Font ResizeLAS CRUCES - One newspaper called the president's administration a "scourge and misfortune." Another reports that the president is a "Fungus from the corrupt womb of bigotry and fanaticism."
Wow!
So what is this, a liberal blogger writing about George W. Bush a few years ago? Or maybe a conservative talking head railing against Obamacare?
Nope. The first newspaper comment came more than two centuries ago and was in reference to our first president, George Washington. The second was from an 1860s editorial critiquing Abraham Lincoln. As we celebrate Presidents Day - most of us in non-government jobs will "celebrate" by working - it is time to rethink the ugly political rhetoric that has always been around.
Neil Harvey, interim director of New Mexico State University's Department of Government, said that with democracy, with freedom, you have to expect some nasty talk.
"The challenge is not to close off that dissent or suppress it," Harvey said. "What makes democracy possible is the expectation of different opinions expressed. It's always been around."
But that does not give us an excuse to do whatever we want.
"The shooting in Tucson of Representative Giffords is a wake-up call," Harvey said.
He said that there is no way to really judge whether political discourse is worse today than in years past, but the 24-hour news cycle has made for an incendiary atmosphere.
"The news cycle often feeds off polarization; it feeds off it, rather than create a dialogue,"
In my lifetime, we've had the evil Richard Nixon; the bumbling Gerald Ford; the toothy, worthless Jimmy Carter; the doddering old Ronald Reagan; the wimp George H.W. Bush; the reprobate Bill Clinton; the neo-con puppet George W. Bush and the terrorist-in-sheep's clothing Barack Obama.
Did I miss something?
I know that making fun of and criticizing our chief executive is an American tradition. Heck, it's a right. Most people in most countries throughout the history of civilization would love to have had the right to call their president a dope.
But come on, do we really need Sarah Palin saying that Obama has been "palling around with terrorists," because he knew former Weather Underground figure Bill Ayers? Palin's assertion certainly didn't help her get elected, and it certainly didn't help the explosive energy at campaign rallies where shouts of "terrorists" rang out on multiple occasions.
Did we really need Michael Moore calling Bush-the-younger a dictator? If our previous president was really a dictator, Moore would have ended up hanging from his thumbs in a basement somewhere instead of flying around the country promoting a movie that ripped Bush.
Just ask anyone who grew up under Stalin or Hitler or Pol Pot what a dictator is like.
So take this day to pick up a book about presidents and read about their backgrounds, their families, their hardships and their challenges. You don't have to like every president, you don't have to agree with him, heck you can criticize the prez and campaign against him all you want.
But what makes more sense? That a different antichrist actually takes over the Oval Office every four to eight years? Or that flawed, but still well-meaning, human steps into the hardest job in the world?
Brook Stockberger can be reached at (575) 541-5457
Presidents Day
•Presidents Day, celebrated each year on the third Monday in February, was established in 1800, when Congress declared Feb. 22 - George Washington's birthday - a federal holiday. Still legally known as Washington's Birthday, Presidents Day has become a day to honor not only Washington, but Abraham Lincoln, who was born on Feb. 12, and the lives and accomplishments of all U.S. presidents.
