It’s Not “Fair” to Mock Obama at the MO State Fair (Open Thread)

Progressives at the Daily Kos and “Show Me Progress” and elsewhere (like the Obama-worshipping, complicit mainstream media) are outraged at a rodeo clown who wore a Barack Obama mask during a performance at the Missouri State Fair. 

Despite the allegations of an alleged eye witness, the video above does NOT appear to illustrate that the “crowd went wild” and then “crazy.”   Nor does it appear to me that the announcer was “whipping the audience into a (KKK-like) lather.” He was doing what rodeo announcers typically do, but perhaps these progressives are suffering from a lack of cultural competency.

The anonymous author at Daily Kos just wants “heads to roll” over this incident. (How non-violent!  Sounds like a threat to me.  Pot calling the kettle. How ironic.) It becomes apparent that “Show Me Progress” is behind the capitalizing on this satirical and humorous event for political purposes. (Note that the article is tagged “racism”.)

This story contains two separate videos. Neither seems to show the crowd reacting much at all about references to Obama or this Obama caricature, except when the announcer cracks a joke about Obama acting like a clown, then we hear two or three people, close to the mic, laughing.  However, we easily hear the crowd loudly cheering the rodeo riders earlier on, so it wasn’t a matter of poor audio.  There was relatively little crowd reaction to the Obama satire.

The announcer’s quip WAS funny, but the man apparently must surrender his Constitutional right to free speech when he reports for work. If so, then the same standard ought to apply to the likes of Rachel Maddow.

It’s amusing how the writer at Show Me Progress avers that we have First Amendment rights (thank you very much) but that not all people think alike and that’s something that the performers at the MO State Fair ought to recognize.  Gee, I feel the same way–OFFENDED–when Beyonce, Oprah, the Dixie Chicks, most television “news reporters” and most print media, among others, fawn over Obama and act AS IF the rest of us should, too.  Otherwise, we’re RACIST!!!!  (And “stoopid”.)

btw, isn’t Obama the president of us all?  Therefore, it’s equal opportunity time for mocking him.  President Bush and President Reagan were often mocked, in public venues, and I don’t recall these same progressives complaining that it was “disrespectful”, much less racist or threatening or taunting.

What makes Obama different from any other president of the USA, all of which, from the beginning of our Republic, were MOCKED and satirized?

Senator Claire McCaskill did not miss a beat:

The State Fair is funded by taxpayer dollars, and is supposed to be a place where we can all bring our families and celebrate the state that we love,” she said. “But the young Missourians who witnessed this stunt learned exactly the wrong lesson about political discourse, that somehow it’s ever acceptable to, in a public event, disrespect, taunt, and joke about harming the President of our great nation.

What an amazing double standard! And now they’re stretching it to pretend that the act was a “joke” about harming Obama.  These people really have no common sense and no sense of humor.  They’re clueless. For a woman who CLAIMS to be from the MO sticks, she’s sure out of touch with rural MO.  I’m reminded of similar stereotyping of white rural Americans by an infamous progressive–Obama himself, who said,

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. … 

And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

CNN took the rodeo story a step further and claimed that not only was the depiction racist but the clown also “stuck a broom up his backside.”  Let’s guess that the rodeo clown probably rode the broom like an imaginary horse, as anybody who was ever a child can attest is probable.

I see nothing of the sort in the videos, but that doesn’t stop them from creating the “narrative” that they want.  As is typical when progressives feign outrage and create a “narrrative”, the video evidence, if any, is highly edited.   A TV newscaster in St. Louis admitted that the video doesn’t show anyone playing with the lips on the mask, or any other of the most incendiary allegations.  If the young man videotaped the entire act, then why not show the entire video?

But let’s get back to McCaskill’s treatise that it’s NEVER

acceptable to, in a public event, disrespect, taunt, and joke about harming the President of our great nation.

When a likeness of President George W. Bush’s head was placed on a pike in the TV program “Game of Thrones”, did the progressives (or Claire McCaskill) gnash their teeth and wail?

