LETTERS: Obama administration an ‘unmitigated disaster’

Editor’s Note: The following letter was sent in response to Chizu Omori’s column entitled “The legacy of race in politics,” which ran in the May 2-15, 2013 issue of the Nichi Bei Weekly.

Ms. Omori,

I have been reading your columns in Nichi Bei Times (and the Nichi Bei Weekly) for many years. They have always been entertaining and educational. However, I must take strong exception to your most recent column.

I voted for Barack Obama in 2008. I did not in 2012. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Clearly there is an element within our society who would never vote for an African American, and who would do everything in their power to make sure he fails. Fortunately, I believe they are a very, very small segment of our society.

I believe there is an overwhelmingly large number of Americans, probably including a large number of people who voted to re-elect him, who feel he has been an unmitigated disaster across the board, and will prove in the long run to be the worst president in history. The ethnic group that has fared the worst under Obama are African Americans, who still voted over 90 percent to re-elect him. I understand pride in seeing one of their own elected to the highest office in the land, but after four years of ineptitude why would they reward him with their vote again?

You cite as one example Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell has done nothing to Obama that is outside what the opposition leader of either party has historically done. Why is this suddenly racist? Did Senate Democrats treat George W. Bush with respect, or try to defeat his agenda(s)? Of course the answers are no and yes. Barack Obama, who is black by the way, was and is extremely disrespectful of President Bush, who is white by the way. That doesn’t make Obama’s behavior racist, it only makes it partisan.

Speaking of McConnell, why did it … escape your notice that his wife, Elaine Chao, was recently subjected to vicious racist and sexist comments by a left leaning organization. Elaine Chao is no longer in the political arena, her only crime was being married to the Senate Minority Leader. Her ethnicity is irrelevant, yet it was deemed relevant for partisan political purposes.

Michelle Rhee, no heroine of the left, was recently publicly referred to as an “Asian B—-” by an African American woman. You didn’t hear about that, did you? Why not? Is it wrong to criticize African Americans, but acceptable to criticize Asian women? Why the double standard? Michelle Rhee is married to an African American, so she is clearly not a racist. Aren’t you, as a woman, offended that Ms. Rhee would be publicly referred to as a “b—-?”

Go ahead and defend Obama’s policies. That is your right. But don’t accuse those who have legitimate complaints with him or his policies or his record of being racist. That is a copout, and you should be above that.
 
David Unruhe
Auburn, Calif.