Divider in Chief

“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” Benjamin Franklin

President Obama cannot run on his record. Instead he actively pits Democrats against Republicans, the races against each other, secularism against religion, OWS against Tea Partiers, women against men, and the 99% against the 1%.

I’m not sure why he keeps beating this drum. By my calculations if he gets the 99%ers and all the women, only one half of one percent will vote republican. But nothing’s guaranteed, so divisiveness cannot stop until every single congressional seat is sealed.  If they break us into tiny camps, we won’t be able to marshal enough forces to win in November. So, to insure victory, the president’s men are expanding their friends and enemies list. The following is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. More … much more will surface as we get closer to November.

• Animal righters against rooftop kennels
• GSA partiers against taxpayers
• The entitled promiscuous against religious squares
• The Secret Service against pricey prostitutes
• Planned Parenthood against Susan G. Komen
• Career women against stay-at-home moms
• Hollywood against saps with traditional values
• Color of Change against supporters of voter ID
• Boycotts against corporations
• Bankers against the second amendment
• Gays against boring straights
• Electric cars against SUVs
• Wind and solar celebrants against carbon-based jobs
• Fit yuppies against the obese
• City-dwellers against suburbia
• The young against the old
• Teachers against parents
• The morally righteous against oil, coal, hydroelectric, and atomic energy
• Snail darters against farmers
• Public employees against the private sector
• Crony capitalists against small businesspeople
• The left and right coast against fly-over country
• The Secret Service against citizens carrying protest signs
• Fanny and Freddie against the FHFA
• The Department of Justice against the states
• The Department of State against Pipelines
• National Labor Relations Board against the employed
• ATF against gun dealers
• The Senate against the House of Representatives
• The president against the Supreme Court … etc.
• The United States against Israel

Richard Nixon said, “I saw many signs in this campaign, but the one that touched me the most was one that I saw in Deshler, Ohio, at the end of a long day of whistle-stopping…. A teenager held up a sign, ‘Bring Us Together.’ And that will be the great objective of this administration at the outset: to bring the American people together.”

He was lying.

Obama said, “I don’t want to pit red America against blue America. I want to be the president of the United States of America.” On another occasion he said, “I’m not going to demonize you because you disagree with me… I don’t think the Democrats have a monopoly on wisdom.”

He is lying.

James D. Best is the author of the Steve Dancy Tales and Tempest at Dawn, a novel about the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Look for his new book, Principled Action, Lessons from the Origins of the American Republic.