Obama's Political Saga

From Battling History, Racialized Rhetoric, and GOP Obstructionism to Re-Election

Mary L. Rucker

Many conservative extremists have argued that Obama was advancing a socialist agenda, immersing himself in African-American radicalism, and pushing big government liberal policies during his first term. The Republican Party, we once knew, has been pushed to the extreme right and has rendered itself unwilling to compromise with the first African American president in order to credit him with any degree of success. The Party’s chief goal was to take back the White House in the 2012 presidential election by any means necessary to push their radical agenda, as some have boldly stated. With the help of Republican governors in certain swing states, the Republican Party knew it had a chance to win the White House by passing voter suppression ID laws. Consequently, from white church pulpits to the political arena, conservative radicals have divided the American electorate and have played on the irrational apocalyptic fears of many that Obama will destroy the exceptional nature of America. Conservative radicals have shaped our national debate and have driven our discourse with eliminationist and racialized rhetoric against the Obama presidency. Consequently, many anti-Obama narratives have hit the bookstores and have consumed the intellectual life of an overly suspicious, low information general public where many lack the critical and political thought about ways they need to know to emancipate themselves from destructive prevailing ideologies. Obama’s Political Saga serves as a counter-narrative to the paranoid politics of anti-intellectual and anti-science radicals and hopefully provides a reasonable discussion about Obama’s political saga in his first term. These anti-Obama narratives have resurrected themselves from the Jim Crow era, influencing a segment of the conservative base to believe that equal rights for African Americans, other Americans of color, and women would threaten the social order by diminishing white (male) privilege. Therefore, we need counter-narratives to help us engage in genuine political and intellectual debate about the first African American president and his legacy.

Lexington Books

Pages: 194 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-0-7391-8290-1 • Hardback • July 2013 • $95.00 • (£73.00)

978-1-4985-1542-9 • Paperback • April 2015 • $51.99 • (£40.00)

978-0-7391-8291-8 • eBook • July 2013 • $49.00 • (£38.00)

Subjects: Political Science / American Government / Executive Branch, Political Science / Political Process / Leadership, Political Science / Political Process / Political Parties, Social Science / Discrimination & Race Relations, Language Arts & Disciplines / Political Communication

Obama's Political Saga

From Battling History, Racialized Rhetoric, and GOP Obstructionism to Re-Election

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Many conservative extremists have argued that Obama was advancing a socialist agenda, immersing himself in African-American radicalism, and pushing big government liberal policies during his first term. The Republican Party, we once knew, has been pushed to the extreme right and has rendered itself unwilling to compromise with the first African American president in order to credit him with any degree of success. The Party’s chief goal was to take back the White House in the 2012 presidential election by any means necessary to push their radical agenda, as some have boldly stated. With the help of Republican governors in certain swing states, the Republican Party knew it had a chance to win the White House by passing voter suppression ID laws. Consequently, from white church pulpits to the political arena, conservative radicals have divided the American electorate and have played on the irrational apocalyptic fears of many that Obama will destroy the exceptional nature of America. Conservative radicals have shaped our national debate and have driven our discourse with eliminationist and racialized rhetoric against the Obama presidency. Consequently, many anti-Obama narratives have hit the bookstores and have consumed the intellectual life of an overly suspicious, low information general public where many lack the critical and political thought about ways they need to know to emancipate themselves from destructive prevailing ideologies. Obama’s Political Saga serves as a counter-narrative to the paranoid politics of anti-intellectual and anti-science radicals and hopefully provides a reasonable discussion about Obama’s political saga in his first term. These anti-Obama narratives have resurrected themselves from the Jim Crow era, influencing a segment of the conservative base to believe that equal rights for African Americans, other Americans of color, and women would threaten the social order by diminishing white (male) privilege. Therefore, we need counter-narratives to help us engage in genuine political and intellectual debate about the first African American president and his legacy.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 194 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-0-7391-8290-1 • Hardback • July 2013 • $95.00 • (£73.00)

978-1-4985-1542-9 • Paperback • April 2015 • $51.99 • (£40.00)

978-0-7391-8291-8 • eBook • July 2013 • $49.00 • (£38.00)

Subjects: Political Science / American Government / Executive Branch, Political Science / Political Process / Leadership, Political Science / Political Process / Political Parties, Social Science / Discrimination & Race Relations, Language Arts & Disciplines / Political Communication

Author

Mary L. Rucker is professor of communication at Wright State University. She is the division chair of the Communication Studies degree program. Rucker teaches organizational communication courses and research methods and conducts research in the areas of political communication and ideology, intercultural communication, and race, class, and gender. She has published widely in communication and interdisciplinary journals at the national and international levels.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: Battling History: Obama, Systemic Racism, and Colorism
Chapter 2: The Obama Presidency: A Backlash of Racism and Conservative Radicalism
Chapter 3: The Media: Transmitters of Eliminationist and Racialized Rhetoric
Chapter 4: American Exceptionalism: Roots, Racism, and Obama
Chapter 5: The Re-Election of Barack Obama: “The People Spoke”

Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Reviews

Wondering why President Barack Obama and the 112th Congress can't seem to solve the current economic and social problems in the United States? Obama's Political Saga guides you to the answers.

Laying a foundation of historical and recent facts, Mary Rucker examines how systemic racism and white retribution affected President Obama's first term and influenced the lives of people of color, more specifically, African Americans. Challenged by conservative radicalism, President Obama's dedication to democracy for all U.S. citizens and his views on American exceptionalism are transparent in the author's explanation of him maintaining the foundation of principles of his country. Adding to this analysis is the powerful role the media has played in the raucous political brawl between congress and the president. Nevertheless, Rucker argues obstructionist behavior of congress fails to curtail the re-election of President Obama to a second term. She fervently points out the changing demographics and a "new civil rights movement" were essential factors conservatives did not take into consideration.

Obama's Political Saga is superlative reading for professors and students in mass communications, sociology, and political science.

— Cherlyn A. Johnson, professor of mass communications, Virginia State University