But the question remains: why exactly do Republicans hate the President so much? Granted, he is a member of the Democratic party, so the right-wing can't be expected to be happy about everything that goes on under the Obama administration.
There are, however, multiple aspects and policy decisions taken by the President that are in fact much more conservative than liberal - things which seem right up the Republican party's alley, but which they unilaterally and quixotically dislike. Ezra Klein, among others, has posited that the President is actually more like a moderate Republican than anything near the left-wing closet-socialist that conservatives make Obama out to be. Consider the following:
- the President favors civil unions for homosexual couples instead of full marriage equality
- the Obama administration has not raised taxes; indeed, the President has extended the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy while also reducing tax rates for 95% of the rest of the population. Taxes are now at their lowest level since Eisenhower was in office.
- President Obama is almost as pro-business as staunch conservatives: he has surrounded himself with people like Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner, who were part of the Clinton-era deregulation craze that played a large role in dismantling the nation's economy; he has appointed such business and financial-sector luminaries from companies like GE and Goldman Sachs to high positions of economic importance in the White House
- contrary to claims of Obama's economic policies strangling business, American corporations are currently recording their highest profits ever, currently sitting on some $2 trillion
- the PATRIOT Act, something the liberal base of the Democratic party fervently wants to repeal, has been extended repeatedly
- gun rights have been expanded, now allowing firearms to be carried into National Parks
- financial regulatory reform is in many respects right-wing, leaving "Too-Big-to-Fail" alive and well, as well as keeping derivatives from being monitored publicly - something which also played a large role in devastating the American economy
- the much-balleyhooed Economic Stimulus Bill was only about half as large as many liberals wanted, as well as consisting more of tax cuts and credits than actual spending; despite this, it has saved or created millions of jobs
- Guantanamo Bay has remained open, and suspects will be tried by military tribunals instead of civilian court
- under the President's orders, American SEAL forces assassinated Osama Bin Laden
- the President has sent thousands of additional troops to fight the war in Afghanistan
- under Obama, unmanned drone attacks in Pakistan have substantially increased, resulting in civilian deaths
- the crown jewel of Obama's presidency thus far, health care reform, resulted in the most right-wing reform of the health care sector possible; no single-payer, no public option, but a lot of new customers for the private insurance industry and some other aspects (such as banning preexisting conditions and allowing kids to stay on their parents' insurance until 26) make this bill better than nothing, but at the end of the day it is essentially the same bill as the one produced by Republican former-Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney.
- the Obama administration has overseen a record level of deportations of illegal immigrants
Much of the preceding points would almost certainly be being praised by Republicans right now were Obama not the president. After all, President Obama has cut taxes, is against gay marriage, sent troops to Afghanistan, escalated drone attacks on Pakistan, killed Osama, extended the PATRIOT Act, expanded gun rights, and has reformed health care and the financial sector in a generally-speaking center-right manner.
What's not to like about all that, if you're conservative? What is it about this president that Republicans refuse to like, if he has governed in much the same way one of their own party would? Why, exactly, do Republicans hate President Obama?
No doubt some dislike him because of his skin color and strange-sounding name; this is a minority of people, though not as small as could be hoped in this day and age. Establishment Republicans hate him for being articulate, sophisticated, and appearing "cool". The media hoopla that surrounded Senator Obama during the presidential campaign, both nationally and internationally, was something that hadn't been seen around a candidate for president in decades - let alone a Republican candidate.
Republicans hate the President because he won the election. They hate him because their side lost, and they lost because almost everyone agreed that they had run the country in a horrifically terrible and incompetent manner in literally every way possible.
The only reason they are opposing him now in so vicious a manner is to gain political power. By denying, rejecting, slandering, and twisting Obama and the Democrats' agenda and message, the Republicans were able to paint the President as a failure - directly leading to the right-wing's massive gains in the 2010 midterm election.
They continue to hate the President -including the not-so-subtle attacks on his background, ethnicity, race, and religion - because it is politically expedient for them to do so, and they deserve the country's condemnation because of it. The United States stands at a point of staggeringly weak economic status, and the Republican party's number one stated goal is to make President Obama a one-term president. Such positioning of the party above the country is despicable and craven.
The Republican party, in their current state and with their current actions, are a stain upon the face of American democracy, and the country is undeniably worse off for it. Americans want and deserve better. Unfortunately, this type of leadership from one of the two main parties looks set to continue for the foreseeable future, a tactic that will negatively impact the country.
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