What Happened To Dissent?

Democrats and others on the left hated George W. Bush.  They hated him (and still do) with all the passion and bile they can muster.  Old news, I know. 

Now that a liberal Democrat is President, hatred is being redefined as hoping Obama fails.

There are right-wing ideologs (sic) who are praying for our president’s failure. You’ve only to turn on Fox”News” to hear their venom. President Obama is going to be held to a microscope, criticized and misconstrued. He hadn’t made it to the first inaugural ball before some began to decry his oath-taking which was botched by Justice Roberts. There are those who would rather wish our country ill than to see a Democratic Black Man lead us out of the morass left by the last administration. Undoubtedly some of these people wish President Obama more ill than just failure. Evil does not just dwell in the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In a comment I left (I sometimes write for this blog)  I said this:

And how hard did you pray that Mr. Bush would succeed? Actually, we pray for Obama in my house as much as we prayed for Bush and will continue to do so for whoever may sit in the Oval Office.

What I hope Mr. Obama fails at is turning us into socialist state - or at least more than what we are.

Are the left-wing ideologues who venomously hated Mr. Bush any better than those who might feel similar to Mr. Obama?

Personally, I certainly don't wish President Obama any personal ill will. I certainly don't hate him. But I disagree with a lot of what President Obama hopes to accomplish. I think it's wrong for the country.

Is that a wish for failure? In a way, but no more than I hoped that some of Mr. Bush's policies would fail because I thought they were ill conceived.

In a two party system, we will have different ideas as to how the country should be run. Dissent IS patriotic, isn't it?

I would really like to know how many Democrats hoped Mr. Bush would succeed?  And now that their apparent savior is in office, Mr. Obama is now sacrosanct.  To question Obama or to think that his agenda is somehow above the harsh light of criticism now seems to be off limits.  When Bush waas President, we were told that "dissent is patriotic".  Now that Obama is President, it's a vehicle for hatred. 

No one (or anyone I would associate with) wants to see our new President harmed in any way.  What I and the tens of millions of people who did not vote for Obama hope is that he isn't successful at turning us into some form of socialist state where dissent squashed and opportunity is limited.

If questioning Obama and his agenda is somehow equated with hatred, is the quashing of dissent not lurking far behind?

VW