I was on Sean Hannitys show the other night and the question was whether Obamas statement denying his divisiveness is defensible. Its not.
Obama said I dont think you or anybody whos been watching the campaign would say that in any way we have tried to divide the country. Weve always tried to bring the country together.
If this werent such a serious subject his statement would be laughable. Lets just say its ludicrous -- and disingenuous.
A Gallup poll showed that at the end of Obamas second year in office 81 percent of Democrats approved while 13 percent of Republicans did. This represents a 68 percent gap the widest of any president in his second year since such polls have been conducted.
Obama has intermittently talked a good game about bringing us together. Indeed much of his 2008 campaign pitch was centered on his promise to be a post-partisan post-racial president who would usher in a new kind of politics. But his performance in office in this regard can at best be described as cynical.
Its one thing to earnestly try but fail to bring the two sides together. Though Democrats will deny it that was the case with George W. Bush. On many issues Bush didnt say Its my way or the highway. He poured more federal money into education than even any Democrat had ever done.
With Obama its always I want us to sit down and work on this. But as soon as a Republican tries to offer his input he says Im the president or You cant count the time I speak against the Democrats allotted time in this bipartisan health care summit because ahem Im the president or I dont want you to do a lot of talking.
Obama hasnt been divisive just because his policies are so unpopular though thats a large part of it. He has intentionally engaged in identity politics trying to pit groups of people against each other on the basis of race gender religion economic earnings and sexual orientation. He has pitted labor against management creating an adversarial and litigious climate. He has demonized private jet owners domestic energy producers (oil natural gas coal and nuclear energy) corporations the Chamber of Commerce businesses executives financial institutions insurance companies doctors tea partiers small town inhabitants (bitter-clingers) immigration enforcement advocates and the so-called 1 percenters.
Indeed there is not enough space in a column to chronicle all of Obamas polarizing conduct even as an abridged list but let me give you a flavor of it. In addition to the foregoing he and his team:
--Called American businesses soft and lazy and said theyd lost their ambition; they didnt build that; they need to up their game.
--Baselessly accused the Chamber of Commerce of accepting foreign contributions and said it had the burden of proving it did not.
--Said Mitt Romney in effect killed a lady who lost her insurance.
--Say the wealthy arent paying their fair share.
--Stepped on the conscience protections of people of faith and attacked a Lutheran schools right to hire and fire on religious grounds.
--Use gay rights as a wedge issue and depict opponents of same-sex marriage as bigots.
--Manufactured a phony GOP War on Women.
--Say Republicans want dirty air and dirty water and rejoice when people lose their insurance coverage that they want a smaller America and dont believe in rebuilding roads and bridges that they are hostage takers and Slurpee sippers. He says they created this mess and they should sit in the backseat of the car. Well have hand-to-hand combat with them on Capitol Hill and if they bring a knife well bring a gun.
--Crammed Obamacare down the throats of a strongly opposed majority.
--Continue to scare seniors the middle class and the poor into believing Republicans want to destroy Medicare.
--Publicly ridiculed and demonized the Supreme Court on multiple occasions.
--Disparaged hedge fund managers as playing with other peoples money.
--Vilified immigration enforcement advocates as racists.
--Waged a war against states on immigration and voter ID laws.
--Worked against military ballots.
--Lawlessly rewrote loans in the GM and Chrysler restructurings to favor unions and cheat secured creditors; and in Solyndra to subordinate taxpayers to private investors.
--Exploited race and minority relations for political purposes and for ideological reasons including Eric Holder calling the nation cowards on race racializing voter intimidation laws and saying the GOP was after him on Fast and Furious because he like Obama is an African American; appealing to Hispanics and blacks to vote as a bloc for Democrats because Democrats are their friends and Republicans their enemies; and accusing the GOP of supporting voter ID laws to suppress the minority vote and immigration laws for racial reasons.
David Limbaugh brother of radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh is an expert in law and politics and author of new book Crimes Against Liberty the definitive chronicle of Barack Obamas devastating term in office so far.
