call from Tara Durant, the Fredericksburg VA mother who was trapped in her car with her 4-year-old daughter as they were surrounded by rioters.
    • The June 28th incident where rioters broke into a St. Louis gated community and homeowners Mark and Patricia McCloskey stood armed in front of their home ready to defend it.

    Bongino said if you listen to the 911 call and watch the video of the McCloskeys you realize these people have reached the point where they will do anything to protect their life and property, because the government isn’t fulfilling its responsibility of maintaining order and the rule of law.

  • Cotour

    Related: An Obama lover slice form the real world:

    The other day a woman comes to me, and she was / is a big Obama lover, and asks me:

    “A park for all of our American hero’s? Really?” Referring to Trumps proposal to create a national park where there can be displayed I suppose all of these iconic American statues that are being systematically and with great purpose being torn down by the Left. These actions are a corner stone of Marxist doctrine, destroy all known history so the young can only related to the “New” history and its interpretation that is presented by them. Its all just a psyops. That is progress to the Left.

    And truthfully I really know nothing about the proposed park other than I had only glancingly heard something about such. And I replied “What is wrong with something like that?” “Why would you have a problem with that?” And she just shook her head. (And really, why is that a problem?)

    And then I said to her, which I have said to her and many others many times: “Why do you listen to the president if just hearing him upsets you so? Don’t listen to him”. I do not listen to really any of the presidents canned speeches, I told her that all I am interested in is what he is doing regarding upholding the Constitution as it was formulated and intended. That is my simple test for any president. And before I could finish my thought what comes bursting out of her mouth like she was being murdered?

    “FORNICATE YOU!” (She used the more course and street version) She shouted, yelling it at me now instantly red faced.

    At which point I just pointed to the door at invited her to leave. “Get out”.

    And this is what a segment of every day America has pumping through their heads and it is bubbling just under the surface waiting to express itself.

    A reasonable question is asked and a reasonable answer is attempted to be offered and there is a personal explosion of pure subjective hatred.

    And again, I know this person and she agrees with me on 9 out of 10 issues, despises Hillary, and Joe Biden is right behind her in her book, thinks he is a joke. But when it comes to Trump?

    And she loved, loved , loved Obama, thought she was dating him. And that really is what a lot of this comes down to, personal and subjective likes and dislikes and the media and the politico operators ability to leverage it all into a passion for or against one or the other. You can throw any thought of objectivity and self interest out the window.

    And that is politics and our politics is sooooo pumped right now as I have mentioned many times before, because Trump represents a real existential threat to the existence of the Left and the Democrat leadership and their control of power and their 30 plus year Leftist agenda.

    And Mr. Obama, a straight up philosophical Marxist by training and education. Did his gig as president and accomplished to a great degree what we see today in this extreme battle for power.

    In a way he is to be thanked for awakening the silent majority to his and the Left / democrat leaderships treachery. And so now this must be dealt with, and Trump is the one chosen to do so. And I say that he is really the only politician today that is capable of doing so.

    If not him, then who? I know of no other human being who could take the constant daily pressures that he has endured from day one when he rode that escalator down with his wife.

    This is for all the marbles and because of that fact, like I have pointed out from the get go, it will be getting much worse before it gets any better. This is existential politics we are engaged in, and someone must be symbolically shown the door.

    Now we wait.

    There is a segment of the American public specifically that are childish and naive and that is their reality. And their reality is their perception and they are the

  • sippin_bourbon

    Also in GA, specifically, Atlanta, a group of “protesters” was attempting to set up their own “CHAZ/CHOP” near the Wendy’s where police shot a drunk man armed with a stolen TASER (that he used to shoot at one of the officers).

    The group stopped a car that had exited the highway, similar in fashion to a stop that was documented a few days ago on another post (armed “protesters” stopping a motorcyclist at gun point
    video:https://youtu.be/9hawV-yThN0?t=62)

    In Atlanta, when the driver attempted to avoid them, or the barriers in some fashion, they fired into the car.

    An 8 year old child was killed.

    https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/child-shot-killed-atlanta-police-say/CLSJOKHUWFBDTH3UUGXQCKDPBA/

    This is the most ludicrous part of the story.
    “[Mayor Keisha Lance] Bottoms announced that after weeks of trying to negotiate with protesters occupying the Wendy’s, the efforts are over and the area will be cleared.

