I am not sure why we needed the word "meme" added to every day parlance. We already had several servicable figures of speech in the American English language to describe the viral spread of an idea or fashion ---"Fad", "trend", "craze", "vogue", to cite a few.
But some folks just need to show how hip they are, so now we hip bloggers talk about memes rather than fads.
One of the sillier memes that I have heard in recent months is: "Obama hates America." It is repeated daily* on every conservative radio show. You hear the same rhetoric if you listen to any of the programs on FOX network
Recently, a variation of this trite conservative meme was uttered by Rudy Giuliani. "Obama doesn't love America." Along with sly insinuations that Obama was "not brought up to love America, like you and I." And the president doesn't say nice things like Reagan and Clinton have said about America.
The hint of course is that Obama is a secret Muslim who despises the American way of life and is determined to destroy America.
Well, friends I am fed-up with the absurdity of conservatives on TV and Radio. Last week I heard a guy named Mike Siegal say that Obama was an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the death of the female hostage who was reportedly killed by ISIS. Why? Because he failed to sign-off on a mission to send US military units to rescue the hostage and some others. This ankle biter sits behind a radio mike and asserts that the president is a murderer, to the delight of the morons who call-in/listen to the show.
The rhetoric is more than absurd. Words are stretched and folded back on each other to create a fictitious meme that has apparent substance but cannot survive unless the perceiver has drunk the Kool-Aid (another meme) which clouds the mind to any Truth other than the party line.
Don't get me wrong, I do not think Obama has been a great leader. I think his lack of experience as an administrator coupled with some poor cabinet choices have contributed significantly to the deterioration of the US economic and diplomatic clout. I would not vote for him again if I had it to do over. The point is that there is room for legitimate criticism - based on results.
Conservative talking heads seem to forget why Obama got elected in the first place. A lot of voters felt like we needed a drastic change in 2008. There was a huge shift of independent voters who had voted for Bush in 2004 but who became alienated by the Bush administration's arrogant excesses in the name of the 'war on terror' - which had badly damaged
Voters were further driven away from the republican party by the failure of the "small government" party to keep the government small and instead of tax and spend, they were cut-tax and spend. Added to that was the palpable weakness of the McCain-Palin ticket. Then came the stunning collapse of the financial sector, widespread job loss, and the clear indictment against unregulated free markets. Compared to the alternative, Obama seemed to the majority like "not such a bad guy".
If Obama was as much of a fascist as they claim he would certainly raid the offices and put these assholes in a cold and smelly jail for twenty years. I know I would, if I was in charge.
