Mediaboss Marketing

For eight years I walked around with a nut in my gut I dared not express.

I feared someone would assassinate Barack Obama.

That would have convulsed this country in a way John F. Kennedys murder did not.

Although Kennedy was the first Catholic president, it did not set off a religious war. Obamas murder might have set off a race war, or at least riots, arson, and mayhem. We have a sad history to remember, from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Rodney King.

As much as Obama was criticized (dictator) and defamed (Marxist) and lied about (Muslim), we know of no credible, close-up threat to his life, such as that suffered by Ronald Reagan, who was shot in 1981 by John Hinckley. In one month in 1975, Lynette Squeaky Fromme and Sara Jane Moore each pointed a gun at Gerald Ford from close range and fired.

There have been many presidential assassination attempts over the years, only a few successful.

So it was a relief when Obama stepped down, hale and hearty.

As we start the Trump era (or error) I have similar fears and find comments such as Madonnas that she desires to blow up the White House offensive, but thats pretty much her trademark.

The level of vitriol directed at Trump sometimes from people holding love trumps hate signs is remarkable. It surpasses the hate that had been directed at Obama and George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

I dont think the elder George Bush or Ronald Reagan or even Jimmy Carter caught the kind of primal hate we are seeing now.

I suspect the hate is rooted in fear the fear that Trump will cripple our democracy.

One of the frequently used words against Trump is Nazi, which is excessive, as Trump foe Christine Flowers observed.

Some say Trump deserves it because of his attacks on, or mocking of, Mexicans and women and the handicapped and prisoners of war and Muslims and the courts. Ive probably missed a few because it is a long list.

He is a political arsonist, but you dont fight arson with gasoline. You fight it with water, or foam. You dont threaten violence.

But some have and thats why the nut in my gut has returned.

To use a word I normally skeeve, we cant normalize the idea of murdering the president, any president, or even wishing it.

If you go there, you are reduced to that which you despise.

Published: February 7, 2017 4:47 PM EST | Updated: February 7, 2017 5:32 PM EST Philadelphia Daily News

See the rest here:
Byko: The Obama worry I dared not utter - Philly.com (blog)