Why is the President of the United States scared of Christmas?
Is he afraid of being consigned to the Island of Misfit Toys? Afraid of having to cavort there with the fey Cowboy in the Box or the more than vaguely frightening talking elephant? And we won't even go into the Freudian aspects of flying Lion King Moonraper.
If not, then why will the White House Christmas Tree be, for the first time, a White House 'Holiday' Tree?
Or maybe he's gunning to star in one of those weird ABC-produced 70s era semi-animated offerings like 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town', but to be entitled, 'The Little President Who Stole Christmas.'
Okay, okay, enough for now with the snarky Gen X cultural references.
I kinda know where he's coming from. Moons ago when I was of the Mosaic persuasion, and attended various GOP functions, it always got under my skin when they opened the festivities with a Christian prayer. Oh really, I would think, so me and my tribal brethren can just go jump in the Dead Sea?
But then as I got older, and even before I converted to Rome (to the faith, not the city), and allegedly wiser, it stopped bothering me. Perhaps I lost my resentment because I came to the realization, like it or not, that we are not a Christian nation by government fiat but we are one by national heritage. A Judeo-Christian country at that.
Yes, the founders were not exactly snake-handlers and Ben Franklin worshiped a wolf's head in a Parisian basement. But a thorough reading of their writings show them to be men of faith and considerable public piety. Children of the Enlightenment they were. But also sons, to a great and usually unacknowledged extent, of Cromwell and his boys as well.
So the president's action seems provocative for no reason. Even those who don't celebrate the Christian religious aspect of Christmas, as I did not growing up Jewish, I doubt have a raving problem with the almost purely secular symbol of a Christmas tree.
I think what it highlights is the president and his minions' post-modern cultural sensibilities. Religion of any sort is just tommyrot to them. Philosophical fast food for the boboisee. So why not chip away at it? Only the yokels will raise a fuss and they're not voting for us anyway? So the likely construct goes.
But he's wrong.
For the Joe Six-Pack vote in the country is already raising a fuss over lots of stuff and this will just rile them up further. And cultural issues, gay marriage, abortion, etc., get them going like nothing else. This will look like a symptom of the president's larger disease of being out of touch with average America and taking his cues from the Style section of the Washington Post.
It'll be like Clinton's tarmac haircut, George H.W. Bush's problem with a checkout scanner and his son's strangled syntax. Nothing in of themselves, but it says wonders in microcosm. Glenn Beck will eat out on it for a week.
So c'mon Obama Grinch, don't make some poor kid or suburban mom flip the switch to light a cheesy 'Holiday' Tree. Give them the real McCoy. If you don't, it'll be a mistake that'll put coal in your political stocking.
But heck, even the scary talking elephant could have told you that.
Comments
Great article. Stupid political correctness. Christmas is not Christmas. Terrorism is not Terrorism. When is Ramadan not going to be Ramadan anymore.
Hello, URBAN LEGEND. The White House is not calling it a Holiday Tree, and it is ridiculous that they even had to release a statement correcting this stupid rumor. But they did: "The trees in the White House will be called Christmas trees, and the tree on the Ellipse will be called the National Christmas Tree. There will be no name changes." -- White House spokesperson Kate Bedingfield. This is totally irresponsible journalism on your part.
Did you get this poll on Facebook, too, and thought you'd write an article? Fact check next time, maybe?
Political Princess -- you sound like one of them crazy right-wing broads. Get back in the kitchen and keep your trap shut. Ignoranmt
why is this news?
WTH?! Can someone please tell who cares about such foolishness?
You right-wing haters are soooo gullible. You fell for a rumor started by a hoax e-mail. You didn't even bother to check you facts or your sources (nor did you cite your sources--too embarrassed?). You are so ready to believe the worst that you believe anything that some tea-bagger concocts to feed your prejudices. Laughable.
The only people who believe this crap are the ones who spend all their time looking for any way to bash President Obama. I despised the last president and most of his policies but I never made up ridiculous stories with no foundation just so I could write an article or a blog entry that would get people all agitated and hating. If you took away all the completely baseless lies and rumors circulating about the president, most people would actually like the guy--but as long as a few (often highly paid media types) are out there spewing this stuff, and some people are gullible enough to believe it, we will continue to be severely, and most unfortunately (and non productively) divided.
so so correct, all of you who called me on my mistake. for further crow-eating, see my follow-up piece, 'On Being Wrong'.
D
I agree that it wouldn't have taken much research to realize this simply isn't true. But I have to disagree with Lilac Girl - it's not ridiculous that the White House would have to set the record straight on this. Unfortunately, this made-up story falls right in line with the beliefs of the people who surround Obama. The reason this was so effective as a hoax is precisely because it's so sadly believable.
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