This page was last updated on February 27, 2012.
Attacks on president disrespectful; Jewel Robertson; Beaver County Times; February 26, 2012.
Until January 2007, Ms. Robertson’s letters (here, here, here, and here) focused on bashing President Bush. In her first letter, Ms. Robertson opined that President Bush could be listening to Satan. That tells us much of what we need to know about Ms. Robertson. Since January 2007, race has been a regular feature of her letters, though Ms. Robertson reverted to Bush bashing in “‘No one can be as bad as Bush was’.” As I wrote about another serial Bush-basher, I guess some addictions are too tough to overcome. The last Robertson letter I critiqued was “Is the U.S. not the land of the free?”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“Is freedom of speech good or bad? When it comes to the president of the United States of America, it has gotten out of hand.”
[RWC] To begin her letter “Is the U.S. not the land of the free?”, Ms. Robertson wrote, “Americans do have short memories as to their morbid actions.” Please keep that in mind as you read on.
Though Ms. Robertson wrote “the president of the United States of America,” her own body of work regarding former-President George W. Bush makes it fair to assume she really meant President Obama, not presidents in general.
Including this one, Ms. Robertson has written at least seven letters in which she defended Mr. Obama in some way. Previous examples are here, here, here, here, here, and here. Ms. Robertson concluded her 8/18/10 letter with “Never in life have I saw [sic] a president so disrespected.” The idea Mr. Obama gets treated as no other candidate or President is a recurring theme for Ms. Robertson, going back to at least January 2008. I wonder if Ms. Robertson heard about the play (“Death of a President”) depicting Mr. Bush’s assassination. Or what about the book “The Assassination of George W. Bush: A Love Story?” Does anyone doubt Ms. Robertson would not consider these “works of art” to be “out of hand” or “exorbitant?”
Now let’s get back to “short memories.” In 2004 (“Bush could be hearing Satan”), Ms. Robertson told us President Bush likely listens to Satan. Later Ms. Robertson took aim (“Watch what Bush does”) at one of President Bush’s daughters and wrote, “A tree is known by the fruit it bears. So far, his tree is good for nothing but to be cut down.” In another letter (“Bush doesn’t care about life”) Ms. Robertson wrote, President Bush “doesn’t care about anyone’s life but his own and his family’s.” To refresh her memory, Ms. Robertson needs to reread her own racist anti-Bush letters. When I referred to Ms. Robertson’s letters as racist I was simply using her definition of racism, which appears to be disagreeing with someone of a different skin color.
“The actions and remarks made toward him are exorbitant. This is hate and racism being played out in the worse [sic] form. He entered office when our country was in a horrible state and have improved conditions in our country and around the world with other leaders.”
[RWC] Ms. Robertson didn’t provide any examples of the “hate and racism.” Ms. Robertson also didn’t provide examples to support her assertion Mr. Obama “improved conditions in our country and around the world with other leaders.” This is similar to Ms. Robertson’s pre-election letters in 2008. Except for his skin color (See below.), you may recall in none of her three letters supporting Mr. Obama did Ms. Robertson tell us why anyone should vote for Mr. Obama except for nebulous reasons like “change,” “breath of fresh air,” et cetera.
While we’re on racism, consider the following excerpt from Ms. Robertson’s 3/20/08 letter: “If we all look into our souls, we can all agree that we have had 42 white presidents. Don’t you feel it is time for an African American?” Yep, a person who sees racism in all opposition to Mr. Obama’s policies wanted us to vote for him because of his skin color. What about Mr. Obama himself? Mr. Obama just launched “African Americans for Obama.” In fairness, Mr. Obama also has “Jewish Americans for Obama,” “Latinos for Obama” (Note it’s not “Latino Americans for Obama.”), and so on. Can you imagine the reaction if someone started a “Whites for Hillary Clinton” campaign initiative? In any case, all of this is about leftists who view us as groups of hyphenated-Americans (except Latinos), not simply as Americans.
As for our country being in a horrible state when Mr. Obama “entered office,” Ms. Robertson doesn’t tell us what he did to try and steer us on a different path when he was a senator. Hear of the filibuster? My recollection is Mr. Obama’s only objection was that he believed we weren’t spending and taxing enough, a position he holds to this day. Since he’s been in office, Mr. Obama has made Bush administration spending and debt look austere by comparison.
“I am positive that when he does four more years, he will leave the United States in better shape than it has been in decades. It is not about Democrat or Republican, but about a man who is capable of getting a job done if given a chance.”
[RWC] In her 3/14/10 letter, Ms. Robertson wrote, “[Mr. Obama] will do his eight years and leave America in better shape than it was when he took office, I promise.”
“Despite President Obama’s dire surroundings, he has managed to remain insouciant and at ease.”
[RWC] She may have been unintentionally correct, but I’m going to go out on a limb and guess Ms. Robertson doesn’t know the definition of “insouciant.” Among the synonyms listed for insouciance by the Merriam-Webster dictionary are “apathy, casualness, complacence, disinterestedness, disregard, incuriosity, incuriousness, indifference, nonchalance, torpor, and unconcern.”
“I conclude with this scripture from Isaiah 26:3 ‘Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.’”
© 2004-2012 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.