... but it was perfectly if it was Gerald Ford or George W. Bush put their feet up on the desk...
Double standards aren't fun and we imperfect humans find them easy to apply when our ideals, beliefs, and other idiotsyncrasies (my own neologism, but probably not original), conscious or not are in play.
So why can the Right stir up so such ridiculous faux outrage when it's President Obama? Could it be something deeper than just not liking the man? I think the answer is yes... and it has nothing to do with feet on any desk.
I recently went through the interview process in hopes of landing a new job in another part of the country and did a lot of research on how to interview and one of the most inspiring and interesting things I found was a TED talk about power stances and how just how you carry your body can affect your attitude and how you carry yourself. Amy Cuddy is pretty amazing and the talk is very well done.
I did some power stances and strutted my stuff about my house before my Skype interview. (By the way, I am waiting on the official offer for that job.)
So what do feet on a desk and power stances have to do with Faux outrage on the right? Well, this kind of tied itself together in my head on the way to work this morning and it seemed to make sense. President Obama having his feet up on the desk in the Oval Office is a Power Stance, whether he is sitting or standing. He is making himself larger-than-life, more than he just is, being the very man he is every other day. I believe that is the root of the reaction. For those who find an African-American in power either repugnant or unnatural, the image of our African-American president owning his turf and expressing his power is untenable, despite any evidence of previous Presidents exhibiting the exact same behavior. Perhaps, it is an explanation for Obama Derangement Syndrome as well, President Obama is in many ways, as previously mentioned, a larger-than-life figure owing to his personality, charisma, meteoric political career and being our first African American president. It's almost though his very existence challenges the deepest held prejudices of a certain segment of our population. "How dare he rise above his race and station?" seems to be the unspoken question, and, to make it worse, many of them don't even know they are doing it.
This has led to the most insane campaign to discredit him in any way possible... from the Birthers ... to the Republicans simply opposing him at every possible turn... to disagreeing with him on things that they previously supported or believed. The Republicans can't let the President have even a single victory and they appear to be willing to take the country down to make this happen. The best we can hope for that their behavior will not, make them and the United States "absolutely ridiculous", and (paraphrasing from Pride & Prejudice), with "ignorance and emptiness of ... mind, wholly unable to ward off any portion of that universal contempt which their rage for ...votes... will excite." (I am picturing Elizabeth Bennet pleading with her father to not let Lydia go to Brighton, or perhaps Elizabeth Warren pleading with the electorate to not let the Republicans go on...)
Racism is an ugly thing, overt or covert. I think the covert type is, in some ways, worse since it's harder to root out since it's in a "more acceptable" form. It's also harder to recognize in yourself and others. Whereas, with overt racism, you can point at it and say "BOO!"... though there is much about overt racism that is more directly evil and dangerous.
Ridding our country of racism and other "-isms" is a journey on which we have come a long way and still have a long way to go.
So I'll just leave it with this song for today:
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