May 5, 2010--Catching Up With My Emails

Waiting for me back in New York were a bunch of emails from some of my South Florida friends. I took them as a measure of affection—now that we can’t casually see each other in the morning, perhaps emails will suffice as a way to stay in close touch.

But missing each other aside, they were quite hot in content and tone. I took that to mean that in part they were motivated by a perception that Barack Obama might just be doing a few things right or the tide, at least, was shifting and some of the things my conservative friends hold to be true were being impeached.

Like how much of the solution to our energy needs involves massive new forms of offshore drilling. As the oil slick from the collapsed BP rig moves inexorably toward Florida—maybe even up the east coast where my friends live—I am hearing that the problem will solve itself (nature will disperse and dilute the spilled oil and so we should not be too concerned) and, as if in contradiction to that, the federal government (i.e., Obama) did not act fast enough to contain and solve the problem.

So, as usual, I was confused: there is no need for government to get involved (the traditional small-government mantra) but where was Obama and the government when all of this was happening.

Echoing this, when I got the TV working, there was Louisiana Senator David Vitter screaming on the tube that the Gulf Coast needs federal aid and they need it now. This from one of the GOP’ staunchest dissenters from any form of federal response to the recession; this from the senator who is best known for being one of the Washington Madam’s most frequent customers.

Then there was Michael Brown who was ranting on Fox News (remember him—the former head of the International Arabian Horse Association and then FEMA CEO during Hurricane Katrina who George Bush famously said, “You’re doing a good job Brownie”) that not only was the Obama administration late in responding to the crisis (he should know about that) but they in fact were “happy” that it occurred since it now allows them to “pander” to environmental groups that want to totally end all use of fossil fuels such as coal and oil. At least he didn’t go as far as Rush Limbaugh who claimed that the Obama folks sabotaged the drilling platform, again for environmental reasons.

I guess I was still disoriented from all the driving since I could not make sense of either the logic of that (how ruining our local waterways and coastline was an act of environmental conservation) or the sure lunacy of what both of these Republican sages were peddling. Obama wasn’t adept enough to provide the needed response but was clever enough to pull off a murderous act (17 men were killed in the Gulf) while leaving no traces.

These folks are so angry that Obama might just be succeeding that they are in danger of losing what little credibility they retain.

Another example. This from one my emails. An acquaintance circulated something that claimed that gay people have the audacity to want to be able to sponsor immigrant partners for citizenship. Another friend responded:

It’s a free for all to see how much we can suck out of our country. JFK’s admonition “ask not what our country can do for you, ask what you can do for our country” is dead. Now it’s the exact opposite. Gay groups are only doing what everyone else is doing which is suckling from the public nipple.

When I tried to point out that this is the tried and true way of helping immigrants become citizens what I got back was sputtering. And when I pointed out that in economic terms gays pay more in taxes than they received in benefits (they have, for example, very few children and so they are not a debit on the public education system) and wondered with false naiveté why he used such an angry nipple-sucking image to describe this behavior, I heard nothing in return except that I misunderstood him. He was not bashing gays and was not being homophobic. “I have nothing against gays,” he in effect said.

Well I am not so jet lagged as to believe that and I sense that behind some of the anger, though there is legitimate frustration that many things do not feel as if they going well, I am also sensing that behind it are political and ideological and sadly some racial frustrations.

It is as if they are saying, “How can this left-of-center black guy be getting more and more things right when what the conservative right and their corporate friends have wrought has led to such a global mess.”

Their thinking is so distorted by this frustration and confusion that the Obama administration can’t even get a shred of credit for so quickly capturing the Times Square bomber. “Why did it take them 53 hours? Why didn’t they capture him until he was on the plane? Why . . . ?”

All this from the folks who failed in seven years to capture or kill Osama bin Laden.

I think I’ll take a break from reading my emails.