On Monday, while thousands cheered President Obama at multiple inaugural festivities, "The Drudge Report," banner was a photo of President Obama and a cleverly worded headline, "1461 More Days." Though that banner has since changed, for many conservatives, the second Obama was again sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts was the second to launch their unofficial countdown until Obama leaves office.
However, for every conservative wondering if they can survive four more years of Obama, there is a liberal, such as CNN's Jim Acosta, who according to "Newsbusters" gushed, "You know; I feel like I should pinch myself right now, Wolf. I can't believe I have this vantage point of history in the making."
Lacking the media spotlight Acosta enjoys, some conservatives find their own way to capture attention. Though not as subtle as Matt Drudge, social commentary often has a shock effect that resonates. For instance, reacting to news that a male nurse, with a Latino name, was arrested for having sex with a corpse, one particularly vitriolic comment summed up how deeply Obama supporters are resented by many, "Regardless of race, I'm sure he was an Obama voter."
One wonders if it is comments such as those which prompted self-described Republican and former Secretary of State Colin Powell to seize an opportunity to criticize the GOP to George Stephanopoulus during ABC’s special inauguration day coverage. Powell said, "Republicans have to stop buying into things that demonize the president."
Powell then followed with a full tirade against conservatives. However, the question he was supposed to be answering was: "What is the one thing you hope President Obama has learned in the last four years?"
Online, there was "a fleeting wisp" of unity "for one brief, shining moment on one of the most prolific social sites of that era, the eBay Bookboard, on Sept. 11. Conversely, mirroring the nation, when Bill Clinton was reelected following the Monica Lewinsky scandal and his impeachment, the same chat site erupted with anger and passion. Eventually, after more than ten years, the site was closed and political division was thought to be one of the primary reasons.
Perhaps the words of online blogger, Genghis Ken, best expresses the silence of many conservatives in his op/ed, "2012 Election fall-out." He wrote:
"No one can make a case that Barack Obama did even a passable job in his first term. The debt he created in those four years alone will *crush* future generations of Americans. Our foreign relationships are in tatters, our foreign "policy" incomprehensible. People voted for him for racial reasons or for what they personally hoped to get out of it - government handouts, the legalization of illegal immigration, etc. They do not worry about future generations or the future of the country.
We may have passed the tipping point, and the old and *good* America may be irrecoverable. It certainly won't be recovered in my lifetime or yours, nor in your children's lifetimes, and perhaps not even in their children's. We must now experience what England, France, even the European Union, are experiencing.
I have loved this country truly, but I am tired now, and I no longer recognize it. It is not the country in which I grew up, and it is not a lovable country.
Let them live in the country they have created. Let them see what they have done.
Let it burn."
On the other hand, the Tea Party has not shut down, which may lend some substance to the claim of a popular liberal Facebook group, "We survived Bush, you will survive Obama." If "The Drudge Report" headline is an indication, conservatives have started the Obama presidential countdown, grimly concerned that Obama policies may leave America so socially, spiritually and economically altered that their country will, indeed, end up "irrecoverable."
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