Picking on Obama vs. picking on Bush ... is there a difference?

[Lesleymo]

When right-wingers call President Obama a socialist marxist nazi muslim foreigner, are they simply doing the same thing the left did to Bush? or is there a difference?

I think there's a difference between spreading lies about Obama (socialist marxist nazi muslim foreigner) and telling the uncomfortable truth about Bush (incompetent boob who blustered into Iraq, stirred up anti-American sentiment across the globe, and nearly crashed the economy).

I don't recall, during the Bush years, getting emails full of lies from left-wingers. Or even emails full of truths.

I don't recall liberal politicians jumping on ridiculous bandwagons driven by radio and tv hosts who make up stories and repeat them ad nauseum until the truth just doesn't matter any more because the lies are so loud.

But maybe I don't remember the Bush years all that well. Maybe there was an equal amount of hysteria. Maybe there were malicious lies being spread about Bush and Cheney.

What were they?

[madokie]

1. There were no lies spread about the dickandW

many about President Obama though

[Fumesucker]

3. There were plenty of lies spread about Dubya and Ctheney

"The adults are back in charge" was probably the single most untruthful one..

[izquierdista]

8. That Dubya read books

You could see through that one real easy when Georgie forgot to hold the book right side up.

[madokie]

13. my bad

I was thinking in the terms of lying about them in a different way, kind of like the lies about our President now of which I can't remember any being told about the dick and w, in the same vein that is.

[babylonsister]

2. I don't recall rethugs picking on bush either; that too has changed. nt

[zipplewrath]

9. You didn't move in the right circles

I'm surrounded by hard core GOP. Fiscal right wingers most of 'em. They were pissed for 8 years. Even the faith based folks started getting pissed after a while. They were really mad about the drug benefit program. And they were really pissed about the CONDUCT of the Iraq war, and were a tad uncomfortable about his half assed efforts in Afghanistan, not to mention never "getting" Osama. Of course when 2004 came around, they all voted for him again.

[babylonsister]

12. Thanks. That's good to hear. Leads me to believe there

are thinking rethugs out there even if they vote against their best interests.

[Blue Meany]

14. In my job I have contact with a lot of wealthy, older Republicans, usually

business owners and the like. They were all against the Iraq war and thought Bush was reckless. But I think these thinking Republicans are dying off.

[Catshrink]

4. Pssst

Obama's Black.

[tanyev]

5. Funny thing is, when they accuse Obama of incompetence or taking too much vacation time,

they are merely copying legitimate complaints about Bush and substituting a different name. They can't even come up with original reasons for hating Obama.

Original rational complaints, that is. The birther complaint is certainly new. :eyes:

[HughBeaumont]

6. Why would we need to spread lies about Bewsh and Cheney?

The truth about those two fetid piles of hell waste is bad enough and should have outraged more people.

[The_Commonist]

7. Looks like you answered your own question.

Right-wingers generally live a lie-filled life from the very beginning. It usually starts in childhood with sky-daddy, then moves into things like "yes, you ARE smart" which leads to "supply-side economics" and "might equals right." Their entire sad lives are a lie and they wouldn't recognize or understand that if you spent years trying to explain it to them (and some of us have). Wing-nutism is like a mental software virus.

[KharmaTrain]

10. A Matter Of Style...

Democrats, and especially Progressives, value facts and truths over rumors and hysterics. As Stephen Colbert put it...the truth has a liberal lean. The old saying says the squeaky wheel gets the grease and the GOOP has mastered this tactic over the past 40 years. They developed their own language...dogwhistles echoed through hate radio and the corporate media that don't need to be factual and can be a massive lie, but the noise gets the attention and even if the truth contradicts the lie, it's been said loud enough and long enough that the assumption becomes the "fact".

Keep in mind that our "media" was handed to the rich and powerful...almost all "conservative" and backers of the rushpublicans who "deregulated" the media turning the cable and broadcast airwaves into a plantation for a handful of powreful companies. Many live on the controversies the "outrages" of the right create. It draws viewers and revenues and that's all that matters.

Sadly Democrats fear the truth as it can't always be fit on a bumper sticker and demands tough choices. It's far easier to be a rushpublican and make shit up as you go...

[baldguy]

11. Bush was "picked on" correctly for what he ACTUALLY did & the suffering he caused.

He plundered the US treasury and gifted it to the richest people in the world, he directly caused the deaths of 15,000 American citizens & soldiers and more than a million Iraqis and Afghans, allowed billions of dollars to be stolen from the reconstruction efforts, and did everything he could to destroy the Constitution & rule of law in America.

Worst. President. Ever.

Obama is demonized because of what the RW fears a black man with power MIGHT do to them - projecting their own violent & evil fantasies upon their enemies. Everything he's criticized for is either a distortion of the facts or an outright lie, and his accomplishments are minimized or ignored.

Comparing the two is false equivalency at it's worst.