When President George W. Bush was portrayed as the (demented) Joker on t-shirts or as a circus clown, did progressives gnash their teeth and wail?

When President George W. Bush’s face was put on toilet paper, did progressives gnash their teeth and wail?

When John Mellencamp wrote and sang a song (probably in many publicly-funded venues) about President George W. Bush as a “rodeo clown” with “bloody red eyes,” did progressives gnash their teeth and wail?

When Hollywood produced a movie about President George W. Bush’s death, did progressives (and especially Claire McCaskill) gnash their teeth and wail?

When masks depicting President George W. Bush as an ape or subhuman (“for ages 8 and up”) were sold, did progressives gnash their teeth and wail?

When protesters at the White House depicted President George W. Bush as Satan, did progressives gnash their teeth and wail?

When masks depicting the late President Ronald Reagan as a zombie or Frankenstein’s monster were sold, did progressives gnash their teeth and wail?

We know the answers and I’ve made my point.

Progressives have their panties in a wad, implying that this funny, satirical rodeo clown act was “racist”.

Then is it similarly racist for Amazon (and MANY other retailers) to SELL that, or any other, Obama mask?  Or is it only racist if the masks are bought and worn by white men?  (Yet, how can that be racist when Obama is as white as he is black?)

Who knows what race the wearer of the mask is, anyway? Are these progressives racially profiling the audience at the rodeo?  Because most of them are white, are they being racially profiled by out-of-touch, big-city progressives who don’t understand rural or “cowboy” culture?  MUST they be racist if they simply laugh at a funny joke about Obama acting like a clown (which he is)?

How racist is it for these progressives to profile an audience of rural white people and assume that, because they laughed at a joke about a joke of a president, then they must be racist?

Does President Putin of Russia feel that it’s “disrespectful” to taunt or joke about him?

[Putin has] “got that kind of slouch, looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom,” the president said during a 53-minute East Room press conference.

How public was THAT venue?  The East Room of the White House, and broadcast worldwide.

The mask appears to be an ordinary mask. Unlike Bush, Obama was not demonized via the likeness on that mask.  It’s a simple caricature. What other famous and popular characters have been portrayed by rodeo clowns, who, as part of their raison d’être, typically invite the bull to come after them?

A rodeo clown, also known as a bullfighter (US/Canada) or rodeo protection athlete, is a rodeo performer who works in bull riding competitions. Originally, the rodeo clown was a single job combining “bullfighting” – the protection of riders thrown from the bull, as well as being an individual who provided comic relief. Today in the USA, the job is split into two separate ones, hiring bullfighters who protect the riders from the bull, and entertainers, a barrelman and a clown, who provides comic humor. … Typically, the clown carries a microphone and heckles the rodeo announcer, the crowd and anyone else he recognizes. During the bull riding event, the clown supports the bullfighters, including taunting the bulls by calling them names and waving props at them, usually from within the safety of the barrel.Rodeo clowns may also tell jokes and use topical humor …

Well, as I said above, they lack cultural competence and they don’t “get” the jokes and they don’t understand the milieu of rodeos or rural state fairs.

And then there’s the double standard. From this day forward, is this the new standard?

Any performance that takes place on any public property or within any venue that receives ANY public money must refrain from mocking, taunting, or joking about ANY politician or office holder? 

That will mean that fewer and fewer progressive “comedians” and musicians will be playing at public auditoriums or in public spaces (like the National Mall) or on NPR, because they simply cannot refrain from using Alinsky ridicule against conservatives.

Because most of the media are progressives, progressive politicians are apparently off limits to satire and mockery.  Not so with conservatives, however. (See: Sarah Palin.  Violent?  Threat? I’d say.  Read this story for further evidence of the double standard.)

Obama is supposed to be the first “post-racial” president.  We’re supposed to celebrate that the first white black president is in office.  And yet, apparently solely on account of the color of his skin, we’re supposed to give up our Constitutional right to engage in political discourse and we MUST refrain from criticizing or mocking him.

That’s hardly “fair”, is it?

#####