Guest post by Warner Todd Huston
When Barack Obama won the White House in 2008 Democrats and their lapdogs in the media went wild telling everyone who would listen that resistance to Obama was un-American, dangerous, and racist. But now, before Donald Trump has even taken office, these same hypocritical Democrats have suddenly found that resistance is cool again.
Since he first became a serious contender for the presidency starting in 2007 and all throughout his 8 years in the White House, Barack Obama has enjoyed near universal love from the Old Media Establishment. Rarely was there a harsh word for him and even when there was criticism it was usually mitigated by “buts,” “excepts,” and “of courses” — as in “of course” Obama can’t be THAT bad because Republicans are evil homophobic, racist, haters.
The media loved their Obamamessiah so much that from the beginning they reveled in featuring Obama in Christ-like poses and making him out to be the second coming. Even during the “March for Selma” event in 2015 media outlets cropped their photo of Obama marching to exclude George W. Bush who was marching only a few feet away because they didn’t want the spotlight taken off their beloved Obama.
They helped him in public and in private. In 2012, for instance, a large group of members of the media met with Obama in secret to help him plan his media assault on the nation after he won re-election.
Someone was even selling posters of Obama holding a lamb and a shepherd’s staff and featuring the uplifting message “our journey” all as if the Democrats throught Obama were Jesus. And they were serious. It wasn’t satire.
As to the image of the Obama as our national deity, Mark Morford of the San Francisco Chronicle was the most idiotic purveyor when he insisted that Obama was a “lightworker” who is an “enlightened being” and who had descended from on high to guide our wayward nation.
National Public Radio even hinted that a rainy event in 2012 was turned bright and sunny merely because Obama began speaking.
And nearly every media outlet attacked Republicans for saying Obama was not their president in 2008 when he first headed for the White House.
You may recall in 2008 when conservative radio powerhouse Rush Limbaugh said that he hoped Barack Obama would prove unable to get his hard, left-wing agenda enacted. “I hope he fails,” Limbaugh said to raised eyebrows and outrage in the media.
It wasn’t long before Democrats and the media were claiming that Rush was a dangerous anti-American for wishing the country would fail (though he never said that, of course).
But now that we have a Republican president about to take office, and in Trump a rabble-rousing one at that, now suddenly the media is all about hoping for the failure of a president who hasn’t even taken office. When only a few short years ago the act of wishing an incoming president ill was thought ghastly, today it is all the rage by those same people.
To name just a few old media talking heads hoping for Trump’s failure, we saw Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post bloviating his hate for Trump. In 2009 Robinson claimed that criticism of Obama was the same as hate for America and a year later insisted that any criticism of Obama is racist. But today Robinson was seen wishing for Trump’s failure only weeks after his election.
In two other cases, on CNN commentator Bill Press insisted that if Trump succeeds, America fails, and the Boston Globe’s Michael A. Cohen proclaimed, “I don’t want Trump to succeed. I want him to fail spectacularly.”
These are just a few. There are many more saying the same thing this week.
Then there are those who have suddenly decided that “resistance” to the president is what the nation needs..
For the Washington Examiner, columnist Byron York noted that the new phrase Trump’s detractors are using to label themselves is “The Resistance.”
Granted it used to be a given that opponents of a new president — or the party in power, which ever is the case — would set themselves up as the loyal opposition; loyal to the country, but in opposition to the powers in control. And, let’s face it, that is what we’d all want. We all want our representatives to stand strong when in the minority. But since the GOP became the Democrats’ junior partner instead of a true political party, the idea that Republicans might ever stand up for themselves has become a joke.
As noted above, at the very least since the Obama the “light worker” came down from the heavens, it has been deemed racist and un-American to oppose a president. But now, miraculously, “resistance” is called for.
“Well before Trump takes the oath of office, a number of his opponents have begun calling themselves the ‘resistance,’” York proclaimed in his November 23 article.
York listed several groups from hard-left liberal anarchist groups to shamefaced #NeverTrumpers laying claim to being “the resistance.”
From the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin, a liberal columnist who pretends to be conservative, to racist hatemonger Shaun King, all the way to an anarchist group out of Portland, the “resistance” to Trump is attempting to organize.
To add to York’s list of Trump “resisters,” we can add Clinton flack Robert Reich who wrote an entire piece laying out the ways to “resist” Trump during his first 100 days in office. This is the same Robert Reich who in 2012 said only “fanatics” would resist Obama and in 2008 said the Republicans were “discredited” so should tread very carefully and not step on Obama’s toes.
York summed up his piece saying:
Calling themselves the “resistance” seems intended to give ordinary political opposition a patina of courage and moral rectitude. The association, of course, is with resistance to Nazis in World War II. The further suggestion is that resistance members are true patriots fighting an invading force, citizens banding together (over beer and hummus) to stand up against seemingly overwhelming odds. And all that, still two months before Donald Trump becomes President Trump.
Heck, even a series of religious folks insisted that their adherents should “resist” Trump.
To name a few, for the Catholic website “Crux,” Maguel Diaz insisted that Catholics need to “resist the Trump administration,” for the Washington Post, Jill Jacobs and Daniel Sokatch insisted that “Jews have a special obligation to resist Trump,” and the Huffington Post’s Antonia Blumberg implored Christians to “take back their faith” in the face of a Trump presidency.
As you can see, there is an awful lot of “resistance” suddenly in the air before our new president even takes the oath of office. It is a far cry from the smooth sailing the media had urged as Obama took the reins of power both in 2008 and 2012.
What we’ve learned with all this (besides once again revealing that the leftist media is filled with hypocritical liars) is that all of a sudden opposition is cool again.
That’s right, the Democrats wants us all to know that, yes, Virginia, there is an anti clause.
Cross posted from Constitution.com
