Former Arkansas governor and possible 2012 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has made a career out of being the smiling, friendly face of the GOP's right wing. He's very likable, plays the bass, and has even been a frequent guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He's the Mr. Congeniality of the Republican Party. He's even gone so far as to praise the Obamas and refute Birtherism, that extreme wing of the Republican/Tea Party that insists that President Obama was not born in this country.
This week, however, Huckabee factually inaccurate and ridiculous statements about the President that highlight the nativistic and nationalistic thinking that has been behind the vehement resistance to President Obama from the beginning. In a radio interview, Huckabee questioned Barack Obama's "worldview" because he "grew up" in Kenya. This was not merely a slip since he actually repeated it a short time later. The fact is, Barack Obama grew up in Hawaii but spent five years in Indonesia as a boy when his mother remarried. His father was from Kenya but was absent from Obama's life for his entire childhood.
When challenged on this, Huckabee acknowledged his factual mistake but dug into his larger point, that Obama "grew up" in a Muslim country and, thus, has a "different worldview" from the rest of us who "grew up going to Boy Scout meetings and, you know, our communities were filled with Rotary Clubs." In these statements, Huckabee reveals a very narrow and widely shared misconception of the American experience. It is as though the majority of conservatives in this country subscribe to a mass "Pleasantville" delusion in which the archetypal 1950's suburban or small town existence somehow represents the majority of Americans. It does not and likely never did.
Among the many barriers broken by the election of Barack Obama as our 43rd President, was that he was the son of an immigrant (at least a temporary one). This fact has proven to be disturbing to a lot of people who constantly feel the need to question his Americanness, as Mr. Huckabee has done. There has been a rather disgusting campaign to paint him as "exotic" and "foreign" as though being foreign and American are mutually exclusive.
I fail to see the problem with President Obama having lived overseas as a child. In fact, I find it a little disturbing that many prominent Republicans such as George W. Bush or Sarah Palin had failed to venture outside the country until well in their adult years. I would question their "worldview." It shows a small-mindedness and lack of curiosity about the world and its cultures, which is a weakness in anyone seeking to lead our country in an interdependent, globalized planet. The fact that the President of the United States is popular and has a special connection to the world's largest Muslim country is not a bad thing at all for America's interests.
Because of his father, who was a product of Kenya's first post-colonial generation, President Obama has been has been accused of holding "anti-colonial" views, as stated by Huckabee in the same interview. In 2011, is it mainstream to support the European colonialism of Africa which failed over fifty years ago? It seems to me that anti-colonialism is a fundamental part of the American experience. I don't see how one can tout the Founding Fathers and then accuse someone of being anti-colonial.
People are free to question the President's policies, as they always should. But to question his Americanness is a slap in the face to everyone who has come here for a better life and embraced America. It says to their children that they are second class citizens who, although they may qualify on paper, will never be good enough to lead this country. As it has periodically in our history, xenophobia and nativism raise their ugly heads in American discourse. The difference is that they now target our President.
Patrick Garone
www.patrickgarone.com
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