Time For a New Word: "O-bombing"

In an election where very imperfect, and very politically-incorrect individuals such as Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump who are gaining traction because of their sincerity and an end to political correctness, we must confront the outraged and flustered Americans who (despite terrified Democratic and Republican Party leaders' attempts to stop them) need Sanders and Trump to "tell it like it is". 

Hence the well-deserved word we should all learn (similar to the term "transference") and use on anyone who blames another for doing something while distancing him/herself from his/her own very dirty involvement in that very same action: "O-bombing".

Heck, we have the President being okay with the term "Obamacare" instead of the Affordable Care Act (which, perhaps, is more accurate because that act did anything but make medical care more affordable).

So why not "O-bombing"?  And--like "Obamacare"--this strategy of "O-bombing" worked just great on anyone who just looooooooved this President, and haaaaaaaaaated Republicans.

And just what is "O-bombing"?

As aforementioned, it involves skillful, artful hypocrisy and transference...and a whole lot of people (including a fawning media) willing to hear something at face value and just believe and accept it as dogma.

By the way, many people and the media totally backed George W. Bush for years until it became clear how bad he screwed up in Iraq and let economic problems go unchecked, and how he manipulated the media in his own way.  So it's hardly an attack that is aimed solely at our current President.

But to be blunt, President Obama is as deserving of legitimate criticism as is former President George W. Bush.  "O-bombing" was just his version of doing the manipulation that Bush did so well during the heady patriotism our nation had after 9/11.

And we have to acknowledge one of the reasons why Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, with their earthy and gritty and often-confrontational tones and statements, are so popular.

It's because we're sick of political correctness--and sly verbal strategies such as "O-bombing". 

Again...just what is "O-bombing"?

It's best exemplified when President Obama, just as he did in his last State of the Union address, comes home to Illinois towards the end of his presidency and calls for an improved tone in U.S. politics.

Well, ain't THAT rich, coming from a man who too-often appears to hate Republicans and other conservatives more than he does al-Qaida and ISIS.

The last seven years have been one verbal assault after another at Republicans who sometimes deserved the blame, but hardly deserved a rather one-sided, if not bigoted, verbal onslaught from a man who promised to bring our nation together and heal our divisions:

1) The late Nelson Mandela...now THERE was a man who had every reason to be bitter but did his heartfelt best to bring South Africa together--and it's probably part of the reason he and his wife Winnie (who was much more combative and radical) had to part ways, despite her devotion to him during Mandela's many years in prison.

2) In contrast, we have Mr. Obama, with his "clinging to their Bibles and guns"?  His "bring a gun if they bring a knife to a fight"?   His blaming Sarah Palin for a crazy lunatic's assassination attempt on Gabby Giffords?  And the GOP was responsible for the bad tone in Washington?

3) How about unnecessarily shutting down national parks and monuments while declaring Republicans the ones who wanted to anarchisticly tear down the American government?  Wasn't the president just as bad if not worse than a Congress who just wanted to do what the Constitution allows them to do?

Mr. President, Sir, if there's one man who can be blamed for the horrible tone in U.S. politics right now, it is YOU.

And for those who will still throw their intellectual and moral bodies in front of the President because he can "never be wrong" and who would call me a traitor for stating this clear observation, then YOU are to blame.

And for those who really wish the President had come to this conclusion of a better tone in Washington about seven years ago--or at least after the last election, when he has been trolling the GOP non-stop--well, if you're a supporter of Hillary Clinton, then let me introduce you to John McCain.

And it does appear that Hillary Clinton might very well be pulled down by association with President Obama in the same manner that John McCain was by association with former President G.W. Bush.

Of course, so long as Ms. Clinton calls for Wall Street reforms and blaming the GOP for being controlled by Wall Street, while being buddy-pals and them being linked at the hip to her past, present and future, then she will certainly be pulled down by her own obvious version of "O-bombing".

So as we as a nation really start pulling together to end political correctness and strive for a reasonable dialogue without being called a bigot or a Neanderthal, perhaps when we see or hear someone using hypocrisy or transference to steer everyone away from their own awful involvement in the very issue that person is decrying, we should stop them, and exclaim:

"Stop that damned O-bombing!  And stay on-topic as we get to the bottom of the issues that are dividing this nation more than ever!" 

(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee.  He is co-chair of the CD11Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at  [email protected].   He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.) 

-cw