I admit that I am not a fan of the current Administration.
However, that is beside the point.
Doesn't this clip bother you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTQawLBC59g
How would you react if this same campaign had been launched by the Bush Administration?
Would you want to be a "servant" to George Bush?
What is wrong with private citizens declaring their support and service to the leader of the free world? We put up with it in every newcast in which folks stated their support for Bush's invasion of Iraq when he was supposed to be routing terrorists in Afghanistan. We put up with it every time the war was questioned and irate parents of servicemembers stated their total support for their heroic childrens' efforts and bemoaned the UNpatriotic sentiments of those protesting the war. Protesting war is NOT in any way a slam on those serving in the war. by the way, but "they" would have you believe so. It was the spin machine's primary goal to paint anyone as unpatriotic and treasonous to suggest anything was wrong with the way Bush was running things.
I think in this clip the idea of "serving" President Obama is in the context of "We are all in this together and we're smart enough to realize that one man cannot do it alone...that he needs the support/backbone of the people to get the job done." And that is true. Yes, Obama was elected by the people to serve them as President. But he is not their slave, either. If the people cannot hold their own locally elected politicians in Congress accountable -- and by that I mean exercising "advanced citizenship" (a concept lost on most, sadly) and keeping tabs on how they're being represented and how their officials are voting -- then they are not being good citizens at all. In fact, they're doing just what the extreme right hopes they'll be doing -- burying their heads in the sand. When they're not being hysterical. that is, for the cameras covering town hall meetings or the presidential address to school children.
No, the part of that clip that bothers me the most is that last bit that says "we" are supposed to hold the politicians "accountable." How is that possible if "we" are also being encouraged to be silent and let the politicians run things. And where was THAT sentiment in the past 8 years from those who put this youtube clip together? Where's the accountability for all the deceit and lies? And what cries of bloody murder -- with suggestions/intimations of treason and anti-patriotism -- would have been raised on the authority of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney, two of the most devious, destructive men ever to have influence in/over the White House?
