Did She Read My Mind?

I have been formulating another rant on strident Obama supporters for days now but this almost sums up my sentiments exactly.

Lately the thing I've enjoyed the least about Barack Obama are his supporters. (emphasis mine, mine, mine)!

I'll be more specific since many of my close friends happen to be members of this group: it's not Obama supporters in general, it's the faction of them who have been wielding their support like a bludgeon. Often times in places like my Facebook newsfeed, or my email box or, say, in the comments section of a blog post.

Here's the thing. I like Barack Obama. If he gets the nomination - and this certainly seems likely - I will be happy to support him. As I've said before Hollywood could not have dreamed up a more magical, inspiring, and unlikely response to eight demoralizing years of George W. Bush. What I'm increasingly liking less, however, is the evangelical nature with which his supporters are trying to convert me to the cause. Lately it's begun to feel a tad abusive and on more than one occasion I've felt like some sort of atheist at a Pentecostal service, or a meat-eater at table of vegetarians.

Much of the time it feels like the vitriol has been less about whether I find Obama lacking than it is about my defense of Hillary as a viable candidate. Apparently, this will not do. Recently it's been my experience that it's not enough to say that I like Obama, the sense I get is that I must LOVE him. I must fully and completely believe that he is the biggest and greatest gift to American political life ever. There are no shades of grey where Obama is concerned. And not only is there no room for Hillary, but any mention of her is greeted with the sort of response that might lead one to believe I was in fact speaking of some evil Eastern European dictator.

Good Lord! I was arguing back and forth on one of my yahoo groups all morning on just this issue. That group is almost solely black and it's that kind of Kool-aid drinking that left so many black people dead in Jonestown so many years ago. You'd think folks would have learned a lesson by now.