The Right-Wing Underground

The right-wing underground is at it again.

I received an email today from a well meaning friend. Attached was a music video called “President’s Day” by the group Diamond Rio. I should add, it is supposedly played during the group’s Las Vegas show because it can't be played anywhere else. I was hoping to attach it to this blog, but I’m not able to do it at this time. You can see it on YouTube at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bExdoZhluGo

The copy attached said it was banned from some radio stations for being politically incorrect. It also says Congress is getting involved, but doesn’t say how. It continues on, telling the reader the President has said it is unfit for release because it is offensive. The song has supposedly never been released because it can’t get airplay and there is intense pressure to keep this one out of the public eye. It ends by proclaiming “This is Censorship!”

The implication once again is that the Obama administration is systematically trying to dismantle American freedoms and working to stifle dissent.

Let’s examine the statement:

As I said, it says Congress is getting involved, but no explanation of exactly what they are trying to do. Congress can’t ban a single song. Even if it tried, the President wouldn’t sign it and it flies in the face of everything this country stands for.

Supposedly, the President has called the song offensive and said it shouldn’t be released. I have no idea whether this is fact of fiction. If he has heard it and made the comments, that is opinion. Not a Presidential order.

As for radio stations not playing the song, that is their choice. It has been done before. They are required to protect the public airwaves, which is part of their license obligation. It works both ways, if you ban left leaning rock and roll you have to watch for right leaning stuff too.

I have seen the video and find it offensive personally. It attacks the President without naming him. The implication is that God is who we turn to in crisis and the current administration is bent on removing references to God and faith from all government facilities, currency and so on. Further, this country is a God fearing nation, anointed to be the leader of the world by God himself, and this is what made America great. The song implies all this will be taken away.

This attack on the President and his administration is another veiled attempt to generate anger and hate toward a man who is different from many of those depicted in the video (I saw no person of color in the video). White, fundamentalist, undereducated, self centered, unwilling to think and understand issues people are afraid of someone who isn’t like them. I don’t know if this movement is based in racial hatred, but whatever the underlying motive, it needs to stop.

People are being whipped up into a frenzy by the right wing to try to take back the White House in 2012. This isn’t the way to do it. It is dividing the country quietly, but effectively. If this doesn’t stop, we’re going to see the serious growth of Neo-Nazi and KKK-like organizations. Maybe not in name, but likely very sophisticated in their messages which feed on the fears of people who are vulnerable to their message.

The mythical America many of these people believe in is what the Regan campaign captured so effectively in the “Morning in America” ad in 1980. Smiling white people who bake apple pies, love their family, go to church and live a simple but moral life, implying that we are smiled upon by God and the country is perfect in many ways. So why change it?

The true beauty of this country is that we are able to change, innovate and recognize when we are wrong. Segregation was wrong. It took time, but we realized it was wrong and corrected it.

The bottom line of this movement is to force change to moderate or disappear, along with a President of color they think doesn’t belong in the White House. Also, these people are scared of the fact that soon, whites will not be 50% or more of the population. Do we whites have some sort of right to be an absolute majority of the population of this country?

I could go on, and will in other blog entries. For now, be aware of this almost undetectable, sneaky campaign by the right wing fringe to whip up baseless emotions in people who are otherwise generally reasonable, hard working folk.

Martin