Why Do So Many People Hate President Obama?

I understand that Republicans and most conservatives do not like President Obama. His election was a sweeping repudiation of the Bush presidency. Voters were clearly not happy with two wars and a tanking economy.

What I can't wrap my my head around is the unbridled vitriol some people can call upon when speaking about the president. I often read the comments under news stories on the internet and they are populated with people who don't just dislike President Obama, they hate him. Yahoo! and Fox News stories are always followed by the sort of language that I would ban from this blog if it ever appeared here.

First, the federal government doesn't play all that large a role in my life. I'm interested in foreign policy and certainly keep tabs on current events but on a day to day basis? It just doesn't impact me.What's reported in The Vindicator about local government is more worthy of my time.

Second, this president is hardly the socialist his detractors make him out to be and he certainly isn't the ideal democrat.

• He took gobs of money from Wall St. and bankers when running for election in 2008. Those same banks are still too big to fail.None of them were broken up.
• His energy policies do lean toward the green but domestic oil and natural gas production have never been higher.
• He has continued the war in Afghanistan and signed an agreement that keeps us supporting the country with military forces and money until 2024. Children born after 2002 in America will be in their early 20's before they may experience peacetime.
• The Guantanamo Bay prison is still open. President Obama gets credit for stopping the overt torture but there are people who have been imprisoned there for almost a decade without a trial or other recourse.
• The medical plan passed early in his presidency relies on a personal mandate rather than the socialist model used in Canada or Great Britain. In fact, it's based on Mitt Romney's Massachusetts plan.

Finally, whatever happened to civility? Whatever happened to disagreeing with politicians based on their policies but keeping those discussions vibrant and well informed? The hatred spewing from commenters and fringe elements like Ted Nugent seems to reinforce the perception that the American education system deserves the low rankings it gets when compared to the rest of the world.

It may be time for everyone to shut off Fox News and MSNBC and go outside for a while. Before we can decide how the country should be run and who should be doing it we need to decide what is important to us, what affects us and what we are willing to pay for. That kind of introspection requires quiet contemplation, not talking heads screaming at each other and certainly not the vitriol beneath every news story.