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"Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/22/2013 5:51:34 PM

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The New York Times book review reviewed THE CENTER HOLDS, and there was a turn of phrase I'd never heard before: Obama Derangement Syndrome

The author characterized the political battles of Obama as: Pragmatic Centrism v. Right Wing Extremism

The Yeatsian title reflects President Obama’s view that the real struggle of the 2012 election wasn’t between conservatives and liberals but between “right-wing extremism” and “pragmatic centrism,” which is where he placed himself. Alter, a veteran journalist and the author of “The Promise,” a thoughtful examination of Obama’s rise and first presidential year, agrees, and saw this extremism taking virulent shape in what he calls “Obama Derangement Syndrome.” Those infected, he writes, “were interested in vituperation and victory. Their aim was not just to fling invective but to block everything the president stood for and eventually drive him from office.”

My questions is, what do you think are the root causes of this syndrome? Racism, AM Talk Radio, FNC, or a general hatred of the Democratic Party, or simplistic identity politics.

An example of this might be those 29% of Republicans who blame Obama for the poor Katrina Response.

< Message edited by cloudboy -- 8/22/2013 5:56:34 PM >

RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/22/2013 6:03:04 PM

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I can see racism as being a factor, albeit not the sole factor. The Old White Boys still like to have their way and get violently ill at the thought of a black man in the White House.
Identity Politics plays a role, too. The whole Us vs Them syndrome is alive and well on both sides of the aisle. The Right has the poor/welfare syndrome whereas the Left has the Haves/Have Nots.
None of this is helped by the extremeist Tea Baggers - they seem to be out for themselves and their kind and to hell with anyone else. And to help stir the pot is the Religious Right, who won't be happy until Christianity becomes the official religion of the US.

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/22/2013 6:07:05 PM

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FR

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_image_of_George_W._Bush#Bush_Derangement_Syndrome_neologism

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/22/2013 6:23:48 PM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: cloudboy

The author characterized the political battles of Obama as: Pragmatic Centrism v. Right Wing Extremism

I think the author is biased, but I can't deny that his sense of humor is intact.

quote:

ORIGINAL: cloudboy

My questions is, what do you think are the root causes of this syndrome?

Political hacks playing doctor, inventing "syndromes" and diagnosing people.

K.

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/22/2013 6:55:55 PM

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The question still remains why there's such opposition to pragmatic centrism.

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/22/2013 7:15:11 PM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: cloudboy

The question still remains why there's such opposition to pragmatic centrism.

8 years of the country being run by right wing extremists while telling their low information supporters that this was the way the country was always going to be governed and the worst kind of racism.

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/22/2013 7:37:21 PM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: cloudboy

The question still remains why there's such opposition to pragmatic centrism.

You state your inquiry as if Obama's "pragmatic centrism" is a given, a fact beyond question, but not everyone would accept that premise as true.

K.

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/22/2013 8:18:25 PM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Kirata

quote:

ORIGINAL: cloudboy

The question still remains why there's such opposition to pragmatic centrism.

You state your inquiry as if Obama's "pragmatic centrism" is a given, a fact beyond question, but not everyone would accept that premise as true.

K.

Would you care to try naming some policy of the President that is not centrist?

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/22/2013 9:05:18 PM

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I think the media galvanizes imbedded prejudices. So my answer would be AM radio and FNC combined with not wanting a black man in the White House.

---

DK: My answer would be the affordable health care act as something left of center (at least for the USA, not for the rest of the developed world.)

< Message edited by cloudboy -- 8/22/2013 9:06:47 PM >

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/22/2013 10:16:49 PM

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I imagine there will be a 'derangement syndrome' for every president for the future.

I find it a bit odd though big Pharma hasn't found sort of a new political chill pill for this. I am sure there would be $billions in profits...ok millions anyway.

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/22/2013 10:17:05 PM

Gauge

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People hate change. I laugh about the people that claim that religious freedom is so important but yet they would never want a Muslim or Buddhist or someone non-Christian in the White House. What happened to religious freedom?

I think the biggest problem is not Republican or Democrat, it is money in politics. I also believe that the partisan bickering and grandstanding is merely a diversionary tactic to keep the people divided. The last thing that our politicians want is a united people... funny that happening in the United States. Once we stop finger pointing and start exposing the lies, corruption and corporate control of our government as a whole then we will really see change. Until then... it doesn't matter.

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/22/2013 10:18:04 PM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: MrRodgers

I imagine there will be a 'derangement syndrome' for every president for the future.

