Every presidency generates its own controversies. Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration started a civil war. The Reagan administration illegally sold weapons to Iran and used the proceeds to fund a right-wing Guatemalan militia with a fondness for committing war crimes. Bill Clinton holds the unique distinction of having been the first president caught getting blown in the Oval Office.
Our sitting president is no stranger to political contention. Indeed, his presidency has been one of the most divisive in history. For various reasons, ranging from his attempt to implement a public health care option to simply being black, Barack Obama’s legacy will be marked by constant opposition from figures situated right-of-center on the political spectrum. A composite picture of these criticisms makes him look like a sinister, anti-colonial infiltrator allied with every anti-American ideology imaginable.
Now, we think it’s fine to criticize President Obama, but the way things go now, he just gets criticized on the basis of his existence. This determined stance spreads to everything he touches, so to speak, so that the most stringent opposition to a president since the New Deal affects things it shouldn’t. Policies he’s in charge of because they’re his presidential obligations are under fire from his detractors, even if he doesn’t execute these policies in a uniquely Obama-y way.
The latest bout of this craziness has erupted over the Reagan administration’s former arms customer, Iran. The U.S. is working with six other countries to broker a nuclear deal with Iran, the endgame being a diplomatic solution that avoids World War III. In a rather senseless move, 47 senators signed a condescending letter to Iran’s leaders, drafted by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arizona. The letter, in language likely lifted from a fifth-grade civics textbook, explained the separation of powers and implied any deal made is with Obama alone, not the U.S. Perhaps they were inspired by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress earlier this month, or worried they’d miss their chance to blare Toby Keith’s latest album as they urinate on shattered Persian cultural sites. Whatever their reasons, these senators have made fools of themselves and of the U.S. in the international community. Their breach of decorum demonstrates the lengths partisan agitators will go to prove a point.
Partisan friction has been ratcheting up since his election more than six years ago. It’s getting to a point where the magnetism of the tension is undeniable, so much that it seems like there’s some sort of repressed beltway sex thing fueling it all. Obama and Republicans in Congress are acting like those kids you knew in high school who openly loathed each other right up until a concoction of Four Loko and Lil Jon had them furiously making out on the couch. Unfortunately for us, this passion is screwing with important national and international events.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 3/16/2015 under the headline “Iran letter hullabaloo sign of partisan issues”]
