At a time when all segments of the economy – the 99% at least – are hurting, and non-corporation-owned farms are struggling just to survive, some conservatives are apparently trying to score political points against the President by sticking it to American farmers. As numerous news sources have reported – ABC News, The Chicago Tribune, The Heritage Foundation, and The Week to name a few – a raucous conservative howl recently went up over the administration’s effort to promote Christmas tree sales and increase the profits of farmers who grow Christmas trees. The predictable result has been that the administration has backed off from its plans (in what feels like one more futile attempt to appease those-who-won’t-be-appeased), and abandoned its arrangements with the tree farmers, right at the kick-off of their retail season.
At the heart of the controversy is the announcement on November 8 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture of a 15 cent “tax” on every Christmas tree sold. According to a report by Talking Points Memo, however, this isn’t really a tax as some conservative sources have misled the public into believing. It is a business measure that was requested of the government, and lobbied for since 2009, by the farmers who grow the trees. It takes voluntary contributions by tree retailers and puts them under the control of a marketing board; a board established by the growers and implemented with the assistance of the government. So it is NOT a tax in any true sense of the word. It is, in essence, much more like a “Christmas Club” savings account; the proceeds of which will be used for the benefit of the Christmas tree growers.
Now with all of that said, what concerns this commentator is not the financial details or impact of this apparently ruined arrangement between the government and the growers. Neither am I interested, at this time, in the issue of whether Christmas trees are a secular or religious symbol and whether the government – has any business promoting them even if it helps the economy. What concerns me are the irrational extremes that some conservatives are willing to go to, and who they are willing to hurt, just to take shots at a President that they clearly hate.
One of my Yahoo! Contributor peers, for example, in her commentary of November 9 entitled “Obama Marginalizes Christmas, Christians” seems to have used the “news” reports on the “tree tax” issue as a springboard to publicly rehash the same worn, and well-refuted, conservative refrains of hate for the President. All, I might add, at the expense of American farmers.
As a quick summary of the piece (which I encourage you to read and judge for yourself), the author complains about the President being appropriately courteous and respectful toward non-Christians (which she paints as favoritism toward them and, therefore, anti-Christian). She castigates Mr. Obama for trying to fulfill the requirements of his job description, and be a President for all Americans, of all faiths, when she calls him out for the typically Presidential and diplomatic statement “We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation”.
She goes on to list select examples of things Mr. Obama has NOT done to please her; how he hasn’t “backed Christians” to her personal satisfaction. And she concludes with the claim that the President isn’t supporting Christmas and Christians enough because “judging by his own track record, Obama evidently hates Christians — and their holy days”.
Now to set the record straight, any one of you can take a look at Holidays at the White House to see that nothing is further from the truth. The White House has more Christmas trees than most of us will enjoy in our entire lifetime. There is a video on the site entitled “Merry Christmas from the President and First Lady” in which the President states “… this is the season when we celebrate the simplest, yet most profound, gift of all; the birth of a child who devoted his life to peace, love, and redemption. A message that says no matter who we are we are called to love one another”.
It’s clear then, to any objective observer, that the President is by no means trying to “eliminate observance of anything spiritual” as the commentator’s piece claims. So the question that needs concern us all is why are some conservative commentators apparently so willing to distort the truth just to portray Mr. Obama as a Grinch? (Especially when John Boehner and the Tea-Party infested House of Representatives seem to be fighting for the role.)
The particularly ironic aspect of this article, its voice raised in unison with the pack howl of some of its ultraconservative sources such as The Heritage Foundation, is that it apparently contributed toward influencing the administration to back away from efforts to support Christmas and Christmas tree farmers. So its net effect was to diminish the very support for Christmas which it complained was already lacking. If this doesn’t fall under the category of “irrational extreme” – which my mother would have called out as “cutting off your nose to spite your face” – then I don’t know what does!
The author of the article which I used as an example above could have done a little more research and checked the facts of the “Christmas tree tax” issue before she published. So could many of the other conservative “news” sources that “reported” on the issue. It was easy enough for ME to do. But they didn’t. They don’t. And they won’t. Why? I think it’s just because they think they can get away with it. They think they have the media in their back pocket. They think that you’re too stupid, too busy, or too tired to notice they’re not telling you the whole story. They think they own your vote and they think that no one will call them on their bull!
Or maybe, as the political satirist and comedian Bill Maher of “Real Time With Bill Maher” frequently suggests, too many conservatives just can’t see, hear, or comprehend any viewpoint from outside of the “bubble” of the right-wing news sources which have indoctrinated them since birth. All they can do, like good little sheep, is repeat what Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Karl Rove want them to say because they’re too lazy or too brainwashed to think and speak for themselves; even when what they spew hurts them or their own.
I don’t know which explanation for their strange behavior is more frightening.
If my commentator peers want to criticize the President, his party, his actions, and his policies that is their right. But I personally think it is then incumbent upon them to offer their criticisms based upon the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (instead of facts cherry-picked just to promote their personal biases or, as seems to me the case with the “Christmas tree tax”, some hateful personal political or religious agenda).
However, what troubles me most about the particular case reported above is just the sheer, irrational, spitefulness of it all. I mean, I expect conservatives to attack a President who they perceive as too liberal. That’s just the nature of politics in America. But what I don’t expect is that they are willing to hurt farmers who are, by and large, part of their own conservative base (as is much of rural America). That just seems irrational, extreme, and cruel; particularly in this economy.
What I think it all boils down to is, if you’re willing to hurt yourself, or your own, just to hurt someone you hate, then you’re probably just too mean, or too insane, to be listened to or taken seriously by the rest of us. But I don’t claim to have all the answers. Maybe you do. You know where to leave comments.