Adversity is something everyone experiences. Currently, our entire country is feeling some sort of adversity. Everyone either knows of someone, or are themselves, in financial difficulties. Like some sort of Snidely Whiplash, the economy is robbing us of everything including our homes. People are edgy, nasty and cannot see beyond their own need. We are like lions on a carcass growling at anyone who may appear on the horizon. We are no longer friendly because being nice is weakness and right now the only thing that is taught on the streets is ‘The Eye of the Tiger’.

          The most blamed person for all of this is our President, Barack Obama. Through all of this adversity, he has approached the problems with aplomb and diplomacy. People have accused him of everything from socialism to being a Nazi (I will give you a massage if you can explain that one to me) to being too bipartisan to being too…you know….that tyranny of the government thingy. Meanwhile, he stays cool and we wait for him to get fed up and say enough is enough.

          What drives me nuts about this is that we forget what a mess he inherited. He is being blamed for his predecessor’s war, financial mismanagement and general disregard for what the constituents wanted. Dick Cheney said it himself that when he was told that 61% of the country did not like the Iraq War he said, ‘So what?!’ The truth is that Obama became president when we should have been playing a game of Not It! Who would want such a job?

          As this is CoupleDumb and we do discuss relationships, we must look at Obama‘s relationship to this nation. Right now, as a nation, we are scapegoating our president. This is easy for us as a public. As I mentioned on Monday, we blame people when the shit hits the fan. He is the nation’s whipping boy (and before you get your panties in a bunch look it up). Anything he does or says is dissected and analyzed for any type of angle. People are hell bent on painting our President as a liar, thief, idiot and anything else that could possibly inspire more fear.

          You see, when we face adversity we don’t really try to get out of the feeling of anxiety or desperation. What we tend to do is create elaborate methods of dissipating are tension without really addressing the issue. We tend to pull out our defense mechanisms and work them to death. Americans have projected all their fears on Obama and are in complete denial of why they cannot trust him. They will say it is his politics but cannot spell out which policy they distrust. They say it is his promises and cannot name which promise was broken. They say it is his character or his values or his morals or his use of his family or his lack of family focus. I say it is his color.

          Adversity has some pretty scary side-effects. Adversity separates the men from the boys and the mature from the bigoted. It s time to take some responsibility for the mess our country is in and work at problem solving instead of blaming. As long as Obama is the focus of our problems, we will never fix our situation. As long as we are oblivious to our defense mechanisms and play the game of stealth racism then we will continue to struggle. What we are doing is blaming him as if I would blame Ronald if our Big Mac was not up to snuff. This is a systemic issue. Something that had a point of beginning but we require a complete mind and policy change if we are ever to see what truly happened.

          There is so much to say about this. As a nation, we are handling our adversity like a good bipolar patient. One side spreads fear and the other shits rainbows. We need to return to the middle and see the reality. Perhaps then we can begin to change and fix what is broken.