The Pious and the Perfidious

When Jackie Robinson played in major league baseball, the first African American man to do so, Robinson was hired for his quite significant talent as a baseball player. But another factor that was equally important to his success in baseball was his disposition.  Robinson's presence on the baseball diamond was treated with contempt by players and fans alike who constantly hurled racial slurs and obscenities at him. A lesser man would've broken. Thankfully, Robinson was not a lesser man. He shut up quite a few of those insults by being pretty damn good at the game. He shut up some more by being a better person that those who would degrade him.


Jackie Robinson's story is not unique. Every time a person of color has made an inroad into a let's say paler environment, that person has to tap into almost super human reserves of patience and restraint. Because the bastards who would put others down and keep them out don't just want to people fail, they want to see them break. It is the most common motive of the most vile bully.


When Barack Obama was elected President in November 2008, it felt like our nation turned a corner. A black man was going to the White House. We had judged a man not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character, just as Martin Luther King Jr once dreamed.


Yet from day one, Obama has been subject to a level of disrespect and obstructionism not seen towards any prior President while I've been alive. The goal of the political right was to not give Obama any victories. Forget working together, forget bipartisanship. If Obama wanted it, he wasn't going to get it. If Obama wanted, it was absolutely wrong for America. Even when the President put forth ideas and proposals that had been supported by Republicans in the past, when they became Obama's ideas and proposals, the right immediately backed off and took up opposition to what had been their own ideas and proposals.


And through it all, President Obama has held it together, conducting himself with poise and professionalism. Which Fox News pundits have turned into a negative by calling the President stuck up and uncaring.


Son of a bitch can't get a break, can he?


Me, I would've gone off on somebody, maybe Mitch McConnell, like Clark Griswold in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.


I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is! Hallelujah! Holy shit! 


Of course, Obama couldn't go there. God knows, Sen. Mitch McConnell alone should've pushed Obama to that self destruct button a thousand times over. But the President has stayed cool. The office demands it. History demands it.


And besides, if even a glimmer of frustration with the personal nature of vile treatment he gets from the Republicans were to leak through, he gets accused of playing "the race card".


Besides, disrespect is not so conveniently overt. Consider this event from last Friday.




Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) opened his statement at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference by telling attendees to pray for Obama. Perdue said, “We should pray like Psalms 109:8 says. It says: ‘Let his days be few and let another have his office.’”

The large crowd laughed.


Now are we being too sensitive here? I mean, after all, it is a fact that Obama's term in office is drawing to a close and we are currently in an election to put another person in his office.


But Sen. Perdue made a point of citing Psalms 109. It is a passage where David (not me but the David from the Bible, duh) has a few things to say about one of his enemies. 


"Let his days be few and let another have his office. Let his children be fatherless; and his wife a widow. Let his children wander about and beg; and let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes. Let the creditor seize all that he has; and let strangers plunder the product of his labor. Let there be none to extend loving kindness to him; nor any to be gracious to his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off; in a following generation let their name be blotted out.”


Yikes! That's some pretty harsh shit there. Man, David was really pissed.


Take a look at the 2nd line: "Let his children be fatherless; and his wife a widow." Maybe I'm missing some subtle detail here but children can't be fatherless and a wife can't be a widow unless the daddy/hubby is dead.


And the rest of that text ain't getting any prettier.


And this is Sen. Perdue's idea of praying for somebody? Linking his prayer to a biblical death wish? 

Perdue's office issued the following response:




Senator Perdue said we are called to pray for our country, for our leaders, and for our president. He in no way wishes harm towards our president and everyone in the room understood that. However, we should add the media to our prayer list because they are pushing a narrative to create controversy and that is exactly what the American people are tired of.


Let me take that at face value and say, yes, I do believe Sen. Perdue does not wish any harm towards our President and yes, everyone in the room understands that. Hell, I think we all understand that.


But that's not the point, is it?


It was not a literal death threat. But it was very much a message of disrespect and believe me, everyone in that room understands that.


If Sen. Perdue is a true Christian, why not offer a prayer of support or ask God to provide guidance? Why use a verse in the Bible that was written about an enemy?


Look, you may not like the President or agree with him but damn it, cast him in the role as an enemy?


And this is not a new thing. The Christian Science Monitor notes conservatives have used this verse in the past to talk about the end of Obama’s days in office. Which, again, is just a fact, no need to get all worked up over it. No sense making a big deal over a prayer tied to a death wish.


But President Obama's still being cool. Good for him! Me, I wish Sen. Perdue was right here in front of me so I could tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is!


Hallelujah!


Holy shit! 


And I'm so glad my suffering amuses you.