WorldNetDaily columnist Larry Elder has had quite a run of Obama Derangement Syndrome of late. He rantted in an Aug. 14 column:
Former President Barack Obama railed against Texas for attempting a mid-decade redistricting to create more Republican U.S. House seats. On social media, Obama said: “We can’t lose focus on what matters – right now, Republicans in Texas are trying to gerrymander district lines to unfairly win five seats in next year’s midterm elections. This is a power grab that undermines our democracy.” Obama, in 2022, wrote: “Three years ago, I helped @EricHolder launch @AllOnTheLine, a people-powered campaign to fight gerrymandering and advocate for fair redistricting. All On The Line is driven by the core belief that voters should choose their representatives – not the other way around.”
That “voters should choose their representatives – not the other way around” reflects quite a change in thinking from a politician who skillfully used gerrymandering to protect his Illinois State Senate seat.
Elder complained in a Nov. 20 column:
No, this isn’t a satirical Babylon Bee headline: “‘Black Women Can’t Swim Because of Societal Expectations’: Michelle Obama’s Viral Claim Sparks Controversy.”
The former first lady, in a live podcast, recently said: “Let me explain something to white people. Our hair comes out of our head naturally in a curly pattern. So, when we’re straightening it to follow your beauty standards, we are trapped by the straightness.
“That’s why so many of us can’t swim, and we run away from the water. People won’t go to the gym because we’re trying to keep our hair straight for y’all. It is exhausting, and it is so expensive, and it takes up so much time!”
Who knew that black women straighten their hair to conform to the expectations of whites? Even worse, who knew this oppressive white standard of beauty, according to Obama, has the real-world effect of preventing black kids from learning to swim?
Now, Obama is partially right. I grew up in then-all-black South Central Los Angeles at a time when virtually every kid in the neighborhood had a mom and a dad in the house. The fathers either taught the kids to swim or expected the kids to learn. The public pool was almost a mile away, and we had no problem walking there and back with a rolled-up towel under our arms with our swimming trunks inside.
Today, most black kids are raised by their mother or grandmother – and they DO NOT want to get their hair wet. Therefore, the kids aren’t learning to swim. Virtually every neighborhood, no matter how poor, has some sort of recreational center and/or public pool nearby, and there are often swimming lessons available for little or no money.
[…]Only in America do white liberals pay good money to enrich and hear America’s first black first lady tell them that their “racism” oppresses black ladies.
Elder adopted the imaginary voice of Obama for a Nov. 27 column that started this way:
“So, Bill, check this out. You know Hillary was in deep voodoo – over the unsecured server in her basement, right? I mean, we’re talking slam dunk violation of the Espionage Act – maybe even jail time – because, you know, she sent and received classified documents. Who DOES that?! I know. I know. You probably told her not to do it – and she did it anyway. I mean, I worked with her as my secretary of state, so you don’t need to tell me what the woman is like.
Elder railed against Onamacare in a Dec. 11 column:
The Affordable Care Act passed upon a mountain of lies about “bending the cost curve” and phony cost estimates. Not a single Republican in the House or Senate voted for it.
The subsidies Obamacare shoveled to insurance companies – that enriched them greatly – are set to expire exactly as the Democrat designers planned. This will cause premiums to skyrocket. Right on cue, Democrats label the failed Obamacare promises a “Republican health care crisis.”
Elder raged further against Obamacare in his Jan. 1 column:
President Barack Obama signed The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, in 2010 without a single Republican vote in the House or the Senate. When Obama announced it to the nation, Vice President Joe Biden could be heard on a hot mic telling Obama, “This is a big f–-ng deal.”
It was no exaggeration, particularly given that most Americans opposed it. The liberal Brookings Institution think tank recently wrote: “The ACA was conceived in unpopularity. In October 2010, the month before the midterm elections, only 42% of Americans had a favorable view of the ACA. Republicans hated it – only 11% held a positive view – and independents didn’t like it, either (only 34% were favorable toward the ACA). Even among Democrats, approval stood at just 69%, down 9 points from six months earlier.”
[…]Health care truly is a commodity. The “answer” is free markets, competition and fee for services. Many states have set up high-risk pools for those with preexisting conditions. As for the poor, America is, as Tocqueville found, a caring, generous nation. If government got out, the people would step in. But good luck trying to win elections while making such an argument.
In his Jan. 29 column, Elder used a series of out-of-context quotes — including some from Obama — to set up a quiz asking “What ‘fascist’ ‘xenophobe’ or ‘tyrant’ said this?” The goal was to insist that Donald Trump is not one — but apparently Obama is.
Elder used his Feb. 12 column to play whataboutism to distract from a video Trump posted that portrayed the Obamas as monkeys:
Near the end for about one second, the video showed the heads of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama on the heads of monkeys. A screenshot of the Barack and Michelle heads on apes went viral. That Biden’s face was on that of a banana-eating orangutan did not seem to disturb anyone.
The outrage was predictable. “Racist” Donald Trump strikes again! Those crying out included Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer.
Jeffries said, “He definitively needs to apologize. It was a disgusting video … even a handful of Republicans … finally showed some backbone in pushing back against the president’s malignant, bottom-feeder-like behavior.”
But Jeffries has his own record of “malignant, bottom-feeder-like behavior.” As a college student, Jeffries praised two of the country’s most prominent anti-Semites – his uncle and City College of New York professor Leonard Jeffries, who compared Jews to “dogs” and “skunks” and claimed “rich Jews” financed the slave trade, and Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan, who has a decadeslong record of anti-Semitism.
Elder said nothing about the obvious racism of the Trump video, which other WND writers have defended.