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| Will we someday wish Obama birthday? |
Legislators from Chicago in both chambers have it in their heads that Aug. 4 ought to be a holiday noted by people across the state. For that is the date in 1961 in which Barack Obama was born in Honolulu.
THERE
ARE THOSE who want Obama to be regarded as an equal to Abraham Lincoln or
Martin Luther King, Jr. Or at the very least, Casimir Pulaski.
Those
are other officials for whom their birthday anniversaries have warranted a
holiday in their honor. With Lincoln and King, government even shuts down for
the day.
They
think that Obama is worthy of the same recognition. Probably nationally, but
most definitely in Illinois. For Obama did live the bulk of his adult life in
Chicago and began his public life in the Illinois Senate, before moving up to
the Illinois delegation of the U.S. Senate.
But
let’s be honest. This is going to be an issue that will cause outrage in so
many places. There will be those who will despise the very notion of giving
Obama any form of recognition.
MANY
OF THEM are among the 46 percent who chose to back Donald J. Trump for
president, in large part because they saw a Hillary Clinton presidency as being
sympathetic to the Obama legacy.
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| Does Obama get Honest Abe treatment? |
The kind of people who boo’ed and hissed back in 2008 when John McCain made his concession speech for president to Obama never did get around to accepting Barack as the nation’s leader. Which is why I find it ironic that McCain, the senator from Arizona, is now being regarded as a potential leader of Republican Trump opposition.
They’re
the ones who are realizing the problems that can be caused by those who now are focused on using a Trump presidency to eradicate every trace that Obama was ever in control.
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| Would Barack equal MLK? |
It
won’t just be the Affordable Care Act, a measure to provide health insurance to
the masses whose major flaw is that it gives Obama a historic accomplishment to
go on his political record.
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| WWRD (What would Rauner Do?) |
They
won’t be willing to accept that some parts of our society don’t share their
contempt for the man who never was close to being the socialist tyrant they
always claimed he was and whose biggest flaw may well be that he tried to
compromise on many issues (immigration reform being the biggest) when he should
have taken a more hard line attitude!
I
can already envision the outrage that will be dumped all over Illinois,
particularly Chicago, at the thought that our legislature would even consider
making Barack Obama’s birthday a holiday of any type!
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| Is McCain now head of the GOP old guard? |
My
question at this point is, “How many days will it be before an Obama holiday
becomes the subject matter of the latest Trump rant against Chicago?”
ALTHOUGH
I COULD also envision opposition from Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, not so
much because he’d want to join in the Obama bashing, but that he doesn’t want
to provoke the nitwits who already want to penalize us for matters such as
sanctuary cities.
So
it will be interesting to see what happens with these bills. The concept came
up last year, but didn’t pass in part because people didn’t want to give a
holiday to a sitting president.
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| How long 'til Trump bashes holiday concept? |
They’re
hoping that the fact Obama is now a former president could cause some people to
ease their opposition, although I wonder if the issue is one that is bound to
accentuate our regional differences and become something only a Chicagoan could
support.
Or
could it also be that the Illinois Legislature goes ahead and passes the idea
of an Obama birthday holiday out of spite; a way of showing the redder parts of
the nation that we don’t see our blueness as anything to be ashamed of!
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