President Obama’s new campaign pitch is that Americans should have his back. He’s released posters via his campaign for African Americans for Obama; campaign email after campaign email has asked Americans to get Obama’s back. The implication in all of this: Obama has your back, so you should have his.
Only Obama hasn’t had our back. In fact, the last time Obama said he had someone’s back, he was talking about Israel – and that was even as he was actively undermining the Jewish State’s ability to hit Iran’s nuclear facilities. Unemployment remains devastatingly high. Gas prices remain unsustainably elevated. Inflation is hitting with a vengeance.
Obama’s notion, though, is that he has our back if he forces us to do something we don’t want to do. Obamacare was having our back – even if it meant forcing us to do something we didn’t want to do. His new student loan program is having our back – even if it means creating the single greatest financial scam since government-incentivized subprime mortgages.
We shouldn’t have Obama’s back because he hasn’t had ours.
More than that, though, it is simply patronizing for a president to ask people to “have his back.” We are not his lackeys. We are not his soldiers. We are independent thinking people who will evaluate whether or not he deserves our vote, not loyalists who must be guilted into doing their duty.
And there’s another implication to the “get my back” routine – the notion that somebody has to protect Obama from evil people who want to harm him. Typically, when you have someone’s back, it’s because they’re under assault, or fear assault. Obama, however, is president of the United States. He needs to stop whining and do his job.