BENEATH THE SPIN * ERIC L. WATTREE
GOP ‘Patriots’ Strike America Once Again
My computer is still warm from my last article where I pointed out that the GOP is no longer conservative, and has become anti-American. Now, reinforcing my position, they’ve struck out against America again. In last week’s column, “Limbaugh-Beck and the GOP Patriots Against America”, I pointed out that you can say what you will about true conservatives, but they are fiercely patriotic, and will ALWAYS, support America, regardless to what the circumstances.
But this current group of renegade Republicans are clearly demonstrating not only that they’re not true conservatives, but they’re not even loyal Americans. With every day that passes it becomes increasingly clear that their only concern is making money, regaining power, and accommodating their own self-interest, and they’re more than willing to throw America under the bus to achieve those goals.
Evidence of that fact is they’ve left no stone unturned to protect the insurance industry, deny Americans affordable health care, and literally celebrated America’s loss of the 2016 Summer Olympics. Now, as though to reinforce my thesis, these so-called patriots have struck again by attacking President Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Regardless of your politics, just take a moment to ask yourself, considering America’s low ebb in world opinion over the past eight years, would any true conservatives, regardless to their domestic grievances, criticize the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to the President of the United States? Absolutely not.
To have such an honor come to these shores should be a cause of celebration for every American in the country, since even the biggest fool in America should recognize that this honor gives our president the added international cachet to successfully pursue American foreign policy abroad. But in spite of that, upon receiving news of this honor coming to America, the Republican National Committee issued the following statement:
“The real question Americans are asking is, ‘What has President Obama actually accomplished?’ It is unfortunate that the president’s star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights. One thing is certain – President Obama won’t be receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action.”
The question that the world must be asking is, ‘What kind of idiots are we dealing with here in the United States that would be so actively working against their own government?’
The GOP seems to be completely oblivious to the fact that the Nobel Peace Prize is not limited to simply what has taken place since the inauguration, but what the rise of Barack Obama represents overall. After all, What other world leader in history has done more to inspire the hope of people all over the world than Barack Obama, and in such a short period of time? This man is, literally, perceived as the walking, breathing personification of hope for people all over the world, so to have given the Nobel Peace Prize to anyone else would have been remiss.
In addition, by indicating in its formal GOP statement that “President Obama won’t be receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action”, the GOP is betraying the fact that they think the American people are stupid. One would think that the Republican Party wouldn’t even want to mention these issues since it is only due to Republican malfeasance in office for the past eight years, their fiscal irresponsibility, and failure to adhere to their ‘small government’ rhetoric that has caused Americans to be without jobs in the first place.
But the American people have come to ignore such nonsense from the Republican Party, because they recognize that due to a clumsy Republican attempt to manipulate public opinion, most GOP missives of this sort comes from Michael Steele, the closest thing to a love child between Michele Bachman and Snoop Dog (Sorry about that Snoop).
The fact is, I challenge anyone reading this article to give me the name of any other person alive who could have rejuvenated America’s stature in the world more effectively than Barack Obama. I also challenge anyone to give me the name of any person alive who could have brought more hope to the people of the world than Barack Obama. This man could have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize upon inauguration and it would have been perfectly justified.
I only wish the president hadn’t chosen to apologize for receiving this award, because there’s absolutely no doubt that he’s exactly the kind of man that Alfred Nobel had in mind when he created it. Thus, this honor wasn’t bestowed based on stats – this was an azward that came directly from the heart of the people, as it should always be.
So President Obama had absolutely nothing to apologize about. He not only deserves this honor, but by receiving it he’s elevated the stature of all those who preceded him.
The Republican Party claims that Obama only received this award because of his superstar status. But as with most things, they have it completely backwards. President Obama didn’t receive the honor because he’s a star, he’s a star because he has the very qualities in a world leader that deserves to be honored.
Even so early in his presidency, our forefathers are smiling down upon this man with pride. Even as I write, I can hear Thomas Jefferson saying, “Scoot over Abe, we’ve got company.”
So wake up, America, before it’s too late. The GOP deals exclusively in hatred, fear, and war. Torture, death and descension is their forte, because there’s no money to be made in peace.
Congratulations, Mr. President. Alfred Nobel has never been done so proud.
Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot.com
Religious bigotry: It’s not that I hate everyone who doesn’t look, think, and act like me – it’s just that God does.
… because there’s absolutely no doubt that he’s exactly the kind of man that Alfred Nobel had in mind when [he] created it.
Exactly the point of the Chair of the Nobel Committee.
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My comment in the front page story on this subject repeated below:
The Chair of the Nobel Committee rejects the criticism (translated from the Norwegian article in Aftenposten by ask):
Thorbjørn Jagland, leder av Nobelkomiteen, avviser at tildelingen av fredsprisen til Barack Obama var et feilgrep.
Thorbjørn Jagland, Chair of the Nobel Committee, denies that the award of the Peace Prize to Barack Obama was a mistake.
– Kan noen her peke på noen som har gjort mer det siste året, sa Jagland til pressefolkene som hadde møtt fram i forbindelse med at Jagland holdt foredrag ved Nobels Fredssenter på Vestbanen i Oslo, ifølge Dagbladet.no.
-Can anyone here point to someone else who has done more the last year, said Jagland to the press that came to the Nobel Peace Centre at Vestbanen [old railway station] in Oslo, according to dagbladet.no.
Det har ikke manglet på kritikk mot Nobelkomiteen etter at det fredag ble klart at USAs president Barack Obama får prisen, etter mindre enn ett år i Det ovale kontor.
There has been no lack of criticism of the Nobel Committee since it was announced on Friday that USA’s President Barack Obama would be the recipient, after less than one year in the Oval Office.
– Kritikken har vært helt som forventet, og mediene har en tendens til å trekke fram det som er negativt. Det er viktig å understreke at det også har vært svært mange positive tilbakemeldinger på tildelingen, sier Jagland til NTB.
The criticism has been totally as anticipated, and the media has a tendency to emphasize what is negative. It is important to stress that there have also been many instances of positive feed-back regarding the award, says Jagland to NTB.
Jagland trakk fram Alfred Nobel selv for å understreke at valget var riktig.
Jagland invoked Alfred Nobel himself to underline that the choice was correct.
– Det er vanskelig å peke på en prisvinner som er nærmere Alfred Nobels testament enn det Obama faktisk er, sa Jagland.
– It is difficult to point to a prize winner that is closer to the testament of Alfred Nobel than what Obama actually is, said Jagland.
Han mener Nobelkomiteen har opptrådt akkurat slik de bør gjøre.
He opines that the Nobel Committee has acted exactly the way it should.
– Nobelkomiteen bør være slik Alfred Nobel har bestemt. Uavhengig, med stor integritet, og med evne til å fange det som skjer i verden. Det er også viktig at vi kan ta kontroversielle beslutninger når det er nødvendig, sier han.
– The Nobel Committee should be [act] just the way Alfred Nobel decided. Independent, with considerable integrity, and with an ability to capture what is going on in the world. It is also important that we are able to make controversial decisions when necessary, he says.
Congragulations to the President on winning the Nobel Peace Prize.