The ‘Obama deranged syndrome’

By Thomas Sass

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MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, former conservative Republican congressman, has opined on his “Morning Joe” program how President Clinton and Republicans eventually got things done for the good of the country and then asks why President Obama cannot display the same “effective leadership” qualities.

My opinions as to why Clinton was able to work with conservatives:

l Conservatives, of that time period, still put country ahead of party and were willing to pass legislation that directly or indirectly helped Clinton, but more importantly helped America.

l Conservatives' opinion of Clinton was not all-consuming, which meant it was limited to true policy disagreements.

l Conservatives accepted Clinton as “one of us.”

As to why Obama cannot duplicate this:

l Many conservatives have arrived at a low point of putting party ahead of country.

l Conservatives' hatred of Obama is all-consuming. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is on record several times as saying his number one goal is to ensure Obama is not re-elected. So keeping America safe from attack, ensuring continued economic growth or maintaining general welfare of our citizens come in at best as number two on his agenda?

l Many conservatives see Obama as not one of “us.” They have made claims he is not American born, not a Christian, not a capitalist. Obama epitomizes anti-Americanism to this crowd.

How can President Obama work with people who oppose all legislation, even that they have previously strongly supported? Pay as you go is about as fiscally conservative an economic principle as there is, but have Obama promote it and conservatives oppose it.

Consider what other presidents have been able to do but Obama cannot without being attacked:

l Wage and price freeze (Nixon)

l Executive orders (all)

l Appoint czars (all)

Tax increases (Reagan, 11 times, in eight years)

l Regulations (George W. Bush had more regulations and their costs were higher under both Bushes and Reagan in his last year - from Bloomberg Report).

How far has America progressed, racially? Too many conservatives cannot give Obama credit for writing his own books. Rush Limbaugh even named the white man who he claims actually wrote them, William Ayers - thereby diminishing Obama and again tying him to the former 1960s radical.

Too many double-standards. Lesson: Because of race, blacks have yet to arrive at same “effective leadership” levels.

Thomas Sass of Iowa City is recently retired from Pearson. He is a student of history and has authored a book about the treatment of blacks in this county. Comments: toms_3@mail.com