    “A (sic) the point that an 8-year-old baby is killed, the discussions have ended,” Bottoms said.

    It took an 8 year year being shot before an elected and sworn official of a local government decided it was time to enforce the rule of law.

    Which leads me to Mr Zimmerman’s post. A large part of Mr Obama’s legacy was the weakening and distortion of the Rule of Law. It has fed into the current unrest where Rule of Law is now inexorably linked to the charge of “systemic racism”.

    The movement that is co-opting the “black lives matter” has shot and killed 2 black males in Seattle, with another critically wounded. Two of those three minors.
    And now the 8 year old girl in Atlanta.

    And no one has been arrested. This is an absolute failure due to our departure from the rule of law.

    Trump was attacked for labeling the the fake news journos as the enemy of the people, but it was Obama and the Dems that labeled the Tea Party as the enemy.
    “Let us all remember who the real enemy is. The real enemy is the Tea Party” -Frederica Wilson (D-FL). Obama did not rebuke this statement either.

    I think I could write pages of examples, but I have to actually work.

  • Kevin R.

    There is nothing in the constitution about “protesting.” The constitution provides for a petitioning the government for a redress of grievances. The constitution does not say that if you call yourself a “protest” you are above the law and the constitution is null and void as far your “protest” is concerned.

    One of the lies of the communists is that our country was founded on “protest.” Our country was founded on universal principles that bind all of humanity as equals and for which men were brave enough to openly declare war, put on uniforms and fight in the open as soldiers in a declared war.

    The communists in our country are cowards. They don’t openly and avowedly renounce their American citizenship, join in a declared war, put on uniforms and fight as soldiers in open declared war by international rules of warfare.

    They are cowards in this way.

  • sippin_bourbon

    Kevin,

    You are correct that “protests” are not covered in this fashion.
    But freedom of speech and freedom to peaceably assemble is.
    This would be a protest if that speech is to seek a redress of grievance against the government or some other entity.

    However, a riot is not a protest.
    Not in anyway shape or form. Neither is vandalism, occupation of several city blocks, while extorting locals for protection, nor murder.

    The “protests” of this last month have rarely been peaceable assemblies, with some exceptions.

  • eddie willers

    When I hear the term, “mostly peaceful”, I point out that a date that ends in rape is also “mostly peaceful”.

  • Max

    Mostly peaceful, is not peaceful at all. Like friendly fire. Like Obamas peace bombs they dropped on weddings and funerals.

    Here’s a peaceful protest, where they shot peaceful BB guns and throw peaceful rocks. Broke windows out peacefully, then throw loving smoke grenades, peaceful flash bang devices at a couple a dozen officers. Very lovingly sharing their water bottles with the officers.
    The officers began to feel festive and join the celebration by throwing and shooting peaceful smoke bombs and teargas. A night of love and celebration at the CNN headquarters…
    https://youtu.be/Yve9DhT8Nt4

  • James Street

    One more thought on this topic. Below are some quotations from an article on the American Thinker blog today. I’m still thinking about what the ultimate goal of Marxism is. It seems to be Evil for the sake of Evil. I think it was C.S. Lewis who said that Satan hates his followers as much as he hates his enemies.

    The Obama Years Sowed the Seeds for the Current Societal Chaos
    By Steve McCann
    Obama never missed an opportunity to pour gasoline on the flames of violence and racial animosity

    “After nearly 40 years of gradual infiltration and eventual domination of the Democrat party, as well as the media, entertainment and education establishments, the radicalized American left in 2008 achieved a major objective. They found their ideal stealth candidate, Barack Obama. Not only was he, beneath the façade of glibness and conviviality, a fellow Marxist/socialist, but more importantly, he was able to take advantage of decades of inculcated racial guilt among the populace.”

    “Thus began the final stages of the grand strategy to fundamentally transform the nation, following the installation of the most radical administration in the history of the country.”

    “their primary purpose was not, as they proclaimed, to improve the lives of the citizenry but to make certain the radical left would be permanent occupants in the corridors of power.”

    “Therefore, every action, policy and pronouncement made during the eight years of the Obama Administration must be viewed through the prism of Marxist/socialist megalomania and self-aggrandizement.”
    https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/07/the_obama_years_sowed_the_seeds_for_the_current_societal_chaos.html

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