I find it a bit odd though big Pharma hasn't found sort of a new political chill pill for this. I am sure there would be $billions in profits...ok millions anyway.

There are two pills that I know of: Republimax and Democratol.

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/22/2013 10:18:43 PM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: cloudboy

I think the media galvanizes imbedded prejudices. So my answer would be AM radio and FNC combined with not wanting a black man in the White House.

---

DK: My answer would be the affordable health care act as something left of center (at least for the USA, not for the rest of the developed world.)

A market based set of insurance reforms is left of center?

Truly non centrist health reform on the left would have been single payer. Anyone who pays attention to leftists knows there was much anger and consternation that Obama and the Democrats in Congress never even allowed a single payer plan to be discussed.

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/22/2013 10:27:47 PM

tj444

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quote:

ORIGINAL: cloudboy

The question still remains why there's such opposition to pragmatic centrism.

this (political) battle/opposition has been going on for decades.. it did not start when Obama was elected..

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/23/2013 4:33:12 PM

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Sometimes to understand the mechanics of a syndrome, it helps to see how such a thing operates in another country. In this case there's Brussels Sndrome as inflamed by particular British media and experienced by British Citizens.

LONDON — The basic tenet of The Daily Mail is that Britain is not what it was (true enough, it isn’t) and that it would go a long way toward recovering its gritty greatness without wind farms, safety obsessions, green lunacy, overregulation and — above all — the European Union with its meddling bureaucrats.

The formula works. The Daily Mail is the best bad newspaper in the world. It hits every jingoistic British button with eerie precision. Its mix of sex, celebrities, scandal and Brussels-bashing has something of the yucky addictiveness of the Kardashians. The paper boasts a weekday circulation of almost 1.6 million, rising to close to 2.5 million on Saturdays. It also has a wildly successful Web site, Mail Online — but that’s another story.

My concern here is not with The Mail’s journalistic brilliance — no paper is more maddeningly readable — but with what its obsessions say about where Britain is headed with its acute Brussels Syndrome. The Mail wants Britain out of the 28-nation European Union. So does the only daily that outsells it, The Sun. For both papers, Europe is a sort of Soviet Union-lite with plans to regulate everything from female quotas in boardrooms to your doctor’s hours. This is a nation where the agenda of the mass circulation tabloids weighs heavy.

----------

Without a doubt the US right wing press operates the same way -- there's a de-emphasis on news, a high calculation for audience sensibilities, and emotional targets to trigger viewer / reader hot-buttons.

Arguably the British tabloids are the forefathers of the FNC, a news channel birthed in the USA by Rupert Murcdoch.

< Message edited by cloudboy -- 8/23/2013 4:36:55 PM >

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/23/2013 5:23:35 PM

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Notice the mention of the only tabloid to outsell The Daily Mail? Want to guess who owns The Sun?

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/23/2013 5:38:37 PM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DomKen

Notice the mention of the only tabloid to outsell The Daily Mail? Want to guess who owns The Sun?

That wouldnt have been lost on many of us here in the UK....... Cohen omits that his owners rag was every bit as right leaning as the Mail when it suited Murdoch.

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/23/2013 8:59:18 PM

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I think racism is where the real crazy nasty stuff comes from - the "Nazi Kenyan Muslim" kind of shit, the death threats and all.

But politically, from what I recall, the Republicans pulled a lot of the same obstructionist shit with Clinton. It's not like we haven't seen the GOP threaten to shut down the federal government before. So I think most of it is a real mean kind of identity politics and hatred of the Democrats (and I think those things are intertwined), which itself is stimulated by politicians and talk-radio types fighting dirty to win money and votes.

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/23/2013 9:03:19 PM

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quote:

ORIGINAL: cloudboy

DK: My answer would be the affordable health care act as something left of center (at least for the USA, not for the rest of the developed world.)

Eh, except it was based on an idea from the Heritage Foundation, which is pretty far to the right. And it's more conservative than the single-payer plans supported by conservative parties in the rest of the developed world.

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RE: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - 8/24/2013 6:35:17 AM

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I think it's the confluence of several factors.

1. The inability of the Right to accept that Bush was an absolute disaster. To drown that out, they create a very loud anti-Obama noise.
2. Hysteria against something. This something is a conglomeration of liberals, Obama, the Democratic party, Islam, etc. For ease in opposition, they attribute it all to Obama.
3. Internal weakness. If the GOP were to try to integrate its disparate elements, it would fall apart. So it unites under an anti-Obama banner. Like Arab nations with their hatred of Israel.
4. Obama's not been a strong President, and the GOP has not been accommodating. So this is what jumps into the void.

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