Conservative outrage over President Obama’s behavior at Nelson Mandela’s funeral reflects an old and ugly trend.
In case you missed it, a lot of conservative news outlets have been outraged over the perceived bad behavior of President Obama at Nelson Mandela’s funeral. The New York Post informed us that the President of the United States, “lost his morality, his dignity and his mind…” after he took an infamous selfie with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Other conservative news sources informed us that the first lady must have been outraged at her husband’s tomcatting behavior.
Unfortunately this is nothing new. Political scientist Jonathan Bernstein drew the tongue in cheek conclusion that:
In fact, the evidence strongly suggests that there is, somewhere (at the RNC? Fox News?) a Senior Funeral Exploiter whose job it is to carefully monitor all funerals, memorial services, and other potentially solemn occasions in which Democratic politicians are expected to attend with the goal of finding some “inappropriate” behavior. And once it’s identified, it spreads rapidly through the GOP-aligned press.
The classics of the genre are the Paul Wellstone Funeral and Bill Clinton at the Ron Brown funeral.
I think that’s about right. And I think this trend is damaging to our country and our politics. These pieces convene a narrow and shallow view of masculinity in which the role of a man, or president, in a funeral is to be a solemn stone pillar of strength that never, ever betrays a hint of emotion, let alone happiness. I’m sure some people were overwhelmed with grief at Mandela’s funeral, I bet others would agree with a statement like, “Yes it is sad that he is gone, but it is joyous that we get to be here and celebrate his life in this new nation that he helped to create.” There shouldn’t be anything wrong with expressing that at Nelson Mandela’s funeral. Just as it should be okay for a man to sob like a 4-year-old while his wife is the solemn stone pillar of strength at a different funeral.
But moreover, these expressions of furious outrage seem kind of pointless. The people who think this proves Barack Obama is an uncaring brute unfit for the White House are most likely the same people who think he’s a Kenyan crypto-Islamic socialist. That may be all well and good for those people, but to the rest of us it seems like a great disservice to political commentary and to Nelson Mandela himself.
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–AP Photo by Matt Dunham
Professional outrage seekers. They have to scrape a little lower and deeper to find it and shout louder about it to make sure their outrage is heard with this president than with past presidents but they will find it. On the whole this president has been more Presidential, more dignified, and better represented our country than Clinton or Bush 43. When Bush gave Chancellor Merkel a creepy unwanted backrub at the G8, Democrats were disgusted at the way he represented the country but they didn’t really have to yell so loudly to get the media’s attention as this seemed to… Read more »
What the President and First Lady attended was NOT the funeral for Mr. Mandela. It was a memorial service. (Same with the Wellstone service that conservatives threw a similar fit over) The funeral was in the village where Mandela grew up and was a much smaller and solemn gathering. A memorial is a different thing altogether. It’s a time to share memories, stories(some of which are funny and lighthearted, at least if you’ve had a full life), to laugh, cry and sing. But again, the big service on the TV was not a funeral. The President didn’t do anything wrong.… Read more »
I don’t think there is anything wrong with the President smiling and even laughing a bit at a funeral. But what the three of them did is something I’d expect to see from three teenagers at a party or school dance. It was a little inappropriate. And yeah…it does make a difference if you’re President sorry to say. : /
You’ve touched on one of my pet peeves here, John: that the words ‘funeral’ and ‘solemn’ are synonyms. Somehow we are led to believe that smiling at a funeral is showing disrespect for the guest of honor. Smiling! Because a smile obviously means you are happy, not sad – this is a funeral, dammit, you must be sad. I can tell you that one of the most joyous days of my life was my wife’s funeral. I was sadder than I’d ever been in my life but it was a great day because of the 200 people that came to… Read more »
Yes, I think you are right. In fact the whole criticism of Clinton was pretty silly, I mean, what’s wrong about laughing and crying at the same time at a funeral?
I thought this was supposed to be political discussions. Plenty of things going on and this is what we’re going to discuss?
Good grief. Really???? I guess talking about TWO black men in ONE article was just too much for ya, huh Tom?? Yet you felt COMPELLED to comment. LMAO!!! Why not just roll your eyes, suck your teeth and keep on going? But NO you just HAD to go there didn’tcha? So damn typical. Great points John but please be more careful to limit your coverage to only ONE black man PER topic and write nothing “light” ever again!
Your projection is showing…
Has nothing to do with politics. It’s that simple.
I also think if anyone took a look at the footage of other South Africans outside Nelson Mandela’s house, at his childhood home, or in the streets they would see people crying, sure, but mostly people dancing and singing.
I think that to be conservative in that environment would be rude, as it would be imposing cultural bias in someone else’s “home”.
@claire,
Even though South Africans were joyous and dancing, the POTUS should have shown far more respect and dignity for Mr. Mandela.
I honestly believe First Lady Michelle Obama was far more incensed by this aspect of things than the flirting between the President and the Prime Minister of Denmark.
What’s that– conservative news outlets are outraged by something President Obama has done? Cripes, now I done heard everything! Next I bet you’ll try to tell me that they think there’s some incredibly-implausible conspiracy to fake his birth records because they think he was born in another country and is secretly Muslim.
Seriously, it’s about time to stop giving that pack o’ freaks an audience.