Republicans are rightfully upset over President Obama’s ram-it-down-their-throat inaugural address, in which he labeled opponents of his agenda haters of the gay, black, elderly, and disabled. “I would have liked to have seen some outreach,” said Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). “This is the eighth [inauguration] that I’ve been to and always there’s been a portion of the speech where [the president says], ‘I reach out my hand because we need to work together.’ That wasn’t in this speech.”
It wasn’t in the speech because Obama isn’t bipartisan. He’s a bully who is willing to label his opposition morally deficient in order to achieve his goals. “It did seem that he wasn’t doing the kind of outreach that he needs to do if he wants to get things accomplished in a second term,” said Sen. John Thune (R-SD). Moderate Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), though, summed up the weak-kneed Republican approach to this thug president: “I had hoped his speech would be a little less partisan than it was at times, but I nevertheless think he intends to reach out and work together, and I liked the diversity of the program.”
Collins seems more in line with the mainstream of the Republican Party than McCain these days. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) somehow came to the conclusion that Obama’s club-wielding assault on the Constitutional order “appealed to our better angels,” adding, “Any differences we have on policy, the president gets a pass on his inauguration.”
The problem isn’t giving Obama a pass on his inauguration. It’s that Republicans seem to be willing to grant Obama the patina of bipartisanship so that he can push his agenda.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the book “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).
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